Polyptych with saints

Bartolomeo Vivarini's polyptych with saints, painted around 1464 and now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, represents the mature work of the Murano workshop that was the Bellini family's chief rival in fifteenth-century Venetian painting. Vivarini's polyptychs, with their compartmentalized saints standing in separate architectural niches, continued the Gothic altarpiece tradition while incorporating the sculptural monumentality of the new Paduan Renaissance style.

Vivarini's figures display the hard, clear modeling and jewel-bright coloring characteristic of his Paduan-influenced style, with each saint rendered as a distinct, monumental presence within the gilt architectural framework.