262 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. IX. been, as regards art, a Byzantine colony; and admitting, with Zanetti, 1 that there were numerous painters there in 1290 who claimed to be native Venetians, it is not the less true that the old traditional forms and customs of early centuries were preserved in painting till the middle of the fifteenth century. Every thing in Venice bore so completely an Oriental character, not only in edifices and mosaics, but in the luxury and fondness for show of the inhabitants, that one may easily conceive its clinging long to that which had already been rejected by the rising- taste of freer people in other parts of Italy'. Besides, Venice, like Sicily, preserved her relations with the East, and thus kept alive the traditions of Byzantine art to the exclusion of the influence of Giotto and his fol lowers. Her immobility affected Padua; and as late as 1350 we find mosaics such as those of the chapel of S. Isidore, in S. Mark at Venice, illustrating the life of the Baptist, as thoroughly oriental in character, in brilliancy of colour, richness of execution and classicism of composition as any of the older productions of the same art in previous times. Leaving to Zanetti and Lanzi the catalogue of early names without works, 2 which may be enlarged by a reference to Verci, 3 and which only proves that numerous painters existed at Venice in the thirteenth century, we may glance at the altarpiece or “Ancona” covering the silver plates of Oriental carving in S. Marco, representing the dead Christ with apostles and incidents from the life of S. Mark inscribed: “Magister Paulus cum Luca et Johanne filiis suis pin- serunt MCCCXLV As Apl die XXII.” Yet this production of Venetian art is a mere date; and gives no clue to the artists’ ability, 4 because of the 1 Della pittura Venezia- na. 1771. p. 10. 8 Lanzi, Vol. II. p. 73. Zanetti p. 3. s Yerci. Notizie sopra la Pittura Bassanese. Venezia 8” 1775. p. 9. 4 We have two wills (dated 1324 and 1344) if not the works of An gelo Tedaldo, a painter inhabiting S. Cassiano in Venice. They are preserved in the Archivio Nota- rile of Venice.