94 THE FINE ARTS. 
Alexander VII. knighted him. This artist also distinguished himself as an 
architect. He died in 1669. 
Among the later imitators who adopted the light and graceful manner 
of Pietro Berettini but few have attained to great celebrity: the most 
notable of them is Luca Giordano, of whom we shall have occasion to speak 
further on. Ciro Ferri and Francesco Romanelli were able to imitate their 
master so closely that even connoisseurs ascribed their productions to 
Pietro da Cortona. 
c. The Venetian School. In the different states of the Venetian territory 
we find monuments of painting and mosaic which are undeniably of Grecian 
origin, but which at the same time go to show that in this part of Italy the 
arts were never wholly lost. The mosaics in the church of St. Mark were 
begun in the year 1070, and were solemnly dedicated in 1084; they are 
the oldest monuments of art in Venice. Abbot Jacob painted in 1180 the 
figure of the Savior, and about the year 1200 one Theophilus from Con- 
stantinople had a school of painting in Venice. All these works and others 
equally old are wholly in the coarse and spiritless taste which characterizes 
the Greek works of art of that period. The history of Venetian painting 
may properly begin with Guariento, who lived about 1360; for he already 
departed to some extent from the Greek style, as did likewise his contem- 
porary Nicoletto Semitecolo, who lived in 1367, and Sebastian of Murano, 
pictures by whom are still extant, and who was living at the beginning of 
the 15th century. 
There are in Venice several paintings by Luigi Vivarino of the year 
1414, among them a Christ bearing his Cross and a St. Jerome and the 
LInon, and, which is remarkable, they are painted on canvas, which did not 
become usual till the time of Titian. Our next example of artistic talent is 
a German master, Johannes da Alemannia he calls himself on his pictures, 
who in 1445 painted in the church of San Giorgio Maggiore a S¢. Stephen 
and St. Sebastian. It cannot be a work of Johannes van Eyck, because, 
although several of his pictures came to Italy, he was dead in 1441. At 
this time we find in Venice three classes of painters: those who adhered 
strictly to the ancient traditional practice of the art, those who ventured 
to depart from the original coldness and stiffness, and the school of Gior- 
gione. At the head of the first class stands Vittorio Carpaccio, who 
distinguished himself by his knowledge of perspective, which was then 
@adly neglected. The chief of the second class is Giovanni Bellini (born 
1424, died 1514), who made considerable advances in the direction of 
correct taste, although he simply imitated nature. He devoted his atten- 
tion principally to coloring and harmony. There are good pictures by this 
master in various galleries ; his elder brother, Gentile Bellini, was likewise 
a good painter, but did not equal Giovanni. The third class, namely of 
painters who at once renounced the old stiff manner, begins with Marco 
Baisati; he painted till 1520, and his finest works are in the different 
churches of Venice. 
The flourishing period of Venetian painting begins with Andrea Man- 
tegna (born 1431, died 1505). He early distinguished himself by his great 
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