Zanino di Pietro was one of the best-known painters in Venice in the first quarter of the 15th century. From 1389 until 1406, he worked in Bologna and then moved to Venice until his death, around 1448. Confusion surrounds his identity, due to the intimate relation of his painting style with that of the painter Giovanni di Pietro Charlier, of French origin, also known as Giovanni di Francia. The French dictionary Benezit and the German dictionary Thieme-Becker refer to him as Giovannino di Pietro da Venezia. Based on an observation by F. Zeri (Aggiunte a Zanino di Pietro, Paragone, 1962), Serena Padovani proposes to identify Zanino di Pietro as Giovanni di Francia (Una nuova proposta per Zanino di Pietro, Paragone, Anno XXXVI, gennaio-maggio 1985, p. 73-80), a view now adopted by most other scholars.

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