w down, which we are accustomed to find, and he constructs a
very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light and shade. There is no
trace of the statuesque Paduan draperies. The Virgin's brocaded mantle
is simply draped, and the robes of the saints hang in long straight
folds. No doubt Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini, has
more affinity with them, particularly with Giovanni, than with the
Paduan artists, and as time goes on it is evident that he paints with
many glances at what they were doing. In the altarpiece in Berlin he
constructs an elaborate cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was
already using. His saints are full of movement. In the end he begins to
attitudinise and to display those artificial graces which were presently
accentuated by Lotto.

[Illustration: _Alvise Vivarini._
ALTARPIECE OF 1480.
_Venice._
(_Photo, Anderson._)]

In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time been employed in the Sala del
Gran Consiglio by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy school, had
hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be invited to enter into competition
with them. At length he wrote the following letter:--

TO THE MOST SERENE THE PRINCE AND THE MOST EXCELLENT
SIGNORIA--I am Alvise of Murano, a faithful servant of your
Serenity and of this most illustrious State. I have long been
anxious to exercise my skill before your Sublimity and prove
that continued study and labour on my part have not been
useless. Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and
praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without
return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing a canvas
in the Sala del Gran Consiio, according to the method at
present in use by the two brothers Bellinii, and I ask no more
for the said canvas than that I should be allowed the expenses
of the cloth and colours as well as the wages of the
journeymen, in the manner that has been granted to the said
Bellinii. When I have done I shall leave to your Serenity of
his goodness to give me in his wisdom the price which shall be
adjudged to be just, honest, and appropriate, in return for the
labour, which I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the
universal satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the
excellent Government, to the grace of which I most heartily
commend myself.

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