PORDENONE, GIOVANNI ANTONIO DA (14S3 1539). A Venetian painter of the High Renais sance. He is sometimes wrongly called Licinio. His family name was Sacchi, and he usually called himself Pordenone, after his native town in Friuli. He studied at Udine, and was engaged in painting in the churches of Friuli as early as 1504. Although he lived mostly in Pordenone, he received many commissions in other cities. and at Venice he learned to imitate Giorgione, the lead ing influence which governed his style after 1513. In 1520 he assisted in the decorations of the ca thedral at Cremona, and in 1528 was employed by the Council at Venice to paint a large picture for the great hall—a commission at first as• signed to Titian, who had long delayed the work. He settled definitely at Venice in 1535, having been previously knighted by the King of Hun gary. and assumed the name of Regillo. At the
invitation of the Duke, Pordenone, in 1538, went to Ferrara, where he died suddenly in January, 1539. His most important work are frescoes, although he executed many altar-pieces. Most of his paint ings have suffered much from age and restoration, but the altar-piece in Sant' Elemosinario. Venice, still retains some of its richness and beautiful coloring. The chief work of his youth is the frescoes in the Church of San Salvatore in Castel Cotalto, and the finest are those in the Malchios tro Chapel of the cathedral at Treviso, dated 1520. His best oil paintings are the "Glory of Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani." and a "Madonna," in the Venice Academy. Although not ranking with the greatest Venetian masters, Pordenone was the only decorative painter of the school, and the must dramatic of its masters.