GUARIENTO, Italian painter of Padua. He is mentioned in Paduan records as early as 1338. In 1365 he was invited by the Venetian authorities to paint a Paradise, and some incidents of the war of Spoleto, in the great council-hall of Venice. These works were greatly admired at the time, but disappeared under over-paintings of later periods. In 1903 the fresco of "Paradise" was uncovered and transferred on canvas. It is now on view at the Doge's Palace. His works in Padua have suffered much. In the church of the Eremitani are allegories of the Planets, and, in its choir, some small sacred histories in dead colour, such as an Ecce Homo; also, on the upper walls, the life of St. Augustine, with some other subjects. A few fragments of other paintings by Guariento are still extant in Padua. In the gallery of Bassano is a Crucifixion by him. He is the first Paduan artist to detach himself under the influence of Giotto from the Byzantine tra dition. He died between 1368 and 1370.
See L. Testi, Storia della Pittura Veneta I. (19o9).