The city of Modena gave birth to the early painters Tommaso da Modena (1325-1379) and Barnaba da Modena (fl. 1377), who worked in many different parts of Tuscany. The prominent figure in this school, however, is Francesco Bianchi (1460-1510). This painter, whose name is sometimes given as Francesco Bianchi Ferrari, was in all probability a pupil of Cosimo Tura at Ferrara. He left that city about 1480 for Modena. His style of painting has been the subject of much discussion, chiefly because he is regarded as the master of Correggio of Parma. The _Madonna and Child, with St. Benedict and St. Quentin_ (No. 1167), although officially catalogued under his name, is not now generally accepted as his work. In 1725 it was in the Church of St. Quentin at Parma and attributed to Francia. Certain critics have ascribed it to Alessandro da Carpi and others to Pellegrino Munari of Modena (1450?-1523). Bianchi’s work can only be studied in the Pinacoteca Estense and in the churches at Modena. The three pictures officially catalogued under the name of the third-rate artist Bartolommeo Schidone (1570?-1615) are not exhibited, nor are they missed,—a remark which will also apply to a _St. Cecilia_ (No. 1253) by Jacopo Cavedone (1577-1660). THE SCHOOL OF VICENZA The first Vicentine painter known to us is Battista da Vicenza (fl. 1450), but it was not until the last quarter of the fifteenth century that Vicenza produced a painter of any note. Bartolommeo Montagna (1460?-1523) studied the art of the Vivarini, and so became the central figure in an unimportant school. His _Ecce Homo_ (No. 1393), which bears the signature: _Bartholomeus Montagna Fecit_ in a _cartellino_ fastened to a twig, is a mature work. The delightful and late picture of _Three Angel Musicians_ (No. 1394), which is signed in a _cartellino_ _Opus Bartholomei Montagna_, shows the unmistakable influence of Gentile Bellini. The same motif is found in the three musician angels in Montagna’s magnificent _Madonna and Child, with St. Andrew, St. Monica, St. Ursula, and St. Sigismund_, of 1498, in the Brera. Montagna’s son, Benedetto (fl. 1500-1540), Giovanni Buonconsiglio (1470?-1536?), and Giovanni Speranza (1480-1536) also practised as painters; but Vicentine art from the middle of the sixteenth century has little claim on our attention. THE SCHOOL OF VERCELLI One of the earliest painters in this school was an obscure artist of the Old Lombard school named Martino Spanzotti. He was the master of Gaudenzio Ferrari (1471-1546), whose frescoes are easily recognisable by the crude colour, exuberant imagination, and forceful, almost brutal, realism which have caused him to be termed, somewhat loosely, the Rubens of Italy. A very late work by him is the _St. Paul_ (No. 1285), which is signed and dated