rents, he settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most
distinguished of those Vicentine painters who drank at the Venetian
fount. He must have gone early to Venice and worked with the Vivarini,
for in his altarpiece in the Brera he has the vaulted porticoes in
which Bartolommeo and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His "Madonna enthroned"
in the gallery at Vicenza has many points of contact with that of Alvise
at Berlin. Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and the raised
throne, and he is specially attracted by the groups of music-making
angels; but Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise, and his lines
are stronger and more sinewy. He keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling
for calm and sweetness, but his personages have greater weight and
gravity. He essays, too, a "Pieta" with saints, at Monte Berico, and
shows both pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen Bellini's
rendering, and attempts, if only with partial success, to contrast in
the same way the indifference of death with the contemplation and
anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular as Montagna's saints often
are, they show power and austerity. His colour is brilliant and
enamel-like; he does not arrive at the Venetian depth, yet his
altarpieces are very grand, and once more we are struck by the greatness
of even the secondary painters who drew their inspiration from Padua and
Venice.

Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza and Giovanni Buonconsiglio
were imbued with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza, in one of his
few remaining works, almost reproduces the beautiful "Assumption" by
Pizzolo, Mantegna's young fellow-student, in the Chapel of the
Eremitani. He employs Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate
Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish between
their works. Buonconsiglio's "Pieta" in the Vicenza gallery, is
reminiscent of Montagna's at Monte Berico. The types are lean and bony,
the features are almost as rugged as Duerer's, the flesh earthy and
greenish. About 1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with Antonello da
Messina; he begins to reside in Venice, and a change comes over his
manner. His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired by studying
Titian; and then, again, his bright tints remind us of Lotto. His name
was on the register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.

After Pisanello's achievement and his marked effect on early Venetian
art, Veronese painting fell for a time to a ver