Squarcione, Francesco

▪ Italian painter

born 1397, Padua [Italy]

died c. 1468, Padua

      early Renaissance painter who founded the Paduan school.

      Squarcione was associated in 1434 with the influential Tuscan painter Fra Filippo Lippi during the latter's stay in Padua. His two extant panel paintings, a Madonna in a museum of the Prussian Cultural Property Foundation in Berlin and the polyptych “St. Jerome and Saints” of 1449–52 in the Civic Museum of Padua, show the influence of the Florentine early Renaissance style, especially that of the sculptor Donatello, who worked in Padua from 1443 to 1453. The only record of his mature style is contained in a cycle of frescoes of scenes from the life of St. Francis on the exterior of San Francesco at Padua (c. 1452–66). Such compositions as can be reconstructed confirm the traditional view of Squarcione as one of the channels through which the early Renaissance style of Florence diffused in Padua. According to Scardeone (the prime source for knowledge of the painter's work), Squarcione had 137 pupils. Among the artists he taught or influenced were Andrea Mantegna, Marco Zoppo, Giorgio Schiavone, and Cosmè Tura. His workshop was renowned as one of the most advanced in the area; Squarcione was also a collector and an art merchant.

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