Jacobello Alberegno
1397 · Republic of Venice · Gothic, Venetian school
The story
Almost nothing certain is known about Jacobello Alberegno: no record of his training, barely a firm date beyond his death around 1397. What survives is his art, and above all one remarkable object, a polyptych illustrating the Book of Revelation.
It was painted for the church of San Giovanni Evangelista on Torcello, the marshy lagoon island that had been settled long before Venice itself. Scenes of the Apocalypse were an unusual choice for an altarpiece, and Alberegno's panels, in tempera and gold, sit close to the manner of Paolo Veneziano, the founder of Venetian panel painting. The work is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, no longer complete, but still the piece his name rests on.
