'Portrait of a Woman', painting by Vincenzo Catena, c

Vincenzo Catena (c. 1480–1531) was an Italian painter of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Venetian school. He is also known as Vincenzo de Biagio.

Life

Nothing is known of the date and place of Catena's birth. The earliest known record of him is in an inscription on the back of

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic qualit ...

's ''Laura'', in which he is described as the painter's ''Cholego''. Catena's early style is however, much closer to that of

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

than the innovative work of Giorgione, and it was not until a few years after Giorgione's death in 1510 that his influence began to show itself in Catena's output. There are about a dozen signed paintings by Catena in existence, although only one of these, the ''Martyrdom of St Christina'' (1520) in the church of

Santa Maria Mater Domini Santa Maria Mater Domini is a Renaissance style church in the sestiere of Santa Croce in Venice, Italy. History A church at the site dates from the tenth century. The architect of the present interior is not entirely certain: Pietro Lombardo, Ma ...

in Venice, can be dated with any certainty, from an inscription on its marble surround. Catena's wills indicate that he was a man of some wealth, and that he had friends in Venetian

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

circles.

References

Sources

Web Gallery of Art ''Adoration of the Shepherds''

External links

''Italian Paintings, Venetian School''
a collection catalog containing information about Catena and his works (see index; plate 16-17). {{DEFAULTSORT:Catena, Vicenzo 1470s births 1531 deaths 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Painters from Venice Renaissance painters