ough
some say that this was a portrait of Giovanni Mozzenigo, brother of that
Piero who was Doge many years before Loredano. Giovanni then painted a
panel for the altar of S. Caterina da Siena in the Church of S.
Giovanni, in which picture--a rather large one--he painted Our Lady
seated, with the Child in her arms, and S. Dominic, S. Jerome, S.
Catherine, S. Ursula, and two other Virgins; and at the feet of the
Madonna he made three boys standing, who are singing from a book--a very
beautiful group. Above this he made the inner part of a vault in a
building, which is very beautiful. This work was one of the best that
had been made in Venice up to that time. For the altar of S. Giobbe in
the Church of that Saint, the same man painted a panel with good design
and most beautiful colouring, in the middle of which he made the Madonna
with the Child in her arms, seated on a throne slightly raised from the
ground, with nude figures of S. Job and S. Sebastian, beside whom are S.
Dominic, S. Francis, S. John, and S. Augustine; and below are three
boys, sounding instruments with much grace. This picture was not only
praised then, when it was seen as new, but it has likewise been extolled
ever afterwards as a very beautiful work.

Certain noblemen, moved by the great praises won by these works, began
to suggest that it would be a fine thing, in view of the presence of
such rare masters, to have the Hall of the Great Council adorned with
stories, in which there should be depicted the glories and the
magnificence of their marvellous city--her great deeds, her exploits in
war, her enterprises, and other things of that kind, worthy to be
perpetuated by painting in the memory of those who should come after--to
the end that there might be added, to the profit and pleasure drawn from
the reading of history, entertainment both for the eye and for the
intellect, from seeing the images of so many illustrious lords wrought
by the most skilful hands, and the glorious works of so many noblemen
right worthy of eternal memory and fame. And so Giovanni and Gentile,
who kept on making progress from day to day, received the commission for
this work by order of those who governed the city, who commanded them to
make a beginning as soon as possible. But it must be remarked that
Antonio Viniziano had made a beginning long before with the painting of
the same Hall, as was said in his Life, and had already finished a large
scene, when he was forced by t