Sienese School. Active from 1420; died, 1482. Probably a pupil of Taddeo di Bartolo, he was strongly influenced also by Gentile da Fabriano, who was painting in Siena in 1426, and by Sassetta. Giovanni di Paolo's fertile imagination was preoccupied with fantastic linear design and serious spiritual expression, which became progressively more exaggerated and lugubrious in the later years of his long, well-dated career. He developed a very personal, mannered style, invariably sincere, but ranging in quality from exquisite delicacy to startling crudity. His remarkable painting of landscape, inspired perhaps by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, was based on keen observation of nature and appreciation of her lyricism.