FAR-REACHING influences were to be exerted by classical Padua on the art of the neighbouring cities of Northern Italy. Padua was a city of great antiquity, and had been sufficiently powerful and prosperous even in Roman times to excite the cupidity of its enemies. Eventually the Goths and other barbarian hordes had destroyed its monuments of the Roman age; the spirit of antiquity, nevertheless, survived until Giotto came at the very beginning of the fourteenth century to decorate the walls of the Chapel of the Madonna dell’ Arena, which had been founded in 1303 by Enrico Scrovegno on the site of an ancient Roman arena. These very precious frescoes by Giotto, which fortunately are still preserved, revolutionised art, and the movement initiated by him quickened the art-life of this University city. Half a century later, Altichiero Altichieri (fl. 1320–1385) developed his art under the influence of Giotto, and beautified the churches of Padua with frescoes, the figures in which he clothed in fanciful attire. An art movement was now on foot, and the influence of altichieri, who was later to become the founder of the school of Verona, was to be revealed in the work of his follower Pisanello, the Veronese painter and medallist. The long residence in Padua of Donatello (1386–1466), the great Florentine sculptor, and the erection of his famous equestrian statue of Gattamelata initiated in Padua the Renaissance movement, which soon took deep root in this ancient city. The example of Donatello in sculpture before long brought about the foundation One of the numerous pupils of Squarcione was Gregorio Schiavone (“The Slavonian”) (fl. 1440–1470), a native of Dalmatia, who in the studio of his Paduan master met Andrea Mantegna. The Louvre authorities with some hesitancy attribute to Schiavone a Madonna and Child (No. 1523). although it is hardly by him, it exhibits some of the characteristics of Schiavone, who was fond of decorating his pictures with festoons of flowers and fruit in much the same way that his Venetian contemporary, Carlo Crivelli, delighted to adorn his large panel pictures. ANDREA MANTEGNAAndrea Mantegna (1431–1506) was adopted at the age of ten by Squarcione, and so naturally became his pupil. No better training could have been chosen for the boy, who had a natural taste for the classics, proof of which is further afforded by the Latin inscriptions on his pictures. Andrea seems to have quickly realised the connection between the traditions of Paduan antiquities and the classical models of ancient Greece which his adoptive father Squarcione had brought home with him from his travels. Andrea in time became deeply impressed with the methods of Jacopo Bellini, whose daughter Niccolosia he married in 1453, to the great displeasure of Squarcione. Another powerful influence on Mantegna may be traced to the bronzes which Donatello executed for the Church of Sant’ Antonio of Padua in that city. PLATE XIV.—ANDREA MANTEGNA (1431–1506) PADUAN SCHOOL No. 1375.—PARNASSUS (Le Parnasse) On the summit of an arched rock stand Mars and Venus before a draped bed backed by orange trees. To the left is Cupid, while Vulcan stands before his forge. Below, to the extreme left, Apollo plays his lyre to the strains of which the Muses dance. To the right Mercury, wearing the petasus and talaria and carrying the caduceus, leans against Pegasus. Landscape background. Painted in tempera on canvas. 5 ft. 3 in. × 6 ft. 3½ in. (1·60 × 1·92.) After painting the frescoes in the Church of the Eremitani at Mantegna now removed to Mantua, where he entered the service of Lodovico ii., Marquis of Mantua, as his Court Painter, remaining there for the rest of his life. The Madonna of Victory (No. 1374) was painted to commemorate the victory gained at the Pass of Fornovo on the Taro on July 6, 1495, by Giovanni Francesco iii., Marquis of Mantua, over Charles viii. of France. In the centre of the picture the Madonna and Child are enthroned. On the left kneels the Marquis, and on the right is St. Elizabeth, the patron saint of Gonzaga’s wife, Isabella d’Este, “at the sound of whose name all the Muses rise and do reverence.” St. Michael standing behind the Duke, and St. George behind St. Elizabeth, hold the robe of the Madonna, who is thus represented as taking under her protection the two principal figures. In the background on the left is St. Andrew, name-saint of the painter and one of the patrons of Mantua. On the right is St. Longinus with the spear with which he pierced the side of Christ. His relics were preserved in the Church of St. Andrea in Mantua. The garlands of flowers and festoons of fruit are a well-known device in Mantegna’s pictures. Mantegna’s Parnassus (No. 1375, Plate XIV.) illustrates the amours of Mars and Venus, which were discovered by her husband, Vulcan. In the foreground the Muses are dancing. The group of AGITE PELLITE SEDIBUS NOSTRIS FAEDA HAEC VICIORV MONSTRA VIRTUTVM COELITVS AD NOS REDEVTIVM and on the inside of the scroll: DIVAE COMITES. This painting formerly decorated the camerino of Isabella d’Este at Mantua. It was seized at the sack of Mantua by Cardinal Richelieu in 1630, together with the Parnassus (No. 1375), Perugino’s Combat of Love and Chastity (No. 1567), and Lorenzo Costa’s Court of Isabella d’Este (No. 1261). The Mythological Scene (No. 1262), which is not now exhibited, represents the Realm of Erotic Love; it was begun by Mantegna the year he died, and was gone over and completed by Lorenzo Costa. Mantegna became involved financially towards the end of his life, and the collection he had formed was sold. His last years were clouded by pecuniary embarrassment. His compositions are essentially classic in spirit, his figures noble and painted in imitation of the antique, while his pagan conceptions prepared the way for A small Adoration of the Magi (No. 1678), which is officially unattributed, is regarded by Mr. Berenson as the work of Bernardo Parenzano (1437–1531), who was influenced by Mantegna, and imitated the methods of his contemporaries. Many other artists bore their part in the work of this school, and so contributed to the development of this movement which spread to Veronese and Venetian territory. They are, however, unrepresented in the Louvre. |