ed in
Venice till 1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating Basaiti and
Lotto, and brings in the partridge of which he made a sort of sign
manual.

Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro Lippomano, to announce that, at
his request, he is continuing his patronage of Catena:

Though I had done all that lay in my power for Vincenzo Catena
before I received your Lordship's warm recommendation in his
favour, I did not hesitate, on receipt of your letter, to add
something to the first piece I had from him, and I did so
because of my love and reverence for you, and I trust that he
will return appropriate thanks to you for having remembered
that you could command me.

Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman in different workshops and a
master on his own account. For long the assistant and follower of Alvise
Vivarini, we may judge that he was also his most trusted confidant, for
to him was left the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to S.
Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is apparent in the execution, and
the two saints, Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have probably
been added by him, for they have the air of interlopers, and do not come
up to the rest of the company in form and conception. The Sebastian,
with his hands behind his back and his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite
sufficiently reminiscent of Bellini's figure of 1473 to make us believe
that Basaiti was at once transferring his allegiance to that reigning
master. In his earlier phase he has the round heads and the dry precise
manner of the Muranese. In his large picture in the Academy, the
"Calling of the Sons of Zebedee," he produces a large, important set
piece, cold and lifeless, without one figure which arrests us, or
lingers in the memory. "The Christ on the Mount" is more interesting as
having been painted for San Giobbe, where Bellini's great altarpiece
was already hanging, and coming into competition with Bellini's early
rendering of the same scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is
interesting to see what it has gained in "modernness." The landscape and
trees are well drawn and in good colour, and the saints, standing on
either side of a high portico, have dignity. In the "Dead Christ," in
the Academy, he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints and
the _putti_. The _putti_, looking thoughtfully at the dead, is a _motif_
beloved of Bellini, but Basaiti cannot give them Bell