DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62360#0038
i8 ANDREA MANTEGNA
of his figures, Mantegna now began to develop that skill
in portraiture which was after to bring him such
triumph, that grasp and concentration of the essentials
of character which gives to his portraits the power
of actual life. Whether or no these figures in the
Eremitani frescoes really represent the personages
Vasari enumerates cannot be determined, but one
head at least we can identify, from its resemblance to
the bronze of S. Andrea. In the stern, blonde soldier
standing apart, in the fresco of S. James before Caesar,
he has painted his own face. (Plate 3.) And what a face
for a man not yet thirty years old ! Only a youth passed
in profoundest study and laborious struggle could have
furrowed those deep lines in brow and cheek. His
triumphs were not won without severe sacrifice, but the
reward was proportionate to the cost. The fame of the
frescoes spread throughout Italy, and Padua crowned
his head with her greenest laurels. The success
of the school was assured, and its aims more than
realised. Beyond its vision of mere revival, the genius
of Mantegna had soared, and truer and more pregnant
ideals shot up from the dry stem. Henceforth the
school of Padua, no longer Squarcionesque, but with
Mantegna for its chief, ranked and kept abreast with
that of Florence, and stamped its impress upon an
almost equal number of disciples, among them some
of the noblest painters of the age. And with that
generous enthusiasm characteristic of the earnest
worker of all times and of the Renaissance in
particular, his genius was at once recognised and
applauded in fullest measure. He was courted and
caressed by scholars and princes, book swere dedicated
of his figures, Mantegna now began to develop that skill
in portraiture which was after to bring him such
triumph, that grasp and concentration of the essentials
of character which gives to his portraits the power
of actual life. Whether or no these figures in the
Eremitani frescoes really represent the personages
Vasari enumerates cannot be determined, but one
head at least we can identify, from its resemblance to
the bronze of S. Andrea. In the stern, blonde soldier
standing apart, in the fresco of S. James before Caesar,
he has painted his own face. (Plate 3.) And what a face
for a man not yet thirty years old ! Only a youth passed
in profoundest study and laborious struggle could have
furrowed those deep lines in brow and cheek. His
triumphs were not won without severe sacrifice, but the
reward was proportionate to the cost. The fame of the
frescoes spread throughout Italy, and Padua crowned
his head with her greenest laurels. The success
of the school was assured, and its aims more than
realised. Beyond its vision of mere revival, the genius
of Mantegna had soared, and truer and more pregnant
ideals shot up from the dry stem. Henceforth the
school of Padua, no longer Squarcionesque, but with
Mantegna for its chief, ranked and kept abreast with
that of Florence, and stamped its impress upon an
almost equal number of disciples, among them some
of the noblest painters of the age. And with that
generous enthusiasm characteristic of the earnest
worker of all times and of the Renaissance in
particular, his genius was at once recognised and
applauded in fullest measure. He was courted and
caressed by scholars and princes, book swere dedicated