in chiaro-scuro, on a half sheet (royal folio), by the hand of Mantegna: the subject, a Judith placing the head of Holofernes in a wallet held by a black slave. The manner of the chiaro-scuro there adopted is one no longer used, the artist having left the Avhite paper to serve for the lights, and this is done with so much delicacy, that the separate hairs and other minutiae are as clearly distinguishable as they could have been, if ever so carefully executed with the pencil; insomuch that one might in a certain sense rather call this a painting than a drawing.[1]
Andrea Mantegna found great pleasure, as did also Pollaiuolo, in engraving on copper; and, among other things, he engraved his Triumphs—a work of which much account was then made, because better engravings had not then been seen.[2] One of the last works executed by this artist, was a picture painted at Santa Maria della Vittoria, a church built after the design and under the direction of Andrea, for the Marchese Francesco, in acknowledgment of the victory obtained by the latter on the river Taro, when he was captain-general of the Venetians against the French. In this picture, which was placed on the high altar, is the Virgin with the Child, seated on a pedestal, and at her feet are St. Michael the archangel, St. Anna, and Joachim; they are recommending the marquis—who is portrayed from the life so admirably well, that he seems alive—to the protection of Our Lady, who extends her hand towards him.[3] And this work, as it then pleased every one, and still continues to please all who behold it, so it satisfied the marquis himself so entirely, that he rewarded the skill and labour of Andrea most liberally, and the artist being well recompensed by princes for
- ↑ This precious drawing makes part of the collection in the Uffizj. — Masselli.
- ↑ See Ottley, History of Eng raving, for numerous details respecting the engravings of Mantegna. See also Zani, Materiali per servire alla storia dell'intaglio; and Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur.
- ↑ This admirable picture was carried off by the French in 1797, and ia still at Paris (in the Louvre). An engraving will be found in Count Pompeo Litta’s Familie celebri d’Italia, under the name Gonzaga, part iv. The Saints behind and around the Virgin are not precisely as given by Vasari, they are SS. Michael, Andrew, Maurice and Longinus, patron saints of Mantua. St. John, as a child, stands by the Virgin. The Marquis is accompanied by his wife Isabella d’Este, and on the pedestal is the Fail of Man, —See Lanzi, vol. ii. p. 326.
