\paperw3900 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \b VITALE DA BOLOGNA\par
\b0 Italian painter\par
(documented from 1330, died before 1361)\par
\par
An extremely original personali
ty in the panorama of fourteenth-century Italian painting, he was the founder of the Bolognese Gothic school, whose style diverged strongly both from the solemn language of Giotto and Florentine painting and from the elegant and refined accents of \b \cf4 \ATXht1044 Simone Martini \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and the Sienese. With their great liveliness of description and imagination, his works take a more dramatic approach to the representation of reality, through an intense and attractive use of color. Among the mo
st important of these are the great cycles of frescoes in Bologna (San Francesco and Santa Maria dei Servi), the oratory of Mezzaratta, Udine Cathedral and the abbey of Pomposa.
