Giovanni da Pisa (di Pietro)

( fl 1401-23). Italian painter. He is first documented in 1401 in Genoa, where he became Deputy of the Painters' Guild in 1415. Two signed works by him are extant: a triptych depicting the Virgin and Child with SS John the Baptist and Anthony Abbot (1423; San Simeon, CA, Hearst Found.) and a polyptych depicting the Virgin and Child with Four Saints (Barcelona, Mus. A. Catalunya). Whereas the former shows close contacts with the art of the many Pisan painters (e.g. Turino di Vanni) present in Genoa between 1410 and 1420, the latter shows a stronger influence of Taddeo di Bartolo, active in Liguria between 1393 and 1398, and is probably therefore the earlier work. Close to the Barcelona Virgin and Child, but considered slightly earlier, is a polyptych partially reconstructed by Algeri from dispersed panels (e.g. Genoa, S Fede; Pavia, Pin. Malaspina). Giovanni's first known work has been identified as the polyptych fragment depicting Four Saints (Portoria, nr Genoa, convent of the Annunziata), where the Pisan influences of his formative years blend with Ligurian elements derived from Barnaba da Modena and Taddeo. Algeri proposed the attribution to Giovanni of the polyptych depicting St Lawrence with Four Saints (Moneglia, S. Giorgio) because of its similarities with the Portoria panel.

See the Abbreviations for further details.