A century later than the stupendous achievements of Tintoretto and Veronese the art of Venice had passed into decline, but a glimmer of the genius that had found expression in the gorgeously decorative art in Venice in the sixteenth century was yet to be reflected in the work of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1692–1769). His Last Supper (No. 1547) was purchased for £400 in 1877, and his sketch for the Triumph of Religion (No. 1549a) for £1200 in 1903. By him also is the Banner (No. 1549), depicting on the one side St. Martin saying Mass, and on the other The Madonna and Child. An Apparition of the Virgin to St. Jerome (No. 1548) is one of the less striking pictures in the La Caze collection.
Another decorative painter was Antonio Canale, generally known as Canaletto (1697–1768), who is well represented in the View of the Church of Santa Maria della Salute and the Grand Canal (No. 1203). The Louvre appears to contain nothing by Bernardo Bellotto (1720–1780), who is sometimes referred to as Canaletto, and is seen to the best advantage at Dresden.
Canaletto’s pupil, Francesco Guardi (1712–1793), who was born of Austrian parentage, is the painter of seven Venetian scenes: After wedding the Adriatic, the Doge embarks at the Lido on the “Bucentaur” (No. 1328); The Doge proceeds to S. Maria della Salute to commemorate the Preservation of Venice from the Plague in 1630 (No. 1329); Fête du Jeudi Gras in the Piazzetta (No. 1330); The Procession of Corpus Domini in the Piazza of S. Marco (No. 1331); The Visit of the Doge to the Church of S. Zaccharia on Easter Day (No. 1332); The Doge seated on his Throne in the Sala del Collegio (No. 1333); Coronation of the Doge (No. 1334); and a View of the Church of S. Maria della Salute (No. 1335). Guardi’s pupil, François Casanova (1739–1805), a painter of battle-pieces, worked in France; some of his pictures are hung in the French Rooms.
With Guardi we close the chapter of Venetian art which, owing to four centuries of high aspiration and magnificent achievement, came to an end later than the art of any other school of painting in Italy.
THE PADUAN SCHOOL
FAR-REACHING influences were to be exerted by classical Padua on the art of the neighbouring cities of Northern Italy. Padua was a city of great antiquity, and had been sufficiently powerful and prosperous even in Roman times to excite the cupidity of its enemies. Eventually the Goths and other barbarian hordes had destroyed its monuments of the Roman age; the spirit of antiquity, nevertheless, survived until Giotto came at the very beginning of the fourteenth century to decorate the walls of the Chapel of the Madonna dell’ Arena, which had been founded in 1303 by Enrico Scrovegno on the site of an ancient Roman arena. These very precious frescoes by Giotto, which fortunately are still preserved, revolutionised art, and the movement initiated by him quickened the art-life of this University city.
Half a century later, Altichiero Altichieri (fl. 1320–1385) developed his art under the influence of Giotto, and beautified the churches of Padua with frescoes, the figures in which he clothed in fanciful attire. An art movement was now on foot, and the influence of altichieri, who was later to become the founder of the school of Verona, was to be revealed in the work of his follower Pisanello, the Veronese painter and medallist.
The long residence in Padua of Donatello (1386–1466), the great Florentine sculptor, and the erection of his famous equestrian statue of Gattamelata initiated in Padua the Renaissance movement, which soon took deep root in this ancient city. The example of Donatello in sculpture before long brought about the foundation of a local school of painting which was rapidly developed through the shrewd commonsense rather than the artistic achievements of Francesco Squarcione (1394–1474). It is noteworthy that Squarcione had travelled in the East, and had there formed a collection of antique works of plastic art which became the basis of his art-teaching.
One of the numerous pupils of Squarcione was Gregorio Schiavone (“The Slavonian”) (fl. 1440–1470), a native of Dalmatia, who in the studio of his Paduan master met Andrea Mantegna. The Louvre authorities with some hesitancy attribute to Schiavone a Madonna and Child (No. 1523). although it is hardly by him, it exhibits some of the characteristics of Schiavone, who was fond of decorating his pictures with festoons of flowers and fruit in much the same way that his Venetian contemporary, Carlo Crivelli, delighted to adorn his large panel pictures.