Chapter III: Book I: Venetian School (2)

While the schools of the state thus continued to advance, a knowledge of design became more general in Venice; and in the latter part of the century, its artists, for the most part, had acquired a taste similar to what I have already described as influencing those of other places--a taste rather removed from the antique coarseness, than adorned with the elegance of the moderns. Although the use of canvass had been already adopted in Venice, like that of boards elsewhere, a circumstance for which Vasari accounts, in treating of the Bellini, there was no composition besides water colours, or distemper; excellent, indeed, for the preservation of tints, as we perceive from unfaded specimens in the present day, but unfriendly to the production of union, smoothness, and softness. At length appeared the secret of colouring in oils from Flanders, a discovery conferring a happier era upon the Italian Schools, and in particular upon that of Venice, which availed itself of it above every other, and apparently the very first of all. In the Florentine School I have described the origin of this invention, ascribing it, along with Vasari, to Giovanni Van Eych, and both there and in the Neapolitan, I have also shewn that the first who communicated it to Italy was Antonello da Messina, having been instructed in it by Giovanni himself in Flanders. The historical account of this Messinese, as I have repeatedly before observed, has never been sufficiently elucidated. Vasari and Ridolfi state such facts respecting him as are not easily reconcilable to the period of life in general assigned to him, reaching only to forty-nine years; and I have proved, in collecting memorials, to which they had no access, alluded to in the Neapolitan School, that there were two distinct visits made by Antonello to Venice. The first, it appears to me, must have taken place soon after his return into Italy; at which time he concealed the discovery from every one, except it were Domenico Veneziano, who is known to have availed himself of it for many years, both in Venice and elsewhere. During that period Antonello visited other places, and more especially Milan, whence he returned to Venice for the second time, and as it is said, _received a public salary_, and then he divulged the method of painting in oils to the Venetian professors; a circumstance which, according to the superscriptions attached to his pictures, appears to have taken place about the year 1474. Other signatures are to be met with as late as 1490, insomuch that he must have run a longer career than that which has above been assigned him. And we are here arrived at an era, at once the happiest and most controverted of any. But of the Venetians we shall treat presently, after alluding to the works of this foreign artist apart. Two altarpieces by his hand are recorded, which were painted for the two churches of the Dominante, besides several Madonnas, and other holy pieces intended for private houses, together with some few productions in fresco. There is no doubt but he also produced many others, both at the instance of natives and of foreigners, relieving himself from the multiplicity of his commissions by the aid of Pino di Messina, the same who is commended in the memoirs of Hackert, as the pupil and companion of Antonello's labours at Venice. It is not mentioned whether he produced any specimens of his art in Sicily, nor am I certain whether he returned thither. In many Venetian collections, however, they are still preserved, and display a very correct taste, united to a most delicate command of the pencil; and among others is a portrait in the possession of the family Martinengo, bearing the inscription _Antonellus Messaneus me fecit, 1474_.

In the council hall of the Ten is also to be seen one of his pictures of a Pieta, half-length, subscribed, _Antonius Messinensis_. The features of the countenances, though animated, are not at all select, nor have much of the Italian expression; and his colours in this and other of his productions that I have seen, are less vivid than in some Venetian artists of that age, who carried the perfection of colouring to its highest pitch.

There is good authority for believing that, together with Antonello, or very near the same period, there flourished in Venice one of the best Flemish disciples of Giovanni Van Eych; called by Vasari, Ruggieri da Bruggia. There appears, in the Palazzo Nani, adorned by its present owner in the hereditary taste of his noble family, with the most splendid monuments of antiquity, a San Girolamo between two holy virgins, a picture, as is shewn from the following inscription, by his hand,--_Sumus Rugerii manus_. It is drawn with more merit in point of colouring than of design, upon Venetian pine wood, not upon Flemish oak; and for this reason it is considered by Zanetti, as the production of a native artist. But if the Venetians had really possessed a painter of so much merit, towards the year 1500, how is it possible that he should be distinguished only by this solitary specimen of his powers. Even the very imposing formula he made use of in subscribing his name, contrary to the usual practice of those times, without mention either of family or of place, is it not altogether like that of an artist who feels and displays his own celebrity?[24] To me it does not appear at all improbable that Ruggieri, on arriving in Italy,[25] sought to employ his talents upon some subject, in the same way as Ausse,[26] his disciple, Ugo d'Anversa, and other Flemish painters of that period, whose names are commemorated along with his by Vasari, in the twenty-first chapter of his introduction.

Reverting to Antonello, we are told by Borghini and Ridolfi, that Gian Bellini, having assumed the dress and character of a Venetian gentleman, for the pretended purpose of having his portrait taken, penetrated by this disguise into the studio of the Messinese; and watching him while he painted, discovered the whole secret of the new method, which he speedily applied. But Zanetti conjectures that Antonello was not very jealous of his secret, by which means it was quickly diffused among the different professors of the art. And this is clearly shewn by a picture of Vivarini, coloured in oil, as early as 1473, no less than by others from different hands in the years following. Argenville even goes farther; for he asserts that such was the generosity with which Antonello taught in Venice, that he drew a crowd of pupils, who assisted in spreading a knowledge of the discovery through all parts. And among these we find several foreigners, such as Theodore Harlem, Quintinus Messis, along with several others mentioned in the preface to the third volume, p. iii. This we are likewise inclined to admit during the period of his public instructions in the city.

All that now remains before we reach the times of Titian and Giorgione, is comprised in that last stage of the art which, in every school, has opened a path to the golden period which ensued. The masters who were to distinguish the stage alluded to, in Venice, as in almost all other parts, are found to retain traces of the ancient stiffness of manner, and sometimes exhibit, like the naturalists, imperfect forms copied from the life; as, for instance, in those extravagantly long and spare figures which we noticed in Pisanello. In Venice such forms were in high repute with Mansueti, Sebastiani, and other of their contemporaries, nor were they disliked by the Bellini themselves. And, indeed, where they selected good proportions, they are apt to arrest the attention by that simplicity, purity, care, and, as it were timidity of design, which attempts to avoid every approach to exaggeration. Such artists we might suppose to have been educated by the more ancient Greek sculptors, in whose works the exhibition of truth attracts the spectator, like that of grandeur in others. Their heads, more particularly, are correct and fine; consisting of portraits taken from the life, both among the populace, and among persons of superior birth, whether distinguished for learning, or for their military exploits. And to this practice, familiar also to artists of the thirteenth century, we are indebted for many likenesses which were copied at the instance of Giovio, for his museum. Thence they were again multiplied both by painting and engraving, in different parts of the world. Often also the artist of those times inserted his own portrait in his composition; a circumstance so favourable to Vasari's history; but this species of ostentation was gradually abandoned as real cultivation in Italy advanced. But then, as in the heroic and still more uncivilized times, such species of boasting was not esteemed offensive: and surely, if the literati of the fourteenth century were in the habit of extolling themselves in their own works; if the typographers were so fond of exalting themselves and their editions by superb titles, and more vaunting epigrams, even to a ridiculous degree; the more modest ambition of sometimes handing down their own features to posterity, may be excused in our painters.

The colours of these artists are likewise simple and natural, though not always in union, more especially with the ground, nor sufficiently broken by the chiaroscuro. But above all, they are most remarkable for the extreme simplicity of the composition of their pieces. It was very seldom they inserted histories, it being sufficient for the ambition of those times to give a representation of our Lady upon a throne, surrounded with a number of saints, such as the devotion of each was supposed to require. Nor were those drawn in the manner they had before been, all erect at equal distances, and in the least studied motions; but their authors attempted to give them some degree of contrast, so that while one was drawn gazing upon the Virgin, another appeared reading a book; if this were in a kneeling attitude, that is seen standing erect. The national genius, always lively and joyous, even then sought to develop itself in more brilliant colours than those of any other school. And, perhaps, in order that the figures, of such glowing tints, might stand in bolder relief, they kept the colour of the airs most generally pale and languid. They aimed, indeed, as much as lay in their power, at enlivening their compositions with the most pleasing images; freely introducing into their sacred pieces, sportive cherubs, drawn as if vieing with each other in airy grace and agility; some in the act of singing, some of playing: and not unfrequently bearing little baskets of fruit and flowers so exquisitely drawn as to appear moist with recent dew. In the drapery of their figures they were simple and natural; the most exempt perhaps from that trite and exact folding, as well as from that manner of bandaging the bodies so common in Mantegna, and which infected some other schools.

Nor did they lay small stress upon certain accessaries of their art, such as the thrones, which they composed in the richest and most ostentatious manner; and the landscapes, which they drew with an astonishing degree of truth from nature, besides the architecture frequently constructed in the forms of porticos or tribunes. It may sometimes be observed, also, that adapting themselves to the workmanship and to the design of the altar, they feigned a continuation of it within the painting, so that by the resemblance of colour and of taste, the eye is deceived, the illusion produced rendering it doubtful where the exterior ornament[27] terminates, and where the picture begins. We ought not, therefore, easily to give credit to certain writers who have undervalued the merits of such masters, pronouncing their labours mechanical, as those of mere practical artificers, inasmuch as Serlio is known to have supplied several of them with architectural designs.[28] We ought rather to subscribe to the opinion of Daniel Barbaro, whose extensive learning did not prevent him, in his work entitled _Pratica di Prospettiva_, from expressing his admiration of them, even from the commencement, as follows: "In this art they left many fine remnants of excellent works, in which we behold not only landscapes, mountains, woods, and edifices, all admirably designed; but even the human form, and other animals, with lines drawn to the eye, as if to a centre placed in the most exact perspective. But in what manner, and by what rules they proceeded, no author of whom I am aware, has left any account to instruct us."

As this progress of style was more greatly promoted by Gian Bellini than by any other master, with him I shall commence my account, afterwards proceeding to treat of his contemporaries, and such of his scholars as more or less resembled him. Nor, I flatter myself, will it be unpleasing to the reader, to find mention of the imitation of Giorgione and of Titian, as it were anticipated, inasmuch as it happens with the professors of the art of painting, as occasionally with those writers who have flourished on the confines of two ages; that their style to a certain degree seems to partake of the colour of both. Thus Giovanni Bellini himself will afford us, in his numerous productions, which commence before 1464, and continue down to the year 1516, a sort of regular gradation of his progress, that may be considered, at the same time, the progress of his school. Even in his earliest pictures, we trace the ambition of the artist to ennoble and to enlarge the national manner. The noble house of their Excellencies Corner, which at the time of the Queen of Cyprus, gave frequent commissions to his hand, possesses several specimens of his first style, proceeding gradually to others appearing always to grow more beautiful. Among these last is a San Francesco drawn amidst a thick wood; a piece that might well excite the envy of the best landscape masters themselves. Having reached the period of 1488, in which he produced an altarpiece still preserved in the sacristy of the Conventuali, we find he extorts the praises of Vasari, no less as a good mannerist than a fine designer. With still greater success he executed other works from the examples afforded by Giorgione. It was then he conceived his subjects more boldly, gave rotundity to his forms, and warmth to his colours; he passed more naturally from contrasted tints, his naked figures became more select, his drapery more imposing; and if he had succeeded in acquiring a more perfect degree of softness and delicacy in his contours, he might have been held up as one of the most finished examples of the modern style. Neither Pietro Perugino, Ghirlandajo, nor Mantegna attained to it in an equal degree. The lover of art will find various specimens of him, both in Venice and elsewhere. His altarpiece, painted for San Zaccaria, in 1505, is well worthy his attention, as well as that of S. Giobbe, of the date of 1510. To these we may add a Bacchanal, in the villa Aldobrandini, at Rome, dated 1514, which, on account of the artist's advanced age, was left imperfect. I have seen other pictures by his hand, without date, but of striking merit; more especially a Virgin in the cathedral of Bergamo; a Baptism of our Lord at Santa Corona, of Vicenza, a Holy Child slumbering on the lap of the Virgin, between two angels, a production that lies treasured up in a chest at the Capuchins, in Venice, and which truly fascinates the eye of the beholder. It displays a striking union of that beauty, grace, and expression, of which, in this school, he may be said to have set the example. It would appear that he continued to employ his talents to an extreme old age, there remaining, in the select gallery of Santa Giustina, at Padua, one of his Madonnas, painted in 1516.[29] Such figures, together with those of the Dead Christ, are the most frequent paintings of his hand that we meet with. Should any one, not content with the commendations I have bestowed, feel inclined to prefer a Bellini to a Raffaello, because he was his superior in architectural design, let him consult the opinion of Boschini, p. 28, of his _Carta da Navigare_, but let him recollect that the same writer possesses nothing of the poet beyond the measure of the verse, and the exaggeration of his praises.

The name of Giovanni ought not to go down unaccompanied by that of his brother Gentile, who preceded him, alike in the period of his birth and of his death. Though living apart, in regard to family, they were of congenial mind and disposition, esteeming one another as friends and brethren, mutually encouraging and respecting each other, as superior in merit. But in Giovanni this was modesty, in Gentile only truth. For the latter had a more confined genius; but by diligence, that sometimes compensates the neglect of nature, he was enabled to attain an honourable station among his contemporaries. He was employed by the republic upon an equal footing with his brother, to adorn the hall of the great council; and when the Grand Turk sent to Venice in search of an eminent portrait painter, he was commissioned by the senate to go to Constantinople, where in the exercise of his profession he added glory to the Venetian name. Besides his works in painting, he there struck a fine medallion for Mahomet II., bearing the head of the emperor, with three crowns on the reverse; a rare work, of which, however, I learn there is a specimen in possession of his Excellency, Theodore Corer. However inferior we are to consider him to his brother, and tenacious of that ancient harshness in many of his works, there are still several of a more beautiful description, such as his histories of the Holy Cross at San Giovanni, and the Preaching of S. Mark, at the college of that saint; a piece, which, placed near that of a Paris Bordone, does no discredit to its author. He shews himself a faithful copyist, inasmuch as every thing he remarked in a concourse of people, is faithfully pourtrayed. The features of the audience, and the peculiar conformations of the body are as diversified as we see them in nature, including even instances of deformity, into which through her own general laws, nature is known to fall; and we are thus presented with caricatures, with bald, and lean, and pursy, and, what is more remarkable, the auditors of S. Mark are drawn without regard to times, in the costume of Venetians or of Turks. Yet from its exact imitation of the truth, its arrangement, and its animated style, the work does not fail to please and strike the beholder. I shall even go further; for there are pictures on a smaller scale, by the same hand, executed with so much taste, that they may be esteemed not unworthy of the name of his brother. Such is a Presentation of the infant Jesus at the Temple, in half length, which adorns the Palazzo Barbarigo, at San Polo, a duplicate of which was painted for that of the Grimani, with still more delicacy and care. Opposite to this of Gentile is a fine picture of Gian Bellini, which, however, superior in the softness of its tints, is considered scarcely equal in point of beauty and other qualities of the art.

The two Bellini and the last of the Vivarini had a competitor in Vittore Carpaccio, either a Venetian or a native of Capo d'Istria,[30] and along with these he was selected to ornament the ducal palace. It was destroyed by fire in 1576, when that noble collection of ancient historic pieces perished, though subsequently restored by the most celebrated artists of later times. Yet there still remains a specimen of Vittore's style in the Oratory of Santa Ursula, sufficient to entitle him to rank among the best artists of the age. It consists of eight histories drawn from the acts of that saint, and of her eleven thousand companions, which were all about that time very generally admitted to be true. The production is not wanting in power of conception, developing numerous and novel combinations, nor in the order of their distribution; in richness of ideas, both in varying the features and costume, nor in architectural skill and landscape, serving to adorn them. Still more remarkable is its expression of nature and simplicity; an expression which so frequently invited Zanetti himself to a renewed contemplation of it. He there remarked the various passions of the people, who appeared to understand every thing passing; and, in their earnest attention, expressed sentiments in unison with the representation; whence he concludes his description by saying that Carpaccio felt the truth in his very heart.

He produced still nobler specimens of his genius in the college of San Girolamo, which rivalled those of Giovanni Bellini, without, in this instance, yielding to them. His character, which might frequently be confounded with that of Gentile, shines most conspicuous, perhaps, in his altarpieces, where he is original in almost every composition. The most celebrated in Venice is one of the Purification at San Giobbe, in which, however, the S. Vecchio Simeone is represented in a pontifical dress, between two servants arrayed like cardinals. If we except this error, in point of costume, and add a little more warmth of colours to the flesh, more delicacy of contour, the piece would not discredit the first artist of any times. Owing to the fault of his early education, however, these qualities he never attained. This, also, happened to Lazzaro Sebastiani, his disciple and follower; to Giovanni Mansueti, to Marco, and to Pietro Veglia, as well as to Francesco Rizzo, of San Croce, a territory in the district of Bergamo;[31] artists who, however nearly they touched upon the golden period, did not succeed in freeing themselves from the influence of the old and uniform taste, and for this reason are often confounded with each other. I do not here treat of the paintings left by them at Venice, as they have so frequently been described elsewhere. It will be enough to inform the reader that in these, also, we discover several noble traces of the style of Gentile and Carpaccio, more especially in the architecture, and that their colouring, which, in this school, is considered cold and languid, would be termed, in several of the others, both soft and animated enough for that period. The one who, if I mistake not, approaches nearer to the modern, and in some degree towards the style of Giorgione, is Benedetto Diana, as well in his altarpiece of Santa Lucia, at the SS. Apostoli, as in the Limosina de' Confratelli di San Giovanni, painted at their college in competition with the Bellini.

We next come to Marco Basaiti, sprung from a Greek family in the Friuli, and a rival also of Giovanni; but more successful than Carpaccio. The church of San Giobbe, here mentioned for the third time, possesses his picture of Christ praying in the Garden, painted in 1510. It is now a little defaced, but has been highly extolled by Ridolfi and others, who beheld it in a more perfect condition. Above all his productions, however, the Vocation of San Pietro to the Apostleship, in the church of the Certosa, is the most celebrated; a piece, of which there is seen a duplicate in the imperial gallery at Vienna. It is certainly one of the most beautiful pictures of that age; and most generally there is no kind of merit in Gian Bellini, in which Basaiti does not either equal, or very closely approach him. Indeed he appears to exhibit even a freer genius, a more happy composition, and a more skilful art in uniting the grounds of his pictures with the figures. These are beautiful, and for the most part incline to the free style; their look is full of fire; the tints of the fleshy parts of a rosy glow; the middle tints inclining sometimes to paleness, but not without grace. Though not a native, he resided a long period at Venice, which contains a good number of his works, a few of which are in the ancient taste, but the most part bordering upon the modern. His native place of Friuli possesses no other specimen besides a Christ taken from the Cross, in the monastery of Sesto, consisting of large figures, with a fine group in the background of the picture, and with a landscape full of nature. In several parts it is defaced by age; but a true connoisseur will still, perhaps, prefer it to the others, for being free from the retouches of modern art.

Among the pupils of Gian Bellini, who were very numerous, are some who ought to be referred to another epoch, like Giorgione, and to different schools, like Rondinello of Ravenna; several, however, take their place here, who, in the opinion of their national contemporaries, did not fully attain to the possession of the new style. The family of the heads of the school, produced also a Bellin Bellini, who being educated in that academy, very happily imitated its manner. He painted Madonnas for private individuals, which, their author being little known, are for the most part attributed to Gentile, or to Giovanni. The artist who is mentioned by Vasari as the pupil of Giovanni, named Girolamo Mocetto, was one of the earliest and least polished among his disciples. He did not reach the sixteenth century; and left behind him some engravings upon copper, now become extremely rare; besides small pictures, one of which, subscribed with the author's name, in 1484, is in the possession of the before mentioned house of Corer. The Veronese, who are in possession of his portrait, amongst those of the painters of their town, in the Scuola del Nudo, can also boast one of his altarpieces, bearing the name and date of 1493, in their church of S. Nazario e Celso. Such information I obtained from Signor Saverio dalla Rosa, a Veronese painter of merit. Another less distinguished, and somewhat stiff scholar or imitator of Bellini, has affixed his name in several places, at the foot of sacred figures, as follows: "_Marcus Martialis Venetus_;" and in a _Purificazione_, existing in the Conservatory of the Penitents, we meet with the year 1488. And from a _Supper of Emmaus_, belonging to the family of the Contarini, with the painter's name, we learn that in the year 1506 he was still alive.

An artist of a better taste appeared in Vincenzio Catena, a wealthy citizen, who obtained a good deal of celebrity by his portraits and pictures for private rooms. His masterpiece consists of a Holy family, in the style of Giorgione, ornamenting the noble Pesaro gallery; and if he had produced nothing more than this, he would no longer be included in the present epoch; but his other pieces, exhibiting more traces of the old style, which remain at San Maurizio, at San Simeone Grande, at the Carita, and elsewhere, authorise our enumeration of them here. They are beautiful; but not sufficiently in the modern taste. His reputation, however, while living, was so great, that in a letter written by Marc Antonio Michiel from Rome, to Antonio di Marsilio in Venice, dated 11th of April, 1520, when Raffaello was just deceased and Buonarotti infirm, it is recommended to Catena to be upon his guard, "since danger seems to be impending over all very excellent painters."[32] One Giannetto Cordegliaghi enjoyed also a high reputation, if he be rightly named by Vasari, who commends him for his soft and delicate manner, superior to many of his contemporaries; adding, that he had produced an infinite number of pictures for private persons. In Venice he is termed, I suppose for the sake of brevity, Cordella; and to him is attributed the beautiful portrait of the Cardinal Bessarione in the college of La Carita, with a few other specimens, the rest having dropt into oblivion. Probably his real name was double, _Cordella Aghi_. It is certain that Zanetti read, upon a beautiful Madonna, belonging to the learned Zeno, _Andreas Cordelle Agi, F._ This last is of the same family as Giannetto; or perhaps also in place of Giannetto, Vasari ought to have written Andrea; as instead of Jacopo he ought to have said Francesco Squarcione. Nor can it be denied, that if we except the artists of Verona and Friuli, this historian was deficient in information, as he himself declares, relating to the Venetian School. It is sufficient to turn to his proemium of the life of Carpaccio, in order to observe how many times, in a very few lines, he is guilty of making mistakes. Of Lazzaro Sebastiani, he made two painters; two others out of Marco Basaiti, dividing him into Marco Basarini and Marco Bassiti, and assigning to each his several works. Moreover, he wrote Vittore Scarpaccia, Vittor Bellini, Giambatista da Cornigliano, and confounded the labours of all the three together. Elsewhere we meet with Mansuchi for Mansueti; Guerriero and Guarriero, instead of Guariento; Foppa is made into Zoppa, Giolfino into Ursino, Morazone into Mazzone, Bozzato into Bazzacco, Zuccati into Zuccheri and Zuccherini; and thus he continued to blunder through other Lombard and Venetian names, insomuch as almost to vie with Harms, with Cochin, and with similar inaccurate foreigners.

The following names were slightly esteemed or slightly known by Vasari, and therefore omitted in his history: Piermaria Pennacchi of Trevisi, and Pier Francesco Bissolo, a Venetian. Of the former there remain two entablatures, painted for churches, more excellent in point of colouring than design. One is in Venice, the other at Murano. Of these artists, Pier Francesco painted on the least extensive scale, but was more finished and beautiful. His altarpieces in Murano, and in the cathedral of Trevigi, may be put in competition with those of the elder Palma; and one in possession of the family of Renier, representing The Meeting of Simeon, still nearer approaches to the fulness and softness of the moderns.

Girolamo di San Croce was still more deserving of commemoration than these. Yet Vasari omitted him; Boschini is silent on the subject; and Ridolfi has found in him more to blame than to praise, asserting that he had never freed himself from the ancient style, though flourishing at a period when the less celebrated geniuses attempted to modernise their taste. Happily, however, for this distinguished man, not a few of his best labours have been preserved, of which Zanetti has pronounced his opinion that, "he approaches nearer to the manner of Giorgione and Titian, than any of the others." And such commendation is justified by his altarpiece of S. Parisio, so highly mentioned in the Guide of Treviso, and which is to be seen at the church of that saint. In Venice itself there are some of his pictures which display uncommon merit, such as the _Supper of our Saviour_, with the name of Santa Croce, which is in S. Martino; and a _Salvatore_, at S. Francesco della Vigna, which though in a precise taste, shows extreme richness of colouring. There also appears, at the same place, his picture of the Martyrdom of S. Lorenzo; a repetition of which is found in the noble house of Collalto, nearly resembling the original, and in other places. It abounds in figures of about a palm's length, imitated, in some part, from the celebrated composition of Bandinelli, engraved by Marc Antonio, whose impressions to Girolamo proved a rich mine of art, affording originals for those small but valuable paintings, meant to adorn private rooms. In none of them, however, was he a mere copyist; he varied the figures, and more especially the landscapes, in which he was a very skilful hand. In this manner he produced many of those Bacchanals, which are to be met with in different collections. In that of the Casa Albani, at Bergamo, is a S. Gio. Elemosinario (almsgiver) in grand architecture, seen among a crowd of paupers; and in the collection of Count Carrara, also at Bergamo, there is a Saviour taken from the Cross, highly valued for the portrait of the artist, which points to a holy cross, the symbol of his name. Not any of these productions are embued with traces of the ancient style. They display a grace of composition, study of foreshortening, and of the naked parts, a harmony of colours, forming a mixture of different schools, in which the Roman predominates, and least of all the Venetian. Further we would refer the reader to what has already been stated at page 57.

To these Venetian professors, or at least, established in Venice, it will be proper to add several educated by Giovanni, in the provinces, and in this way resume the thread of our pictoric history of the state. There was no place in the whole dominion which did not boast either of his disciples or imitators. We shall proceed to treat severally of these, beginning with the name of Conegliano, which he derived from a city in the Marca Trevigiana, his native place, whose mountainous views he has introduced into his paintings, as if to serve for his device.

The artist's name, however, is Giambatista Cima, and his style most resembles the better part of that of Gian Bellini. The professors indeed may often be confounded together, to such a degree do we find Conegliano diligent, graceful, lively in his motions and his colouring, although less smooth than Bellini. Perhaps one of his best pieces that I have seen, is in the cathedral at Parma, though it is omitted in the catalogue of his works. That at the church of Santa Maria dell' Orto, one of the most rich in paintings, in all Venice, possesses less softness; but in point of architecture, in the air of its heads, and in the distribution of its colours, there is something so extremely attractive, that we are never weary of contemplating it. The different collections in Italy, no less than those in other parts, are many of them in possession, or said to be in possession, of specimens from this artist's hand; and if we add to these his altarpieces, sufficiently numerous, they will be found to amount to a very considerable class. We are informed, however, by Padre Federici, that one of Cima's sons, of the name of Carlo, imitated so closely the style of his father, that there are pictures which ought often to be attributed to the former instead of to the latter.

This artist resided but a short time in his own province; and the altarpiece placed by him in the cathedral of his native place, in 1493, is considered a youthful performance. He continued to exercise his art until the year 1517, according to Ridolfi, and died in the maturity of his powers. The date of 1542, which we find at San Francesco di Rovigo placed upon an altarpiece of Conegliano, (if it be not a copy,) marks only the era of the erecting of the altar, which was painted afterwards. He is said by Boschini to have been the tutor of Vittor Belliniano, by Vasari called Bellini; the same who represented in the college of St. Mark's, the martyrdom of the saint. The best portion of this history is the architecture it displays.

The artists, educated in the school of Giovanni, who flourished at Friuli, were two natives of Udine: Giovanni di M. Martino, as he is entitled in some family documents, and Gio. Martini, by Vasari; and Martino d'Udine, who in the _Storia Pittorica_, is called Pellegrino di S. Daniello. The style of the former was harsh and crude, though not destitute of grace in the countenances and in the colouring. The name of Pellegrino was bestowed upon the latter by Bellini, in honour of his rare genius, while the name of the country was attached to him from his long residence in S. Daniello, a territory not far from Udine. This city is, nevertheless, the place where he appears to most advantage, in competition with Giovanni; as the same emulation they had felt while fellow pupils, continued, as sometimes happens, when they became masters. In that city appear the labours of each, and more particularly in the two chapels contiguous to the dome, where the first of them was employed in the year 1501, the second in 1502. Giovanni, in his altarpiece of St. Mark, there produced the richest specimen which appeared from his hand; and Pellegrino left that of his St. Joseph, preferred by Vasari, in some degree, to the work of Martini. I have seen the last mentioned picture in oil, faded indeed in colour, and in other respects defaced; yet still worthy of admiration for its architecture, which gives a graceful fulness to the whole canvass, and a striking relief to the three figures, consisting of S. Joseph with the holy child in his arms, and S. John the Baptist, each of which displays the finest contours and the best forms. Other specimens of the same pencil are to be seen in Udine, among which are the SS. Agostino and Girolamo, in the public council hall, a picture remarkable also for its power of colouring.

As this artist advanced in age, he improved in the softness of his tints, as well as in every other quality. The altarpiece at Santa Maria de' Battuti, which is in Cividale, and represents the Virgin seated between the four virgins of Aquileja, besides the Saints Batista and Donato, and a cherub, partakes of Giorgione; it is enumerated among the rarest paintings of Friuli, and was executed in the year 1529. Yet above any of his productions, are esteemed those various histories of the life of our Saviour, painted in fresco at S. Daniele, in the church of S. Antonio, together with the titular saint, and several other portraits of the brethren of that chapel, so richly adorned by his hand, all breathing and glowing proofs of his art. By his means, also, one of the pictoric schools of Friuli rose into high repute, and will be elsewhere described.

At Rovigo, in possession of the noble family of Casalini, is a picture of the Circumcision of our Saviour, bearing this memorandum: _Opus Marci Belli discipuli Johannis Bellini_. He is a good disciple of the school, and would appear to be a different artist from that Marco, son of Gio. Tedesco, who was employed in 1463 at Rovigo.

In the adjacent city of Padua, the style of the Bellini was less followed, a very natural circumstance in a place where Squarcione, the avowed rival of Giovanni, held supreme sway. Still there are several pictures belonging to this age remaining there, which partake of the Venetian style; and Vasari, in his life of Carpaccio, records, that in fact Niccolo Moreto executed many works in Padua,[33] besides many other artists connected with the Bellini. A picture of Christ risen from the dead, merits particular mention; it adorns the episcopal palace at Padua, along with the portraits of all the Paduan bishops, and the busts of the apostles, including several of their acts, executed with much elegance in chiaroscuro. The work is dated 1495, in which the painter subscribes his name _Jacobus Montagnana_; not Montagna, as it is written in Vasari and Ridolfi.

There remains of his a very extensive altarpiece, at the Santo, the style inclining as much as in any others, to the modern; and to whatever degree it may partake of the Venetian in taste of colours, in its design it partakes of a more precise and spare expression upon the principle of the Paduan School. To this, also, he very manifestly conformed himself, in that celebrated picture left in Belluno, at the hall of council, in which he represented[34] Roman histories. It is an immense production, and at the first view would incline us to attribute it to the pencil of Mantegna, such is the design, the drapery, and the composition of the figures; while even several of them are known to have been accurately copied, with the same forms and motions, from those Mantegna had already introduced into his grand chapel at the Eremitani. Here we have a clear proof that both received the same education, or at least, that Montagnana had profited much by the Paduan School. I say only _much_, for in point of costume he does not shew any traces of the erudite instructions of Squarcione; but commits faults resembling those of the Bellini, to whom by popular opinion, recorded by the very diligent author of the new Guide of Padua, he has been given as a pupil.

I have before treated of Squarcione, and of his method, reserving for a fitter place the consideration of his disciples, more especially Andrea Mantegna. He will, however, be included in the present list as a scholar; although, as a master of the school of Lombardy, we are bound to speak of him with more commendation, in another chapter. But even the first essays of great characters are valuable; and Vasari does not scruple to commend Andrea's first altarpiece as a work worthy of his old age. It was placed in Santa Sofia, where the artist has signed himself _Andreas Mantinea Patavinus annos VII. et X. natus sua manu pinxit, 1448_. Squarcione was so much delighted with his early genius, that he adopted him for his son. But he afterwards regretted his own generosity, when the young artist took to wife the daughter of his rival, Jacopo Bellini; so that he then began to blame him, yet at the same time to instruct him better. Andrea having been educated in an academy which adopted the study of marbles, indulged great admiration of several Greek bassi relievi, in the ancient style, such as is that of the Primarii Dei, in an altar of the capitol. He was therefore extremely bent upon acquiring the chasteness of the contours, the beauty of the ideas and of the bodies; but not content with adopting that straitness of the garment, those parallel folds, and that study of parts which so easily degenerates into stiffness, he neglected that portion of his art which animates the otherwise uninformed images--expression. In this respect he greatly failed in his picture of the Martyrdom of S. Jacopo, placed in the church of the Eremitani, and from which Squarcione took occasion to reprehend him severely. These complaints led him to adopt a better method, and in his representation of the history of S. Cristoforo, placed opposite his S. Jacopo, he threw more expression into his figures; and in particular, his production about the same period of San Marco, in the act of writing the gospel, painted for Santa Giustina, displays in the features the absorbed mind of the philosopher and the enthusiasm of a saint. If Squarcione thus contributed by his reproaches to render this artist great, the Bellini, perhaps, co-operated with him by friendship and relationship, in producing the same result. He resided little in Venice, but during that time he did not fail to avail himself of the best portion of that school; and we thus perceive in some of his pictures, landscapes and gardens quite in the Venetian character, besides a knowledge of colours not inferior to the best Venetian artists of the age. I am uncertain whether he or some other communicated to the Bellini that species of perspective so much commended by Barbaro; but I know that Lomazzo, in his "Tempio della Pittura," page 53, has put on record _that Mantegna was the first who gave us true notions relating to this art_: and I know that the most distinguished characters of those times were equally eager, either to become scholars in such points as they were themselves deficient in, or masters in such as were wanting in others.

The style of Mantegna being known, it will not be difficult to divine that of his fellow pupils, educated in the same maxims, and instructed by his examples. The chapel before mentioned exhibits specimens of three, the first of whom, Niccolo Pizzolo is pointed out by Vasari. A picture of the Assumption of the Virgin in an altarpiece, with other figures on the wall, are by his hand. There is also a fresco in one of the facades with the motto _Opus Nicoletti_: and in both places he not only strongly resembles, but approaches near the composition of Mantegna. Two other artists also painted there certain histories of S. Cristoforo, under one of which is inserted _Opus Boni_; under the other, _Opus Ansuini_, an artist of Forli. Both of these might elsewhere have been admired; but there they appear only as scholars by the side of their master. An artist more nearly approaching Mantegna, and who, in the chief part of his figures might be mistaken for him, is Bernardo Parentino, who painted for a cloister of Santa Giustina, ten acts in the life of San Benedetto, and little histories in chiaroscuro, representing upon each the portrait of a Pontiff of the name of Benedict. I have seen no painting adapted to a religious cloister so well conceived in every part; and it is known that it was superintended by a distinguished scholar of that learned order, the Abate Gaspero da Pavia. Attached to it is the name of Parentino and the dates of 1489 and 1494. The work was continued by a Girolamo da Padua, or Girolamo dal Santo, celebrated for his miniatures, as it is recorded by Vasari and Ridolfi. Here, however, he exhibits himself a poor artist, in point of design, and still more so in expression, though praiseworthy in many accessaries of his art, more particularly in his study of ancient costume, an acquisition as general in this, as rare in the Venetian School. Those histories, indeed, are frequently found ornamented with ancient bassi relievi, with sarcophagi, and with inscriptions copied, for the most part, from Paduan marbles; a practice followed, also, by Mantegna, but with more moderation, in the chapel of the Eremitani.

The rest of his contemporaries, in Padua, were Lorenzo da Lendinara, esteemed an excellent artist, but of whom no traces remain; Marco Zoppo, of Bologna, who more nearly resembled, perhaps, his master than his fellow pupil, but of honourable account, as the head of the Bolognese School; and Dario da Trevigi, whose productions are to be seen in S. Bernardino, at Bassano, opposite to those of Mantegna, as if to exhibit their inferiority. Girolamo, or rather Gregorio[35] Schiavone, whose style is between that of Mantegna and the Bellini, is a pleasing artist, whose pictures are frequently to be met with, ornamented with architectural views, with fruits, and above all with joyous little cherubs. One of the most delightful I have seen, was in Fossombrone, in possession of a private individual, and it bears inscribed, _Opus Sclavonii Dalmatici Squarzoni S. (Scholaris)_. Hieronymus Tarvisio is another, but doubtful pupil of Squarcione, whose name I found subscribed in some pictures at Trevigi, an artist poor in colours, but not unacquainted with design. We find mention in Sansovino, an author not always to be relied upon in his account of Venetian paintings, of Lauro Padovano, who produced several histories of S. Giovanni for the Carita in Venice; but I so far agree with the above author, in pronouncing these altogether in the style of Mantegna. Nearly approaching also to the composition of this school, is the style of Maestro Angelo, who painted in the ancient refectory of Santa Giustina, a Crucifixion of the Saviour, with figures, both in proportions and in spirit truly great. I have nothing to add to the name of Mattio dal Pozzo, enumerated in this class by Scardeone, (p. 371) inasmuch as there are none of his works now surviving.

At the period, when the School of Padua was opposed to the Venetian, the other cities of the state, as far as we can learn, had adopted a taste rather for the ornamental style of the latter, than the more erudite maxims of the former; it might, perhaps, be added, on account of its greater facility; because the beauty of nature is everywhere more obvious than the monuments of antiquity. Bassano then boasted a Francesco da Ponte, Vicenza the two Montagna and Bonconsigli, all of whom, though born in the immediate vicinity of Padua, became disciples of the Bellini. Da Ponte, a native of Vicenza, was pretty well embued with a taste for polite literature and philosophy, extremely desirable in the head of a school, such as he became in the instruction of Jacopo, and through him of the Bassanese; a school highly distinguished during, and even beyond the sixteenth century. The style of his altarpieces, when compared with each other, acquaints us with the earliest and latest specimens of his pencil. He is diligent, but dry in that of his S. Bartolommeo, in the cathedral at Bassano; more soft in another at the church of S. Giovanni, but far better in one of the Pentecost, which he painted for the village of Oliero, almost in the style of the moderns, displaying studied composition, and a colouring various, beautiful, and harmonious; and what is still more, a fine expression of the passions, best adapted to the mystery. We are led to believe, from the account of Lomazzo, that he likewise painted, at another period, in Lombardy; observing that a certain Francesco, of Vicenza, produced a work at the _Grazie_ of Milan, well executed in point of design, but not so pleasing in the effect of its lights and shades.