Paolo, Maestro

Paolo, Maestro of Venice, a noted painter, much devoted to sacred art, Lanzi says is the earliest painter in the national manner (i.e. different from the Greek artists of the time), of whom there exists a work with the indisputable name of its author. It is in the church of S. Marco at Venice, consisting of a tablet. or, as it is otherwise called, ancona, divided into several compartments, representing the figure of a dead Christ, with some of the Apostles, and historical incidents from the holy evangelists. There is inscribed underneath, "Magister Paulus cum Jacobo et Johanne filiis fecit hoc opus." There is no date upon it, but Zanetti found his name recorded in an ancient parchment bearing the date 1346. Sig. Morelli also discovered a painting in the sacristy of the conventual at Vicenza, inscribed "Paulus de Venetiis pinxit hoc opus, 1333."