CATENA, VINCENZO DI BIAGIO (c. Venetian painter, a descendant of an old Venetian family, and not the same person as the artist Vincenzo da Treviso, with whom he was at one time erroneously identified. Catena probably studied in Giovanni Bellini's studio in Venice during the last decades of the 15th century. Ridolfi, the earliest of Catena's biographers, says of him : "The character of Catena's genius as a painter was noble, as his works show. In addition, he was the possessor of great wealth, which enabled him to paint at ease and to gain dis tinction. He lived at the same time as Giorgione, whose glory he strove to emulate by every means in his power." The Bellinesque phase of his art is represented by the three following pictures, which ore all signed: "Virgin and Child," in the Walker gallery at Liverpool; "Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors," in the Mond Collection; "The Holy family with a saint," at Budapest. The "Trinity" in the church of S. Simeone Grande at Venice, and the "Virgin and Child with two Saints" in the Venice Academy may also be ascribed to this early period. The following works may be classified as representing his second or middle period, when Giorgione's influence made itself increasingly felt; "The Doge Leonardo Loredan kneeling before the Virgin" (1510), in the Doge's Palace; the "St. Jerome in his Study," and the "Madonna and Child, with a kneeling warrior," both in the Na tional Gallery. The latter picture was purchased as by Giorgione. "The Adoration of the Infant Christ with Donor and Shepherd boy," of Lord Brownlow's collection; "Christ giving the Keys to St. Peter" in the Gardiner collection at Boston; half figure of Judith in the Querini-Stampalia collection in Venice, and his masterpiece dated 1520, the "Glorification of St. Cristina," in S. Maria Mater Domini at Venice ; these all belong to the middle and best period. The "Judith" ascribed to Giorgione in the Hermitage at Leningrad has been ascribed to Catena by two authorities (Hadeln, Richter). A representative work of Catena's last period is the "Holy Family" at Dresden (Woermann 65) which is cool in tone and pale in colour. Catena was a good portraitist ; the Berlin museum contains his portrait of Raimund Fugger men tioned by Vasari ; at the National Gallery, London, and the Vienna museum are two portraits in the Bellini style. Catena died soon after Sept. 3o, the date of his last will. He left his property to the Painter's gild at Venice, with provision for dowries to daughters of poor painters.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Vasari, Milanesi, Vite; Ridolfi, Maraviglie dell' Arte Bibliography.-Vasari, Milanesi, Vite; Ridolfi, Maraviglie dell' Arte (1648) ; Boschini, Le riche Minere (1674) ; B. Berenson, Venetian Painters (1899) ; J. P. Richter, Mond Collection (191o) ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North Italy (edit. T. Borenius, 1912) ; baron v. Hadeln in Rieme, Lexikon der Bildenden Kiinste (1912).