Though I had done all that lay in my power for Vincenzo Catena before I received your Lordship’s warm recommendation in his favour, I did not hesitate, on receipt of your letter, to add something to the first piece I had from him, and I did so because of my love and reverence for you, and I trust that he will return appropriate thanks to you for having remembered that you could command me.

Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman in different workshops and a master on his own account. For long the assistant and follower of Alvise Vivarini, we may judge that he was also his most trusted confidant, for to him was left the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to S. Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is apparent in the execution, and the two saints, Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have probably been added by him, for they have the air of interlopers, and do not come up to the rest of the company in form and conception. The Sebastian, with his hands behind his back and his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite sufficiently reminiscent of Bellini’s figure of 1473 to make us believe that Basaiti was at once transferring his allegiance to that reigning master. In his earlier phase he has the round heads and the dry precise manner of the Muranese. In his large picture in the Academy, the “Calling of the Sons of Zebedee,” he produces a large, important set piece, cold and lifeless, without one figure which arrests us, or lingers in the memory. “The Christ on the Mount” is more interesting as having been painted for San Giobbe, where Bellini’s great altarpiece was already hanging, and coming into competition with Bellini’s early rendering of the same scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is interesting to see what it has gained in “modernness.” The landscape and trees are well drawn and in good colour, and the saints, standing on either side of a high portico, have dignity. In the “Dead Christ,” in the Academy, he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints and the putti. The putti, looking thoughtfully at the dead, is a motif beloved of Bellini, but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini’s pathos and significance; they are merely childish and seem to be amused.

In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new phase. He has felt Giorgione’s influence, and is beginning to try what he can do, while still keeping close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch, more animated figures, and a brilliant effect of landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour over his hard outlines and makes his figures bright and misty, and though underneath they are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising that many of his works for a time passed as those of Bellini. Though he is a clever imitator, “his figures are designed with less mastery, his drawing is a little less correct, his drapery less adapted to the under form. Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced, colours have the brightness, but not the true contrast required. In landscape he proceeds from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does not dwell on detail, but his masses have neither the sober tint nor the mysterious richness conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever instrument.” Both Previtali and Rondinelli were workers with Basaiti in Bellini’s studio. Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea Cordeliaghi or Cordella, and has left many unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and Lotto, Palma and Montagna; but for a time his work went forth from Bellini’s workshop signed with Bellini’s name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece in San Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes the title of Previtali, compiling it in the cartello with the monogram already used as Cordeliaghi. There are traces of many other minor artists at this period, all essaying the same manner, copying one or other of the masters, taking hints from each other. The Venetian love of splendour was turning to the collection of works of art, and the work of second-class artists was evidently much in demand and obtained its meed of admiration. Bissolo was a fellow-labourer with Catena in the Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he is soft and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has imbibed something of his tenderness of spirit.

It will be seen from this list how difficult it is to unravel the tale of the false Bellinis. The master’s own works speak for themselves with no uncertain voice, but away from these it is very difficult to pronounce as to whether he had given a design, or a few touches, or advice, and still more difficult to decide whether these were bestowed on Basaiti in his later manner, or on Previtali or Bissolo, or if the teaching was handed on by them in a still more diluted form to the lesser men who clustered round, much of whose work has survived and has been masquerading for centuries under more distinguished names. It is sometimes affirmed that the loss of originality in the endeavour to paint like greater men has been a symptom of decay in every school in the past. It is interesting to notice, therefore, that in every great age of painting there has always been an undercurrent of imitation, which has helped to form a stream of tradition, and which, as far as we can see, has done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

Cima.

Berlin.Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.
Conegliano.Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.
Dresden.The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.
London.Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.
Milan.Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.
Parma.Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.
Paris.Madonna with Saints.
Venice.Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Pietà; Madonna with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the Angel.
Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.
S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.
SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.
S. Maria dell’ Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome, Mark, and Peter.
Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.
Vicenza.Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.

Vincenzo Catena.

Bergamo.Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.
Berlin.Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).
Dresden.Holy Family (L.).
London.Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).
Mr. Benson: Holy Family.
Lord Brownlow: Nativity.
Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).
Paris.Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.
Venice.Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).
Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.
S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.
S. Trovaso: Madonna.
Vienna.Portrait of a Canon.