were then conceived that he would in time attain the eminence to which he afterwards did, in fact, rise. Measures were therefore adopted by the Venetian painter, Jacopo Bellini, father of Gentile and Giovanni, and rival of Squarcione, to the end that Andrea might take his daughter and the sister of Gentile for his wife.[1] But when this was told to Squarcione he was so much displeased with Andrea that they were ever afterwards enemies: and whereas Squarcione had previously much extolled the works of Andrea, he from that time always publicly censured them with violence equal to his former warmth. He found fault more especially with those in the above-named Chapel of San Cristofano, affirming that they had nothing good in them because Andrea had therein copied from antique marbles, from which no man can perfectly acquire the art of painting, seeing that stone must ever retain somewhat of the rigidity of its nature, and never displays that tender softness proper to flesh and natural forms, which are pliant and exhibit various movements. He added that Andrea would have done much better with those figures if he had given them the tint of marble and not all those colours: they would then have been nearer to perfection, since they had no resemblance to the life, but were rather imitations of an- (dent statues in marble, and so forth. Andrea was deeply wounded by these disparaging remarks, but they were, nevertheless, of great service to him in some respects; for, knowing that there was much truth in what Squarcione said, he began to draw from the life, and soon obtained so much advantage from the practice, that in a painting which still remained to be executed in the Chapel of San Cristofano, he proved himself no less capable of reproducing and extracting the best parts from living and natural objects than from those formed by art.[2] But notwithstanding this, Andrea
- ↑ We learn from the will of Mantegna, that this lady, Niccolosa Bellini, died before him, since he commands the continuation of a yearly mass for her soul to be celebrated in the chapel of Sant’ Andrea of Mantua, which he had himself founded.
- ↑ These works are becoming constantly more and more injured by the humidity of the walls. The Commune of Padua has consequently permitted the able artist. Signor Gazzotto, to take a copy the size of the original, which he is now executing with fidelity and judgment. —Ed. Flor., 1849.
