here the early master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love of fruit
garlands, of chains of beads and rich brocades carried to its farthest
limits, who takes keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively
little angels, and who gives the same pensive and almost mincing
expression to his Madonnas.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

_Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini._

Bologna. Altarpiece.

_Bartolommeo Vivarini._

Venice. Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.
Frari: Madonna and four Saints.
S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.
S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.
London. Madonna and Saints.
Vienna. S. Ambrose and Saints.

_Antonio da Negroponte._

Venice. S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.

CHAPTER VI

JACOPO BELLINI

While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the school of Squarcione,
which in the next few years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,
another influence was asserting itself, which was sufficient to
counteract the hard formalism of Paduan methods.

When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he carried with him, and presently
established with him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini, who had
already been working with him and Pisanello, and who was an ardent
disciple of the new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both Gentile and
his apprentice were subjected to annoyance from the time they arrived in
Florence, where the strict regulations which governed the Guilds made it
very difficult for any newcomer to practise his art. The records of a
police case report that on the 11th of June 1423 some young men, among
them, one, Bernabo di San Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed
throwing stones into the painter's room. His assistant, Jacopo Bellini,
came out and drove the assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing
Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to prison in default of
payment. After six months' imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a
penitential declaration set him at liberty. The accounts declare that
Gentile took no steps to be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon
after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first son was christened after
his old master, which does not look as though they were on unfriendly
terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and was much esteemed by the
Estes of Ferrara, but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has left us only
three signed works, and one or two more have lately been attribu