At a later period Giovanni Bellini painted a picture for the altar of Santa Caterina of Siena, in the church of San Giovanni; in this, which is of a rather large size, he represented Our Lady seated with the Child in her arms, she is accompanied by St. Domenick, St. Jerome, St. Catherine, St. Ursula, and two other virgin saints: three very beautiful boys are standing at the feet of Our Lady, singing from a book,[1] and above the figures is depicted the termination of the vaulted ceiling of the building, which is extremely well done; the whole work was considered to be among the best that had then been executed in Venice.[2] In the church of Sant’ Iobbe (Job), the same master painted a picture for the altar of that saint, of which the drawing is very good, and the colouring beautiful. The subject is Our Lady seated in a somewhat elevated position, with the Child in her arms. Undraped figures of Sant’ Iobbe, and San Bastiano (Sebastian), are beside her, with San Domenico, San Francesco, San Giovanni, and Sant’ Agostino, near them; beneath are three boys playing musical instruments with much grace of attitude. This picture was highly praised, not only when it was first seen, but has in like manner been extolled ever since as an extremely beautiful work.[3]
Moved by these most praiseworthy performances, certain gentlemen began to reason among themselves, and to declare that it would be well to profit by the presence of such excellent masters, using the occasion to decorate the Hall of the Grand Council with historical paintings, wherein should be depicted the glories and magnificence of their most admirable city, her greatness, her deeds in war, her most
- ↑ Vasari does not relate the manner in which Giovanni Bellini acquired his knowledge of oil-painting, but this omission is supplied by Ridolfi, who informs us that Giovanni, having “assumed the dress, and taken the character of a Venetian noble, went to the studio of Antonello, of Messino, under the pretext of desiring to have his portrait taken, by which means he saw the master painting, and discovered all the mystery of the new method, by which he then profited to his great gain.” This anecdote is, however, discredited by many, and it is indeed known that Antonello made no secret of his method in Venice, where he had a crowd of scholars, inconsequence.— Ed. Flor., 1838.
- ↑ Now in the church of San Giovanni and Paolo, on the first altar; it has suffered much injury, and been more than once restored.
- ↑ Now in the Venetian Academy of the Fine Arts; it bears the inscription, Joannes Bellinus.
