family known later as the Vivarini; but Brandolesi has proved that no Giovanni Vivarini existed; and Antonio, though a brother of Bartolommeo Vivarini, is not known to have used the name Vivarini, which is first given to him by Sansovino. An Adoration of the Magi at Berlin, painted by Antonio between 1435 and 1440, shows that he was an accomplished painter before he entered into partnership with Giovanni Alamanno. In 1440 they founded a workshop at Murano, where during the next seven years they executed many altarpieces, chiefly for churches in Venice. They cleverly absorbed the principles taught by Gentile da Fabriano and Vittor Pisano (Pisanello), and though they did not add much to previous experience as regards contrast by light and shade, they imbued their works with a more tender spirit and gave greater softness to their figures. The earliest work attributed to them is a Coronation of the Virgin, dated 1440, in the Academy of Venice, a repetition of which, dated 1444, is in S. Pantaleone, Venice. In S. Zaccaria, Venice, is a large picture in three compartments, signed and dated 1445. Two other altarpieces in the same church are similarly signed and dated. A Madonna with Saints in the Academy, Venice, is dated 1446. Antonio afterward worked with his brother Bartolommeo, who took the name of Vivarini in his later years. In 1450 they painted the Madonna of the Carthusians, Bologna Gallery. Other examples by them are the Glorification of St. Peter in the Public Gallery of Padua (1451?), and two pictures of Saints in the Sacristy of S. M. della Salute, Venice. Antonio's later works, executed alone after 1464, are comparatively feeble.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 19; Meyer, Künst. Lex., ii. 140; Ch. Blanc, École vénitienne; Sansovino, Ven. Desc., 185, 269; Lermolieff, 395, 396.
ANTONIO DA NEGROPONTE, first half
of fifteenth century. Venetian school; imitated
the eccentric style of Jacobello del
Fiore. His colossal Virgin in Adoration, in
San Francesco della Vigna, Venice, almost
his only example, is lavishly decorated with
low embossments and plastic ornaments.—C.
& C., N. Italy, i. 11; Meyer, Künst. Lex.,
ii. 143.
ANTONIO DA PAVIA, of Pavia, beginning
of sixteenth century. A superficial
follower and imitator of Mantegna, who is
registered among the workmen in the Palazzo
del Té in 1528. A signed Madonna,
tempera on canvas, is in the Museo Virgiliano,
Mantua. Crowe and Cavalcaselle think
him identical with Antonio dalla Corna.—C.
& C., N. Italy, i. 419, ii. 73, 440; Meyer,
Künst. Lex., ii. 155.
ANTONIO VENEZIANO, born in Venice,
latter half of fourteenth century. Florentine
school. Vasari says he died in 1384,
aged seventy-four, but documents prove that
he was living two years later. Family name
probably Longhi, baptismal name Antonio
Francisci de Venetiis. According to Vasari,
he was a pupil of Agnolo Gaddi, but his style
is rather that of Taddeo Gaddi. Earliest
record of him is in the archives of Siena,
where he worked in 1370 with Andrea Vanni
on the ceilings of the cathedral. In 1386-7
he painted frescos in the Campo Santo, Pisa,
representing scenes in the legend of S. Raineri.
Vasari calls it the finest and best work
in the building. The parts not obliterated
appear to justify the assertion and to prove
that Antonio was no common artist. The
frescos of the ceiling in the Cappellone dei
Spagnuoli, Sta. Croce, may possibly be his
work. Naturalism was the moving principle
of his art, and as he pursued the imitation
of nature in many moods, he forms an important
link in the chain which unites Orcagna
to Masolino, Angelico, and Masaccio.—C.
& C., Italy, i. 480; Vasari, ed. Le Mon.,
ii. 171; Siret, 956; Meyer, Künst. Lex., ii.
132.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, MEETING
OF, Alma-Tadema, Samuel Hawk Collection,
New York. Cleopatra rowed in her
barge across the harbour at Alexandria to
meet Marc Antony, whose barge swings
