Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings - Volume I.djvu/99

 family known later as the Vivarini; but Brandolesi has proved that no Giovanni Vivarini existed; and Antonio, though a brother of Bartolommeo Vivarini, is not known to have used the name Vivarini, which is first given to him by Sansovino. An Adoration of the Magi at Berlin, painted by Antonio between 1435 and 1440, shows that he was an accomplished painter before he entered into partnership with Giovanni Alamanno. In 1440 they founded a workshop at Murano, where during the next seven years they executed many altarpieces, chiefly for churches in Venice. They cleverly absorbed the principles taught by Gentile da Fabriano and Vittor Pisano (Pisanello), and though they did not add much to previous experience as regards contrast by light and shade, they imbued their works with a more tender spirit and gave greater softness to their figures. The earliest work attributed to them is a Coronation of the Virgin, dated 1440, in the Academy of Venice, a repetition of which, dated 1444, is in S. Pantaleone, Venice. In S. Zaccaria, Venice, is a large picture in three compartments, signed and dated 1445. Two other altarpieces in the same church are similarly signed and dated. A Madonna with Saints in the Academy, Venice, is dated 1446. Antonio afterward worked with his brother Bartolommeo, who took the name of Vivarini in his later years. In 1450 they painted the Madonna of the Carthusians, Bologna Gallery. Other examples by them are the Glorification of St. Peter in the Public Gallery of Padua (1451?), and two pictures of Saints in the Sacristy of S. M. della Salute, Venice. Antonio's later works, executed alone after 1464, are comparatively feeble.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 19; Meyer, Künst. Lex., ii. 140; Ch. Blanc, École vénitienne; Sansovino, Ven. Desc., 185, 269; Lermolieff, 395, 396.

ANTONIO DA NEGROPONTE, first half of fifteenth century. Venetian school; imitated the eccentric style of Jacobello del Fiore. His colossal Virgin in Adoration, in San Francesco della Vigna, Venice, almost his only example, is lavishly decorated with low embossments and plastic ornaments.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 11; Meyer, Künst. Lex., ii. 143.

ANTONIO DA PAVIA, of Pavia, beginning of sixteenth century. A superficial follower and imitator of Mantegna, who is registered among the workmen in the Palazzo del Té in 1528. A signed Madonna, tempera on canvas, is in the Museo Virgiliano, Mantua. Crowe and Cavalcaselle think him identical with Antonio dalla Corna.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 419, ii. 73, 440; Meyer, Künst. Lex., ii. 155.

ANTONIO VENEZIANO, born in Venice, latter half of fourteenth century. Florentine school. Vasari says he died in 1384, aged seventy-four, but documents prove that he was living two years later. Family name probably Longhi, baptismal name Antonio Francisci de Venetiis. According to Vasari, he was a pupil of Agnolo Gaddi, but his style is rather that of Taddeo Gaddi. Earliest record of him is in the archives of Siena, where he worked in 1370 with Andrea Vanni on the ceilings of the cathedral. In 1386-7 he painted frescos in the Campo Santo, Pisa, representing scenes in the legend of S. Raineri. Vasari calls it the finest and best work in the building. The parts not obliterated appear to justify the assertion and to prove that Antonio was no common artist. The frescos of the ceiling in the Cappellone dei Spagnuoli, Sta. Croce, may possibly be his work. Naturalism was the moving principle of his art, and as he pursued the imitation of nature in many moods, he forms an important link in the chain which unites Orcagna to Masolino, Angelico, and Masaccio.—C. & C., Italy, i. 480; Vasari, ed. Le Mon., ii. 171; Siret, 956; Meyer, Künst. Lex., ii. 132.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, MEETING OF, Alma-Tadema, Samuel Hawk Collection, New York. Cleopatra rowed in her barge across the harbour at Alexandria to meet Marc Antony, whose barge swings