Knights of Art: Stories of the Italian PaintersSteedman, Amy
General
Knights of Art: Stories of the Italian Painters
Steedman, Amy
Art -- Juvenile literature; Painters -- Italy
With all the wealth of delicate shading spread out before his eyes,
with the ever-changing wonder of the opal-tinted sea meeting him on
every side, it was not strange that the love of colour sank into his
very heart. In his pictures we can see the golden glow which bathes the
marble palaces, the clear green of the water, the pure blues and
burning crimsons all as transparent as crystal, not mere paint but
living colour.
Giovanni did not care to paint stories of Venice, with great crowds of
figures, as Gentile did. He loved best the Madonna and saints, single
figures full of quiet dignity. His saints are more human than those
which Fra Angelico painted, and yet they are not mere men and women,
but something higher and nobler. Instead of the angels swinging their
censers which the painter of San Marco so lovingly drew, Giovanni's
angels are little human boys, with grave sweet faces; happy children
with a look of heaven in their eyes, as they play on their little lutes
and mandolines.
But besides the pictures of saints and angels, Giovanni had a wonderful
gift for painting portraits, and most of the great people of Venice
came to be painted by him. In our own National Gallery we have the
portrait of the Doge Loredan, which is one of those pictures which can
teach you many things when you have learned to look with seeing eyes.
So the brothers worked together, but before long death carried off the
elder, and Giovanni was left alone.
Though he was now very old, Giovanni worked harder than ever, and his
hand, instead of losing power, seemed to grow stronger and more and
more skilful. He was ninety years old when he died, and he worked
almost up to the last.
The brothers were both buried in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, in
the heart of Venice. There, in the dim quietness of the old church,
they lie at rest together, undisturbed by the voices of the passers-by
in the square outside, or the lapping of the water against the steps,
as the tides ebb and flow around their quiet resting-place.
VITTORE CARPACCIO
Like most of the other great painters, Giovanni Bellini had many pupils
working under him--boys who helped their master, and learned their
lessons by watching him work. Among these pupils was a boy called
Vittore Carpaccio, a sharp, clever lad, with keen bright eyes which
noticed everything. No one else learned so quickly or copied the
master's work so faithfully, and when in time he became himself a
famous painter, his work showed to the end traces of the master's
influence.
He must have been a curious boy, this Vittore Carpaccio, for although
we know but little of his life, his pictures tell us many a tale about
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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