Giovanni Mansueti painted a San Marco, whom he represents preaching on the Piazza, he also gives the fa9ade of the church, and among the multitude of men and women who are listening to the saint are Turks, and Greeks,—faces in short of men belonging to divers nations, and clothed in vestments of varied and peculiar character. In the same place this master depicted another event from the life of San Marco, who heals a sick man, and here Mansueti has given a perspective view of stairs and loggie, or galleries. In a third picture also, near to that just mentioned, is another San Marco, who converts a vast crowd of men to the faith oC Christ, and in this work the artist painted an open temple, within which is seen the crucifix on an altar | throughout the work there is besides an infinite variety in the features, attitudes, and vestments of the different personages represented therein.[1]
After this master there followed in the same edifice Vittore Bellini,[2] who also painted events from the life of San Marco, whom he represents taken prisoner and bound. In this picture is a perspective view of buildings which are tolerably well done, with a good number of figures wherein lie imitated his predecessors. After Vittore may be mentioned Bartolommeo Montagna of Vicenza, also a tolerably good painter, who always dwelt in Venice, and executed many works there: there is a picture by this master in the church of Santa Maria d'Artone,[3] in Padua. Nor was Benedetto Diana less meritorious in art than the abovenamed, as we find proved, among other works, by one from
- ↑ One of the best works of this master is that called the Miracle of the Cross, painted for the Scuola of St.John the Baptist, but now in the Gallery of the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts. It has been engraved by Zanotti, Pinacoteca, &c., &c.
- ↑ Or Vittore Belliniano, who was a Venetian; the picture here mentioned by Vasari bears the inscription mdxxvi. Victor Bellinianus.—See Zanetti, Della Pittura Veneziana, &c.
- ↑ Santa Maria di Monte Ortone, according to some commentators. There is also a fine work by this master in Santa Maria in Vanzo, the church of the Seminario in Padua.— See Lanzi, Moschini, &c., &c.
The Scuola of San Marco was one of these, but its revenues, with those of many other associations of like kind, and of numerous sacred edifices, were appropriated some years since for the erection and to the uses of a military Hospital, by command of the Austrian rulers.
