ALTICHIERO DA ZEVIO
(c. 1330–after 1390)
Altichiero was already an established painter in March
1369, when he is fi rst documented in his native Verona.
All subsequent documents relating to Altichiero refer
to his activities in Padua. The earliest of these docu-
ments—dated April 1376—has to do with an altarpiece
in a church at Polverara, near Padua. That altarpiece and
another one paid for in 1382 are lost or untraceable,
and no other altarpiece panels currently attributed to
Altichiero are actually by him.
Works
The earliest surviving documented works by Altichiero
are some frescoes in the chapel of San Giacomo (now
San Felice) in the basilica di Sant’Antonio in Padua; this
was the mortuary chapel of Lupi, a soldier and diplomat
serving the ruling house of Carrara. The contract for
the architecture and sculpture in the chapel was signed
in February 1372 by Bonifacio Lupi and the Venetian
Andriolo de Santi. The original ledger survives and
records work in the chapel from 1372 to 1379. The
painting appears to have been done during the last two
or three years. Altichiero, the only painter recorded
by name, was paid for his work in the chapel (and for
the decoration of the sacristy, now lost) in 1379. It is
clear from stylistic evidence that another artist, work-
ing independently and not from Altichiero’s designs,
executed some of the lunettes—the fi rst four and the
sixth—depicting the legend of Saint James the Greater.
Except for some marginal fi gures, the remainder of the
decoration is by Altichiero: the other scenes of Saint
James, the panoramic three-bay Crucifi xion, the votive
fresco, and the Annunciation, Resurrection, and Man
of Sorrows.
The identity of the other artist is a subject of contro-
versy. He was probably the Bolognese painter Jacopo
d’Avanzo (or Avanzi), who is mentioned by some of
the early sources—including the earliest, Michele
Savonarola (c. 1446)—as having worked in the chapel.
This seems to be the artist who is cited in Bolognese
archival documents from 1375 to 1384, but it could
instead be a Jacopo di Pietro Avanzi, who was already
dead in 1378. The artist Avanzo (or Avanzi) who repre-
sented the brotherhood of painters in Padua in March
1405 appears to have been a different person; this is
also certainly true of a homonymous painter recorded
in Vicenza in 1379, 1380, and 1389. The Bolognese
Avanzo signed a Crucifixion (now in the Colonna
Gallery in Rome)—the basis for the attribution of the
Massacre of the Hebrews, detached from the church of
Sant’A-pollonia di Mezzarata in Bologna and now in
the Pinacoteca there. Twelve miniatures now in Dublin,
illuminating Statius’s Thebaid, have also been ascribed
to Avanzo, but they may be by a close follower. (In
either case, they cannot be a clear refl ection of the lost
frescoes by Guariento in the Carrara Palace in Padua,
as is sometimes claimed.)
After completing the chapel of San Giacomo, Al-
tichiero decorated the nearby oratorio of San Giorgio,
a barrel-vaulted structure modeled on the Arena Chapel.
It became the resting place of Raimondino Lupi, who
was Bonifacio’s relative and, like Bonifacio, a soldier
of Francesco da Carrara, lord of the city. The elaborate
freestanding tomb has been much reduced. Documents
show that the oratory was constructed by December
1379, possibly by May 1378, and that Altichiero fi n-
ished his painting by May 1384. Other documents attest
to his presence in Padua from July 1381 to 1384. The
frescoes depict the legends of saints George, Catherine,
and Lucy, with some scenes from the lives of Christ and
Mary, and a votive image. Although it has been dam-
aged by moisture, this is one of the most magnifi cent
picture cycles of its century. The hand of Avanzo is not
visible—we see only the hands of Altichiero and the
expected assistants—nor is Avanzo mentioned in the
documents. Yet it is sometimes claimed, on the basis of
some of the early sources and an illegible inscription,
that Avanzo’s work is present.
The last record of Altichiero is a Paduan archival
document of September 1384. At that time he was
either in Verona or about to go there. The Florentine
art historian Giorgio Vasari (1568) is the source of the
tradition that Altichiero returned to Verona after work-
ing in Padua.
Vasari is the authority who tells us that Altichiero
painted frescoes illustrating Flavius Josephus’s Jew-
ish War in the palace of the Scaligeri lords of Verona.
Vasari writes that Avanzo also worked in the room,
which he discusses before Altichiero’s and Avanzo’s
Paduan works. This has given rise to the belief that the
frescoes, for which there are no relevant documents,
were done before Altichiero moved to Padua, for
Cansignorio (1359–1375). Some portraits of Roman
emperors and empresses survive and may be attributed
to Altichiero, although these are not the subjects of the
border medallions described by Vasari. They refl ect a
study of Roman coins, directly or indirectly through the
illustrations of the Historia imperialis by the Veronese
protohumanist Giovanni de Matociis (Mansionario).
The rest of the decoration is lost, though some drawings
may refl ect it.
The early sources mention the undocumented Sala
virorum illustrium (Room of Famous Men) in the
Carrara Palace at Padua. The sources give confl icting
attributions: Guariento; Altichiero; Avanzo; and an art-
ist by whom no documented works survive, Ottaviano
(Prandino) da Brescia. The decoration was destroyed by
fi re and repainted with an altered scheme. The portionALTICHIERO DA ZEVIO