_Francesco Bonsignori_ (Veronese: 1455-1519).
Called incorrectly, by Vasari, Monsignori. He was born at
Verona, where, in the churches of S. Fermo, S. Bernardino, S.
Paolo, and in the Pinacoteca, works by him may be seen. In
the grand but not always attractive productions of his earlier
style, Bonsignori followed the traditions and manner of the
Veronese School. Later in life he went to Mantua, where he
settled and was influenced by Mantegna (see Morelli's _German
Galleries_, p. 103, _note_).
A portrait--remarkable for vigorous execution, and strong
individuality--of a senator, from the life, "in his habit as he
stood,"--a branch of art in which this painter excelled. He has been
called indeed "the modern Zeuxis," after the famous Greek painter whose
painted grapes deceived the birds. For so lifelike were Bonsignori's
pictures--says Vasari in his entertaining account of this painter--that
on one occasion a dog rushed at a painted dog on the artist's canvas,
whilst on another a bird flew forward to perch itself on the extended
arm of a painted child. The portrait before us is executed in tempera.
The study in chalk, for it is in the Albertina collection at Vienna.