Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) was adopted at the age of ten by
Squarcione, and so naturally became his pupil. No better training
could have been chosen for the boy, who had a natural taste for the
classics, proof of which is further afforded by the Latin inscriptions
on his pictures. Andrea seems to have quickly realised the connection
between the traditions of Paduan antiquities and the classical models
of ancient Greece which his adoptive father Squarcione had brought home
with him from his travels. Andrea in time became deeply impressed with
the methods of Jacopo Bellini, whose daughter Niccolosia he married
in 1453, to the great displeasure of Squarcione. Another powerful
influence on Mantegna may be traced to the bronzes which Donatello
executed for the Church of Sant’ Antonio of Padua in that city.
[Illustration:
PLATE XIV.—ANDREA MANTEGNA
(1431-1506)