Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/271

Rh not always find those who perceive and estimate its value, as did that of Andrea Mantegna. Born in the neighbourhood of Mantua, of a very lowly race, and occupied during his childhood in the tending of flocks, he was eventually so exalted by fate and his own abilities that he at length attained the condition of knighthood, as in its due place will be related. When he had nearly reached his full growth, Andrea was taken to the city, where he studied painting under Jacopo Squarcione, of Padua, who took him into his own house, and, a short time after, perceiving his remarkable abilities, adopted him as his son. This we learn from a letter written in Latin by Messer Girolamo Campagnuola to Messer Lionico Timeo, a Greek philosopher; wherein he gives the latter notices respecting certain old painters who had executed works for the Carrara family, of Padua. But as Squarcione knew himself to be not the most distinguished painter in the world, and to the end that Andrea might know more than he did himself, he caused him to work diligently from casts moulded on antique statues, and after pictures on canvas, which he had brought from various places, more particularly from Tuscany and Rome. By these and other methods of the same kind Andrea Mantegna acquired a fair amount of knowledge in his youth: he was also assisted and stimulated in no slight degree by his emulation of Marco Zoppo, of Bologna, Dario,