Far-reaching influences were to be exerted by classical Padua on the
art of the neighbouring cities of Northern Italy. Padua was a city of
great antiquity, and had been sufficiently powerful and prosperous
even in Roman times to excite the cupidity of its enemies. Eventually
the Goths and other barbarian hordes had destroyed its monuments of
the Roman age; the spirit of antiquity, nevertheless, survived until
Giotto came at the very beginning of the fourteenth century to decorate
the walls of the Chapel of the Madonna dell’ Arena, which had been
founded in 1303 by Enrico Scrovegno on the site of an ancient Roman
arena. These very precious frescoes by Giotto, which fortunately are
still preserved, revolutionised art, and the movement initiated by him
quickened the art-life of this University city.
Half a century later, Altichiero Altichieri (fl. 1320-1385) developed
his art under the influence of Giotto, and beautified the churches
of Padua with frescoes, the figures in which he clothed in fanciful
attire. An art movement was now on foot, and the influence of
Altichieri, who was later to become the founder of the school of
Verona, was to be revealed in the work of his follower Pisanello, the
Veronese painter and medallist.
The long residence in Padua of Donatello (1386-1466), the great
Florentine sculptor, and the erection of his famous equestrian statue
of Gattamelata initiated in Padua the Renaissance movement, which
soon took deep root in this ancient city. The example of Donatello in
sculpture before long brought about the foundation of a local school
of painting which was rapidly developed through the shrewd commonsense
rather than the artistic achievements of Francesco Squarcione
(1394-1474). It is noteworthy that Squarcione had travelled in the
East, and had there formed a collection of antique works of plastic art
which became the basis of his art-teaching.
One of the numerous pupils of Squarcione was Gregorio Schiavone (“The
Slavonian”) (fl. 1440-1470), a native of Dalmatia, who in the studio
of his Paduan master met Andrea Mantegna. The Louvre authorities with
some hesitancy attribute to Schiavone a _Madonna and Child_ (No. 1523).
Although it is hardly by him, it exhibits some of the characteristics
of Schiavone, who was fond of decorating his pictures with festoons of
flowers and fruit in much the same way that his Venetian contemporary,
Carlo Crivelli, delighted to adorn his large panel pictures.