Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/393

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In Padua. 363 to engrave his own designs. The most remarkable of his works are a series of nine cartoons executed in tempera in nine divisions, of the Triumphs of Julius Caesar after the Conquest of Gaul, painted for the Duke of Mantua — now at Hampton Court ; and the frescoes in the Chapel of S. Christopher in the church of the Eremitani, at Padua, representing scenes ill the lives of 8. Christopher and S. James. Of his altar-pieces, we may name that of the high altar of S. Zeno at Verona ; and the Madonna of Victory, in the Louvre. The National Gallery contains by Mantegna a Holy Family, and the Triumph of Scipio. The latter, executed in tempera on canvas, is especially valuable, as being one of the latest, if not the last, picture he ever painted. In all these works Mantegna displayed a com- plete acquaintance with ancient Roman art, a richness of imagination, a power of design, and a knowledge of form, chiaroscuro, and perspective, which entitle him to the high rank universally assigned to him, and account for the wide influence he exercised over his cotemporaries. None of Mantegna's numerous pupils attained to remark- able eminence; but we must mention Bono di Ferrara (fl. ab. 1461) and Francesco Bonsignori (1455 — 1519), the former of whom was a pupil, and the latter an imitator, of Mantegna. By Bono, the National Gallery possesses a 8. Jerome in the Desert, and by Bonsignori a Portrait of a Venetian Senator. Various Venetian, Veronese, Ferrarese, Milanese, and other masters copied Mantegna's peculiarities with more or less success. He was the son-in-law of Jacopo. and the brother-in-law of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, and through them had great influence on the school of Venice.