CHAPTER II

PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE

The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its influence, was
particularly strong in Venice, where mosaics adorned the cathedral
of Torcello from the ninth century and St. Mark's became a splendid
storehouse of Byzantine art. The earliest mosaic on the facade of St.
Mark's was executed about the year 1250, those in the Baptistery date
during the reign of Andrea Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354. Yet
though the life of Giotto lies between these two dates, and his frescoes
at Padua were within a few hours' journey, there is no sign that the
great revolution in painting, which was making itself felt in every
principal centre of Italy, had touched the richest and most peaceful of
all her States.

Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of Byzantinism. It rose as that
of the mosaicists fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence and
Siena in being for long almost imperceptible. Artists were looked upon
merely as artisans in all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any
other city they had been placed among the craftsmen. The statute of the
Guild of Siena was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is the
earliest of which we have any record, and bears the date of 1272. There
is scarcely a word to indicate that pictures in the modern sense of the
term existed. Painters were employed on the adornment of arms and of
household furniture. Leather helmets and shields were painted, and such
banners as we see in Paolo Uccello's battlepieces. Painted chests and
_cassoni_ were already in demand, dishes and plates for the table and
the surface of the table itself were treated in a similar way. Special
regulations dealt with all these, and it is only at the end of the list
that anconae are mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework, having a
compartment containing a picture of the Madonna and Child, and others
with single figures of the saints, and these were the only pictures
proper produced at this date. The demand for anconae was, however, large,
and they were very early placed, not only in the churches, but in the
houses of patricians and burghers. Constant disputes arose between the
painters and the gilders. Pictures were habitually painted upon a gold
ground, but the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds
themselves. "Gilding is the business of the gilder, painting that of the
painter," says a contemporary record. "Now the gilder contends that if
a frame has to be