_Vittore Pisano_ (Veronese: 1380-1452).
The earliest picture of the Veronese School in the Gallery. "No
school of painting in Italy except the Florentine shows," says
Morelli, "so regular and uninterrupted a development, from the
thirteenth to the seventeenth century, as the graceful school
of Verona. If we look, for example, at some of the oldest
frescoes at St. Zeno, at the frescoes of the great Pisanello
in S. Anastasia of the first half of the fifteenth century, at
the pictures of Liberale (1134 and 1336) and Domenico Morone
(1211), and of their pupils Francesco Morone (285), Girolamo
dai Libri (748), Michele da Verona (1214), Giolfino (749),
and Morando (735 and 769), and then to Paolo Veronese and his
followers, we find everywhere the same cheerful and graceful
character looking out of each of these works of the Veronese
School. The Veronese do not penetrate so deep into the essence
of art as the Venetians, but they are, with few exceptions,
more gracious and serene. And to this day the population of
this beautifully situated town is reckoned the cheeriest
and gayest in all Italy: _Veronesi, mezzo natti_" (_German
Galleries_, p. 395). In the National Gallery the development
of the Veronese School may, as will be seen from the
references inserted above, be well studied. The importance and
independence of the Veronese painters are shown by the career
of Vittore Pisano, commonly called by the endearing diminutive
Pisanello. He was born at St. Vigilio, near the Lake of Garda,
and was probably a pupil of Altichiero, an older master of the
Veronese School, and was famous as the inventor of a method of
casting medals; but though better known now as a medallist, in
his own day he was equally famous as a painter. In the frame of
this picture are inserted casts from two of his medals, and it
will be noticed that the lower one--a profile of himself--is
inscribed Pisanus Pictor; Pisano the Painter. The medal above
is that of Leonello d'Este, his patron, for whom this picture
was probably painted, and whose portrait by a pupil of Pisano
is in our Gallery (770). At Bergamo is a portrait of Leonello
by Pisano himself (reproduced in the Illustrated Catalogue of
the Morelli Gallery by Signor Frizzoni). Another evidence of
Pisano's practice as a medallist will be noticed in the gilt
embossed work of St. George's sword and spurs. Leonello wrote
of Pisano as "the most illustrious of all the painters of
this age," and contemporary writers similarly extol his fame.
In 1421 he was summoned to Venice. "When, in the beginning
of the fifteenth century, great monumental works in painting
were to be carried out at Venice, the local school was still
so insignificant that no native artist could be entrusted
with the commission. They were obliged to summon Vittore
Pisano, notwithstanding that he had once been on the list of
the politically obnoxious, and as such was liable to penal
consequences" (Richter). Pisano was accompanied by Gentile da
Fabriano. "The presence of those two eminent artists in the
city of the Lagoons gave," says Morelli, "a new impulse to
its school of painting. Jacopo Bellini became a scholar of
Gentile, and when his master had finished his work at Venice he
accompanied him to Florence. During the few years of their stay
at Venice, Gentile and Pisanello must not only have instructed
Bellini in their art, but their influence on Antonio Vivarini
of Murano also seems to me undeniable.... Taking him all in
all, I consider that Giovanni Bellini was the greatest painter
in North Italy in the fifteenth century, though undoubtedly
Pisano was in the first half of the century as great a painter
as was Bellini in the second half" (_German Galleries_, p.
357; _Roman Galleries_, p. 267). Of Pisano's wall-paintings
in the Doge's Palace, in that of the Pope, and in the castles
of the foremost princes of the century, no traces remain. His
fresco of "St. George mounting for the fight" may be seen
in the church of St. Anastasia at Verona. Among his very
rare easel-pictures the one now before us is signed and very
original in conception; No. 1436 is the most important, and
is especially interesting as illustrating Pisano's love of
representing animals, and the high reputation he enjoyed for
his skill in doing so. "Vittore lived," says Sir F. Burton,
"at a time when the traditions and forms of chivalry had not
yet died out; and all his works, including his delicate and
spirited pen-drawings in the Louvre, have a certain stamp of
knightly grace which is singularly attractive: in this respect
they resemble the creations of Gentile da Fabriano."
The subject of the picture--a meeting between St. George and St.
Anthony, with a vision of the Virgin and Child above--is not to be
found in the legends of the saints, and Pisano's conception is quite
original. St. George appears to have been a favourite subject with the
artist--probably because of the way in which his armour lent itself to
medallion-like treatment. There is a good instance of frank anachronism
in the large Tuscan hat of Pisano's own day which he quaintly makes St.
George wear, "according to the everyday custom of the Italian noblemen
at their country-seats in the summer."[181] Perhaps too the painter
chose St. George partly because he involved a horse and a dragon, and
Pisano, says Vasari, "took especial pleasure in the delineation of
animals." This may have given him a weakness for the boar of good St.
Anthony--the hermit saint whose temptations have passed into a proverb.
The saint carries a bell, for "it is said that the wicked spirits that
be in the region of the air fear much when they hear the bells ringen,"
and a staff, another means of exorcising the devil; whilst the boar,
now tamed into service, is symbolical of the demon of sensuality which
St. Anthony vanquished. And here perhaps we find the clue to the idea
in the picture. For the dragon whom St. George slew represents the
same sensual enemy. St. George conquered by fighting, St. Anthony by
fasting. The two saints now meet when "each on his course alone" has
"worked out each a way." The old man, whose life has been spent in
struggle, greets the triumphant youth with curious surprise; and St.
George too, with the thoughtful look on his face, will have much to
say and learn. But over them both, as to all who overcome, the heavens
open in beatific vision; for though there be diversity of gifts, it
is the same spirit. The signature of the painter (Pisanus pinxit) is
fantastically traced by herbage in the foreground.