THE first Vicentine painter known to us is Battista da Vicenza (fl. 1450), but it was not until the last quarter of the fifteenth century that Vicenza produced a painter of any note. Bartolommeo Montagna (1460?–1523) studied the art of the Vivarini, and so became the central figure in an unimportant school. His Ecce Homo (No. 1393), which bears the signature:

in a cartellino fastened to a twig, is a mature work. The delightful and late picture of Three Angel Musicians (No. 1394), which is signed in a cartellino

shows the unmistakable influence of Gentile Bellini. The same motif is found in the three musician angels in Montagna’s magnificent Madonna and Child, with St. Andrew, St. Monica, St. Ursula, and St. Sigismund, of 1498, in the Brera.

Montagna’s son, Benedetto (fl. 1500–1540), Giovanni Buonconsiglio (1470?–1536?), and Giovanni Speranza (1480–1536) also practised as painters; but Vicentine art from the middle of the sixteenth century has little claim on our attention.