Early Venetian School. Son of Antonio. His largest and most important works are the unfinished altar-piece at the Frari, Venice, and two in the Berlin Museum.
LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD The Virgin, in a blue mantle over a crimson robe, stands behind a parapet facing us. Her left hand holds a cushion on the parapet on which the Child half reclines, while she supports Him with her right.
Signed “ALVIXI VIVARINI P.”
Presented by Charles Loeser, Esq., 1898.
VENICE, ACADEMY
THE VIRGIN AND SIX SAINTS The Virgin sits facing us on a marble throne, with the Child standing on her left knee. On the left are standing St. Anthony of Padua as a monk, holding a book and a lily, and St. Louis of Toulouse as a Bishop. Behind the former next the throne are seen the head and joined hands of St. Anne. On the right are two monks-St. Francis showing the stigmata and St. Bernardine his disc. Behind St. Joachim, lifting his hat from his head. The background is a plain green curtain hung behind the throne.
“In this altar-piece he most completely separated himself from the formalities of the old period, and retempered his art at the fertile spring of pure nature. We see the Virgin on a marble throne, shrouded, as it were, from common gaze by green hangings that part a corner of an edifice. She looks out upon her little court of worshippers, and seems to say of the naked babe, Ecce Agnus Dei. “Her face, in its gentle and regular character, is expressive a, her motion; her gesture. The saints who adore the majesty of Christ do so in a most unaffected way: St. Anne, in prayer, is enthusiastically devout; St. Joachim, awe-struck; St. Francis is composed, and shows the stigmata; St. Anthony displays the energy of his faith by the pressure of the book upon his breast.” (C. and C.)