_Marco Marziale_ (Venetian: painted 1499-1507).
Marco was one of the assistants engaged to work under Giovanni
Bellini in the decoration of the Ducal Palace. Whilst Bellini
received sixty ducats a year, Marco received only twenty-four.
Nothing else is known about his career. Of his works, which are
very rare, the best are in our Gallery.
An example which shows what wealth of interest there is in the National
Collection. It is only by a second-rate painter of the Venetian school;
but no picture in the Gallery is richer than this in decorative design.
Note first the varied and beautifully-designed patterns in the mosaics
of the church--recalling one of the domes of St. Mark's. Then the
lectern, covered with a cloth, and the delicately-embroidered border,
wrought in sampler stitch, deserve close examination. The cushion
above this, and the tassels, formed of three pendent tufts of silk
hung on to a gold embroidered ball, offer good decorative suggestions
to the trimming manufacturer. Attached to the front of the lectern
is a label or "cartellino," setting forth that "Marco Marziale the
Venetian, by command of that magnificent knight and jurisconsult,
the learned Thomaseo R., made this picture in the year 1500." As it
is probable that this was the first important commission Marco ever
obtained on his own account, there is little wonder that he wrought
the record so elaborately. This "Thomaseo R." was Raimondi, a knight
of the order of Jerusalem--a man of considerable note in Cremona as a
lawyer and poet. His portrait occupies the forefront of the right-hand
corner of the picture, his set features recalling the lawyer rather
than the poet. It is his mantle, however, which best repays notice--a
sumptuous robe of raised red velvet, such a fabric as Venice was then
winning industrial renown by weaving. The very pretty pattern is of
the so-called "pomegranate form," and occurs also on the mantle of the
donor's wife, who occupies a corresponding position on the left-hand
side of the picture. In the South Kensington Museum there is a remnant
of Italian silk brocade of this pattern (in the Bock collection). The
robe of the High Priest is also evidently taken by the painter from
a silk robe, and is very rich. The design, in which the wild pink is
largely introduced, is unique. Ruskin had a wall-paper made for him in
1872 copied from this robe: it has ever since been used for the walls
of the drawing-room and study at Brantwood. "It will thus be seen that
this one picture brings before us a great number of suggestions in
design for various technic arts; at least half a dozen patterns exist
in the ornaments of the mosaic work of the vaults; five or six patterns
of embroidered or woven borders will be found in it, as many designs
for diapered or other surface decoration, examples of beaten metal-work
and of bookbinding, besides the carved wood lectern." For notice of
other points, see further the interesting article by G. T. Robinson in
the _Art Journal_, June 1886, and cp. Vacher's _Italian Ornament_, No.
24.