allery is fortunate in possessing one relatively small
canvas of his which shows some of his finest qualities. The subject
of St. George slaying the dragon was not a new one. It had been painted
by Raphael and by several of the earlier Venetian painters, but
Tintoret's treatment of it was all his own. In the earlier pictures,
the princess, for whose sake St. George fights the dragon, was a little
figure in the background fleeing in terror. St. George occupied the
chief place, as he does upon the back of our gold sovereigns, where
the princess has been left out altogether. Tintoret makes her flee,
but she is running towards the spectator, and so, in her flight, stands
out the most conspicuous figure. One of the victims that the dragon
has slain lies behind her. In the distance St. George fights with all
his might against the powers of evil, whilst 'the splendour of God'
blazes in the sky. There is a vividness and power about the picture
that proclaims the hand of Tintoret. In contrast to Giorgione he liked
to paint figures in motion, yet he was as typical an outcome of Venetian
romance as the earlier painter. Nothing could be more like a fairy-tale
than this picture. It was no listless dreamer that painted it, but
one with a gorgeous imagination and yet a full knowledge of the world,
enabling him to give substance to his visions. Tintoret's stormy
landscapes are as beautiful in their way as Giorgione's dreamy ones,
and each carries out the mood of the rest of the picture. This one
is full of power, mystery, and romance. Tintoret had modelled his
colouring upon Titian and was by nature a great colourist, but too
often he used bad materials that have turned black with the lapse of
years. In this picture you see his colour as it was meant to be, rich,
and boldly harmonious. The vivid red and blue of the princess's clothes
are a daring combination with the brilliant green of the landscape,
but Tintoret knew what he was doing, and the result is superb. With
his death in 1594 the best of Venetian painting came to an end.

[Illustration: ST. GEORGE DESTROYING THE DRAGON
From the picture by Tintoretto, in the National Gallery, London]

There were as many excellent painters in the fairy city as there had
been in Florence; contemporaries of Giovanni Bellini (who, in his early
years, worked in close companionship with Mantegna, his
brother-in-law), as well as contemporaries of Titian and Tintoret.
The painter Veronese, for instanc