inferior to those that Andrea executed there. And in truth, if Niccolo,
whose works were few, but all good, had taken as much delight in
painting as he did in arms, he would have become excellent, and might
perchance have lived much longer than he did; for he was ever under arms
and had many enemies, and one day, when returning from work, he was
attacked and slain by treachery. Niccolo left no other works that I know
of, save another God the Father in the Chapel of Urbano Perfetto.[29]

[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA: THE MADONNA OF THE ROCKS

(_Florence: Uffizi, 1025. Panel_)]

Andrea, thus left alone in the said chapel, painted the four
Evangelists, which were held very beautiful. By reason of this and other
works Andrea began to be watched with great expectation, and with hopes
that he would attain to that success to which he actually did attain;
wherefore Jacopo Bellini, the Venetian painter, father of Gentile and
Giovanni, and rival of Squarcione, contrived to get him to marry his
daughter, the sister of Gentile. Hearing this, Squarcione fell into such
disdain against Andrea that they were enemies ever afterwards; and in
proportion as Squarcione had formerly been ever praising the works of
Andrea, so from that day onward did he ever decry them in public. Above
all did he censure without reserve the pictures that Andrea had made in
the said Chapel of S. Cristofano, saying that they were worthless,
because in making them he had imitated the ancient works in marble, from
which it is not possible to learn painting perfectly, for the reason
that stone is ever from its very essence hard, and never has that
tender softness that is found in flesh and in things of nature, which
are pliant and move in various ways; adding that Andrea would have made
those figures much better, and that they would have been more perfect,
if he had given them the colour of marble and not such a quantity of
colours, because his pictures resembled not living figures but ancient
statues of marble or other suchlike things. This censure piqued the mind
of Andrea; but, on the other hand, it was of great service to him, for,
recognizing that Squarcione was in great measure speaking the truth, he
set himself to portray living people, and made so much progress in this
art, that, in a scene which still remained to be painted in the said
chapel, he showed that he could wrest the good from living and natural
objects no less than from those wrought by art.