BARTOLOMMEO

VIVARINI  iS known to have worked from 1450 to 1499 . He learned oil-painting from Antonello da Messina, and is said to have produced, in 1473, the first oil picture done in Venice . This is in the church of S . Giovanni e Paolo—a large altar-piece in nine divisions, representing Augustine and other saints . Most of his works, however, including one in the National Gallery, are in tempera . His outline is always hard, and his colour good; the figures have much dignified and devout expression . As " vivarino " means in Italian a goldfinch, he sometimes drew a goldfinch as the signature of his pictures .