Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/445

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In Venice. 415 little if anything to those of Titian. In life-like repre- sentation and masterly treatment they have been equalled by few portraits ever executed. A splendid example may be seen in the National Gallery in the Portrait of a Tailor : the Lawyer in the same collection, which contains three other works by him, is but little inferior ; and that of Ercole Tasso, at Stafford House, disputes with the Tailor the claim of being his masterpiece. Here, too, we must mention Girolamo Romani (1484- 87 — 1566), called II Romanino of Brescia, who was a successful imitator of Titian and Giorgione, and a rival of Bonvicino. The Nativity in the National Gallery is one of his best works. Bonifazio Veronese (died 1540), the most important of the three artists of this name, was a follower, if not a pupil, of Palma Vecchio : his style was also based on that of Titian and Giorgione, and several of his works have passed under the names of those masters. The second, Bonifazio Veneziano (died 1553), was a pupil of the first. All three are best studied in Venice. Greater than any of these, were two masters who nourished towards the end of the sixteenth century, and kept alive the vitality of the Venetian School by the pro- duction of works of original genius and individuality long after the art of painting in the rest of Italy had fallen into the hands of mere mannerists and imitators. We allude to Jacopo Robusti (1518 — 1594), known as Tintoretto, and Paolo Caliari (1528 — 1588), called Paolo Veronese. The former studied for a very short time under Titian, and aspired to combine his excellence of colouring with Michelangelo's correctness and grandeur of form. In some few of his works he gave proof of considerable power : his