Chap. XII. DOMENICO VENIZIANO. 313 days before. He was buried in S. Maria de’ Servi at Florence. 1 Of Domenico Veniziano, hitherto so intimately and so unjustly connected with the imaginary misdeeds of Andrea del Castagno, no one knows the birth or education. Were chance to reveal that he was born in Venice, the question would still arise: Where was he taught, and by whom? Even now and with the materials that are at hand, one may assume that Domenico learnt design and painting in Tuscany. In Venice, where artists clung during the whole of the fourteenth century to the antiquated manner of the early ages, Domenico could not have laid the foundation of a style which, in its prime, bore the indelible impress of Florentine greatness. The rise of the fifteenth centui-y created little change in Venice, and we shall have occasion to note that this state of things lasted till the time of Giovanni d’Allemagna, Gentile da Fabriano, and Anton- ello da Messina. In the early part of the fifteenth century Cosmo de’ Me dici lived in exile at a distance from Florence. The time which he spent in Venice, the interval during which his sons journeyed from place to place in search of support towards the reestablishment of the family in Florence, may have amply sufficed to lead to an acquaintance be tween them and Domenico. It appears indeed, from the tenor of a letter addressed by the artist from Perugia to Piero de’ Medici in April 1438, 2 that Domenico had long been connected with the fortunes of the Medici family, that he owed to Cosimo a debt of gratitude, and perhaps substantial favours, and that he was at that time suffic iently confident of his powers as an artist to Request, that he might be allowed to paint for the head of the house an altarpiece; and to declare that, if that request were granted, “he hoped to do marvels.” Domenico, at the same time, shows himself intimately acquainted with 1 Glornale Stor. ub. sup.l 2 April 1. Vide Gaye, Car- P- 2 - |teggio. ub. sup. Vol. I. p. 136.
