a, and made many
works in that city.

Ercole had an extraordinary love of wine, and his frequent drunkenness
did much to shorten his life, which he had enjoyed without any accident
up to the age of forty, when he was smitten one day by apoplexy, which
made an end of him in a short time.

He left a pupil, the painter Guido Bolognese, who, in 1491, as may be
seen from the place where he put his name, under the portico of S.
Pietro at Bologna, painted a Crucifixion in fresco, with the Maries, the
Thieves, horses, and other passing good figures. And desiring very
greatly to become esteemed in that city, as his master had been, he
studied so zealously and subjected himself to so many hardships that he
died at the age of thirty-five. If Guido had set himself to learn his
art in his childhood, and not, as he did, at the age of eighteen, he
would not only have equalled his master without difficulty, but would
even have surpassed him by a great measure. In our book there are
drawings by the hands of Ercole and Guido, very well wrought, and
executed with grace and in a good manner.

JACOPO, GIOVANNI, AND GENTILE BELLINI

LIVES OF JACOPO, GIOVANNI, AND GENTILE BELLINI

PAINTERS OF VENICE

Enterprises that are founded on excellence, although their beginnings
often appear humble and mean, keep climbing higher step by step, nor do
they ever halt or take rest until they have reached the supreme heights
of glory: as could be clearly seen from the poor and humble beginning of
the house of the Bellini, and from the rank to which it afterwards rose
by means of painting.

Jacopo Bellini, a painter of Venice, having been a disciple of Gentile
da Fabriano, worked in competition with that Domenico who taught the
method of colouring in oil to Andrea dal Castagno; but, although he
laboured greatly to become excellent in that art, he did not acquire
fame therein until after the departure of Domenico from Venice. Then,
finding himself in that city without any competitor to equal him, he
kept growing in credit and fame, and became so excellent that he was the
greatest and most renowned man in his profession. And to the end that
the name which he had acquired in painting might not only be maintained
in his house and for his descendants, but might grow greater, there were
born to him two sons of good and beautiful intelligence, strongly
inclined to the art: one was Giovanni, and the other Gentile, to whom he
gave that name in