Page "Andrea Mantegna" Paragraph 4

His first work, now lost, was an altarpiece for the church of Santa Sofia in 1448.

The same year Mantegna was called, together with Nicolò Pizolo, to work with a large group of painters entrusted with the decoration of the Ovetari Chapel in the transept of the church of the Eremitani.

It is probable, however, that before this time some of the pupils of Squarcione, including Mantegna, had already begun the series of frescoes in the chapel of S. Cristoforo, in the church of Sant ' Agostino degli Eremitani, today considered his masterpiece.

After a series of coincidences, Mantegna finished most of the work alone, though Ansuino, who collaborated with Mantegna in the Ovetari Chapel, brought his style in the Forlì school of painting.

The now censorious Squarcione carped about the earlier works of this series, illustrating the life of St James ; he said the figures were like men of stone, and had better have been colored stone-color at once.