at present in use" was presumably the oil-painting
established by Antonello, which was now being made use of to replace
the decorations in fresco and tempera which Guariento, Pisanello, and
Gentile da Fabriano had executed, and which were constantly decaying and
suffering from the sea air and the dampness of the climate. The Council
accepted Alvise's offer with little delay, and he was told to paint a
picture for a space hitherto occupied by one of Pisanello's, and was
given a salary of sixty ducats a year, something less than that drawn by
Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work, scenes from the history of
Barbarossa, perished in the great fire of 1577.

Venice is rich in works which show us what sort of painter was at the
head of the Muranese School at the time when it rivalled that of the
Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either side of the altarpiece
of 1480, and of these the Baptist is one of his best figures, "admirably
expressive of tension and of brooding thought." It is large and free in
stroke, and particularly advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close
by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type of a strenuous, fanatical
old woman, one which belongs not only to the period, but will be
recognised by every student of human nature. Formidable and even cruel
is her unflinching gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood for
Scott's Prioress, and looks as little likely to show mercy to an erring
member of her order. In contrast, there is the exquisite little "Madonna
and Child" with the two baby angels, still shown as a Bellini in the
sacristy of the Church of the Redentore. It is the most absolutely
simple and direct picture of the kind painted in Venice. The baby life
is more perfect than anything that Gian. Bellini produced, and if much
less intellectual than his Madonnas, there is all the tender charm of
the primitives, combined with a freedom of drapery and a softness of
form which could not be surpassed. The two little angels are more
mundane in spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they have nothing
of the mystical quality, though we are reminded of Bellini, and the
painting is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy of San Giobbe is
an early Annunciation, which is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It
has the old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its draperies are of
a lovely tint. The priests of S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons
of the school of the Vivarini, for