Carlo Crivelli (c. 1430 – c. 1495) was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility,[1] who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione, and Mantegna.

He left the Veneto by 1458 and spent most of the remainder of his career in the March of Ancona, where he developed a distinctive personal style that contrasts with that of his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Bellini.

The dates he signed on the pictures that survive extend from 1468 on an altarpiece in the church of San Silvestro at Massa Fermana near Fermo to 1493 on The Dead Christ between St John, the Virgin and Mary Magdalene in Milan's Brera Gallery.

His use of trompe-l'œil, often compared with that found in the works of Northern Renaissance painters like Rogier van der Weyden, includes raised objects, such as jewels and armor modeled in gesso on the panel.

Often filled with images of suffering, such as gaping wounds in Christ's hands and side and the mouths of mourners twisted in agony, Crivelli's work fulfills the spiritual needs of his patrons.

These ultra-realistic, sometimes disturbing qualities have often led critics to label Crivelli's paintings "grotesque",[citation needed] much like his fellow Northern Italian painter, Cosimo Tura.

[3] His work fell out of favor following his death and Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, which is notably Florentine in its outlook, does not mention him.