painter and member of the influential Vivarini (Vivarini, Antonio) family of Venetian artists.

Vivarini was probably a pupil of his brother Antonio, with whom he collaborated after 1450; but, unlike him, Bartolomeo was profoundly influenced by Paduan painting of the circle of Francesco Squarcione (Squarcione, Francesco). From his first dated work (1448) onward, he reveals a stronger feeling for plasticity and greater formal resource. A painting of St. John of Capistrano (Louvre, Paris) of 1459 is typical of Bartolomeo's austere and individual style. Contact with the paintings of Andrea Mantegna (Mantegna, Andrea) seems to have marked a turning point in Bartolomeo's career, first apparent in an altarpiece of 1464 in the Accademia, Venice. All his most distinguished works date from after that time; among these are altarpieces in Venice in the churches of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1473), Santa Maria dei Frari (1474), and San Giovanni in Bragora (1478) and in the Accademia (1477). His last dated work is a triptych of 1491 at Bergamo, in Lombardy, where he apparently was active in his last years.