Michele di Matteo, also sometimes used with further qualifications of ''da Bologna'' or ''Lambertini'' (active 1410- 1448 or 1469) was an Italian painter of the late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

period in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

Biography

In 1410, he labored with Francesco Lola in painting processional standards for the city's reception of the Antipope Alexander V. He painted frescoes and designed windows for the

Basilica San Petronio The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petroniu ...

and the church of San Giacomo of Bologna. In 1447, he painted in the church of San Giovanni at

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

the ''twelve articles of the Apostles Creed''. He also painted a ''Pietà between Saints John, Mark, Roch, and Anthony Abbot'' (1462) and a ''Virgin and Child,'' (1469) found in the Academy of Bologna. The

Gallerie dell'Accademia The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...

of Venice has an altar-piece of the ''Virgin and Child with Saints and scenes from the life of St Helena''. In 1428, he worked in Bologna with

Giovanni da Modena The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius ...

. A

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapty ...

depicting the ''Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist and other Saints'' (1430-1437) by Michele is present at the Museum of Art of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

in Columbia. It was painted for the church of

Sant'Elena, Venice Sant'Elena, also sometimes called ''Santa Lena'', is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church at the extreme east end of the sestiere of Castello in the City of Venice, Italy. History This site was once the island of Sant'Elena, which was not th ...

. He is also attributed a painted crucifix at the

Pinacoteca Nazionale of Bologna The National Art Gallery of Bologna (''Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna'') is a museum in Bologna, Italy. It is located in the former Saint Ignatius Jesuit novitiate of the city's University district, and inside the same building that houses the ...

. It is not clear how this painting relates to the painting Bryan talks about at the Accademia. The early 20th century art historians Crowe and Cavalcaselle generally dismiss the power of Michele, describing his works in the galleries of Bologna and Venice as ''ugly'', ''injured'' and ''defective''.A New History of Painting in Italy: From the II to the XVI Century
Volume 2, by

Joseph Archer Crowe Sir Joseph Archer Crowe (25 October 1825, London – 6 September 1896, Werbach, Gamburg an der Tauber, today Werbach, Germany) was an England, English journalist, consular official and art historian, whose volumes of the ''History of Painti ...

and

Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle (22 January 1819 – 31 October 1897) was an Italian writer and art critic, best known as part of "Crowe and Cavalcaselle", for the many works in English on art history he co-authored with Joseph Archer Crowe. T ...

, page 162-163. Some assert he differs from ''Michele di Matteo da Bergamo''.

References

* 15th-century deaths 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Bologna Italian Renaissance painters {{Italy-artist-stub