"Padovani gran dottori" (the Paduans are great scholars)
_Italian Proverb._
Padua, more than any other Italian city, was the home of the classical
Renaissance in painting. It was at Padua, that is to say, that the
principles which governed classical art were first and most distinctly
applied to painting. The founder of this learned Paduan school[26]
was Squarcione (1394-1474). He had travelled in Italy and Greece, and
the school which he set up in Padua on his return--filled with models
and casts from the antique--enjoyed in its day such a reputation
that travelling princes and great lords used to honour it with their
visits. It was the influence of ancient sculpture that gave the Paduan
School its characteristics. Squarcione was pre-eminently a teacher of
the learned science of linear perspective; and the study of antique
sculpture led his pupils to define all their forms severely and
sharply. "In truth," says Layard, "the peculiarity of this school
consists in a style of conception and treatment more plastic than
pictorial." This characteristic of the school is pointed out below
under some of Mantegna's pictures, but is seen best of all in Gregorio
Schiavone (see especially 630). A second mark of the classical learning
of the school may be observed in the choice of antique embellishments,
of bas-reliefs and festoons of fruits in the accessories. For a third
and crowning characteristic of the school--the repose and self-control
of classical art--the reader is referred to the remarks under
Mantegna's pictures. With Mantegna the school of Padua reached its
consummation. Crivelli's pictures are hung with those of the Paduan
school, for he too is believed to have been a pupil of Squarcione.
But after Mantegna the learning of Padua must be traced not in native
painters, but in its influence on other schools.
[Illustration]