g him gladly; with buildings wrought
most beautifully in perspective, Barbarossa on his throne, and his son
kneeling and taking his hand, accompanied by many Venetian noblemen, who
are portrayed from the life so finely that it is clear that he imitated
nature very well. Poor Vivarino would have completed the remainder
of his part with great honour to himself, but, having died, as it
pleased God, from exhaustion and through being of a weakly habit of
body, he carried it no further--nay, even what he had done was not
wholly finished, and it was necessary for Giovanni Bellini to retouch it
in certain places.

[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI: LA FORTUNA

(_Venice: Accademia, 595. Panel_)]

[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI: THE DEAD CHRIST

(_Milan: Poldi Pezzoli, 624. Panel_)]

Meanwhile, Giovanni had also made a beginning with four scenes, which
follow in due order those mentioned above. In the first he painted the
said Pope in S. Marco--which church he portrayed exactly as it
stood--presenting his foot to Frederick Barbarossa to kiss; but this
first picture of Giovanni's, whatever may have been the reason, was
rendered much more lifelike and incomparably better by the most
excellent Tiziano. However, continuing his scenes, Giovanni made in the
next the Pope saying Mass in S. Marco, and afterwards, between the said
Emperor and the Doge, granting plenary and perpetual indulgence to all
who should visit the said Church of S. Marco at certain times,
particularly at that of the Ascension of Our Lord. There he depicted the
interior of that church, with the said Pope in his pontifical robes at
the head of the steps that issue from the choir, surrounded by many
Cardinals and noblemen--a vast group, which makes this a crowded, rich,
and beautiful scene. In the one below this the Pope is seen in his
rochet, presenting a canopy to the Doge, after having given another to
the Emperor and keeping two for himself. In the last that Giovanni
painted are seen Pope Alexander, the Emperor, and the Doge arriving in
Rome, without the gates of which the Pope is presented by the clergy and
by the people of Rome with eight standards of various colours and eight
silver trumpets, which he gives to the Doge, that he and his successors
may have them for insignia. Here Giovanni painted Rome in somewhat
distant perspective, a great number of horses, and an infinity of
foot-soldiers, with many banners and other signs of rejoicing on the
Castle of S