CRIVELLI, Vittore
(b. ca. 1440, Venezia, d. 1501/2, Venezia)

Biography

Italian painter, brother of Carlo Crivelli. Like Carlo, Vittore always signed himself as a Venetian. He followed his brother to Zara, where he is documented from 1465. He probably spent some time in Carlo's workshop, although there is only one surviving collaborative work, a polyptych for the church of S Martino at Montesanmartino (in situ). In 1469 Vittore took on a pupil in Zara whom he agreed to train for eight years. In 1476 he bought a house there.

By 1481 he had moved to the Marches. In that year he signed a contract to paint a polyptych with the Virgin Enthroned with Saints (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana) for the church of the Madonna di Loreto in Montelparo, and from the same year also dates a polyptych painted for S Francesco in Fermo (Philadelphia, Museum of Art).

Vittore settled in Fermo, where he spent most of the rest of his life, apparently in comfortable circumstances. He was first mentioned as an inhabitant of the city in 1489. From this period there survives a series of signed works, mostly depicting the Virgin and Child, a small number of which are dated, including two further polyptychs for churches in Montesanmartino, one of 1489 (S Maria del Pozzo) and the other of 1490 (S Martino). In August 1501 he received a commission for an altarpiece (destroyed) destined for S Francesco at Osimo for which he was to be paid 200 ducats, slightly less than Carlo received for his altarpiece of 1493, but an indication that Vittore was similarly held in high esteem. In November 1501 Vittore was paid an advance of 55 ducats for this work, but he must have died not long afterwards, because the following year his son Giacomo Crivelli asked Antonio Solario to finish the altarpiece, which was completed in 1506.