Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/226

This page needs to be proofread.

VENEZIANO— VERRIO. 190 quired his secret from him, and then waylaid him on returning from his work in the evening, stmck him on the head with a piece of lead, and re- turned to his own work in the chapel, whence he was called out to his wounded friend Domenico, who died in the arms of his treacherous companion. This story rests entirely on the recorded confession of Andrea, afterwards called the Infamous ; but the story was never contradicted. The paintings of the Portinari Ohapel have perished; and it is not yet ascertained whether the one authentic picture by Domenico, in Santa Lucia de' Magnoli, at Florence, beyond the Amo, be painted in oil or in distemper : this work displays a good feeling for form, and has an agreeable expression. Yasari says Do- menico excelled in colouring and in perspective, which he applied also skil- fully in his foreshortenings. ( Vasarif Carton,) YENEZIANO, Lohenzo, painted in 1358-68. Venetian School. There is an altar-piece by this early master in the Academy at Venice, representing the Annunciation to the Virgin in the centre, with Saints around ; it was for- merly in the church of Sant* Antonio di Castello. Lorenzo was one qf the earliest of the Venetian artists, and was of great reputation in his day. His style, hard and formal, shows a fine feeling and a study of nature, with a judicious arrangement and variation of attitude; and was superior in the expression of the heads. {Zanetti.) VENUSTI, Mabcello, 6. at Mantua, in the early part of the sixteenth cen- tury, d, at Florence before 1585. Tus- can School. Scholar of Perino del Vaga and of Michelangelo. He exe- cuted several works from his masters' drawings and compositions, among which is conspicuous the admirable copy in oils, of the great Last Judg- ment, now in the Stndj G^allery at Naples ; it was copied for the Cardinal Famese, under Michelangelo's supe-^ rintendence, and, owing to the now defaced state of the original, has an extreme interest : there was a copy of this picture in the Aguado collection at Paris. Marcello is distinguished by a delicate and careful execution. In the Colonna Gallery is a representa- tion of Christ in Limbo, by him; an original work, which, though as a com- position, feeble and deficient in general effect, possesses many well-executed parts. He excelled in works on a small scale and portraits, which he preferred to larger pictures. He painted Paul III. several times, and Vasari observes, with great success. Works. Bome, Sant' Agostino, the Martyrdom of St. Catherine : San Gio- vanni in Laterano, in the sacristy^ the Annunciation, after a drawing by Michelangelo : Capitol, Portrait of Mi- chelangelo: Palazzo Borghese, Christ bearing the Cross. Berlin GaUery, Christ on the Mount of Olives. {Bag- Hone,) VEBEIO, Antonio, b, at Lecce, about 1639, d, at Hampton Court, 1707. Neapolitan School. The scho- lar, in the first instance, of an obscure painter of his native town; he then studied at Venice, and acquired a gay and show^ colouring. After distin- guishing himself at Lecce, he tried his fortunes at Naples, where he painted in the Gesi^ Vecchio, in 1661. He then went to the south of France, and, says Dominici, he turned Huguenot, and was drowned there. This is, how- ever, so far from being the fact, that he had yet an extraordinary career of success in France and England for nearly half a centuxy. He painted some extensive frescoes at Windsor, for Charles IL, between 1676 and 1681; and others at Hampton Com-t and Burleigh, for all of which he was enormously paid. For the paintings o a