ices to
Mantua and Cremona, but the Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and
restrained grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say to what Crowe
and Cavalcaselle call his "large and colossal fable-painting." He
pursued his way to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he passed
through Mantua is evident from the first figures he painted in the
cathedral. In Cremona every one admired him, and all the artists set to
work to imitate his energetic foreshortening, vehement movement and huge
proportions.

Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all his life an itinerant
painter. In 1521 he was back at Udine and wandered from place to
place, painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at S. Maria at
Spilimbergo, the facade of the Church of Valeriano, an imposing series
at Travesio, and in 1525, the "Story of the True Cross" at Casara. At
the last place he threw aside much of his exaggeration, and, ruined and
restored as the frescoes are, they remain among his most dignified
achievements. He may be studied best of all at Piacenza, in the Church
of the Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his subjects between sacred
and pagan, so that we turn from a "Flight into Egypt" or a "Marriage
of S. Catherine," to the "Rape of Europa" or "Venus and Adonis." At
Piacenza he shows himself the great painter he undoubtedly is, having
achieved some mastery over form, while his colour has the true Venetian
quality and almost equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,
which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping shadows as only one
whose spirit was in touch with the art of Giorgione would have
understood how to use. Very complete records remain of Pordenone's life,
full details of a quarrel with his brother over property left by his
father in 1533, and accounts of the painter's negotiations to obtain a
knighthood, which he fancied would place him more on a par with Titian
when he went to live in Venice. The coveted honour was secured, but from
this time he seems to have been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed
continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a punctual and rapid
decorator, and on being given the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to
decorate in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole by March 1538. We
have seen how Titian annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious
they were to transfer his commission to Pordenone, and what a narrow
escape the Venetian had of losing his Broker's patent. Pordenone was
engage