Venetian School. Born at Verona. Pupil of Palma Vecchio.
LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY.
THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS A ” Santa Conversazione.” The Virgin is seated in the centre with the Child on her knee, whose foot the little St. John bends to kiss. On the right sits St. Catherine, and to the left St. James the Less, reading, and beyond him St. Jerome. On the extreme right a shepherd lies asleep near his flock, and a lion is seizing the sheep-dog. Landscape background with ruins in the centre.
A copy of this picture is in the Venice Academy (No. 275)
MILAN, BRERA.
THE FINDING OF MOSES A large oblong picture of upwards of fourteen richly apparelled figures grouped in the foreground of a Venetian landscape; in the centre Pharaoh’s daughter is sitting under a tree looking down at the infant, which is held between two kneeling women on her left. At her right a portly man in a long robe is standing, with a little white dog lying at his feet. To the left in the foreground a man is reclining on the grass, leaning against the breast of a woman who sits bending over him, and pointing with his left hand to the central group. To the right of the picture are three boys with a dog, and behind them a group of four or five figures, with music. Behind the women, holding the infant, a man and a woman are standing looking down at it. Various smaller groups of figures are seen in the background.
VENICE, ACADEMY.
DIVES AND LAZARUS A large oblong picture of seven principal figures grouped in the foreground between the pillars of a colonnade which ranges along the side of a house into the background. The centre of this group is a negro dwarf, who stands in profile between a small table (to the left) at which Dives is seated between two women; and three musicians (to the right), for whom he is holding up a piece of music. On the extreme right, beyond the foremost pillar, Lazarus kneels leaning on his staff and holding out his left hand for alms; a dog is licking his foot. Various smaller figures are seen in the background, which to the right is an open garden. The chief interest centres around the younger of the two women, who sits facing us, leaning over with her left elbow on the table towards the girl playing the lute. The latter sits facing us as she reads the music, while a man with a violoncello kneels on one knee at her left side, and another man looks over her shoulder. Dives has hold of the younger woman’s right hand, which rests on the table, while he turns to converse with the elder woman who is on his right.
A small study for this picture is in the National Gallery, NO-3106 (Layard Bequest, 1917).