Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/205

 174 SPINELLO— SQUABCIONE. to Arezzo ; but the dates would show the contrary,— that his connection with Ghiberti and Masolino must have taken place after the death of his father. Ac-, cording to Vasari, his colouring was ex- cellent, and he was the best practical fresco-painter of his time ; his figures were, however, of extravagantly long proportions. Yasari says some of them measured as many as eleven and twelve heads. He painted in the church of San Bomenico, at Florence : in San Gristoforo, at Arezzo, is an altar-piece, with the date 1444. {Vamri.) SQUARCIONE, Francesco, 6. at Padua, 1394, d. 1474. Paduan and Venetian School. He was the son of Giovanni di Francesco, a notary, and appears to have been rather a lover of, than a practitioner in, the arts, His education was peculiar; he made ex- tensive journeys in Italy and in Greece, taking drawings of all things that in- terested him, and acquiring many, which formed the nucleus of a remark- able collection at Padua, which had the distinction of being the earliest of its kind in Italy. These journeys were made between the years 1422 and 1439. He afterwards opened a celebrated school in Padua, which he appears to have carried on between 1441 and 1463. The works of Squarcione are few and unimportant. His great distinguishing claims consist in his peculiar ability as a teacher, and his position as the founder of the School of Padua. The influence which this school ex- erted in the north of Italy must have been great. Squarcione had as many as 137 scholars, who spread the germs of a new epoch — ^the classic supersed- ing the Byzantine; though it was chiefly at Mantua that this school was established, through Mantegna and his scholars. Jacopo Bellini carried Squar- eione's influence to Venice, and Marco Zoppo spread it in Bologna. In Padua his house was one of the chief attrac- tions ; his collection was not only the earliest but the most extensive and cele- brated of its time in Italy. He was called the father and primo maestro of painters. He lived in great affluence, and divided his commissions among his scholars. This school, of which Andrea Man- tegna is the great exponent, was chiefly instrumental in introducing the study of ancient sculpture to the modems, from the ancient bassi-rilievi ; and it adhered perhaps too exclusively to these models. Squarcione's school was distinguished from that of the Bellini in that it made form its principal study. Padua," says Eugler, *< consists in a style of conception and treatment more plastic than pictoriaL The forms are severely smd sharply defined. The drapery is often ideally treated, accord- ing to the antique costume — so much so that, in order to allow the forms of the body to appear more marked, it seems to cling to the figure. The general arrangement more frequently resembles that of basso-relievo than of rounded groups." The architecture and ornamental accessories, as in the frequent introduction of festoons of fruit, display the same attention to antique models. This imitation of ancient sculpture, combined with the realistic tendency of the period, led to an exaggerated sharpness in the mark- ing of the forms. *' In the drapery the same imitation led to the introduction of a multitude of small, sharp, and oblique folds, which break the large flowing lines, and sometimes even in- jure the effiect of the leading forms." The only public work of Squarcione's known to Moschini is a St. Francis, in the convent of San Francesco Grande, at Padua; the same writer mentions four pictures in private collections. The celebrated Book of Anthems, also, in the church of the Misericordia, long ascribed to Mantegna, is now consi-
 * ' The peculiarity of the School of