The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-02-09
ART HISTORY.

The Venetian school was so called be.
cause the city of Venice was its center.
This school exceeded in the beauty of
its coloring, and in the accuracy of its
drawings. It's reds glowed like melted
rubies, and it's yellows. like gold.
Titan, the best known artist of this
school, was born in 1477. He showed
80 much talent, that at the age of ten,
his father sent him to Venice. There
he studied in the studio of the Bellini
brothers, who were the head of the
Venetian school. The elder brother,
GENTLE, was not 80 noted as the
younger, Giovanni, to whom Titan is
greatly indebted. Titan studied very
hard before he came into notice. He
was thirty live years old when he fin
ished picture which had been begun
by the younger Bellini This picture
made him famous, For it he received
three hundred pounds. After this fame
and fortune came to him. In 1916 he
finished what is considered his greatest
work, the Assumption of the Virgin.
1t is one of the twelve worlds pictures
After this he painted for sixty-fve
years The Pope and Raphael invited
him to Rome, and the King of England
invited him to his country, but he re-
fused, though he went to Spain, where
he staid three years. While there he
painted many of his best pictures. AS
portrait painter he excelled. He was
one of the first to paint landscapes, and
these he used as backgrounds for his
other pictures. He died of the plague
at the age of ninety nine. He is the
only artist of whom it may be said that
he painted, for ninety years! During
his life he is said to have painted six
hundred pictures. In the public square
of his native city there is bronze
statue of him.
Giorgiore was the friend and fellow
student of Titan. He was born in the
same year, but died while still young.
He is thought by many to be the equal.
possibly the superior of Titan. Most
of his best works were frescoe paint
ings, so there are but few examples
of his work left. There is a picture in
the church of his native town, called
the Madonna and Child Enthroned "
1.-THE Concert" in the Pitt gallery in
Florence, was taken to France by
Napoleon. but it was afterwards re-
turned to Italy.
Tintoretto was thought by some to
be the equal of Titan. He worked
very rapidly. and his work shows care
lessness. 1t also lacked the accuracy
found in Titian's work. He is said to
have started out with the ambition to
draw like Michael Angelo, and to color
like Titan. He was impatient for
fame, and only studied a few weeks.
He painted only about two-thirds as
long as Titan, but painted ten times
as many pictures.
Veronese, also, was a very rapid
painter.
The Bellini brothers marked the rise
of the Venetian school; Titan and
Giorgione, the climax of it; and Tin
toretto and Veronese, the decline.
Mantegna, the most important
painter of the Paduan school, was born
in 1413. The figures in his paintings
are rather rigid and severe, but have a
good deal of character, and are very
finely finished. He was the the first
artist to engrave his own works. In
the last fifteen years of his life, he is
said to have made copper plates of one
hundred and fifty Of his own paintings.
Perugino, the leader of the Umbrian
school, was born in 1446. Michael
Angelo called him the Ounce" though
he did good work. He holds quite a
high place among religious painters,
though there is sameness about his
work. His coloring is very fine, in a
way. He was a teacher of Raphael
Once, Pope Julius ordered Raphael to
tear down the old frescoes in the
Vatican, and re-decorate it. But
Raphael, out of love for his old
teacher. begged the Pope to leave one
of Perugino's paintings It was done.
FANNIE T,ONGTNI