Giovanni di Paolo

Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia was an Italian painter who worked primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including texts by Dante. He was one of the most important painters of the fifteenth century Sienese School. His early works show the influence of earlier Sienese masters, but his later style became more individual, marked by cold, harsh colours and elongated forms, and also took on the influence of International Gothic artists such as Gentile da Fabriano. Many of his works carry an unusual dreamlike atmosphere, and his reputation declined after his death but was revived in the twentieth century.