It belongs to his middle period, and was painted nine years earlier
than his magnificent _Annunciation_, now one of the gems of the
National Gallery (No. 739); both these pictures came from the Church of
the Annunziata at Ascoli.
Another painter who carried on the Vivarini tradition but was
influenced by Giovanni Bellini, was Giovanni Battista Cima
(1460?-1517?), whose art is adequately shown in the _Madonna and Child
with St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalene_ (No. 1259). The
signature
IOANIS BAPT.
CONEGLANES.
OPVS.
as well as the internal evidence of the picture show it to
be an authentic work.
One of the best, but until recent years one of the least known, members
of that brilliant group of painters who flourished at Venice in the
early half of the sixteenth century was Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556). He
practised his art in many parts of Italy, and for that reason has been
less generally known than many of his contemporaries. He was a pupil
of Alvise Vivarini, but benefited largely by the example of Giovanni
Bellini and Giorgione. His art is not well seen in the small _St.
Jerome_ (No. 1350), which is signed and dated “LOTVS 1500” and
must therefore be one of his earliest and least ambitious works, nor
in his _Holy Family_ (No. 1351) which was formerly attributed to Dosso
Dossi. Replicas have been found of his _Christ and the Woman taken in
Adultery_ (No. 1349).
[Illustration:
PLATE IX.—ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
(1430-1479)