Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/347

Rh him closely; one of these was called Lazzaro, the other Sebastiano. There is a picture by these artists in the church belonging to the nuns of the Corpus Domini, it stands on the altar of the Virgin, and represents her seated with St. Catherine on one side and St. Martha on the other: there are besides other saints, with two angels playing musical instruments, and a perspective view of buildings, which forms the back ground of the whole work and is very beautiful. Of this we have the drawings by the hands of the masters themselves in our book.

A painter who lived at the same time with the above named, and was considered a tolerably good one, was Vincenzio Catena :]: who occupied himself much more with portraits from the life, than with any other kind of pictures, and certainly, some of those by his hand which we have seen are most admirable: among others is that of a German of the Fugger family, an honourable person, and held in much esteem, who was at that time dwelling in Venice, at the merchants’ hall belonging to the Germans; this portrait is a most animated likeness.

About the same time many works were executed in Venice by Giovanni Battista da Conigliano, a disciple of Giovanni Bellino: among them is a picture by this artist, on the altar of San Pietro Martire, in the before-mentioned church of the nuns of the Corpus Domini; it represents San Pietro Martire himself, with San Niccolo and San Benedetto; there is besides a perspective view of the distant country, and an angel playing on a cithern; with many small figures more than tolerably painted: indeed, if this artist had not died young, we may reasonably infer that he would have equalled his master.