_Andrea Cordelle Agii_ (Venetian: School of Bellini).
This picture is a repetition of one by Andrea Previtali in the
sacristy of the Church of San Giobbe at Venice, and the painter
has been supposed to be the same as Previtali. This, however,
is probably not the case. The present picture is signed (on a
cartellino) "1504: Andreas Cordelli Agy dissipulus Jovannis
Bellini pinxit." He similarly describes himself as a pupil
of John Bellini on a picture in the Poldi Pezzoli Gallery at
Milan. Judging from his name, "twists and needles," he or his
father was probably a pedlar (Layard's edition of "Kugler," i.
334).
"The conjecture that Andrea Previtali is identical with Andrea Cordelle
Agii seems to me," says Morelli, "untenable. Both were fellow-scholars
in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, and it is undeniable that in
some of their works they closely resemble each other; but this may be
explained by the fact that the one probably copied the cartoons or even
the pictures of the other. The few signed works which I have met with
by Cordelle Agii appear to me, however, to be more refined and lifelike
in expression, and his landscapes are warmer and less vividly green in
tone, than those of Previtali" (_Roman Galleries_, p. 237 _n._). As
a picture by Previtali hangs close by (No. 695), the reader is in a
position to consider the justness of the critic's remarks for himself.