d by the nuns of Murano to paint an Annunciation, after they had
rejected one by Titian on account of its price, and though it seems
hardly possible that any one could have compared the two men, yet no
doubt the pleasure of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually and
for a moderate sum, often outweighed the honour of the possible painting
by the great Titian.

No one has left so few easel-paintings as Pordenone; fresco was so much
better suited to his particular style. The canvas of the "Madonna of
Mercy" in the Venice Academy, was painted about 1525 for a member of the
house of Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the family. It is
very free from his colossal, exaggerated manner; the attendant saints
are studied from nature, and in his journals the painter mentions that
the St. Roch is a portrait of himself. The "S. Lorenzo enthroned," in
the same gallery, shows both his virtues and failings. The saints have
his enormous proportions. The Baptist is twisting round, to display the
foreshortening which Pordenone particularly affects. The gestures are
empty and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and fluid; there is a
large sense of decoration in the composition, and something simple and
austere about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often the case with
Pordenone, the principal actor of the scene is smaller and more
sincerely imagined than the attendant personages, who are crowded into
the foreground, where they are used to display the master's skill.

Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he had been summoned by its
Duke to undertake one of his great schemes of decoration. He was said
to have been poisoned, but though he had jealous rivals there seems no
proof of the truth of the assertion, which was one very commonly made in
those days. He is interesting as being the only distinguished member of
the Venetian School whose frescoes have come down to us in any number,
and as being the only one of the later masters with whom it was the
chosen medium.

His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented in the National Gallery
by a half-length of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court by a
large family group and by another of three persons gathered round a
spinet. His masterpiece is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari, which
shows the influence of Palma. His flesh tints, striving to be rich, have
a hot, red look, but his works have been constantly confounded with
those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.

A lo