Francesco Guardi was born in Venice in 1712 and died there in 1793, and all his life he was translating the sparkling charm of his watery city into paint.  His master was Canaletto, whom he surpassed in charm but never equalled in foot-rule accuracy or in that gravity which makes a really fine picture by the older man so distinguished a thing.  Very little is known of Guardi’s life.  That he married is certain, and he had a daughter who eloped with an Irishman.  We are told also that he was very indolent, and late in life came upon such evil days that he established himself at a corner of the Piazza, where Rosen’s book-shop now is, and sold sketches to whomever would buy for whatever they would fetch; which is only one remove from a London screever.  Guardi’s picture of S. Giorgio Maggiore in the Accademia, No. 707, shows us that the earlier campanile, which fell in 1774, was higher and slenderer than the present one.

We now come to Room XVII, which has a number of small interesting works, some by great masters.  Mantegna is here with a S. George, which I reproduce on the opposite page.  Very beautiful it is, both in feeling and colour.  It is painted on wood and the dragon is extremely dead.  Here too is Piero della Francesca, that rare spirit, but his picture, No. 47, has almost perished.  The mild Basaiti and milder Catena are here; a pretty little Caravaggio; two good Cimas, No. 611, sweet and translucent, and No. 592, a Tobias; and excellent examples of both Alvise and Bartolommeo Vivarini, those pioneer brothers, a blue and green dress of the Virgin in No. 615 by Bartolommeo being exquisite.  Here too is a Cosimo Tura, No. 628, poor in colour but fine in the drawing of the baby Christ; and a rich unknown Lombardian version of Christ washing His disciples’ feet, No. 599, which is not strong in psychology but has noticeable quality.

The most purely charming work in the room is a Boccaccio Boccaccini, No. 600, full of sweetness and pretty thoughts.  The Madonna is surrounded by saints, the figure in the centre having the true Boccaccini face.  The whole picture is a delight, whether as a group of nice holy people, a landscape, or a fantasy of embroidery.  The condition of the picture is perfect too.  The flight into Egypt, in two phases, goes on in the background.  I reproduce it opposite page 266.

And then we move to the room devoted to Giovanni Bellini, performing as we do so an act of sacrilege, for one cannot pass through the pretty blue and gold door without interrupting an Annunciation, the angel having been placed on one side of it and the Virgin on the other.

[Illustration:  S. GEORGE FROM THE PAINTING BY MANTEGNA In the Accademia]

Giovanni Bellini was born in 1426, nearly a century after Giotto died.  His father and teacher was Jacopo Bellini, who had a school of painting in Padua and was the rival in that city of Squarcione, a scientific instructor who depended largely on casts from the antique to point his lessons.  Squarcione’s most famous pupil was Andrea Mantegna, who subsequently married Giovanni Bellini’s sister and alienated his master.