Giovanni Bellini , One Of The Most Influential Venetian Artists.
9, portrait of a condottiero.
Housed in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Portrait of a Condottiere portrays the bust
of an unknown, aged Italian man seen from three-quarters above a dark background.
The sitter has been identified as a condottiero,
one of the leaders of the professional military free companies (mercenaries) contracted by the
Italian city-states and the Papacy from the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance.
The portrait reveals the influence of Antonello da Messina (circa 1430-1479),
an Italian painter from Messina, Sicily, whose work shows strong influences from Early
Netherlandish — Vasari credits Antonello with the introduction of oil painting into Italy.
The subject of the portrait was once identified as Jacopo Marcello, capitano general of the
Republic of Venice, which led to an early dating around 1482-1485; Bellini had executed
a portrait for Marcello in his family house. Other identifications include Bartolomeo d’Alviano
(according to a statement by later Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari) and Giovanni Emo,
implying that it could have been executed between 1475 and 1500.
Bellini depicts the condottiere wearing a precious brocade blouse and a blue beret.
His features are deep, bearing a severe, even fierce expression.
The sumptuous use of gold in the sitter’s garment conveys the wealthy position
he has achieved in his life’s work. The play of light and shade on the
condottiero’s clothing indicates Bellini’s mastery of oil at this mature stage of his career.
Completed circa 1500, it is one of Bellini’s more
evolved portraits — a format that he had first worked upon in 1474.
The early provenance of the portrait is unknown, as it is first recorded in 1786
as being sold by the Venetian doctor Pellegrini to Sir Abraham Hume.
The latter’s heirs sold the portrait on the London market in 1923 and again in 1936,
when it was bought by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
The canvas was then donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1939.
10, christ blessing.
Dating to c. 1500, this beautiful depiction of Christ on panel is
housed today in the Kimbell Art Museum, Texas. The image represents the central mystery of the
Christian faith, namely the incarnation, when Christ, both human and divine,
was sent to earth to redeem mankind. The devotional image is brought close
to the picture plane, arresting our attention with a level gaze, achieving greater immediacy.
Christ raises his right hand in blessing,
while his left hand grips a red staff of the banner of the Resurrection.
Christ’s divinity is conveyed through golden rays emanating from the top and sides of his head.
Bellini utilises several symbols in the distant landscape to allude to the Resurrection story.
The three robed figures at the right edge of the picture are undoubtedly the three Marys, hastening
to tell the disciples of the empty tomb. Above the women a distant bell tower
represents the salvation that is delivered through Christ’s sacrifice and the Church.
On the left, the withered tree with the solitary bird hints at the Old Covenant,
out of which the New Covenant will grow. The two rabbits connote regeneration,
whereas the shepherd tending his flock is an echo of Christ, the Good Shepherd.
11, portrait of doge leonardo loredan.
Through the use of clear, slow-drying oil paints, Bellini created deep,
rich tints and detailed shadings. His sumptuous use of colour and fluent,
atmospheric landscapes had a great impact on the Venetian painting school, especially
on his famous pupils Giorgione and Titian. One of his most celebrated works is the Portrait
of Doge Leonardo Loredan, dating from 1501, which portrays the Doge of Venice from 1501 to 1521
in his ceremonial garments with the corno worn over a linen cap, and the painting is signed
IOANNES BELLINVS on a cartellino. It is part of a Venetian tradition
of painting formal portraits of the city’s rulers dressed in state robes.
The artist was famous for his portraiture and helped make
this art form especially popular in Venice. It is believed the portrait was completed the
year Loredan rose to the dogate, holding office from the age of sixty-five to eighty-five.
Bellini’s use of subtle realism in depicting the facial wrinkles and
the fine texture of the garments reveals the teaching of his master Antonello da Messina.
Bellini has adopted the three-quarter turn, rather than the profile pose that was usually prescribed
by dogal iconographical tradition, adding an innovative approach to the portrait.
Interestingly, the painting was looted from Venice when Napoleon conquered
the city and later purchased by William Thomas Beckford, the English novelist,
art collector and patron of works, who sold it to the National Gallery in 1844 for £630.
12, saint jerome reading in the countryside.
The image of Saint Jerome in the wilderness would have reminded Renaissance viewers to make time for
private prayer and to resist sensual temptation. Dressed in a tattered tunic and encased in a dark
cave, the saint is focused entirely on his holy book.
The familiar landscape of the Veneto countryside would have encouraged beholders to retreat from
the world around them, whether in person or in their imagination.
Bellini’s painting contains a somewhat obscure and abridged inscription on the
first stone at bottom left: S MCCCCCV. It is now accepted as an autograph and
resolved as: IOANNES BELLINUS MCCCCCV. However, the date 1505 poses some doubts,
as the style is more in keeping with Bellini’s works prior to 1490.
Various theories have been advanced, though most agree the painting is by Bellini himself.
If Bellini’s workshop had a hand in the panel, then they may have been responsible for aspects
of the landscape, particularly the ruins above left, which appear stiff and heavy.
The landscape features the usual symbols and religious metaphors that Bellini liked to use,
including the fig-tree, a withered tree, ivy and crumbling rocks.
The clear landscape view in the top left section of the painting presents an idyllic view,
offering a splendid naturalistic compilation;
in later years Bellini would perfect his landscapes to embody a sublime harmony.
13, san zaccaria altarpiece.
Bellini’s last phase is heralded by his San Zaccaria Altarpiece,
depicting the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints Peter, Catherine,
Lucia and Jerome, housed in Venice’s Church of San Zaccaria, dating to 1505.
The altarpiece was mentioned in 1648 by the writer and painter Carlo Ridolfi
as a large panel commissioned in memory of the Venetian politician and diplomat
Pietro Cappello; Ridolfi described it as “one of the most beautiful and delicate by the artist”.
Though the altarpiece is not particularly bright, it is mellow and rich in colour,
impressing the viewer with its warm and gilded atmosphere, filling the niche in which the Virgin
sits enthroned, as the Christ Child lifts his hands to bless the worshippers before the altar.
An angel at the foot of the altar softly plays the violin,
while the saints stand quietly at either side of the throne: Saint Peter with his key and book,
Saint Catherine with the palm of martyrdom and the broken wheel, Saint Lucy and Saint Jerome, the
scholar that translated the Bible into Latin, and whom Bellini therefore depicts reading a book.
At the time of completing work on the San Zaccaria Altarpiece,
Bellini was an old man of about seventy-five. Yet, his astonishing ability to adapt,
arising from a conscious understanding of the evolution of art, is at no other
stage of his career more prominent. The compositional and architectural
structure of the altarpiece is similar to the San Giobbe Altarpiece: a niche-like
apse surrounding the group of the enthroned Madonna and the saints positioned at her sides.
Here too, from a spatial point of view, the painting becomes a continuation
of the altar on which it is placed. But at the same time the landscape appears
from the sides, according to an idea taken from Alvise Vivarini’s Battuti Altarpiece at Belluno,
emitting light into the air, softening the forms. The tonal colour dominates the overall painting,
creating a new harmony of broad planes, softened forms and a warm sense of depth.
14, saint mark preaching in alexandria.
Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria, completed circa 1507 and held in the
Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, is a huge canvas,
which was originally intended for the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice.
It measures twenty-six metres in surface and presents a rich narrative,
laden with iconographic features. The painting concerns how in AD 49, about
nineteen years after the Ascension of Jesus, Saint Mark travelled to Alexandria (as recorded in Acts
15:36–41) and founded the Church of Alexandria. Aspects of the Coptic liturgy can be
traced back to Mark himself. He became the first bishop of
Alexandria and he is honoured as the founder of Christianity in Africa.
Work was commenced by the artist’s brother Gentile in July 1504, but after his death in February
1507, when it was “largely completed”, it passed to Giovanni, as indicated in Gentile’s will.
Bellini completed the monumental work, making some modifications of his own.
The invitation to complete it was probably at his brother’s request
just before he died, which Giovanni is believed to have accepted reluctantly.
This explains its insertion in the will of the clause that consigned a precious
collection of drawings to Giovanni should he complete the painting.
The commission was confirmed as being passed to Giovanni by the Scuola on 7 March 1507.
The canvas portrays a rich scene, teeming with exotic elements, most likely fused by
ideas that Gentile conceived during his trip to Constantinople in 1479–1480.
Decorative elements of Mamluk architecture, rather than Ottoman, suggest that he may
also have visited Jerusalem during his travels. The focus of the painting’s narrative, however,
is the crowd gathered around the preaching saint in the square, where, according to Venetian canons
of public portraiture, the characters appear as a socially and hierarchically defined group.
It is not clear which sections of the work were completed by which brother:
Vasari only mentions Gentile in the 1550 version of the Vite.
Modern criticism considers Gentile to have produced the background,
except for the modified parts, and possibly the characters on the right hand.
Giovanni is assigned with some certainty the portraits on the left,
and some of the central group. The overall canvas was reduced at an unknown time,
a strip along the top being cut away, where the buildings finished.
The work arrived in the Brera in 1809, following the Napoleonic invasion.