Italian painter, known as Catarino Veneziano. He worked in Venice with Donato, executing altarpieces and polyptychs on a gold background in the manner of Paolo Veneziano and Giovanni da Bologna, including Coronation of the Virgin (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice) and the Baltimore Polyptych (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore).
Paolo Veneziano and Lorenzo Veneziano had no direct followers even though a few painters of some importance in Venice around the end of the 14th century went their way without paying too much attention to the stylistic suggestions originating from the nearby mainland, the most important of which were the developments in the International Gothic style, particularly in Verona and Lombardy. Thus Catarino, in his Coronation of the Virgin dated 1375, strives after plastic effects of a certain intensity and convincing spatial suggestions without however abandoning the traditional iconographic scheme for the subject nor the supremacy of the ornate play of colour.
Though of unknown origin, the panel is believed to have been the central section of a polyptych.
This painting and a Cross, now lost, are recorded as belonging to the church of Sant’Agnese. They were signed by two artists, Donato and Catarino, who received 100 ducats for them in 1367.
It is signed and dated on the steps of the throne to the right and left: MCCCCLXXII / MXE AUGUSTI; DONATUS.CAT / ERINUS.PICXIT
