Francesco Squarcione was an entrepreneur and art merchant with an important collection of antiques. As a painter, in Padua he started a flourishing school workshop where many painters and pictorial students were welcomed. He was also the master of Andrea Mantegna and other artists such as Carlo Crivelli, Marco Zoppo and Giorgio Schiavone.

The imprint of Francesco Squarcione

Looking at the first works of the artists who were his students, we can find some features of Francesco Squarcione. These can be seen in the archaeological elements, in the festoons of fruit and flowers, and in the nervous and cutting Donatello style of work.

His works

The only certain work of Squarcione is the polyptych for the chapel De Lazara al Carmine of Padua, today in the Civic Museum. While some Madonnas are variously attributed to him as the one at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Francesco Squarcione’s works