In another story, the artist has represented the Pope receiving the Doge, who has returned with the victory so much desired; the pontiff is bestowing on him various marks of friendship, Avith the ring of gold with which he is to espouse the sea, as his successors have done, and still continue to do every year, in sign of the seal and perpetual dominion which they deservedly hold over that element. In this compartment is Otho, son of Frederick Barbarossa, portrayed from the life, he is kneeling before the Pope; and as behind the Doge there is a retinue of armed soldiers, so behind the Pontiff are there many cardinals and nobles. In this story the poops of the galleys only appear, and on that of the admiral is the figure of Victory painted to seem of gold, and seated, with a crown on the head and a sceptre in the hand.[1]
The stories which were to decorate the other parts of the hall were adjudged to Giovanni, the brother of Gentile; but as the order of the events there represented by him is connected Avith those executed in great part, but not completed, by Vivarino,[2] it will be necessary that I should in the first place say someAvhat of the latter. Those parts of the Hall, then, which were not adjudged to Gentile, were given partly to Giovanni and partly to Vivarino, to the end that all might be excited, by mutual emulation, to more zealous efforts. Wherefore Vivarino, having commenced the part Avhich belonged to him, painted, immediately following the last story of Gentile, the above named Otho, offering himself to the Pope and the Venetians, as their messenger, to attempt
- ↑ In the little work of Sansovino, before cited, this story is said to have been previously painted by Vittore Pisano, called Pisanello.
- ↑ Ridolfi, and after him Bottari, affirm this master to have been the first of the Vivarini. For the various opinions supported by writers in reference to tliese artists, the reader is referred to Zanetti, Pitture Veneziane; Lanzi, Storia Pittorica; Zanotto, La Pinacoteca della Veneta Accademia Illustrata; Sansovino, Venezia descritta; Boschini, Guida da Venezia, and others.
who notifies their having done so in his Annali Veneti, as follows: “1474. Was begun the restoration of the painting of the battle between the Armada of the Signoria, and that of Ferigo Barbarossa, in the Hall of the Grand Council, because it was falling to the ground with the damp and old age, and those who have done the work are Zuane and Zentile Belino, brothers, who have promised that it shall last 200 years.”—Archivio Storico Italiano, tom. vii. p. 663.
