1409. THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE.
Andrea Cordelle Agii (Venetian: School of Bellini).
This picture is a repetition of one by Andrea Previtali in the sacristy of the Church of San Giobbe at Venice, and the painter has been supposed to be the same as Previtali. This, however, is probably not the case. The present picture is signed (on a cartellino) "1504: Andreas Cordelli Agy dissipulus Jovannis Bellini pinxit." He similarly describes himself as a pupil of John Bellini on a picture in the Poldi Pezzoli Gallery at Milan. Judging from his name, "twists and needles," he or his father was probably a pedlar (Layard's edition of "Kugler," i. 334).
"The conjecture that Andrea Previtali is identical with Andrea Cordelle Agii seems to me," says Morelli, "untenable. Both were fellow-scholars in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, and it is undeniable that in some of their works they closely resemble each other; but this may be explained by the fact that the one probably copied the cartoons or even the pictures of the other. The few signed works which I have met with by Cordelle Agii appear to me, however, to be more refined and lifelike in expression, and his landscapes are warmer and less vividly green in tone, than those of Previtali" (Roman Galleries, p. 237 n.). As a picture by Previtali hangs close by (No. 695), the reader is in a position to consider the justness of the critic's remarks for himself.