Carlo Crivelli was born in Venice, son of the painter Jacobo Crivelli, and received his early training in the Vivarini studio before moving to Padua, where he received his decisive impressions by working within the circle surrounding the workshop of Francesco Squarciones and studying the early works of Mantegna.

In 1457 he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for kidnapping a sailor's wife. In 1459, Crivelli left Italy and lived for some time in Dalmatia, present Croatia. On his return, he stayed in the province of Marches where he lived from 1468 until he died. Working in the province he mainly painted altarpieces for churches. Meeting the conservative tastes of his sponsors, he tried to preserve the Gothic tradition, even reintroduced the old gold background.

His pictures are characterized by static, solemnity, primitive attitude to space (flat space), strict linear drawing. Only precise and clean drawing of the faces, free disposition of fruit and flower garlands show that Crivelli was a painter of the Early Renaissance in Italian art. The wood panels with St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Peter, and Mary Magdalene from the Church of Santa Lucia in Montefiore dell.Aso in Italy is characteristic of his style: sharply-angled, modeled figures clad in stiff-textured garments, and delicately painted faces, jewels and ornaments.