Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni BelliniOskar Bätschmann

giovanni bellini

reaktion books

Giovanni Bellini

Oskar Bätschmann

For Mth

Published by Reaktion Books Ltd

33 Great Sutton Street

London ec1v 0dx

www.reaktionbooks.co.uk

First published 2008

Copyright © Oskar Bätschmann, 2008

English-language translation by Ian Pepper © Reaktion Books Ltd, 2008

All rights reservedNo part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Printed and bound in China by Toppan Printing Co. Ltd.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataBätschmann, Oskar, 1943–

Giovanni Bellini1. Bellini, Giovanni, d. 1516 – Criticism and interpretationI. Title759.5isbn–13: 978 1 86189 357 4

Preface 7

i Training 13

ii Orientations 41

iii Transformations 65

iv Invention 95

v Composition 139

vi Harmony 183

Chronology 214References 220Select Bibliography 233Photo Acknowledgements 247Index 248

Contents

The church of S. Zaccariain Venice with Giovanni Bellini’sSan Zaccaria altarpiece.

In 1364 Francesco Petrarch paid homage to the majestic city of Venice asthe sole home of freedom, peace and justice; as the only refuge of righteouspeople; as the sole harbour for those who wish to lead decent lives, but arenonetheless pursued by storms of tyranny and warfare; as a city rich in gold,yet richer still in public regard; a city made mighty through wealth, yet mademightier through its strength; a city erected on solid marble, additionallysupported by the solid foundation of public harmony; a city surrounded bysalty waves, but protected by the finer salt of human intelligence.1

In 1797, after centuries of improbable splendour, the SerenissimaRepubblica fell in exhaustion to Napoleon’s troops; during the nineteenth cen-tury the city was transformed irrevocably into a mythic destination for tourists.Today, Venice offers itself up as a narcotic blend of fascination and sadness.The somnambulist light above the lagoon, the sultry lack of visibility of a cityshrouded in fog, the stagnant waters and stinking mud of the canals, theechoing steps in the nocturnal calle: all of these become amalgamated into aprofound melancholy. Vast technical efforts are designed to protect the cityfrom the destruction that is threatened by the very tourism through which itseeks to ensure its survival. Venice is a metaphor for the world at large.

Just five centuries separate us from the final decade of life of the leadingVenetian painter of the early Renaissance, Giovanni Bellini, who died as ahighly regarded artist at an undetermined age in 1516. Albrecht Dürer, theGerman painter who came to Venice from Nuremberg via Augsburg on acommission from the Fugger family, met Bellini in early 1506, and spoke laterwith reverence and admiration of the older master, the sole Venetian artist towelcome him, he reports, with openness and hospitality. Dürer refers to Bellinias being ‘very old’, but nevertheless still the pre-eminent Venetian painter, whodevoted his attentions to the young German artist. Bellini also promotedyounger artists such as Giorgione, Andrea Previtali, Lorenzo Lotto, Titian andmany others, whether through deeds or by offering them artistic instruction.

In 1771, in a comprehensive book on the works of the Venetianpainters, the historiographer Anton Maria Zanetti offered the followingresigned observation on the accumulation of redundant publications:

Preface

7

Unfortunately, it is true that the incalculable number of books whichtoday fill the world in daily growing numbers consist for the mostpart of repetitions of things already said, things one repeats againsolely out of a compulsion to write and to see oneself in print; andin doing so, one assumes the trappings of the new and the charmof the seemingly original in a manner consistent with the boldnessof the attempt to make oneself their author.2

This fatalistic observation seems astonishing, for it concerns an area ofresearch that must have been, or so one would think, still manageable in theeighteenth century – although the same state of affairs was already familiarto Nicholas of Cusa and Montaigne.

Since the eighteenth century the literature has grown endlessly, muchof it redundant, as has the particularization of knowledge. Today, any reliablebibliography of Giovanni Bellini would include many thousands of titles,and could easily fill an entire book. Even the most diligent scholar can hardlybegin to absorb the contents of this vast quantity of material. It may be that thisimpossible task has perhaps fostered a certain superficiality in the formulationof arguments, and a certain linguistic campanilismo that takes the form of atendency to disregard foreign-language publications.

In 1968 Giles Robertson published an intelligent monograph onGiovanni Bellini, one that is unsurpassed for its integration of biography andwork.3 Appearing in 1972 were Norbert Huse’s expert studies, together con-stituting the last German monograph on Giovanni Bellini.4 Rona Goffenpublished her long-range investigations of Venetian art in various essays, andin 1989 published a monograph on Giovanni Bellini that concentrates on theanalysis of the various genres and their relationships to contemporary devo-tional practices.5 In his catalogue of the works of Giovanni Bellini of 1992,Anchise Tempestini collated the various attributions and datings, but wasunable to include bibliographic references.6 The numerous works of PeterHumfrey on Venetian painting and altarpieces of the Renaissance are exem-plary. The Cambridge Companion to Giovanni Bellini, edited by Humfrey andpublished in 2004, contains a wealth of outstanding contributions.7

Still lacking is a catalogue raisonné of the works of Giovanni Bellini. InMontreal in 2004, before the completion of this manuscript, Jaynie Andersonannounced the publication of her catalogue raisonné. For a fifteenth- and six-teenth-century master who ran a large workshop and whose works are scat-tered throughout the world, the scholarly and organizational difficulties facingthe authors of such a catalogue are enormous. Today, one has to incorporatemany areas of research, each with a long history of its own, including archivalresearch, connoisseurship, stylistic criticism, the histories of attributions, profes-sional itineraries and provenances, as well as the histories of the diffusion,reproduction, destruction, loss and restoration of individual works, not tomention technological analyses. The challenges facing such an enterprise can bemastered only by a relatively large team of scholars whose members are able tocollaborate for a period of ten to fifteen years. The contributions dealing with a

8 | Giovanni Bellini

small number of works by Bellini that Ronda Kasl edited and published in 2004clearly demonstrate that the investigation of working methods, supplementedby connoisseurship and archival research, are capable of producing impressiveresults.8

I have drawn on numerous documents for this book, and on both recentand earlier research. Particularly difficult archival documents were exam-ined in Venice at the Archivio di Stato and in the library of the Museo Correr.On the basis of new facts and their interpretation, a few novel conclusionshave been presented; this is also evident in the chronology. In the foregroundstand artistic problems, Bellini’s self-understanding and the relationshipbetween work and beholder. For Giovanni Bellini and his friends, competi-tors and clients, and for the artis studiosi (the new class of connoisseurs andart lovers that appeared in the fifteenth century), such issues were of greatestimportance. The first chapter deals with Bellini’s artistic training; the secondwith his dependence on models and his efforts to distance himself from them;the third is devoted to Bellini’s transformation of inherited prototypes; thefourth discusses his own inventions and his dependency on poetic models; thefifth explores the large subject of figural composition; and the sixth attemptsto clarify the role of colour harmony in Bellini’s work in relation to musicand to the beholder. It is well known that only a few works by Bellini havebeen firmly dated or are reliably datable by means of documents. To theextent that this proved feasible with some degree of reliability, I havegrouped the undated works into five-year periods. Superficial assertions, forexample, that the Pietà in the Accademia in Venice precedes the Madonna ofthe Meadow in London, have been consistently avoided.

My work received generous support from various institutions. The staffat the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (Max-Planck-Institute) wereextraordinarily hospitable and helpful, hence my thanks to both directors,Max Seidel and Gerhard Wolf, as well as to Maja Häderli and to the researchstaff. The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, the library of the Museo Correr andthe Fondazione Cini in Venice, and the archive of the Louvre in Paris, alloffered their generous support for this project. In the Archivio di Stato inVenice, my thanks go mainly to Maria Tiepolo and Francesca CavazzanaRomanelli for numerous references and suggestions. The Institut Nationald’Histoire de l’Art (inha) in Paris, and its former director Alain Schnapp andJean-Marc Poinsot, director of the Department of Research and Teaching,supported my work with a guest professorship at the Bibliothèque Nationalede France, the library of the inha and other institutions in Paris. MichelLaclotte showed great interest in my project. Nathalie Volle, conservateur-en-chef of the Louvre, received me in her department with uncommon courtesyand offered substantial support. June Hargrove and Thomas W. Gaehtgenswere always reliable and extraordinarily knowledgeable friends. To my dis-cussions with Bernard Aikema in Venice, I owe decisive impulses. For theirinterest, support and assistance, my thanks to Jaynie Anderson, ReinholdBaumstark, Miklós Boskovits, Albert J. Elen, Frédéric Elsig, Marc Fehlmann,Hermann Fillitz, Julia Gelshorn, Anselm Gerhard, Georg Germann,

Preface | 9


Andreas Hauser, Werner Hofmann, Marianne and Hans A. Lüthy, DieterMertens, Stefano Prandi, Hella and Rudolf Preimesberger, Wolfgang Pross,Christoph Schäublin, Wilhelm Schlink, Nicola Suthor, Anchise Tempestini,Johannes Tripps, Christoph Wagner and Tristan Weddigen. On an invitationfrom Andreas Beyer I delivered a lecture on one aspect of this project at BaselUniversity, while an additional section was discussed with Bernard Aikema’sdoctoral candidates at the International University in Venice.

The initial ideas that led up to this book emerged in London in 2000,and subsequent research activities were carried out for the most part in Berne,Florence, Venice, Paris and Berlin. In Berne I received reliable support fromPatricia Bieder, Marianne Flubacher and Monika Schäfer. The IstitutoSvizzero di Roma made possible extended stays in Venice, for which I owe adebt of gratitude to Christoph Riedweg, the director, and to Jacqueline Wolf.The Stiftung zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung at the Univers-ity of Berne supported my efforts to procure documents. My special thanksto my editor and friend Michael Leaman.

2 Giovanni Bellini, St Jerome in theDesert, c. 1455–60, wood. BarberInstitute of Fine Arts, Birmingham.

Origin

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham contains a small panelshowing St Jerome in an untamed landscape below cliffs (illus. 2). A lion, itsface bearing a mournful expression, sits before the saint, holding up the pawinto which a thorn has become lodged. Jerome is in no hurry to lend his aid,but instead holds his right arm up towards heaven in order to bless the lionand convert it to a Christian life in compliance with Holy Scripture, which heholds open in his left hand. Grazing in the middle distance is the donkey thatwould later – according to the Legenda aurea, Jacopo da Voragine’s celebratedcollection of legends of the saints – become the reliable guardian of the healedlion. Behind the desert grassy hills rise up, becoming lost in the greyish dis-tance. Along the horizon the sky is whitish and hazy, but it becomes paleblue in the heights, the blue being traversed by fluffy white clouds. In the leftforeground a hare or rabbit peers out from its burrow. The artist’s signature isvisible on the small painting on a little slip of paper, or cartellino: ihovanesbelinvs. The awkward spelling, the humorous element of the hare and thetouching yet clumsy depiction of the lion suggest that this is the work of ayoung artist.

The little panel in Birmingham testifies to a remarkable level of inde-pendence compared with the six scenes by the artist’s father, Jacopo Bellini,that show St Jerome in the wilderness either reading or engaging in self-mor-tification. Five of these depictions are drawings, and are found distributedbetween two famous books of drawings located in the British Museum,London, and the Louvre, Paris, while the sixth, a panel, is owned by theMuseo del Castelvecchio in Verona.1 Visible in one of the London drawings isa seated Jerome who reads the Bible while the lion rests nearby (illus. 3). Theother drawing in London shows the saint kneeling while the lion sleepsbeside him. In both drawings, massive, bare mountains loom up opposite thesaint. In two drawings found in London and Paris, the saint, surrounded bymany different animals, strikes his breast with a stone in an act of penance,while in another of the Paris drawings he sits reading in the foregroundbeneath steeply rising cliffs while the lion stands before him, its female com-panion sleeping peacefully nearby. In the middle ground, on the shores of a

i

Training

13

3 Jacopo Bellini, St Jerome in theWilderness, 1455–65, leadpoint.British Museum, London.

4 Jacopo Bellini, St Jerome in theWilderness, 1430–55, brown ink.Musée du Louvre, Paris.

bay, two dragons fight one another, and a bird of prey has seized one of the twohares, while the other seeks refuge in a crevice among the cliffs. A ship with abroken mast lies stranded, its crew lying dead on the beach and the cargo isscattered along the shoreline. Beyond the bay, a series of uniformly striatedmountains terminates the background zone. The scene illustrates the opposi-tion between the meditative life of the saint on the one hand, and human mis-fortune, the battle of the wilderness and the fate of hunted prey on the other.

In contrast to this topographically and narratively varied depiction bythe artist’s father, Giovanni’s little panel in Birmingham has been asceticallyreduced to just a few elements. Of particular importance for an assessment ofthe younger artist is his attempt, which contrasts with his father’s approach, toincorporate his own observations of natural phenomena into the work: thesimple sequence of hills leading into the distance; the haze above the horizon;the cirrus clouds set in a pale blue sky: none of these ingredients is present inany known painting by Jacopo. The lion seems to have been taken over directlyfrom a drawing by the older artist. One sheet of the Paris book (illus. 5), whichcontains seven sketches of lions, includes a depiction of a seated lion that holdsone paw into the air. Giovanni Bellini took this motif as a point of departure,adding to the lion’s positioning and gesture its expression of misery.


5 Jacopo Bellini, Seven Lions andThree Stags, 1430–55, silverpoint.Musée du Louvre, Paris.

6 Anon., St Jerome in a Landscape,late 14th century, wood. NationalGallery, London.

Two versions of St Jerome with the lion were produced in Venice inthe late fourteenth century; these are found today in the Art Institute ofChicago and in the National Gallery in London (illus. 6). Both show StJerome in the wilderness pictured as a cardinal seated on the throne of aChurch Father, and a church set in the distance between two upward-thrusting rocky formations. A lamenting lion sits on the side in front ofthe saint and holds out one paw to him. The open book bears a sentencewritten by the Church Father: ‘Iram vince patientia: ama scientiam scrip-turarum, et carnis vitia non amabis’ (‘Patience triumphs over rage: love thestudy of the scriptures and you will no longer love the burdens of theflesh’).2 The Birmingham panel, however, has the saint seated on a boulderwearing the white robes of the penitent, with a stone hanging from hisbelt. In place of the textual admonition, the opposition between patienceand wrath, studiousness and lasciviousness is translated into the respectivepositioning of Jerome, the lion, the Bible and the hare (or rabbit).3 GiovanniBellini departs from the Venetian-Byzantine tradition to which he relatesthe lamenting lion and the wilderness, and makes no reference to thelocale that is provided by the Legenda aurea for the healing of the lion, andwhich Carpaccio would use for his humorous depiction of the flight of the

Training | 15

monks into the cloister in his painting in the Scuola di San Giorgio degliSchiavoni of circa 1502. But Bellini incorporates the donkey, which plays animportant role in the tale of the converted lion in the Legenda aurea.4 Incontrast to the Legenda aurea, however, Johannes Andreae speaks in his hymnIn laudem Hieronymi Carmen of circa 1300 of the encounter between Jeromeand the suffering lion in the desert, where the saint has retreated in imitationof John the Baptist and Christ.5

The little painting in Birmingham was first attributed to GiovanniBellini in 1871 by an British-Italian research team composed of Joseph ArcherCrowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle.6 On account of the signature,this attribution has been virtually universally acknowledged, and by generalconsensus the work has been recognized as among Bellini’s earliest works.7

Uncertainty concerning the absolute dating of this work, which vacillatesbetween 1450 and 1460, is a consequence of the artist’s unknown date of birthand his inadequately documented career. In 1949, primarily in order to dis-credit supporters of Giovanni’s presumed dependence on Andrea Mantegna,Roberto Longhi proposed dating the work to circa 1450, whereby he assumedan early birth date for Giovanni of between 1424 and 1429.8 Longhi, then,perceived in the Birmingham panel the work of an artist of between 21 and 26years of age. In his monograph of 1968, Giles Robertson dated the panel of StJerome to circa 1450, and assumed that the painter’s year of birth fell some-where in the early 1430s.9 Robertson presumed that the painter of this smallpanel was only 18 or 19 years of age. Rona Goffen dated the Birminghampanel to circa 1450, and regarded it as testimony to the early maturity andindependence of an artist whose year of birth she set between 1433 and 1435.10

In The Cambridge Companion to Giovanni Bellini of 2004, edited by PeterHumfrey, the panel in Birmingham is dated ‘circa 1460’, while Humfreyadvocates a birth year falling somewhere between 1435/6 and 1437/8.11

Giovanni Bellini’s year of birth is not documented, and when he died inVenice in 1516 his age was unknown. But this long-celebrated painter did not

pass away unnoticed. An anonymous draughtsmancaptured an image of the deceased on a sheet ofpaper, lying on a catafalque and dressed in the habitof the Scuola Grande di San Marco (illus. 7), therebyproducing a highly unusual document.12 Bellini’sdemise was recorded on 29 November 1516 by theVenetian chronicler Marino Sanudo, who left ablank space in his text with the intention of filling inthe age of the deceased artist later on. Evidently,Sanudo was unable to procure this information, forhe never completed his text. The painter and histori-ographer Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo, who includedbiographies of Jacopo Bellini and his sons Gentileand Giovanni in both the first and second editions ofhis Vite, dated 1550 and 1568 respectively (illus. 8),recorded Giovanni Bellini’s age at death as 90 years.


7 Anonymous, Giovanni Bellini Deadon his Bier, 1516, coloured chalks withpen, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

8 Giovanni Bellini, woodcut fromVasari, Le vite dei più ecellenti pittori,scultori, et architettori (Florence, 1568).

9 Gentile Bellini, Portrait of a Man(Self-portrait), c. 1496, black penon paper. Gemäldegalerie Berlin.

Based on this information, a birth year of 1426 was calculated for Giovanni.This supposition was defended right up to the mid-twentieth century.13 Asfor Giovanni’s brother Gentile (illus. 9), Vasari published the year of hisdeath mistakenly as 1501 (instead of 1507), and attributed to him an age of 80years, generating the question as to which brother had actually been bornfirst, all the more so since in the first edition of 1550 Vasari had namedGiovanni as the elder of the two. In 1648 the Venetian historiographer CarloRidolfi presented Gentile as the elder of the two brothers, yet without cor-recting the birth year that had entered into circulation through Vasari.14

The supposition of early birth dates for Gentile and Giovanni Bellinihas caused considerable difficulties. Bernard Berenson’s Venetian Painting inAmerica, published in 1916, illustrates these problems in exemplary fashion.Berenson found himself confronted with the necessity of explaining theartists’ belated development, as well as the absence of works dated prior tothe 1460s. He declared the cause to have been the delayed achievement ofindependence on the part of both painters:

It would seem likely, therefore, that the delayed maturity of both broth-ers, as well as the exceeding scarcity of their earlier works, were in eachcase due to the same cause, namely that they had had no independentcareer till they were middle-aged men, because they remained untilthen in their father’s employ as his assistants.15

If early birth dates are accepted, then both brothers emerged as independentartists only in their thirties, at the mid-point of their lives, and having no

Training | 17

10 Vittore Belliniano, Giovanni Bellini,1505, black chalk. Musée Condé,Chantilly.

previous works to show for themselves. Moreover,Giovanni’s reported venerable age would certainlyhave exposed the works produced around 1500 to sus-picions of senility. Vasari was the first to claim thatBellini’s advanced age had prevented him from com-pleting the Feast of the Gods (illus. 176).16 Carolyn C.Wilson has drawn attention to the fact that a revisionof Bellini’s birth year is sufficient to dispense withsuch doubts: ‘Most simply, the recent advancing ofhis birth date away from 1430 toward 1440 has per-haps freed us from the restraint of awareness ofgeriatric limitation and engendered instead a readieracceptance of Bellini during the early Cinquecento asa vigorous man of late middle age.’17 To be sure, the35-year-old Albrecht Dürer, visiting Venice in 1506,referred to Giovanni Bellini as ‘very old’, at the sametime assigning him to the first rank: ‘He is very old,but is still the best painter of them all.’18 VittoreBelliniano’s portrait drawing of Bellini of 1505 (illus.10) does not convey the impression of a dotard, butinstead of an older man very much in possession ofhis faculties.

In the twentieth century, based on archival indi-cations, a birth year of 1431 was proposed for Gentile.19 For Giovanni, a laterdate of between 1436 and 1438 is today regarded as more likely.20 Support forthis position has been derived from the evidence of his career and from com-parisons with the progress typical of a painter’s professional life. For MauroLucco and Peter Humfrey, such a supposition can be coordinated withreports of the initial emergence of Giovanni Bellini, and would also help toreduce the chronological difficulties.21 A document of 1459 confirmsGiovanni’s residence in the parish of San Lio in Venice, and he was named byhis father Jacopo, together with his brother Gentile, in the signature of thelost Gattamelata altar in Padua of 1459 or 1460. Assuming a birth year of1435, Giovanni would have been 24 or 25 years of age in 1459/60, whichwould be consistent with a typical artistic career. For Alvise Vivarini, bornbetween 1446 and 1450, there is documentation for his professional activitiesfrom 1476.22

Jacopo Bellini’s Strategy

Giovanni’s early independence, combined with the lack of any mention ofhim in the will of Anna Rinversi, Jacopo Bellini’s widow, of 1471, have longsince led towards the supposition that Giovanni should be regarded asJacopo’s illegitimate son. Only Robertson (1968) provides plausible alterna-tive explanations for Giovanni’s omission from her testament, and for his


11 Detail (the Piazza S. Marco withthe church of S. Geminiano) fromJacopo de’ Barbari, Bird’s-eye View ofVenice, 1500, woodcut.

early establishment of an independent workshop.23 By producing an illegit-imate son, Jacopo would seem to have been, so to speak, perpetuating afamily tradition, for he himself had an illegitimate half-brother namedGiovanni.24 No will for Jacopo Bellini has survived. In the testament of 1471his widow names her sons Gentile and Niccolò as heirs, but not Giovanni orher daughter Niccolosia, who had married the painter Andrea Mantegna ofPadua in 1453. The reasons for the omission of both Niccolosia and Giovannifrom the will are not clarified.

An illegitimate origin would have interfered with Giovanni’s inheri-tance claims, and possibly with his eligibility to hold office as well. Giovannitwice held the office of degano at the Scuola Grande di San Marco, receivingin 1483 the title of painter of the city (Pictor nostri Domini), and was moreoverentrusted with the most prestigious commission available in Venice, the pro-duction of works for the large hall in the Doge’s Palace.25 In 1459 GiovanniBellini was residing in the parish of San Lio, while continuing to worktogether with his brother Gentile in their father’s workshop; he also workedwith this workshop later on. It is tempting to conclude that Giovanni’s inde-pendence in San Lio was related to the business practices of the Bellini fam-ily enterprise and with the operations of its workshop.

Beginning in the late 1420s, and in conjunction with his half-brotherGiovanni, Jacopo Bellini maintained the most important painter’s workshopon Venetian territory apart from the atelier of the Vivarini from Murano.Jacopo Bellini lived in the Procuratie Vecchie on Piazza San Marco, andbelonged to the parish of San Geminiano (illus. 11).26 The first known docu-ment concerning Giovanni Bellini (his signature of 1459 as a witness on awill) names his residence as the parish of San Lio, located to the east of theRialto Bridge (illus. 12). The document names only his place of residence, buthe would have operated a workshop in the same location, as was customary.We are missing an important document related to Giovanni’s early inde-pendence, namely the notarial deed of emancipation that would havereleased him from his father’s custody.27 Nonetheless, the hypothesis thatGiovanni’s early independence might have been a business and political

Training | 19

12 Detail (the Rialto with the churchof San Lio) from Jacopo de’ Barbari,Bird’s-eye View of Venice, 1500,woodcut.

manoeuvre on the part of the Bellini would lead towards further insights intothe family business.28 Giovanni’s early departure from his father’s residenceand atelier was certainly not caused by a dispute; on the contrary, it was afunction of the subdivision of the workshop, which had been run by Jacopoand his half-brother Giovanni until 1440.29 Giovanni’s continuing collabora-tion with his father’s atelier, and later with his brother Gentile, the heir to thepaternal workshop, along with Gentile’s will, testify to strong familial bonds.The affectionate relationship maintained by the brothers was so legendarythat even Vasari received reports of it. In his Vite, Vasari wrote that after thedeath of his brother Gentile, whom he had always loved with great tender-ness, Giovanni remained behind as his ‘widow’, so to speak, a metaphor sug-gestive of both sadness and isolation.30 Gentile named Giovanni as his heir,bequeathing to him their father’s book of drawings, which had remained inVenice, and entrusting him with the completion of his painting of St MarkPreaching in Alexandria (illus. 13) for the Scuola Grande di San Marco.31

As with all workshops of the time, the trade of painting was a businessand a bread-winning activity for the Bellini family, one whose economic suc-cess and survival (that is, its development and capacity to meet the competi-tion) required commensurate commercial abilities, the requisite customersatisfaction and the production of heirs. For the establishment of the work-shop in San Lio around 1459, Giovanni required paternal support, that is, thepaying out of his inheritance. This construction is tenable, albeit lackingconfirmatory evidence in the form of an act of emancipation or throughJacopo’s last will and testament. Even after extensive efforts by archivalresearchers in the past, there is little hope that such documents will surface inthe future. Nonetheless, this construction can be supplemented by the


13 Gentile and Giovanni Bellini,St Mark Preaching in Alexandria,1505–15, canvas. Pinacoteca di Brera,Milan.

hypothesis that because Giovanni had already received his portion of theinheritance, there was no need to mention him in his mother’s will of 1471;according to this hypothesis, his sister Niccolosia remained unmentioned forthe same reason: she must have received her share of the estate in 1453 as adowry when she married Andrea Mantegna.32

The positioning of Giovanni in the parish of San Lio must have beenpart of a strategy developed by Jacopo Bellini. His younger son was to havetaken up the family trade in close proximity to the Rialto, Venice’s commer-cial centre, and in the area of the large Dominican church of Santi Giovannie Paolo, while the father and the elder son and future heir, Gentile, wanted toretain the workshop near San Marco, not far from the centre of politicalpower. The strategy must have been directed at the diversification, expansionand updating of the range of offerings, as well as at checking the reach of theVivarini from Murano, the other significant family painting workshop,which had moved to Venice in 1450. Antonio Vivarini and his brother-in-lawGiovanni d’Alemagna had worked in the Ovetari chapel of the EremitaniChurch in Padua in competition with the younger Andrea Mantegna andNiccolò Pizzolo between 1447 and 1450. After Giovanni d’Alemagna’s deathin 1450, Antonio Vivarini returned to Venice, where he fulfilled many com-missions as a specialist in polyptychs, together with his younger brotherBartolomeo. In 1456 Antonio was living in the parish of Santa MariaFormosa, only slightly further away from the Rialto than San Lio. Additionaldocuments pointing toward Antonio’s residence in Santa Maria Formosa aredated between 1457 and 1458. Bartolomeo seems to have become independ-ent in 1459, which may have provided additional motivation for the Bellini toestablish a second workshop in order to compete successfully with theirrivals.33 As regards volume of production, the Vivarini family seems at timesto have succeeded in outflanking the Bellini. The Vivarini family exportedtheir altars – primarily polyptychs – both to the terraferma and to Dalmatia

Training | 21

14 Leonardo Bellini, Doge NicolòMarcello before God the FatherEnthroned, miniature, in Promissioneof Doge Nicolò Marcello (1463).Museo Civico Correr, Venice.

and the rest of the Adriatic region.34 Certainly, JacopoBellini was able to place works in Brescia, Ferrara andPadua, but Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini’s suc-cesses as exporters must have been unnerving. Later,the Vivarini would have reasons to react to the success-es of the Bellini workshops. On 28 July 1488 AntonioVivarini’s son Alvise, who was born around 1446, con-fronted the Signoria with his desire to work on theSala del Gran Consiglio on terms identical to those ofthe Bellini brothers.35 The Signoria granted his appli-cation, and on 24 May 1495 Alvise began work in theDoge’s Palace at the same annual salary of 60 ducatsthen being received by Giovanni Bellini, who was per-haps less than enchanted by the actions of his youngercompetitor.36

In 1453 Jacopo Bellini gave his daughterNiccolosia away in marriage to the aspiring painterAndrea Mantegna, who had recently demonstratedhis extraordinary artistic abilities in the Ovetari chapelin Padua in competition with Antonio Vivarini andGiovanni d’Alemagna.37 Ten years earlier, Jacopohad taken his nephew Leonardo, the son of his sisterElena, into his workshop, and in doing so made hisestablishment capable of manuscript illumination as

well (illus. 14).38 Giovanni’s independence must have enabled the Belliniworkshop to respond to the growing demand for private collector’s picturesand portraits, while the workshop at San Gimigniano remained responsiblefor official commissions from the scuole, and later, together with Gentile, forthe Serenissima Repubblica and for narrative images and vedute.39

A connection between Giovanni Bellini in the commercial centrearound the Rialto can be documented at the earliest in the year 1474 with theportrait of Jörg Fugger (illus. 15), which depicts the Venetian representativeof the powerful Augsburg commercial family.40 It was not until 1926 that theportrait was attributed to Giovanni Bellini, and this has been accepted virtu-ally unanimously ever since.41 The Venetian headquarters of this northernEuropean commercial dynasty was the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, set immediatelyalongside the Rialto Bridge. It is not known how contacts were establishedbetween Jörg Fugger, who had arrived in Venice in 1474 at the age of 21, andGiovanni Bellini, but in 1474 the Signoria promised Gentile Bellini a sansaria,or benefice, at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. As a model for his portrait ofFugger, Giovanni Bellini had recourse to the Netherlandish type of three-quarter view as deployed by Hans Memling in 1470 for a portrait ofTommaso Portinari, manager of the Medici bank in Bruges.42 In Venice, thistype had become known by the return of Marco Barbarigo, who had himselfportrayed in the style of Jan Van Eyck during his term as Venetian consul inLondon in 1449 (illus. 16), either in London or, more likely, in Bruges. This


15 Giovanni Bellini, Jörg Fugger, 1474,wood. Norton Simon Foundation,Pasadena.

portrait follows the portrait type developed by Jan Van Eyck, which is docu-mented in his so-called Tymotheus in the National Gallery in London. AsBernard Aikema has emphasized, the significance of the portrait of MarcoBarbarigo lies in the fact that on the one hand it reveals a taste forNetherlandish painting on the part of a Venetian patrician who was tobecome doge in 1485, while on the other hand it stimulated and expanded anawareness and admiration of Netherlandish painting in Venice.43 Already in1460 Andrea Mantegna had adapted this type for his portrait of CardinalLodovico Trevisan, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.44 The Fugger portraitof 1474 is only one of many works, some also dated earlier, that testify toBellini’s preoccupation with Netherlandish models. It is likely that this artis-tic interest was reinforced by the prescriptions and tastes of clients for certain

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16 Follower of Jan Van Eyck,Marco Barbarigo, c. 1449, canvas.National Gallery, London.

pictorial types and artistic techniques. Like the largealtarpiece for the church of San Francesco in Pesaro,produced around the same time, the Fugger portraitwas executed with pigments bound in oil.

Additional early confirmatory evidence of connec-tions between Giovanni Bellini and the Germancommercial centre in Venice is unavailable. Still inthe 1470s, Giovanni experienced success with twolarge commissions for Santi Giovanni e Paolo, thepolyptych of St Vincent Ferrer (illus. 118) and the SacraConversatione with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine(illus. 119). After 1479, however, Giovanni’s careershifted in the direction originally intended for Gentile.In 1474 Gentile received the commission for therestoration and renewal of the paintings in the Saladel Gran Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace, a prestigiousstate commission; as compensation, he was promisedthe next available sansaria held by the headquartersof the German merchants.45 In 1479 an envoy ofSultan Mehmet ii, with whom Venice had just endeda lengthy war, requested the dispatch of artists to theOttoman court in Constantinople. The Signoria decid-ed to send Gentile Bellini to the Sultan, together witha bronze caster and a pair of assistants, and to appointGiovanni to succeed his brother.46 Giovanni Bellinitook over the work in the Doge’s Palace, and was

appointed an official painter of the Republic (Pictor nostri Domini). TheSignoria guaranteed him the same form of compensation it had offered tohis brother Gentile, namely the next available sansaria at the Fondaco deiTedeschi. This connection with the German commercial centre may havebeen the reason why Giovanni was made aware in early 1506 of Dürer’spresence in Venice, newly arrived from Nuremberg, and why he developedan interest in the German artist’s work.47

The Bellini Workshops

Like most painters well into the nineteenth century, the Bellini family operat-ed busy workshops (illus. 17). The painter who consummates his vision or hisidea at his easel in the solitude of his studio appears only in the iconography ofthe evangelist St Luke, according to popular tradition a painter, and in imagesof him derived from that motif. Prior to the nineteenth century, painting wasonly exceptionally a solitary activity – at the start of a career, for instance. Oneexception to this rule was Nicolas Poussin in the seventeenth century, an artistwho was simply incapable of running a workshop, as demonstrated by the factssurrounding his appointment as court painter and head of royal art production


17 Anon., The Planet Mercury,c. 1460–64, engraving. BibliothèqueNationale de France, Paris.

in Paris in the years 1640–42. Although workshopproduction was the norm, we still know far too littleabout the actual conditions of production, the divi-sion of labour, the training of assistants and thedeployment of modelli, stencils and similar accou-trements. Despite all contemporary refutations,research efforts are still regularly led astray byromantic notions of the lonely, brooding artist. To besure, substantial research has been undertaken andpublished in the past two decades, steadily increas-ing our knowledge of workshop operations and theirsignificance for the activities of the Bellini family aswell.48

This new awareness also necessitates a revisionof one of the most perennial activities of art-historicalresearch, namely the distinction of artistic hands andthe awarding of attributions. The consequences of ourknowledge of workshop production have often beenscreened out in order to pursue traditional questionsof attribution: which painting was produced by themaster of a given workshop? Which parts of a givenpicture are from his hand, and where can we identifythe traces of assistants’ work? It is even possible to citemany fifteenth-century contracts in support of thisapproach. They often prescribe which parts of a paint-ing are to be executed by the master, and, according to Michael Baxandall,thereby document a growing esteem and appreciation for artistic techniqueand for an artist’s individual handwriting.49 There is all the more reason,then, to investigate the production methods prevalent in the workshops andtheir closely guarded secrets. The analyses published by Ronda Kasl in 2004make a vital contribution to our understanding of the artistic productionof Giovanni Bellini’s workshop, and indicate the kind of technical costs andcomplexity that are necessary to investigate the use of stencils or schemata,preparatory drawings, transfer methods and painting techniques, and the useof binding materials and pigments.50 If such investigations, supported bytechnological analyses, could be undertaken on a broader scale, then problemsof attribution could be readdressed on improved foundations. There is littleto be gained from revisions of attribution that are proposed in the absence ofappropriate investigations into painting and workshop techniques.

In the 1460s Jacopo Bellini was occupied with numerous commissions.For their execution he turned to Gentile and Giovanni, both of whom he hadtrained himself, as Vasari maintains.51 The sole documentary evidence for thiscollaboration is a signature once found on a lost polyptych (illus. 18) for thetomb chapel of Erasmo da Narni (Gattamelata) in the Santo in Padua, whichhas been transmitted in a description of 1590: jacobi bellini patris ac gen-tilis et joannis natorum opus mccccix ) (‘The work of the father Jacopo

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18 A reconstruction of theGattamelata altarpiece in theBasilica di Sant’Antonio, Padua.

Bellini and his sons Gentile and Giovanni 1409 [sic]’). The mistaken entry ofthe year, ‘1409’, can be traced back to the damaged state of the ‘ix’, which mustbe corrected to become lix or lx, that is, either 1459 or 1460. By means of thesignature, the Bellini father and his sons made a bid for subsequent contracts.Three predella scenes and one of the lost three panels from this altarpiecewere identified by Miklós Boskovits in 1986.52 Colin Eisler assumes that bothsons worked on the polyptych after designs provided by their father. Of thesurviving parts of the altarpiece, he attributes a panel depicting SS AnthonyAbbot and Bernardino of Siena to Gentile Bellini, but gives the three predellascenes to Giovanni.53 There exists neither documentary evidence nor any par-allel figures or narrative scenes to support these presumptions.

The same collaborative team was presumably responsible, in the firsthalf of the 1460s, for the four triptychs with lunettes executed for four chapelsin Santa Maria della Carità, the church of the Scuola Grande of the samename. The documents name the client, but not the painter who received thecommission. In 1807 the panels of these triptychs were removed from theirframes and later entered the collection of the Accademia in the formerScuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carità, but were not reassembled untilthe mid-1950s.54 Only one of the total of twelve vertical panels narrates ascene, namely the Nativity with Mary and Joseph with the Annunciation to theShepherds. Ten of the panels display individual figures of saints standingeither on narrow floor spaces or on narrow strips of landscape. One singlepanel depicts the standing Virgin with the Christ Child. All of the elevenpanels bearing standing saints have gold grounds – the Nativity is exceptional.The picture fields of all twelve panels are recessed by means of mouldings,


19 Jacopo, Gentile and GiovanniBellini, triptych with SS John theBaptist, Sebastian and Anthony Abbot,c. 1460–65, wood. Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.

and are terminated above by semicircular sculptural shell forms. The matchbetween the lunettes and the individual triptychs is not fully secure. Thetriptych with SS John the Baptist, Sebastian and Anthony Abbot (illus. 19) isdistinguishable from the other three by the strip of landscape that clarifiesthe relationship between the three panels, and by the illumination of thefigures, which emanates from the same direction.

The documents provide information about the commissions received bythe Bellini workshop during the second half of the 1460s. All these workshave disappeared without a trace. The inventory of the Scuola Grande di SanGiovanni Evangelista of 13 April 1466 lists an altarpiece for San Marco witha gold background, said to be executed by ‘maistro Iacomo Belin pentor’. Theyear of the work’s delivery is not stated. Colin Eisler erroneously assigned adate of 1421 to this entry instead of 13 April 1466, the date of the list towhich it is attached.55 In 1465, moreover, Jacopo Bellini executed a cycle with

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episodes from the Life of the Virgin Mary for the Scuola Grande di SanGiovanni Evangelista, and in 1466 received a contract from the ScuolaGrande di San Marco for paintings of the Carrying of the Cross and theCrucifixion.56 In 1648 Ridolfi explicitly recorded the works for the ScuolaGrande di San Giovanni Evangelista as collaborations between Gentile andGiovanni.57 A possible collaboration between father and sons may also beassumed for the Scuola Grande di San Marco. On 15 December 1466 Gentilehimself received two contracts for the same scuola, which specified two paint-ings with Old Testament subjects, the first of which was to be Moses and theIsraelites in the Desert and the second the Defeat of Pharaoh. Just one monthlater, the same scuola awarded two contracts to Bartolomeo Vivarini andAndrea da Murano.58 In a subsequent phase, in 1470, it was the turn not onlyof Lazzaro Bastiani, but of Giovanni Bellini as well, the latter receiving acommission from the Scuola Grande di San Marco for two pictures with OldTestament themes, a Noah’s Ark and a Great Flood. Apparently, the work-shops of both Gentile and Giovanni Bellini were now regarded as independent,and were considered for commissions accordingly. Upon delivery, paymentwas as a rule made out to Jacopo Bellini, who received 375 ducats for thetwo pictures. Giovanni also received this sum, but not Gentile, who had to besatisfied with only 300 ducats.59

On the basis of stylistic comparisons, in particular with the triptych ofSt Sebastian in Venice, Boskovits proposes Giovanni Bellini as the author ofthe two paintings in the Louvre representing St Anthony Abbot and StAugustine (illus. 20, 21).60 Alessandro Conti, in contrast, claims to recognizefamilial collaboration in these panels, both remnants of a multi-part altarpiece,basing his judgement on contradictions within the panels, which enabled himto identify an artist working in a more archaic style in the background.61

In order to identify works executed in the first half of the 1460s byGiovanni Bellini and his workshop – that is to say, not in collaboration withthe other studio – we might do better to turn to smaller-format paintings suchas those of the Virgin and Child and scenes from the Passion. The first greatwork for which Giovanni was presumably principally responsible is thepolyptych of St Vincent Ferrer (illus. 118), begun in 1465.

It appears that in 1470 the brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini hadestablished artistic profiles, if not yet fame. Around 1470, still in Jacopo Bellini’slifetime, Giorgio Sommariva, man of letters and later Venetian governor inGradisca, composed a sonnet in honour of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, inwhich he refers ingeniously to the two ‘beautiful’ brothers (an allusion to thename Bellini), juxtaposing the ‘good’ Gentile with a ‘great’ Giovanni.62 Thecontrasting judgements are of less interest in this context than the fact that, in1470, Giovanni was honoured in a sonnet alongside Gentile, suggesting that hehad achieved artistic independence.

In the 1460s Gentile began his career at the Scuola Grande di San Marco,in which Giovanni would later join as well. In Vasari’s view, the Bellini familyexemplified the rapid social rise of many artists from humble beginnings togreat fame. Vasari, however, had been wrongly informed concerning the


20 Jacopo, Gentile and GiovanniBellini, St Augustine, c. 1460–65,wood. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

21 Jacopo, Gentile and GiovanniBellini, St Antony Abbot, c. 1455–60,wood. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

social status of the Bellini family. He did not know that the Bellini belonged tothe cittadini originari, the privileged bourgeoisie that came in rank immediate-ly after the nobility. In 1648 Ridolfi recalled the esteem in which the citizens ofVenice held the family: ‘In times long gone, the Bellini family, which pro-duced such skilful painters, enjoyed a place of honour among the Venetiancitizenry.’63 Jennifer M. Fletcher characterizes the cittadini originari as ‘mem-bers of an elite group who ranked next to the nobility and from whose ranks

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the Grand Chancellor was chosen’. Among their privileges were freedomto trade, eligibility for positions in the administration and voting rights inthe leadership committees of the Scuole Grandi. The cittadini originari, onthe other hand, did not enjoy the right to engage in handicraft work or to runshops.64 Jacopo Bellini represented the city district (sestiere) of San Marco as adegano (dean) in the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista; at the begin-ning of the 1460s Gentile entered the Scuola Grande di San Marco and rose tobecome one of the most important officials of the vicario and of the guardiandel matin. Both offices are associated with the representation of the guardiangrande, the head of a scuola. Giovanni served in the same Scuola Grande twiceas degano, once as a representative of his sestiere Castello. The elevated socialstatus enjoyed by Gentile is confirmed by his being granted a knighthood in1469 by the Emperor Frederick iii, and by his being named as a count in 1481by Sultan Mehmet ii in Constantinople.65 The front of his portrait medallion(illus. 22), executed by the Venetian stonecutter and medallist VettoreGambello, shows him in profile surrounded by the inscription gentilisbellinvs venetvs eqves comesq[ve], thereby referring to him by both titles ofnobility: knight and count.66 So far as social status and the offices he held atthe Scuola Grande di San Marco were concerned, Gentile had outstrippedGiovanni on several fronts. In 1482, however, Giovanni did attain a singularand unprecedented privilege from the Signoria, namely an exemption fromcompulsory guild membership and its corresponding payments.67

The obverse of Giovanni Bellini’s portrait medallion (illus. 23), execut-ed around 1500 by Gambello, shows the painter’s bust in profile, surroundedby the inscription ioannes bellinvs. venet[us]. pictor.op[timus]. The inscrip-tion praises the Venetian Giovanni Bellini as an outstanding painter.68 On thereverse (illus. 24), these words of praise are supplemented by the figure of anowl perched on a branch and by the addition of the Latin words virtvtis e[t]ingenii. Owl and text substantiate the predicate ‘pictor optimus’. The multi-valent concept of virtus is best paraphrased as ‘strength and industry’, whileingenium refers to those ‘powers of mental creativity’ that are endowed bynature as talent, and further developed by the possessor for the sake of sci-entific and artistic achievement. The owl, the attribute of Athena (theRoman Minerva), goddess of wisdom and reason, protector of virtue andthe arts, is found on the reverse of Greek coins and Roman medallions. Inhis publication on medallions of 1559, the cultivated Venetian patricianSebastiano Erizzo refers to exemplars bearing the image of the EmperorDomitian, whose reverse sides featured images of owls. Given its associa-tion with Pallas Athene or Minerva, Erizzo understood the owl as a symbolof wisdom (sapientia), justifying Minerva’s status as the ‘goddess of thearts’ by citing her birth from Jupiter’s head, enabling her to embody ingeg-no, which stands above everything. Erizzo also explains that an individualwhose eye colour approximates that of the owl is said to possess outstand-ing and acute faculties of ingegno.69 It was Giovanni Bellini who laid claimto ingenium on his medallion, presenting the predicate pictor optimus andAthena’s owl.70


22 Vittore Gambello, Medal of GentileBellini, recto, c. 1500, bronze. GalleriaFranchetti, Ca’ d’Oro, Venice.

23 Vittore Gambello, Medal ofGiovanni Bellini, recto, c. 1500,bronze. Galleria Franchetti,Ca’ d’Oro, Venice.

24 Vittore Gambello, Medal ofGiovanni Bellini, verso, c. 1500,bronze. Galleria Franchetti,Ca’ d’Oro, Venice.

Moreover, Bellini had himself depicted with a stola, which was actuallyreserved for holders of high office. The predicate optimo – a superlative butnot an absolute one – could be bestowed on a painter. A note entered by theVenetian chronicler Marino Sanudo into his diarii (daily journals) suppliesan appropriate reference to Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. On 29 November1516 he remarks on the death of the painter Giovanni Bellini, ‘optimo pytor’,whose fame is said to be worldwide, adding that Giovanni had been internedat Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the same place where his brother Gentile, ‘etiamoptimo pytor’ (‘also an outstanding painter’), had been buried, as Sanudo hadnoted earlier concerning Gentile’s burial on 23 February 1507.71 The officialdocuments of Venice refer to Giovanni Bellini first as ‘pictor egregious’, justas they had referred earlier to Gentile. The assignment to Giovanni of therestoration of the paintings in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’sPalace was justified by a reference to ‘his exceptional genius in the art ofpainting’.72 This expression is used in the documentation on the constructionand furnishing of the Doge’s Palace only with reference to Giovanni Bellini,and to no other artist, so that this usage amounts to a form of official recog-nition rather than a mere topos.

Training

Beyond the techniques of painting, what was it that Jacopo successfully trans-mitted to his sons – who were simultaneously his apprentices and assistants –concerning his conception of art and the status of the painter? In two signa-tures, Jacopo Bellini invoked his own ingenium, his productive mental pow-ers. In 1448 he signed a half-figure of the Virgin with the Christ Child, whosehand is raised in the act of blessing, both set on an illusionistically paintedquatrefoil (illus. 25), with ‘1448. has dedit ingenua belinus mente figuras’(‘In 1448, Bellini produced these figures with his creative genius’). The paint-ing was probably among a series of depictions of saints located in the Servitechurch on Riviera di Casalfiumanese, in the vicinity of Imola.73 In this depic-tion of the Virgin and Child of 1448, Jacopo emphasized the solidity of bothfigures by means of a pronounced relief effect. The illusion that the figures

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25 Jacopo Bellini, Virgin and Child,1448, canvas on wood. Pinacoteca diBrera, Milan.

project in front of the picture plane is heightened by the way in which thecrown overlaps the frame. Jacopo’s reasons for supplying this Virgin, or theseries of paintings to which she belonged, with such a flamboyant, if not tosay pretentious signature, remains undetermined. Already in 1436 Jacopohad supplied his fresco of the Crucifixion in Verona Cathedral, which wasdestroyed in 1759, with an elaborate inscription in which he reproves his ownfeeble genius in relation to that of his teacher, Gentile da Fabriano, whosefame is said to be universal: ‘[ . . . ] Jacopo Bellini painted this with his slendergenius as far as his artistry allowed. Gentile, this Venetian’s teacher, [was]most renowned for his fame throughout the world [. . . ]’.74

Jacopo was proud of having trained with Gentile da Fabriano. Hepainted a portrait of his master, and named the first of his sons after him.75

Around 1510–20, according to Marcantonio Michiel, this portrait was foundin the collection of Pietro Bembo in Padua, but nothing is known of its pos-sible survival.76 Jacopo, born around 1400 in Venice, the son of the tin casterNiccolò Bellini, began his studies in a painter’s workshop, perhaps that ofJacobello del Fiore, or perhaps Niccolò di Pietro. Around 1408 Gentile daFabriano arrived with his student or assistant Pisanello for a stay in Venice


that would last for several years. Among other things, he was engaged in aproject for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace, where hepainted an important theme from Venetian history, the subjugation of theEmperor Frederick Barbarossa by Pope Alexander iii through the interces-sion of the doge, along with a battle scene.77 Bartolomeo Facio mentions thisfresco in 1456 in his appreciation of Gentile da Fabriano, already noting itsheavily damaged state, while mentioning an additional work depicting theeffects of a tornado, and designed to strike the beholder with panic:

At Venice he painted in the Palace the land battle that the Venetiansundertook on the Pope’s behalf and fought against the son of the EmperorFrederick; but through damage to the wall this has almost entirely disap-peared. In the same city he also painted a whirlwind uprooting trees andthe like, and its appearance is such as to strike even the beholder withhorror and fear.78

Eisler considers it possible that Gentile da Fabriano called upon the youngJacopo as an assistant, taking him to Brescia in the years 1414–19.79 The ear-lier assumption that Jacopo must have worked with Gentile da Fabriano inFlorence in the 1420s was contradicted by Eisler in 1989 with an argumentbased on an inventory wrongly dated 1421.80 Since this entry was actuallymade in 1466, it is possible to turn again to the Florentine court documents,which indeed mention an assistant named Jacopo as working in Florencewith Gentile da Fabriano. The name of the assistant’s father is entered as‘Piero’, but Jennifer Fletcher has pointed out that such errors were not a rareoccurrence in contemporary legal documents.81 If Jacopo Bellini did spendtime with Gentile da Fabriano in Florence in the 1420s, this would mean thathe had come into close contact with decisive artistic and humanistic develop-ments.82 He presumably returned to Venice in 1424. The last will and testa-ment of Jacopo’s father, Niccolò, is dated 11 April 1424, at which timeGentile da Fabriano had completed his masterwork, the Adoration of theKings, in Florence in 1423; he moved to Siena and Orvieto in 1425, and fromthere to Rome in 1426–7.

In the fifteenth century, both in Venice and on the terraferma, thereexisted numerous opportunities for establishing contacts with Florentineartists. Many celebrated artists from Florence worked in Venice and in thelarger territories of the Serenissima.83 In the 1430s Jacopo received increasingnumbers of commissions from Venice’s land territories. The most conse-quential contact was with the Este court in Ferrara. As far back as the early1430s, the marchese, Niccolò iii d’Este, had called Jacopo Bellini to Ferrarain order to portray the young Leonello d’Este (1407–1450), who had beenlegitimated by Pope Martin v and who was chosen to succeed Niccolò. JacopoBellini’s Madonna of Humility (illus. 26) in the Louvre may depict the youngLeonello kneeling in devotion.84 Leonello had barely succeeded his father in1441 when he organized two competitions. The first was for his own portrait,the second for a bronze equestrian monument dedicated to Niccolò iii, to be

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26 Jacopo Bellini, Madonna of Humility,c. 1430, wood. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

27 Pisanello, Leonello d’Este, 1441,wood. Galleria dell’AccademiaCarrara, Bergamo.

set up outside the Este palace. Jacopo Bellini was victorious, with Pisanello,for a portrait of the new marchese, but his work has not survived, unlike hiscompetitor’s portrait (illus. 27).85

In Jacopo’s book of drawings in London, we find two drawings related tothe competition for an equestrian monument in Ferrara. Other artists partici-pated in this competition, of whom only the two finalists, the Florentine artistsAntonio di Cristoforo and Niccolò Baroncelli, are known by name.86 By virtueof the appended eagle, Jacopo Bellini’s drawings for an equestrian monument(illus. 27) can be related to Leonello d’Este’s project.87 Jacopo’s designs did notmake it to the final stages of the competition. During the final round, when thejury was unable to decide between the two Florentine artists, Leon BattistaAlberti was summoned for assistance. He proposed a compromise, with thehorse being executed by Niccolò and its rider by Antonio.88 Leonello d’Estemay have met Alberti (illus. 29) already in Florence in 1435. As apostolic sec-retary, Alberti was among the entourage of Pope Eugenius iv, who was exiledto Florence in 1434; he accompanied the pope to Bologna in 1436, and in 1438to Ferrara to attend the Council of the Roman and Byzantine Churches. In1437 Alberti sent the manuscript copy of his Philodoxeos fabula to Leonello


28 Jacopo Bellini, Study for anEquestrian Monument, 1455–65,leadpoint and pen. British Museum,London.

29 Leon Battista Alberti, Self-portrait,c. 1435, bronze. National Gallery ofArt, Washington, dc.

d’Este. In the early 1440s, most importantly, Leonello encouraged Alberti tooccupy himself with architecture, thereby supplying the initial impulse thatwould lead to the first treatise on the art of building in modern times, awork that was published posthumously in Florence in 1485 under the title Dere aedificatoria, with Angelo Poliziano’s dedication to Lorenzo de’ Medici.89

Around 1435–6 Alberti composed his treatise on the art of painting in Florencein both Italian and Latin versions, dedicating the Italian version to the archi-tect Filippo Brunelleschi, and presenting the corrected and supplemented Latinedition of 1440 to Giovanni Francesco Gonzaga, marchese of Mantua.90

In his autobiography, written around 1438, a work that mingles theauthentic with the fantastic, Alberti describes his attempts to engage inexchanges of ideas with artists, and his occasional direct involvement in thearts of painting and sculpture.91 Vasari, who thought little of Alberti’s talentas a painter, singled out a perspective view of Venice and San Marco thatincluded figures executed by a third hand.92 This veduta is now lost, andAlberti’s presumed collaboration with Jacopo Bellini remains a case of wishfulthinking.93 At the age of 10, Alberti moved from Genoa to Venice, where hisfather took over a branch of the Alberti commercial and banking business. Inresponse to a request addressed by Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua to GentileBellini, Jacopo had sketched a veduta of Venice.94 Gentile himself was amongVenice’s leading vedutisti, and may well have done his best work in this field,

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while Alberti in De pictura proposed the use of vellum as a suitable supportfor the correct and rapid registration of scenes. This discovery was ascribedthe same rank by Vasari as the invention of printing.95

No documentation exists for contacts between Jacopo Bellini and LeonBattista Alberti, or for contacts between Alberti and Jacopo’s son-in-lawAndrea Mantegna, who was court painter at Mantua. This seems strange, sinceAlberti worked for the Gonzaga in Mantua during the 1460s. For JacopoBellini, we must make do with the confirmation that he had occasional con-tacts with the Mantuan court, which was receptive to the kind of humanisticscholarship and the new discourse on art that emanated from AngeloDecembrio’s book De politia litteraria.96 The competition with Pisanello inFerrara produced an unusual literary echo. Ulisse Aleotti wrote of JacopoBellini as the ‘summo pictore’ and ‘novelo fidia’ – as the best painter and anew Phidias – with the ancient Greek sculptor being referred to here as apainter. It is possible that Jacopo Bellini maintained the kind of distance fromtheoretical and intellectual affairs that was customary for painters, and whichAmes-Lewis has characterized as follows: ‘There is little evidence that artiststhemselves were much concerned about theoretical or intellectual issues duringthe first half of the fifteenth century.’97

Both of Jacopo Bellini’s books of drawings reveal an extraordinary andobsessive interest in problems of representation (space, perspective, narra-tion), along with a broad interest in architecture, nature, antiquity, sculpture,inscriptions and iconography of every kind. These are by far the most com-prehensive drawing books to survive from a typical fifteenth-century work-shop.98 The carefully executed drawings constitute invaluable material forthe formation and invention of ideal compositions in the Bellini familyworkshop. The interest in a learned discourse about painting on the part ofGentile and Giovanni Bellini is confirmed by the celebrated mathematicianand compiler Fra Luca Pacioli, who was proud of having come fromSansepolcro, the home town of Piero della Francesca. Pacioli had composedhis wide-ranging Summa de arithmetica in Milan, and in order to see itthrough to publication he travelled in 1494 to Venice, a city familiar to himfrom his youth. In the 1470s Pacioli had given private lessons in Venice, andbegan teaching in Perugia in 1477. After a stay in his convent in Sansepolcro,Pacioli went to Milan to the court of Ludovico Maria Sforza (il Moro) in1496, where he met Leonardo da Vinci. The Summa de arithmetica (illus. 30)of 1494 contains two dedications: the first to the Venetian patrician MarcoSanudo, the second to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, ruler of Urbino. ToGuidobaldo, Pacioli recommended arithmetic, geometry and the doctrine ofproportions as being useful in astrology and astronomy, architecture, per-spective, sculpture and music. With regard to perspective, Pacioli elevatedhis countryman Piero della Francesca to a monarch among contemporarypainters, and concludes by listing the painters that stood, in his judgement, atthe highest summit of art by virtue of the fact that they worked on scientificfoundations: included are the brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini inVenice, Filippo and Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence, the painter Pietro


30 Luca Pacioli, title page withauthor’s portrait from Summa deArithmetica Geometria Proportionie Proportionalita (Venice, 1494).

Perugino in Perugia, his pupil Luca Signorelli in Cortona, the celebratedAndrea Mantegna in Mantua and the painter Melozzo da Forlì and his pupilMarco Palmezzano. Pacioli praises all these artists for certifying their knowl-edge in repeated conversations and for proportioning their works with ‘libellae circino’. Their works strike the beholder as divine rather than human rep-resentations, and the figures lack only the breath of life to reach perfection,with perfect imitation manifested through a widespread topos.99

Pacioli is satisfied with the mathematical interests of these painters andtheir mastery of the scientific aspects of painting in both praxis and discourse.

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31 Urin diagnosis, woodcut fromJohannes Ketham, Fasciculus medicine(Venice, 1500).

That Pacioli includes painters such as Giovanni and Gentile Bellini may beinterpreted as an act of courtesy toward Venice’s premier artists. Contradictingthis hypothesis, however, is Giovanni Bellini’s mastery in constructing archi-tectural settings with figures, as in the San Giobbe altarpiece (illus. 139), andequally Gentile’s outstanding urban vedute of Venice in his works for theScuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista of 1494–1500, for example theProcession on the Feast of St Mark or Procession in Piazza San Marco of 1496 andthe Miracle of the Reliquary of the Cross at the Ponte di San Lorenzo.100

In the manuscript of his De divina proportione of 1498, Pacioli mentionsLeonardo da Vinci as a ‘degnissimo pictore, prospectivo architecto musico’(‘exceptionally praiseworthy painter, scientist of perspective, architect, musi-cian’). In early 1500, after the flight of the duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro,from approaching French troops, Pacioli, along with Leonardo da Vinci andseveral assistants, travelled to Venice for a few months by way of Mantua.101

In 1509 Pacioli was again in Venice in order to see his long-awaited De div-ina proportione through to publication. In this work, Pacioli reports in pass-ing that during the era of Pope Paul ii (1464–71), the Venetian Pietro Barbo,he had lived in Rome at the home of Alberti.102 When Pacioli celebratesthose painters who work according to scientific principles, he perceives the

fulfilment of a demand that Alberti had raised earlier.It is crucial here to recognize Pacioli’s role as a mediat-ing figure between Alberti and the younger generationof artists.

The Bellini workshops failed to secure commis-sions for illustrations for printed books and printreproductions, and may have made no attempt togain access to these markets, although Jacopo, in hir-ing his nephew Leonardo, accepted commissions formanuscript illuminations, while Giovanni Bellini alsoworked in this genre.103 Apparently, the Bellini broth-ers were not interested in the new possibilities openedup by book illustration, even though Venice was oneof the main centres for printing during the last thirdof the fifteenth century, and was a main centre of pro-duction alongside Florence for illustrated editions ofboth religious and profane literature between 1480 and1520. During the final years of the Bellini brothers’lives, hundreds of illustrated editions were producedby approximately 200 Venetian workshops. Yet onlyJohannes de Ketham’s successful medical textbook,which appeared for the first time in 1491, contains oneor two illustrations (illus. 31) that can be related tocompositions by the Bellini.

In contrast to the Bellini brothers in Venice,their brother-in-law Mantegna immediately recog-nized copperplate engraving as a medium capable of


disseminating his inventions. Dürer, for example, wasinspired to imitate Mantegna’s engravings as drawings,and they also guided the young Hans Holbein in thefaçade decorations he carried out in Lucerne. Engravingestablished Dürer’s fame in Italy and throughoutEurope. The young Raphael, who had his compositionsduplicated by engravers such as Marcantonio Raimondiand Marco Dente, was the first to introduce the distinc-tion in printmaking between invention and execution,claiming the role of invenit for himself as draughtsman,and crediting the engraver with the function of fecit.104

It appears that Giovanni Bellini was either uninterestedin the reproductive dissemination of his compositionsor else failed to recognize the medium’s potential, orperhaps simply did not wish to work with engravers.Between 1505 and 1510 Girolamo Mocetto executedthree engravings that betray similarities with works ofBellini (illus. 32), but no one credits Bellini with havinginvented their compositions.105

In 1899, with the first monograph on GiovanniBellini, Roger Fry published a small but significantwork. Fry, an art historian and a painter, was simulta-neously an admirer of Paul Cézanne, Bellini andVenetian painting. For him, it was important to pointout the particularly favourable circumstances surrounding Giovanni Bellini,whose father was a renowned painter, and whose brother Gentile was ‘themost learned and the most serious artist of his time in Venice’. Fry believedthat life in Venice, along with the ‘confidence and admiration of the Venetianpeople and the patronage of the Venetian senate’ that Bellini enjoyed, aninheritance from his father, explained the character of Bellini’s works, ‘thehappy serenity of Bellini’s art, its tenderness and humanity’.106

32 Girolamo Mocetto, Virgin andChild with Saints and Angels, about1505-10, engraving. BibliothèqueNationale de France, Paris.

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33 Giovanni Bellini, Calvary, c. 1460,wood. Museo Civico Correr, Venice.

ii

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Andrea Mantegna

Towards the end of the 1450s Giovanni Bellini adopted as an artistic modelhis brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, who had demonstrated his extraordi-nary talent in the Ovetari chapel in Padua and with the large San Zeno altar-piece (illus. 124) in Verona, the result of a commission from Abbot GregorioCorrer, the Venetian Christian humanist.1 In 1459 Mantegna entered theservice of Ludovico Gonzaga, marchese of Mantua, moving to Mantua in1460 as court painter and successor to Pisanello. The younger Bellini’s preoc-cupation with the art of his brother-in-law, several years his senior, becameespecially intense towards the end of the 1450s, and pertained predominant-ly in the depiction of figures and the expression of emotions. In the 1460sBellini took up the new pictorial genre of Mantegna, and may have executeda small painting on parchment after one of his prototypes. Thereafter, heturned back only occasionally to the art of his brother-in-law. Bellini recog-nized Mantegna’s superiority when it came to the creative invention of nar-ratives and allegories, and avoided competition with his work after 1500. Inthe dispute of a painting for the studiolo of Isabella d’Este in Mantua, Bellinifought for the right to supply the artistic invention, and to avoid being jux-taposed with Mantegna in the field of historia painting.

In 2004 Keith Christiansen published a judicious essay on the alreadyfrequently investigated relationship between Giovanni Bellini andMantegna. His point of departure was not the identification of ‘influence’;instead, he explored the various aspects of this relationship.2 Christiansencalls attention to the fact that the young Bellini oriented himself in relationto three different foci: the first was the art of his father, the second the art ofhis brother-in-law, and the third Netherlandish painting, admired in Veniceto the same extent as in Florence and Naples. The best confirmation for thistriple orientation is the Calvary (illus. 33) of circa 1460, now in the MuseoCorrer in Venice.3 His father’s drawing books include many depictions of theCrucifixion, among them a composition that contains three figures: Christ,Mary and St John (illus. 34).4 Their location is outlined, but no landscape ispresent; instead there are several rows of cherubs above the cross. Giovanni’ssmall-format Crucifixion presents Christ, Mary and John in the foreground

41

34 Jacopo Bellini, Virgin and St Johnthe Evangelist Mourn Christ Crucified,1430–55, ink on vellum. Musée duLouvre, Paris.

on a rocky ledge that is broken up into slabs, andwhich becomes rather nebulous around the hip heightof the figures. At this point there begins a new land-scape on Netherlandish models, one that extends fromthe grey strips of the cliffs via meadows, pathwaysand a meandering river into the distance, and that isset with figures at various distances, all unrelated tothe foreground scene.5 Above the bar of the cross floatgilded cherubs in three rows. For the broken-up rocksurface, for the figures of Mary and John, and for theirexpressions, Bellini drew on the Crucifixion (illus. 35)of the predella of the San Zeno altarpiece, executed byMantegna between 1457 and 1459. In the landscape,however, he departed decisively from any models pro-vided by his brother-in-law. It is remarkable thatBellini’s foreground figures are illuminated but do notcast shadows, while the figures set in the landscape do.This too indicates that two different types of imageshave been set behind each other. The first is a three-figured devotional image of the type supplied by hisfather Jacopo’s drawing, while the other is a narrativedepiction of the Crucifixion seen in Mantegna’s predel-la for the San Zeno altarpiece. Bellini combines thethree-figured devotional image with landscape, butrepresses the narrative dimension in favour of theexpression of emotion. Antonello da Messina proceed-

ed similarly in his Crucifixion in the National Gallery in London, a work that,like Bellini’s early version, can be traced back to Netherlandish models relat-ed to the works of Jan Van Eyck.6 One repetition of this work was in Paduain 1450, where it was copied. A transformation of the Crucifixion group withlandscape and donors can be seen in the central panel of the Sforza triptychin Brussels (illus. 36). This painting comes from the workshop of Rogier vander Weyden, and was presumably painted in 1445 for Alessandro Sforza andhis wife, and was probably found in Pesaro until circa 1500.7 The eveningatmosphere – with its contrast between the bright sky above and the shad-owed mountains and the dark green leading to the river – reflects the realartistic interests of the young Bellini.

In the Virgin and Child (the Davis Madonna) (illus. 37), probably execut-ed not long before 1460, Bellini adopted a subject well known to painter’sworkshops in Murano.8 His combination of sleep and death suggests animage: just as the child sleeps now in front of the Virgin, the dead Christ willone day lie across her lap in the Pietà after being taken down from the Cross.By setting the sleeping figure on a stone slab, Bellini makes explicit the rela-tionship between the sleep of the child and the death of the Redeemer.Bellini’s dependency on Mantegna is recognizable in the precise rendering ofthe child’s form and the cool flesh tones, but less so in the Virgin and in the


35 Andrea Mantegna, Crucifixion,1459, wood. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

flattened landscape. The original colouration of the Davis Madonna has beendamaged by the loss of lapis lazuli from the cape, which now appears a pale,whitish blue.

Mantegna, a master of figural representation, was fond of the extremedifficulties involved in depicting figures in unusual positions and extremeforeshortening. Markedly foreshortened figures are also found in the draw-ing books of Jacopo Bellini. Around 1460 Giovanni Bellini made twoattempts to compete with Mantegna in this area. In Bellini’s first depiction ofthe Transfiguration (illus. 103), in the Museo Correr in Venice, two of thethree apostles lie on the middle step of Mount Tabor, while Peter, whoobserves, is shown in a seated position with foreshortened thighs. Belliniundertook an even more difficult task in painting The Agony in the Garden

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36 Workshop of Rogier van derWeyden, Sforza-triptych, c. 1445,wood, central panel. Musée Royaldes Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

37 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child(Davis Madonna), c. 1455–60, wood.Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York.

(illus. 38). This composition has long been compared with a work on thesame theme by Mantegna of circa 1455, also now in London, and the hang-ing of the two works side by side in the National Gallery virtually compelssuch comparisons.9 For the predella of the San Zeno altarpiece, Mantegnapainted a second version of this theme from the Passion of Christ (illus. 39),again with three sleeping apostles in various positions and ingenious fore-


38 Giovanni Bellini, The Agony in theGarden, c. 1460–65, wood. NationalGallery, London.

39 Andrea Mantegna, The Agony inthe Garden, 1459, wood. Musée desBeaux Arts, Tours.

40 Giovanni Bellini, Three Studies ofa Reclining Man, recto, c. 1460, penand brown ink. British Museum,London.

shortenings of the two reclining figures. Bellini occupied himself with thisproblem in a Mantegnaesque drawing (illus. 40), which George Goldner hasdated to circa 1460.10 Sketched on the sheet are three reclining nudes, oneabove the other and separated by lines. The uppermost and lowest figureshave been set steeply in the space and rendered from head to foot, and viceversa. The reclining nude in the middle is depicted only at a slight angle.Bellini studied the problem that Mantegna had highlighted as an artisticchallenge with his two sleeping apostles seen on the predella of the San Zenoaltarpiece, and in his version of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane Bellini com-posed an extremely foreshortened reclining figure for his group of apostles.Bellini had attempted to confront this challenge and then abandoned thetask. In 1648 Carlo Ridolfi explained the pronounced naturalness of Bellini’s


figures with reference to the artist’s renunciation of artificially foreshortenedposes.11 Alberti had advised against extreme contortions, yet the Florentineartist Andrea del Castagno, who acquainted the Venetians with extremeforeshortenings, was praised by Cristoforo Landino in his Dante commen-tary of 1481 as a great draughtsman and a lover of artistic challenges, of‘difficoltà dell’arte’ and foreshortenings: ‘Andrea was a great master of draw-ing and relief, a lover of artistic challenges and foreshortened figures, he wasvery lively and swift, and work came easily to him.’12

Mantegna’s greatest challenge, the figure of an angel in flight depictedfrom below in foreshortening (sotto in su), was never taken up by Bellini. Hepainted the angel with the Cup of Sorrow as a transparent figure consistingof light. The significant appearance of this figure confirms an essential differ-ence between the interests of Bellini and Mantegna. Mantegna develops adramatic opposition between the right-hand side, with its enormous rockycone and Christ with the sleeping apostles, and the city of Jerusalem tower-ing up above to the left, behind which rises another wall of live rock. Alongwinding paths the soldiers and Judas have reached the point of greatestdepth, and now cross the bridge into the Garden of Gethsemane, from whichthey are separated by a large, split, withered tree, which contrasts with thefruit-bearing tree near Christ.

This compositional drama is decisively attenuated by Bellini: betweenthe settlement on the hill on the left, the town in the background on theflattened hill and the cliff formation there spreads a broad plain containingmeandering paths, meadows and bodies of water. The contiguity of spaceand surface is exploited here for the sake of the narrative, but the conver-gence between Christ in the middle ground and the troop of soldiers in thebackground makes for a somewhat comical effect, as does the block of livingstone, shaped into an enormous prayer lectern. The most astonishing aspectof this picture is the contrast between the blackish-green hillside, the brightforeground, the bright yellow horizon and the reddish and yellowish chainof clouds, illuminated from below. To be sure, Bellini includes the allegori-cally wizened tree and fenced-in open garden in his picture, but sets them farapart from one another along the edge of the painting. Christ wears a darkblue robe with bright golden stripes, his head held up into the brightest areaof sky, while the angel appears as a being made of light: earthly and celestiallight converge and intermingle here.13 In the act of transforming Mantegna,Bellini strikes out on a path toward the artistic theme that was to character-ize his mature artistic profile.

By juxtaposing Bellini’s painting of the Blood of the Redeemer (illus. 41)in London and Andrea Mantegna’s St Sebastian (illus. 42) in Vienna, KeithChristiansen has called attention to another area in which the younger artistlearned from the elder, namely the plastic representation of the humanform.14 Mantegna sets his Sebastian, horribly pierced by numerous arrows, ina contrapposto pose, on top of a block of stone in front of a marble column thatonce formed part of the now collapsed arch. Lying at the martyr’s feet are therubble of this structure and a sculpture. The paving of the floor, composed of

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diagonally positioned white and green stones, termi-nates at a wall that has collapsed apart from a fewremaining ashlars, against which a classical relief bear-ing a Bacchanalia leans. In the middle ground, a streetrises sharply, passing tall cliffs and leading in the direc-tion of the town in the background, apparently thetarget of the three marksmen leaving the scene of mar-tyrdom. The uppermost cloud, which takes the formof a horse with rider, alludes to classical notions aboutnatural forms drawn from Apollonius of Tyana, andMantegna has signed this work in Greek letters. Onthe other side, above St Sebastian and in the directionof his gaze, we find a figure of Victoria, for accordingto the Legenda aurea the saint survived, to be martyredon another occasion. It is regarded as highly likely thatMantegna painted this marvellous invention for the con-noisseur Jacopo Antonio Marcello.15

Bellini’s depiction of the Redeemer, whose bloodflows from a wound in his side and is captured in achalice by an angel, uses a similar patterned flooring inalmost the same arrangement as the one in Mantegna’sSebastian. As a terminus, Bellini sets a balustrade at therear into which is set a pair of classical reliefs, a sacrificialscene on one side and a scene with an enthronedHermes on the other. The prototypes for this work andfor these scenes have not yet been determined. Abovethe balustrade, the landscape begins without a transi-tional zone and extends broadly all the way into the dis-tance. On the left-hand side lies a fortified town withtowers, while on the right appears the stump of a col-umn set on a base, as well as a ruin and a hermit. Thispreoccupation with motifs from antiquity, restrictedhere to a pair of classical reliefs, was not pursued furtherby Bellini, although it was and remained Mantegna’sgreat theme. So far as depictions of the nude are con-cerned, Bellini was clearly incapable of competing withMantegna. Bellini’s Christ stands insecurely on ratherbadly proportioned legs, his body only weakly articulat-ed. But in comparison with the affected, multiply bentand suffering contrapposto of Mantegna’s Sebastian, Bellini’s standing figure fol-lows a less constrained and less exalted conception. Bellini shows neither thebending of the hips towards the rear, nor the projection of the trailing legbeyond the supporting one.

Bellini quickly improved his capacity for the plastic depiction of thehuman body. While the figures of Christ in the London painting and aSebastian in a triptych from the workshop (illus. 43) are similar, making it

opposite: 41 Giovanni Bellini, Bloodof the Redeemer, c. 1460–65, wood.National Gallery, London.

42 Andrea Mantegna, St Sebastian,about 1460, wood. KunsthistorischesMuseum, Vienna.

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possible to date both works to the same period, thePietà with Two Angels (illus. 59) in the Museo Corrermanifests a stronger articulation of bodily volumeand of the chest and stomach musculature, thanksto the use of light and shadow, yet it still does notsuggest a fully rounded body. In Bellini’s next nude,which appears in the polyptych of St Vincent Ferrerin Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, Sebastian (illus.44) is given a whitish body that is modelled withlight and shade, and set against a warmly luminousevening sky. Particular trademarks of Bellini’s earlynudes are the sickle-shaped lower legs with sharplyangular shin bones. More fully rounded forms wereattained only with the Sebastian of the San Giobbealtarpiece, together with a completely natural andunconstrained posture, and perhaps most significant-ly, the depiction of glowing flesh. This achievement,which appears extraordinary even in comparison toAntonello da Messina, rests on a new painting tech-nique, the application of pigments bound in oil. It isprecisely this glowing flesh, which must be distin-guished from flesh that is merely illuminated exter-nally, would be repeated by Titian in 1511 in thefigure of Sebastian in the painting of St MarkEnthroned (illus. 152), found today in the sacristy ofSanta Maria della Salute in Venice.

Architectural painting, another of Mantegna’sinfluences, was taken up by Giovanni Bellini only inthe 1470s. Mantegna had demonstrated his earlymastery of this field already in the Ovetari chapeland in the throne panel of the San Zeno altarpiece,and he developed it still further in his St Sebastianwith miniature-like descriptive exactitude. Suchworks nourished Bellini’s interest in depictions ofarchitecture and its three-dimensional detail. WhatMantegna suggested with his relief-decoratedpilasters and the ornament of capitals guided Belliniin his great altarpieces, first in Santi Giovanni ePaolo in Venice, then in the altar of San Francescoin Pesaro and in the San Giobbe altarpiece.

For the young Bellini, Mantegna’s art in the1460s was the most important challenge for hisartistic endeavours, as well as for his self-image asan artist. It appears, however, that Mantegna feltlittle need to respond to Bellini’s very different kindof painting, which was orientated towards effects of


opposite: 43 Giovanni Bellini,St Sebastian, central panel of thetriptych with St Sebastian (illus. 19),c. 1460–65, wood. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

44 Detail of ‘St Sebastian’ fromGiovanni Bellini, polyptych of StVincent Ferrer, (illus. 118), c. 1465–70,wood. Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo(‘San Zanipolo’), Venice.

colour and light. Keith Christiansen has called attention to Mantegna’s paint-ing of the Death of the Virgin in the Prado, Madrid, a work begun in 1460,which displays a hitherto unknown sensibility for light and colour in thevedute above the lake near Mantua, the building on the opposite shore andthe cloud-filled sky.16 In this work, Mantegna exploits the motif of an interioropening onto the outside, one occasionally taken up later by Antonello daMessina and Giovanni Bellini, in Antonello’s case, in the Annunciation inSyracuse, in Bellini’s case, in his Annunciation for the organ in Santa Mariadei Miracoli (illus. 108).17 This motif has its origins in Netherlandish paint-ing and probably goes back to an invention by Jan Van Eyck.18

Even during the periods of his most intensive preoccupation with theart of Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini was never exclusively dependent upon hisbrother-in-law. It is probable that Bellini adopted only one compositionalmodel from Mantegna, the Presentation in the Temple (illus. 76), now in thePinacoteca Querini Stampalia in Venice. To Mantegna’s composition Belliniadded further figures, and later developed the new genre of narrative paint-ing with half-figures.19 It has occasionally been assumed that in the workon parchment representing The Descent into Limbo (illus. 45), Bellini trans-formed a model borrowed from his brother-in-law into painting. Mantegnatreated the theme of the ‘Deliverance of the Ancestors’ from Limbo in twodrawings, an engraving (illus. 46) and a small painting.20 In a letter of 1468addressed to Ludovico Gonzaga, Mantegna mentions that he has begun acommissioned painting on the theme of ‘instoria del limbo’. For the figure ofChrist, seen from the back and striding into the depths, a copy of a drawingby Mantegna is preserved in Berlin.21 It has not been explained why Belliniwould have transformed an engraving or drawing by his brother-in-law intoa small painting on parchment at this relatively late date (circa 1475–80), andthe dating of this small work, which was first attributed to Bellini in 1952, ishighly uncertain.22 It seems implausible that Bellini would have executed suchan ill-proportioned nude during the second half of the 1470s. What is gen-uinely interesting about Mantegna’s shaping of this theme, with the infernalmusic and the reactions to it, is the gesture of holding the ears. This is a motifthat often interested Bellini, and one he had perceived in Mantegna’s Christin Limbo, even if it is unlikely that he executed the little painting in Bristol.

In 1916 Bernard Berenson attempted to capture the contrast betweenAndrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. His grandiloquent opposition of thetwo artists rests on the contrast between intellect and intuition. In Berenson’sview, Mantegna had quickly arrived at the height of artistic skill, thereafterremaining static, while Bellini experienced an extraordinary development:

Where the former is all dogma, the other was all faith; where the oneworked on a programme, the other relied on spontaneity; where thePaduan had a schematic outline the figure had to fill, the Venetian hada contour that was vibrating exteriorisation of a indwelling energy.Mantegna was professionally intellectual, Bellini may never have har-boured an abstract thought. The Paduan was a bigoted Roman, the


45 Anon., The Descent into Limbo,after 1470, parchment.City Art Gallery, Bristol.

46 Andrea Mantegna (workshop),The Descent into Limbo, c. 1470,engraving. Bibliothèque Nationalede France, Paris.

Venetian was not deliberately and intentionally of any time or place.Hence the growth of the former was necessarily limited, while that ofthe latter never stopped. The history of art knows almost no great mas-ter whose end was so close to his beginnings as Mantegna’s, or so faraway as Bellini’s. For fifty years Giovanni Bellini led Venetian paintingfrom victory to victory. He found it crawling out of its Byzantine shell,threatened by petrifaction from the trip of pedagogic precept, and leftit in the hands of Giorgione and Titian, an art more completely human-ized than any that the Western world had known since the decline ofGreco-Roman culture.23

Berenson regarded it as commendable that Bellini may never have enter-tained a single abstract thought. His juxtaposition is based on the idea of amanifest overcoming of academicism by modern painting. It was Berenson’sopinion that modern painting had overcome academicism. For Berenson,Mantegna appears as a representative of the academic position, and GiovanniBellini, by contrast, as an innovator and as the founder of the grand future ofVenetian painting.

Today, the difference between Mantegna and Bellini would be concep-tualized differently, and the various working conditions and the larger socialcontext would be taken into account. On the one side stands Mantegna, withhis precociously brilliant career, moving from Padua, Venice’s university

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town, to Mantua, the provincial town amidst lakes, in order to work as courtpainter for the ruler and condottiere Gonzaga, striving to rise in society andto maintain a fitting cultural and educational profile. Mantegna fulfilled thecommissions of his masters in Mantua with artistic flair, boldness and anti-quarian erudition. Furthermore, he immediately recognized the enormoussignificance of engraving as a medium for the reproduction and distributionof his pictorial inventions.24 Giovanni Bellini was oriented in a number ofdirections. He always remained receptive to the art of others, and attemptedto comprehend and explore these stimulations. He worked with persever-ance, slowly, continuously and unspectacularly, as a master with a large work-shop in a metropolis, providing his customers with various products andmodifications of pre-established types. As a respected burgher, as a memberof the Scuola Grande di San Marco and with the title of City Painter of theSerenissima, he was in position to contend with clients such as Isabella d’Este,marchesa of Mantua, in order to establish his artistic freedom, and to holdout long enough in order to compel her to acknowledge his ingegno and torecognize his competence for artistic invention.

In 2004 Jennifer M. Fletcher published a thorough study of GiovanniBellini’s friends and his connections with humanists and poets in Venice.25

She calls attention to overlappings between the circle of Mantegna and thatof Bellini, and in particular to Felice Feliciano, the traveller, collector, anti-quarian and alchemist who knew the world.26 Fletcher characterizes thediffering social environments of Mantegna and Bellini as follows:

Mantegna, whose classical culture and reputation have been the focus ofrecent study, was a big fish in a small pond operating in a classically found-ed city at a court where praise of an artist was rarely separate from director implied praise for his patron. Giovanni was raised in a republic whosepolitical system encouraged different themes in humanist writing.27

Flemish Painting

Since the publication of research by Millard Meiss and Giles Robertson, therelationship between Giovanni Bellini and Netherlandish painting has beengenerally recognized. Despite this, it is extraordinarily difficult – as MauroLucco emphasized in 2004 – to identify specific works from the Netherlandswith which Bellini could have been acquainted.28 The large-scale exhibitionRenaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Dürer, Belliniand Titian, organized by Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown in1999–2000 at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, featured the varied nature andthe continuity of artistic relationships, and explored the topic in a number ofessays contained in a wide-ranging catalogue.29 The marked interest shownby Venetian art lovers for Netherlandish artists and their works was stimu-lated by intensive commercial relationships and diplomatic contacts.30 Itshould not be overlooked that, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,


intensive relationships of exchange between the Netherlands and Venicealso existed in the field of music. Between 1491 and 1565 three Nether-landish musicians served as music directors at the Cappella ducale in thebasilica of San Marco. The most prominent promoters of official music werethe brothers Marco and Agostino Barberigo, who were elected as dogessequentially, in 1485 and 1486 respectively. The portrait in the style of Janvan Eyck that Marco Barbarigo brought back with him to Venice fromLondon in 1449 has already been mentioned (illus. 16). This portrait wasone of numerous Netherlandish works present in Venice and the Venetoduring the second half of the fifteenth century.31 In 1456 Bartolomeo Faciowrote in his De viris illustribus of four celebrated painters, Jan Van Eyck andRogier van der Weyden, both Netherlandish, and the Italians Gentile daFabriano and Pisanello.32 Around the mid-fifteenth century the Este courtin Ferrara possessed a number of works by Rogier van der Weyden, amongthem a celebrated triptych that was praised in detail by Ciriaco d’Ancona in1449. The Sforza of Pesaro owned a small, exquisite triptych (illus. 36) fromthe workshop of Rogier van der Weyden representing a donor kneeling atthe feet of a Crucifixion group. In 1451 the church of Santa Maria dellaCarità in Venice paid 78 ducats to a ‘maestro piero de fiandra’ – probablyPetrus Christus – for an altarpiece, and an additional 22 ducats for transportcosts and import duties.33 In the catalogue of his collection in north-easternItaly, the scholar and collector Marcantonio Michiel counts many paintingsof Northern provenance, which he groups together under the stylistic des-ignation ‘alla ponentina’.34 With regard to the artists mentioned by collec-tors and art lovers, many such attributions were probably motivated by thedesire for prestige, as suggested by the large numbers of works attributed toJan Van Eyck, who is called ‘Giovanni de Bruggia’. But it also indicates thehigh level of esteem of connoisseurs in Venice and the Veneto for paintingsfrom the Netherlands, especially for the ars nova of Jan Van Eyck and hisfollowers.35 At the same time, Michiel’s list also documents the interestamong patricians for the arts of antiquity and for Venetian painting, forMantegna, for the Bellini, for Giorgione and many others. Present in fifteenth-century Venice, as in Florence and many other Italian cities and towns, wasa conspicuous interest on the part of connoisseurs – referred to by Alberti in1435 as ‘artis studiosi’ – in art and artistic achievement. The catalogue ofMichiel’s collections in Venice and the Veneto, dating from the first decadeof the sixteenth century, makes it clear that the collecting of portraits, land-scapes and religious images was among the prestige-bearing obligations ofthe patrician class.36

The religious themes that are shown in virtually all fifteenth-centurypaintings, with the exception of the genre of portraiture, by no means inter-fered with the development of artistic value and expertise or with the assemblyof collections. In his essay ‘Die Sammler’ (‘The Collectors’) of 1893, JacobBurckhardt remarks that private devotional images, for instance sculptedhalf-figure depictions of the Virgin and Child that were duplicated in Florence,and moreover paintings of the same motif, were the ‘occasion and origin of

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collecting’. Burckhardt raised the difficult question of the degree to whichthese private images, of the Virgin and Child, for example, still served reli-gious functions, or whether their production was merely a ‘beautiful custom’,and the images were by now ‘experienced only artistically’. Later, Burckhardtdiscussed the progressive substitution of religious connections to images byaesthetic valuation, recalling that ‘the sacred forms and stories formed theprincipal and self-evident substrate’ by means of which Italian art became‘grand and lively’, and it was obliged to remain attached to this principle sub-strate even when clients no longer intended to use images for devotional pur-poses.37 That the enjoyment of art could lead to the praising of other works ofart than religious images can be seen especially clearly in the delight taken byPetrarch in portable painted panels and in the revaluation of classical sculp-tures.38 A characteristic example was the Venetian cardinal Pietro Barbo, whowas later elected pope (Paul ii, 1464–71), and who became known as a connois-seur. He had one of the main pieces in his collection, the Querini diptych – alate antique ivory – enclosed in a gilded frame and had an inscription added tothe reverse, in which he professes how much he admires works of art and howhe surrenders to loving delectation in a way that corresponds to the attitude ofthe art-addicted gaudium in Petrarch’s treatise on human happiness and unhap-piness.39 The reverse side displays two classical loving couples with a Cupid:Hippolytus with Phaedra and Diana with Endymion.40 In his donation of theclassical statues of 1471, Paul’s successor to the papal throne, Sixtus iv, gaveback antique bronzes from the Lateran to the Roman people for the Capitol.This gift corresponded to the official revaluation of pagan idols, now regardedas admirable works of art by the sculptors of antiquity and as exempla virtutis.41

The main motifs that Bellini adopted from Netherlandish paintingwere the landscape and the portrait, in addition to technical-aesthetic innova-tions related to the saturation and transparency of pigments, now groundwith linseed oil as a binder. Regarding the use of the Netherlandish portraittype, it seems odd that Bellini’s engagement with this genre began only in1474 with his portrait of Jörg Fugger (illus. 15). Like the portrait of MarcoBarbarigo, the small Portrait of a Boy (illus. 47) in Birmingham depends on aportrait by Jan Van Eyck, the so-called Tymotheus (illus. 48), now in theNational Gallery in London. The correspondences between Bellini’s Portraitof a Boy and Jan Van Eyck’s Tymotheus are evident in the high stone parapetand in the three-quarter view of the chest, set against a dark background.According to Jill Dunkerton, Bellini’s works may have been painted in oils ontop of a summary underpainting, and around the same time as the portrait ofJörg Fugger.42 The pigment layers of the face of the Portrait of a Boy have beenseverely abraded, depriving the face of its finely rendered plasticity. It hadalready been assumed that the inscription, nonaliter (meaning ‘quite so’,referring to the likeness), was added in the sixteenth century.43

The few portraits executed by Giovanni Bellini in the ensuing yearshave given rise to controversy concerning dating. In some cases, Bellini’sauthorship has been doubted. As before, most of the portraits appear to bebased on Netherlandish prototypes, with one exception, the portrait of Doge


47 Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Boy,1470–75, wood. Barber Institute ofFine Arts, Birmingham.

48 Jan Van Eyck, Portrait of a YoungMan (Tymotheus), 1432, wood.National Gallery, London.

Leonardo Loredan, which must have been executed in 1501, the year of hiselection. The Portrait of a Young Senator (illus. 49), presumably painted in theearly 1480s, shows a half-length figure in three-quarter view behind a nar-row balustrade. The red robe and black stole, the wealth of blond hair andthe black cat are set against a blue background that passes from bright todark. A work such as Antonello da Messina’s Portrait of a Young Man (illus.50) in Berlin, which remained in the collection of the patrician BartolomeoVitturi in Venice during the eighteenth century, might have been used byBellini for his own portraits as an adaptation of a Netherlandish formula. Inthe Berlin portrait, landscape and sky are problematic, since all Antonello’sother portraits have dark backgrounds. Possibly, the landscape and sky werepainted only later on the dark ground, in imitation of portraits with land-scape backgrounds by Hans Memling, which were well known and highlyfavoured. In the early 1480s Memling began to set his half-length portraitfigures against landscapes and skies, as seen in an early example in Antwerp(illus. 51), the Portrait of a Man with a Coin of the Emperor Nero (Bernardo

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50 Antonello da Messina, Portraitof a Young Man, c. 1475/76, wood.Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Bembo?). The sitter has not been identified by name, but there is agreementabout his Italian origins.44 Giovanni added a landscape in the manner ofMemling to a half-length portrait for the first time in his Portrait of a Man(Pietro Bembo) (illus. 92). It seems, however, that in the 1480s Bellini beganto portray figures that are set against blue skies. The Portrait of a Young Man(illus. 53) in Washington may be the second instance of this new conception,inspired perhaps by a work of Memling, such as the portrait in Antwerp.45

None of Giovanni Bellini’s portraits displays that expression of briskalertness, occasionally rising to the level of impudence, so characteristic of theportraits of Antonello da Messina. The individuals portrayed by Bellininever make direct eye contact with the beholder. In contrast to Antonello,

opposite:49 Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of aYoung Senator, c. 1480–85, wood.Musei Civico, Padua.

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Bellini never shows us liveliness by means of momentary action – as in thecase of the singular Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiero) (illus. 52) in the Louvre,whose immediacy of presence is heightened by the lighting. Bellini paintedrestrained young men whose expressions remain indefinite, and who lookpast the beholder into the distance, which appears as a blue background.46

Technique

In the Vita of Antonello da Messina (illus. 54), Giorgio Vasari tells of a triptaken by the Sicilian painter from Naples to Bruges to see Jan Van Eyck,who was regarded as the inventor of oil painting. Finally, he says, Antonellotransmitted the technique of oil painting to Domenico Veneziano in Venice.47

In connection with this event, Vasari repeats an actual calumny againstAndrea del Castagno. The latter is said to have murdered his friendDomenico Veneziano, who had been summoned to Florence because of hisfamiliarity with the technique of oil painting, out of jealousy, and to haveconfessed this deed only on his deathbed.48 Towards the end of the eighteenthcentury, Luigi Lanzi, a creditable researcher of Italian painting, still recalledAndrea del Castagno with shame (‘nome infame nella storia’), although thefalseness of this slander had been exposed not long after.49

In his Meraviglie dell’arte of 1648, Carlo Ridolfi, the historiographerof Venetian painting, moulded Vasari’s reports into a legend according towhich Giovanni Bellini had discovered the secret of Antonello’s oil painting

51 Hans Memling, Portrait of a Manwith a Coin of the Emperor Nero(Bernardo Bembo?), c. 1473–4, wood.Koninklijk Museum voor SchoneKunsten, Antwerp.

52 Antonello da Messina, Portrait ofa Man (Il Condottiero), 1475, wood.Musée du Louvre, Paris.

opposite:53 Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of aYoung Man, c. 1485–90, wood. NationalGallery of Art, Washington, dc.


54 Antonello da Messina, woodcut,from Vasari, Le vite dei più ecellentipittori, scultori, et architettori(Florence, 1568).

by subterfuge.50 This legend of artistic espionage wascirculated through collections of anecdotes, and wasgiven new life in 1831 with the new edition of Ridolfi’sVita di Giovanni Bellini. In the collection of anecdotesand legends about the fine art world, published anony-mously in Paris in three volumes by Pierre-Jean-BaptisteNougaret in the years 1776–80, the incident is recountedas follows:

All authors honour Giovanni Bellini by supposing thathe openhandedly disseminated his knowledge of oilpainting, of which Antonello da Messina had made agreat secret. Giovanni Bellini was able to deceiveAntonello da Messina as follows. He dressed up as aVenetian nobleman and went to see Antonello, whodid not know him, in order to commission a portraitfrom him. Then Bellini observed Antonello mixing hispigments while painting, and in this way discoveredthe secret, which he then immediately made public inaccordance with his sense of duty.51

Nougaret justifies this artistic espionage as a selfless actof theft and a blow against the unjustified privatization

of technical progress.52 J.F.L. Mérimée, on the other hand, decided to omitthis anecdote from his highly informative history of oil painting, publishedin 1830.53

In the nineteenth century, an era fond of anecdotes about artists, Bellini’spurported act of artistic espionage was given pictorial form on a number ofoccasions. The first was a work by the young Antonio Zona, whose paintingof 1847 was exhibited at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. In 1870 thestudent Roberto Venturi won the gold medal, valued at 2,000 lire, at theAccademia di Brera in Milan for a painting devoted to this theme, whileEdmond Lechevalier-Chevignard exhibited his version at the Paris Salon of1872, at which time it was reproduced in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.54

In 1848 the magazine Gemme d’arti italiane, whose self-proclaimed taskwas to publish high-quality reproductions of paintings exhibited in Italy,accompanied by commentary, published a steel engraving by DomenicoGandini (illus. 55) after Zona’s painting. The commentary was composed bythe well-known architect, art critic and later president of the Accademia diBelle Arti in Venice, the Marchese Pietro Selvatico.55 He praises Zona’s paint-ing for showing the sniffing out of the secret, for Giovanni is said to havebeen able to smell the decisive ingredient of the painting medium, themastic resin. Selvatico also liked Zona’s depiction of the studio with the lostSan Cassiano altarpiece, whose fragments in Vienna, which David Teniershad reproduced in his Theatrum pictorium of 1660 under the name Bellini,had not yet been identified as the work of Antonello.56


These legends contained in biographies, collections of anecdotes andpaintings confirm the importance attributed to the potentialities of the new oilmedium. Apparently, Giovanni Bellini used linseed oil as a binder earlier thanhad hitherto been supposed, and during the 1460s even used egg temperaalong with oil pigments. Investigations undertaken at the Museo Correr inVenice have concluded that linseed oil was used both in the earlyTransfiguration (illus. 103) and in the Pietà with Two Angels (illus. 59), both exe-cuted around 1460. In the triptych with St Sebastian in the Accademia inVenice, both egg tempera and linseed oil have been identified as bindingmedia.57 Because the technical expenses entailed by such investigations areconsiderable, we have results only for a few works. Jill Dunkerton hasdeduced that the Calvary (illus. 33) in the Museo Correr, whose binding medi-um has not been analysed, was at least partly executed in oils.58 GiovanniBellini probably based this painting on a small panel originating either from

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55 Antonio Zona, Giovanni Bellini,disguised as a Venetian Senator, in thestudio of Antonello da Messina, steelengraving by Domenico Gandini,in Gemme d’arti italiani 4 (1848).

Jan Van Eyck’s workshop or from one of his followers, which may havearrived in Padua by the mid-1450s, where it was presumably copied by anItalian artist.59

Drying oils such as linseed oil had long been used in Italian workshopsin varnishes, gilding and for other purposes, and even in painting itself, asrecommended around 1400 by Cennino Cennini for working on walls, panels,iron and everything else, supplying a recipe for the preparation of the bestlinseed oil.60 The problem was not the grinding of pigments with drying oilsas binders in place of egg or size, but instead first the acceleration of the dry-ing process, which was affected by the addition of lead white, and secondthe investigation and exploitation of the new possibilities offered by linseedoil as a binder as regards saturation, luminosity and transparency of colours.Colours of such brilliancy and depth as those seen in the Crucifixion camefrom the workshop of Van Eyck, and had hitherto been seen nowhere inItalian painting.61

As we know, the scientific investigation of binding media is neithersimple nor free of problems, since it involves a certain degree of damage tothe works of art. The recent investigation of Antonello’s St Sebastian in theGemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden was based on the removal of testmaterials from the paint layer and of the ground at the edge of the painting.The results were disillusioning, since glue size was identified as the binder inthe ground, and egg binder in the paint layer. Whether Antonello may haveused an oil binder in the central areas such as the figure or the architecturalsetting can be neither verified nor dismissed.62 It may be that his legendaryfame arose in Venice because he had mastered the layering of transparentpigments and chromatic harmony better than local painters. It seems proba-ble that Antonello’s legendary secret was not the use of linseed oil as a binder,but instead the achievement in Italy of a new degree of luminosity and a newcolouristic harmony, as if he had learned it as a secret from Flemish painters.


The Imago pietatis

When Giovanni Bellini took up his trade as an artist, the Imago pietatis – thehalf-figure depiction of the dead Christ as Man of Sorrows – was already wellestablished. Beginning in the second half of the twelfth century, Byzantinepassional images were known in the West, either taking the form of double-sided icons or diptychs. Icons of the dead Christ, his hands crossed on hischest in keeping with burial custom, were often seen as counterparts to theVirgin and Child, and found on the obverses of processional images or unit-ed with the latter as the second halves of diptychs. Around 1385 a Byzantinemosaic icon depicting the Man of Sorrows arrived in Rome at the church ofSanta Croce in Gerusalemme. Reports transformed it into the legendary iconthat Pope Gregory the Great had had painted around the year 600 accordingto a vision he had experienced (illus. 56). The mosaic icon, measuring just 19x 13 centimetres, was set in a silver frame and incorporated into a reliquarycabinet, where it was surrounded by hundreds of small relics that invited theveneration of the faithful and enhanced the icon’s miraculous reputation.1

Other churches wanted to participate in this lucrative cult, and commis-sioned copies of the Passion image.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the Carthusian monks of SantaCroce in Gerusalemme sought to attract pilgrims into the church once again.In connection with the holy year of 1500, they commissioned the well-knownengraver Israel van Meckenem to reproduce their icon in both a smaller and alarger version. The inscription on the larger reproduction (illus. 57) was calledChrist ‘basileus tes doxes’ (King of Glory), and guaranteed that it faithfullyreproduced the original image of the Imago pietatis that Gregory the Great hadhad executed according to a vision he had experienced during Mass.2 In orderto persuade a doubting woman of the truth of transubstantiation, Christappeared to the pope during the liturgy as a Man of Sorrows, accompanied bythe instruments of his Passion. Israel van Meckenem’s engraving shows theImago pietatis in the sarcophagus on the altar, while the pope celebrates Mass inthe presence of prelates, clergy, and common people.3 Visible on the openedwings of the altarpiece are three scenes from the Passion of Christ: the Bearingof the Cross, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. With its highly refined super-

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56 Israhel van Meckenem, The Massof St Gregory, c. 1495, engraving.Staatliche Graphische Sammlung,Munich.

57 Israhel van Meckenem, Imagopietatis, c. 1490, engraving. BibliothèqueNationale de France, Paris.

opposite:58 Giovanni Bellini, Imago pietatis,c. 1460–65, wood. Museo PoldiPezzoli, Milan.

position of altar, paten, altar cloth, chalice, pax, sarcophagus, retable, cross,instruments of the Passion and the terminating vera icon, the engraving makesan immediate connection between the Passion on the retable, the apparition ofthe Imago pietatis and the Eucharist. The Christological axis ends below withthe kneeling pope, the representative of Christ on Earth.4 The faithful, whosay their prayers in front of the image, are granted 20,000 years of indulgences;in a later print, this is increased to 45,000 years.

Venice was the first and most important station for the reception anddiffusion of Byzantine passional images.5 Two different versions of the pas-sion image by the so-called Master of Torcello, dating from circa 1300, areknown. In Venice, as elsewhere in Italy in the fourteenth century, the Imagopietatis was used in accordance with Byzantine practice as one element of adiptych, or as a central image in combination with the Virgin and John theEvangelist.6 Giovanni Bellini introduced two important changes to the Imagopietatis: he replaced the neutral or gold background with a landscape, and hegrouped Christ, Mary and John together within a unified pictorial field, there-by creating a new form of the Pietà (illus. 83).

In the small panel of the Imago pietatis (illus. 58) in the Museo PoldiPezzoli in Milan, the front wall of the sarcophagus bears the signature


59 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with TwoAngels, c. 1460–65, wood. MuseoCivico Correr, Venice.

ioannes bellinvs on a cartellino.7 The half-figure of the dead Christ standsin a short open sarcophagus with crossed arms in front of a varied landscape,which extends into the distance at the figure’s sides. Visible beneath Christ’sleft elbow is the steep surface of a rocky platform, while a path winds its wayfrom right to left towards a body of water whose surface is ruffled by thewind. On both the right and left sides, reddish-grey cliffs rise in the middledistance. In the narrow strip separating the branches of the cliffs, the flatlandscape extends into the distance. Above the horizon line, the natural skyappears in pale pink, while above it a darker grey cloud extends horizontal-ly across the image behind the neck of Christ, contrasting with his brighterbody. That it is the evening light is confirmed by the greyish-green shadowsfalling across the landscape. A gentle light falls on Christ’s body from thesides, modelling it with light and shade. In contrast to Byzantine models ofthe Imago pietatis, the Christ in Bellini’s painting wears a crown of thorns,although the stigmata on the hands are absent. Hans Belting drew attentionto the conflict arising from the combination of icon figure and landscape: theportrait of the dead Christ in a natural setting struck him as ‘a relic left overfrom a different image concept’.8

The combination of the Imago pietatis with a landscape effects a tempo-ralization of the image, intended to situate the Redeemer and his sufferingdirectly in the presence of the pious viewer.9 The evening sky and the shad-ows falling on the landscape indicate the time of day, while the spatial exten-sions into the landscape and the crown of thorns suggest a narrative of thePassion that culminates with the presentation of the dead Christ standing inthe sarcophagus. In contrast to the icon, Bellini’s work raises problems ofvisual logic: in a setting that presents itself as naturalistic and that introducesa temporal index, there arises a conflict with the figure of the dead man, whoholds himself upright.

In a subsequent attempt Giovanni Bellini combined a relief drawn fromDonatello’s high altar in the Santo in Padua with a landscape to create thePietà with Two Angels (illus. 59). In 1897, in the Museo Correr in Venice,Giovanni Morelli identified this painting – which bears a forged monogramof Albrecht Dürer and a false date of 1499 – as the work of GiovanniBellini.10 It was Roger Fry who connected the Pietà with Two Angels toDonatello’s relief in Padua (illus. 60), not without expressing his regret atthe absence of additional traces linking Giovanni Bellini to the Florentineartist.11 During the protracted genesis of the high altar in Padua, Donatellowas paid piecemeal according to work delivered; for his bronze relief ofChrist in the Tomb with Two Mourning Angels, that is, the Pietà with Angels, hereceived payment on 23 June 1449.12 Donatello presents Christ in conformi-ty with the Byzantine Imago pietatis in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, but hashim joined by a pair of juvenile angels, each of whom rests one leg on the sar-cophagus, while both join together in holding up a piece of cloth behindChrist. Their faces and the gesture of the chin supported by one hand conveysorrow. A fifteenth-century imitation of Donatello’s Pietà with Angels, prob-ably produced in Padua, was set into the exterior of the eastern wall during


60 Donatello, Pietà with Two Angels,1449, bronze. Basilica del Santo,Padua.

the reconstruction of Santa Maria del Rosario (the Gesuati) in Venice (illus.61). In contrast to Donatello, Bellini did not take up the form of the Byzantineicon in Rome for his Pietà with Two Angels, but instead posed Christ withopened arms, as seen earlier in the work of Giambono (illus. 99) andMantegna’s St Luke altarpiece. On the hill in the background is a town whosewalls with many towers enclose buildings modelled on classical Romantriumphal arches, temples and the Colosseum in Rome. It is tempting toconclude that in this depiction of the city of Jerusalem, Bellini followedMantegna, who had often used an antique-style city, for the first time in theOvetari chapel in Padua, and then in his various renderings of the Agony inthe Garden (illus. 39) and in the predella painting of the Crucifixion in Paris.

Did Bellini base this work on a combination of two different models?First of all, Christ’s pose deviates conspicuously from Donatello’s, a factexplicable by the assumption that he was drawing here on a different modelof the Imago pietatis. This model, however, was not a binding prototypeeither, since in contrast to Giambono and Mantegna the palms of the handsare turned outwards. Additional differences can be identified: Bellini rein-forces the narrative element by means of the two nails from the Cross on thesarcophagus lid, through the small figures moving along the winding path to


61 Anon., Pietà with Two Angels,fifteenth century, marble. Churchof S. Maria del Rosario, Venice(east wall).

Jerusalem, and through the small angels who attempt to support Christ’stowering body, and have mouths open in lamentation. Moreover, as in theImago pietatis in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, the time of day is indicated by thelateral illumination and the warm light.

These are deviations from the models that Bellini considered as visualreferences. The results are hardly revolutionary, but instead try out a differ-ing solution, one that perhaps could be referred to as a process of testing, butnot as experimental, since there is a certain inherent timidity. Bellini intro-duces subtle transformations. Hans Belting saw in the Pietà with Two Angelsin the Museo Correr an initial attempt ‘to re-conceive the principle of theicon both spatially and psychologically’. Belting’s verdict of Giovanni Bellini,the ‘icon painter’ who was in search of a new pictorial concept, does not real-ly work to the advantage of the Pietà with Two Angels: ‘When Bellini mixedthe allegorical presentation of altar sacrifice with the ritual angel togetherwith the biblical Passion narrative, things were bound to turn out badly.’13

Already in the second half of the 1460s, with the polyptych of St VincentFerrer for the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, Bellini had pro-duced a variant of a Pietà with Two Angels (illus. 62), one that does not showa landscape background, but instead a strip of dark sky containing a few

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opposite:63 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child,c. 1460–65, wood. Rijksmuseum,Amsterdam.

62 Giovanni Bellini, ‘Pietà with TwoAngels’, from the polyptych St VincentFerrer (illus. 118), c. 1465–70, wood.Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo(‘San Zanipolo’), Venice.

bright clouds. This decision can be explained by its destination for the cen-tral field of the upper register of a multi-panel retable.

Tutelary Images

In his contribution to the volume Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion,edited by Ronda Kasl and published in 2004, Keith Christiansen analysedseveral paintings of the Virgin and Child. Probably around 1460, Bellini beganto produce images intended for private homes. Among these early half-figuredepictions of the Madonna and Child are the Davis Madonna (illus. 37) andthe three versions of the Virgin with standing Child in Amsterdam (illus. 63),Berlin (illus. 64) and Verona (illus. 65). In his study of altar paintings of1893–4, Jacob Burckhardt’s point of departure in relation to depictions of theVirgin and Child was the reciprocal challenges exchanged between the‘saintly image with miraculous powers’ – the Sacra conversazione as altarpiece– and the ‘domestic devotional image’. Burckhardt presumed that the ‘lovingand maternal’ type of the Virgin ‘made the transition from domestic tochurch altar rather than the other way around’.14


overleaf:(left) 64 Giovanni Bellini, Virginand Child, c. 1460–65, wood.Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

(right) 65 Giovanni Bellini, Virginand Child, c. 1460–65, wood. Museodi Castelvecchio, Verona.

Like images of the Passion, fifteenth-century representations of theVirgin and Child are classified as ‘devotional images’, on the assumption thatthey were primarily objects of private devotion and veneration.15 Beginningwith Erwin Panofsky’s study of 1927, both the art-historical term ‘devotionalimage’, which originated in the Romantic period, and the object to whichit refers have been subjected to wider investigations and discussions.16 Inher monograph on Giovanni Bellini, Rona Goffen made a basic distinctionbetween profane and religious images, the latter category subdivided accord-ing to whether they were intended for private or public devotion.17 Thisschematic distinction, which refers exclusively to the presumed uses madeof these images by contemporaries, neglects other factors. Michael Baxandallhas drawn attention to the Catholicon of Johannes Balbus from the end of thethirteenth century, which justifies the setting up of images with reference tothe need to instruct the illiterate, to strengthen commemoration of the mys-tery of the Incarnation, the exemplary qualities of the saints, and finally witharousing pious emotion.18 These effects can also be attributed to the religiousimages found in churches in the fifteenth century.

The diffusion of the devotio moderna and Thomas a Kempis’s successfulpropagation of the imitation of Christ strengthened the capacity of imageswith religious themes to stimulate affective piety. Such images offered some-thing in exchange for the pious behaviour devoted to them (whether this tookthe form of a prayer, a commemoration of suffering, a consciousness of guiltor a confession of sin), specifically the reduction of penances for sins by meansof indulgences, protection in the hereafter, the warding off of evil or interces-sion with God on his throne. This interaction between image and vieweractivated older, magical notions of imagery: the stimulation of affective pietyis related to the powers inherent in images in much earlier periods, which areno longer efficacious in the Romantic notion of the ‘devotional image’.

This power is evident in the extraordinarily numerous depictions of theVirgin and Child. In 1988 Ronald Kecks assembled more than two dozen visu-al documents dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that concernthe presence of religious images in private spaces in Florence and Venice. Adomestic altar with an image of the Virgin is found only in the vita of StCatherine. Only in two cases is an individual shown kneeling before an imageof the Virgin: in this pose, both St Vincent Ferrer and a woman who is men-aced by the devil call on either an image or a vision of the Virgin to protectthem from evil. An altar with crucifix is shown in the bedchamber of a dyingman.19 All of the other representations document the setting up of religiousimagery, usually a Virgin and Child, either on an interior wall or on a housefaçade. Jost Amman’s woodcut of Piazza San Marco, dating from the secondhalf of the sixteenth century (illus. 66), shows a house on the Piazzetta wherean image of the Virgin has been set between two windows above a china shop.No one takes any notice of it. Vittore Carpaccio’s Story of St Ursula of 1490–95shows two bedrooms, each containing a painting in a gold frame. In The Dreamof St Ursula a framed picture hangs on the wall between the bed and the door.The holy water stoup and candleholder with burning candle imply a religious


66 Jost Amman, Procession in StMark’s Square in Venice, detail,second half of the 16th century,woodcut. British Museum, London.

subject matter, while the narrow strip of blue and gold suggest a painting ofthe Virgin. In the tripartite painting of the Arrival of the Ambassadors (illus. 67),Ursula dictates to her father the conditions for her marriage with the Bretonprince. On the wall above the bed and set in a tabernacle frame is a Virgin andChild. One of the last woodcuts in Francesco Colonna’s romantic novelHypnerotomachia Poliphili, first published in Venice in 1499, shows the protag-onist Poliphilo in his room writing a letter to Polia.20 On the wall above a chestbetween the window and the bed is a half-figure painting of Christ.

The few depictions of private rooms dating from the second half ofthe fifteenth century in Venice do not indicate what use was made of religious


67 Detail (the Virgin and Child inthe bedroom of St Ursula) fromVittore Carpaccio, The Arrival of theAmbassadors, 1495, canvas. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

pictures apart from the lighting of candles or thesprinkling of holy water. These images seem to hangunnoticed on the walls. The actual function of reli-gious imagery in interiors or on façades is the same asthe one served by icons as palladia (tutelary images)for cities: the warding-off of enemies and evil. InConstantinople, it was believed that the celebratedicon of the Hodegetria provided protection from ene-mies, for which reason it received special veneration,which once again was demanded for the mainte-nance of this protective effect. The Venetiansattempted without success to gain possession of theHodegetria, obtaining instead a late eleventh-centuryByzantine icon, the Virgin Nicopeia (illus. 68) – thebringer of victory – as the new palladium for theSerenissima. This victorious icon, which shows theVirgin holding her son before her breast as protec-tion against all threats, was carried in official proces-sions in Venice.21 As late as the eighteenth century, amarble copy was set into the façade of a house on theCampo Santa Maria Formosa, similar to the one seenin Jost Amman’s woodcut of the second half of thesixteenth century.

Like most Italian cities, Venice had placed itselfunder the protection of the Virgin, but claimed a specialrelationship to her because of the legendary founda-tion of the city on 25 March of the year 421, the Feastof the Annunciation. The founding of the city was cel-

ebrated annually during the feast, which ushered in the new year accordingto Venetian counting – the More veneto. In Venice in 1457 approximately20 churches and 300 altars were consecrated to the Virgin.22 The significanceof this divine protection for Venice is illustrated by the custom accordingto which the newly elected doge was obliged to commission a votive imageat his own expense, by means of which he commended himself and the cityto the Virgin’s continuing protection. The Votive Picture of Doge AgostinoBarbarigo (illus. 79), which the doge commissioned Giovanni Bellini to paintin 1486, was set up not in his private home, but instead in his official residencein the Doge’s Palace.23

Marian images in private homes served to secure a personal connectionto the Virgin and to commend the house and its residents to her protection.The original types of these icons founded their power in a supernatural origin24

that confirmed their authenticity. This icon should not be seen as an artefactof human activity, but instead an imprint of God, or else a portrait of the Virginand Child painted by Luke the Evangelist, according to his legendary vision.The icons partook in this power by virtue of their similarity to the primevaltype. Jacopo Bellini was able to fulfil these functions by translating Byzantine


68 Virgin Nicopeia, eleventh century,Byzantine image installed in theChurch of San Marco, Venice.

69 Jacopo Bellini, Madonna of theCherubim, c. 1435, wood. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

icons of the Virgin and Child, for instance in his Madonna of the Cherubim (illus.69), painted around 1435, which modified the schema of the Hodegetria icon.25

During his initial years of artistic activity, Giovanni Bellini producednew half-figure variants of the Virgin and Child. The most novel feature inrelation to the icons produced by his father is the combination with land-scapes or naturalistic sky, as in the image of the Passion. Already during thefirst half of the 1460s Giovanni Bellini evidently adopted or developed pro-cedures that enabled him to copy images of the Virgin, reproducing them inhis workshop with varied poses and landscapes. In the case of the Virgin andChild in Amsterdam, traces of a transfer of the figural group were detectedin 1978 by means of infrared reflectography. This had been done by meansof a punched cartoon. Taken together with the similarity between the figur-al groups in the Amsterdam and Berlin versions, these indications point tothe conclusion that Bellini employed a matrix.26 Keith Christiansen’sexpanded analysis of 2004 disclosed a refinement of the versions in Berlinand Amsterdam, as seen in a subsequent version found today in Verona,in which the balustrade has been extended vertically, the figural group setagainst the sky, the individual faces more finely modelled and the flesh morenatural in appearance.27 A second group involving slightly modified depic-tions of the Virgin and Child, which probably date from 1465–70, consists ofthe version in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (illus. 70) and the


70 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child,c. 1456–70, wood. Kimbell ArtMuseum, Fort Worth, Texas.

Madonna dell’Orto (illus. 71), which remained until its theft on 1 March 1993in the church of Santa Maria dell’Orto in Venice.28 The Madonna dell’Ortowas originally acquired by Luca Navagero, Venetian governor in Friuli,for his private residence and only subsequently chosen for his tomb altar,located in the first chapel on the left of Santa Maria dell’Orto. A third ver-sion of the Virgin and Child, in which the baby sucks on its middle finger,can be connected to the versions in Fort Worth and Venice. In this version(illus. 64), now in Berlin, the Virgin holds the Child at head height. Themodification and variation were connected with the use of one or more cartoons


71 Giovanni Bellini, Madonnadell’Orto, c. 1465–70, wood. Stolenin 1993, previously in the Churchof Santa Maria dell’Orto, Venice.

or stencils. According to Christiansen, these newdiscoveries lead to the conclusion ‘that tracings andcartoons were maintained in the workshops as refer-ence material is not something scholars usually takeinto consideration when discussing Venetian art, but Ithink it was a common practice of Bellini’s and becameone of Titian’s too’.29

A number of technological investigations ofpaintings executed by Giovanni Bellini and his work-shop have been carried out over the past 30 years.30

There has also been a broadening of interest in thepractices of artists’ studios. In 1999 Carmen Bambachpublished a marvellous book about workshop prac-tices during the Italian Renaissance.31 In Bellini’s case,it remains difficult to make connections between thesetechnological investigations and workshop practices,because neither original information nor the remnantsof tools and accessories exist.32 A book edited byRonda Kasl in 2004 contains a number of contributionsdealing with the practices employed for duplicatingimages in Giovanni Bellini’s workshop.33 Similarinvestigations concerning painting techniques andworkshop practices will lead to the discovery of fur-ther serially generated images and to the reconstruc-tion of accessory tools such as cartoons and stencils.This will necessitate a profound re-examination of the issues related to orig-inality, the artist’s individual handwriting, replication, repetition and imita-tion. Fifteenth-century Italy saw a heightening in the valuation of artistictechnique in relation to the use of precious materials, such as lapis lazuli andgold. This revaluation has been demonstrated by Michael Baxandall on thebasis of the contractual expectations of clients, who specified which por-tions of the commissioned work should be executed by the master himself.34

A contract with Piero della Francesca dated 11 June 1445 for the Madonnadella Misericordia for the church of the corresponding confraternity inSansepolcro specified that no other painter was to take up a brush in the pro-duction of this work. Luca Signorelli signed a contract for frescoes in OrvietoCathedral that specified that ‘all portions of the figures from the middleupwards’ were to be painted in the presence of the master, who must, more-over, prepare all of the pigments with his own hands. Venetian clients prob-ably introduced similar contractual obligations as well.

Many depictions of the Virgin and Child executed during the secondhalf of the 1470s and in the following decade betray similarities regardingthe poses that suggest the possible use of cartoons. Correspondences, withmodifications, can be identified, for instance, in a group of images of the Virginwith seated Child dating from the second half of the 1480s, among themthe Rogers Madonna (illus. 72) in New York, the Morelli Madonna (illus. 73)


72 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin andChild (Rogers Madonna), 1485–90,wood. Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York.

overleaf:73 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child(Morelli Madonna), c. 1485–90, wood.Galleria dell’Accademia Carrara,Bergamo.

74 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Childwith Seraphim, c. 1485–90, wood.Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.

in Bergamo and the Virgin and Child with Seraphim (illus. 74) in Venice.35

Such practices may also involve continuous variations of the mother andchild theme with diverse landscape settings. The combination of schemas forthe Virgin and Child must also be considered for their potential use inexpanded compositions involving figures of saints. Appearing in the list ofGiovanni Bellini’s works that was published in Anchise Tempestini’s mono-graph in 2000 are 36 half-figure depictions of the Virgin and Child and ninehalf-figure depictions with additional saints, as well as 31 attributed workson the same theme. The variations of body and head postures, of looks, ofhands and of the setting with balustrade, landscape and curtain, along withvariations of illumination, shadow and colour, combine to create an extraor-dinarily diversity using relatively few elements.

A New Genre

Marcantonio Michiel lists a painting by Andrea Mantegna as having beenpresent in the home of the learned literary figure – and later cardinal – PietroBembo in Padua: ‘The little painting on wood, which shows Our Ladybringing the child to be circumcised, comes from the hand of Mantegna, andwas executed as a half-figure.’36 The work by Mantegna to which Michielrefers has long been identified with the Presentation in the Temple (illus. 75) inBerlin, although the support consists of finely woven canvas, while Michielexplicitly mentions wood. This unexplained difficulty should not be neglected,for Michiel’s notation might well refer to a repetition by Mantegna. Visible inthe picture in Berlin on a dark background and set in a painted marble frameare four half-figures of saints and the heads of two individuals, one male andone female, on either side of the group. Mary, shown in profile, supports herright elbow on the lower part of the frame and embraces the tightly swad-dled infant Jesus, who seems to stand on a green cushion. The high priestSimeon holds one hand under the feet of the child, ready to receive him.Between the high priest and Jesus is a small, elderly man, recognizable asJoseph. It has been proposed that the two individuals to the left and rightshould be identified respectively as a self-portrait of the artist and a portraitof Niccolosia Bellini. This would make it tempting to regard this painting asa votive image connected with either a first or a difficult birth, which wouldsuggest a dating of 1455.37

The Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia in Venice owns a panel (illus. 76) con-taining half-figures on the same theme. The group of saints was copied afterMantegna, but the contemporary witnesses have been multiplied: to the left wesee two women, to the right two young men. Giovanni Bellini – who is gener-ally regarded as the painting’s author – omitted the painted marble frame, andpositioned his figural group behind a wide parapet of green breccia marble.None of the figures in Bellini’s painting has a halo. The four additional figureshave been associated with the names of the Bellini family in Venice and iden-tified as Gentile and Giovanni, Niccolosia and the mother of Giovanni.38


75 Andrea Mantegna, Presentationin the Temple, c. 1454/55, wood.Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Mantegna’s painting in Berlin is the first known example of a half-figure composition with a narrative element. Compared with a paintingcontaining entire figures, action, bodily movement and the rendering of thesetting have been reduced to a minimum.39 Expanded, on the other hand, isthe breadth of physiognomic expressiveness. The infant Jesus gazes upwardswith an expression of lament, while the face of Joseph expresses profounddisquiet or agitated concern. The high priest knits his brows, while Mary’sdemeanour, in contrast, is tranquil and gentle. The onlookers in the pictureare neither integrated into the action nor emotionally involved. Mantegnadoes, however, establish contact between the space of the image and that ofthe beholder: the aesthetic boundary of the painted marble frame is empha-sized to an extraordinary degree, which makes the projection at the centre ofthe narrative – involving the cushion, Mary’s hands, Simeon and the feet ofthe child – all the more conspicuous. In Mantegna’s version, to a lesser degreein Bellini’s reshaping, it is apparently a question of the emotional integrationof the viewer.

The model provided by Mantegna was taken up by Giovanni Belliniand transformed into a successful new genre. Only on one occasion, in theAdoration of the Kings of circa 1500–05, did Mantegna return to the half-figure,but Bellini and his workshop converted the genre into a permanent branch ofproduction, one that would also be exploited by imitators and successors.40

Exclusively religious subjects were offered, among which the Presentation andthe Circumcision were Giovanni Bellini’s favourite subjects, various versionsof which have survived. There are numerous versions of the Presentation in theTemple with five figures, as well as of the Circumcision (illus. 77).41 Since it has


76 Giovanni Bellini, Presentation in theTemple, c. 1460–65, wood. FondazioneQuerini Stampalia, Venice.


proved impossible to identify the original among these numerous variants, wemust content ourselves with the assumption that in these two cases GiovanniBellini’s original or primary version has been lost, and that the survivingexemplars are replicas, workshop replicas or copies.

The heyday of the popularity of narrative paintings involving half-figures among Roman collectors was reached around 1600 with the achieve-ments of Caravaggio.42 While seventeenth-century collectors were greatlyfond of half-figure narratives, there exists no confirmatory evidence for asimilar enthusiasm on the part of contemporary clients following the intro-duction of this type by Mantegna and Bellini. In his important study DieSammler (‘The Collector’) of 1897, Jacob Burckhardt classified paintings ofhalf-figured saints among domestic devotional images, but regarded thosepictures that display scenes from the Passion as ‘belonging to the domesticsphere rather than serving devotional functions’. With great circumspection,Burckhardt sought to draw a distinction between the use that might bemade of narrative images and the kind of attention normally bestowedupon images of the Virgin with additional figures of saints, among whichhe explicitly singles out ‘the celebrated picture by Giovanni Bellini in the

77 Giovanni Bellini, Circumcision,about 1500, canvas. National Gallery,London.

academy’ (illus. 78). Giovanni Bellini is classified by Burckhardt as ‘the cen-tral master of this very large group of splendid images, displaying relatedcontents and styles, which have been scattered throughout the world’, that isto say, domestic devotional images. On the whole, Burckhardt was extraor-dinarily enthusiastic about these pictures and about Titian’s subsequentdevelopment of this type, praising its ‘character, the pride of Venice, whichoften attained its greatest maturity here’.43

In his book Icon to Narrative, which first appeared in 1965, SixtenRingbom deals comprehensively with the new genre of the half-figure imageestablished by Mantegna and Bellini, images that present scenes withoutgenuinely elaborating their narrative elements. With Bellini in particular,Ringbom notes the reduction of the action and the tranquil compositionaltype, which promotes elevated sentiments. Moreover, the Presentation in theTemple and the Circumcision were favoured subjects in popular devotionalliterature all the way from Jacopo da Voragine’s Legenda aurea to theMeditationes of the Pseudo-Bonaventura.44 By bringing these saintly protago-nists to life, and through their portrait-style presence and tranquilly spiritualexpressions, these figures directly address the sentiments and emotions of thebeholder. Towards the end of the 1460s, in his important Pietà (illus. 83), nowin the Brera in Milan, Bellini developed the emotional response of the beholder


78 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin andChild with Sts Catherine andMary Magdalen, 1485–90, wood.Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.

into a virtual interaction between viewer and image. The uplifting functionof half-figure images of the Presentation and Circumcision did not hinder hisartistic performance, as seen in the brilliant rendering of precious garments,which depends upon Netherlandish painting.

The Protection of Venice

On 30 August 1486 Agostino Barbarigo was elected doge, and thereby suc-ceeded his deceased brother Marco, who had assumed office just one yearearlier. Shortly after his election, Marco had appointed his brother Agostinoas ‘Procuratore di S. Marco’, providing him with one of the highest offices inthe Venetian Republic.45 Upon his election as doge, Agostino Barbarigo, inaccordance with his obligations, commissioned a votive image at his ownexpense in order to maintain the Virgin’s protection of Venice. His choice fellon Giovanni Bellini, and the result was a large-format painting (illus. 79)showing the Virgin enthroned with the Holy Child, St Mark, who recom-mends the doge – shown kneeling before the throne – to the Virgin, andSt Augustine, the doge’s patron saint. The Virgin’s throne stands upon thepedestal with two steps, whose front displays the Barbarigo coat of armsalong with the corno dogale – the horn-shaped biretta of the doge. Standingat the left and right of the Virgin’s throne are two angels with musicalinstruments. The scene is framed by a wide red curtain that has been drawnto the sides; the group of the Virgin and Child is further distinguished by agreen baldachin. The setting is an outdoor terrace enclosed by a balustrade.To the left, the view is delimited by a nearby wood, while to the right the


79 Giovanni Bellini, Votive Pictureof Doge Agostino Barbarigo, 1486/87,canvas. Church of S. Pietro Martire,isle of Murano, Venice.

landscape stretches out into the far distance beyond a fortification with manytowers and a stepped mountain. Against segments of the cloud-filled sky andthe red curtain hover four groups of cherubs.

It can be deduced that after 1478 Gentile and Giovanni Bellini had exe-cuted a votive image for Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (illus. 80).46 Mocenigo hadoccupied the office of the doge from 1478 to 1485, and was the immediatepredecessor of Marco Barberigo. The votive image for Doge Mocenigoretains the traditional asymmetrical arrangement of the enthroned Virginand Child. The doge kneels down on the right-hand side of the picture withthe saint after whom he is named, John the Baptist, standing behind him.The enthroned Virgin is set on the left-hand side, and the image terminateswith St Christopher and the infant Jesus. The figure of Christopher is a cita-tion from the polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer, while the enthroned Virgin andChild is similar to a painting by Gentile, and the doge, shown in profile, cor-responds to a portrait by him. At first glance, this composition, assembledfrom pre-existing motifs, seems to be a workshop production, but it does notseem likely that Gentile and Giovanni would have failed personally to con-ceive a prestigious work intended for the new doge. It seems likely thatGentile, in his capacity as Pictor nostri Domini, began to work on this votivepicture shortly after Giovanni Mocenigo’s election in 1478, and that GiovanniBellini completed the work after his brother’s departure in 1479 forConstantinople, where he attended the court of the Sultan.47

In the painting known as the Votive Picture of Doge Agostino Barbarigo,Giovanni Bellini situates the enthroned Virgin and Child at the centre of the


80 Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, VotivePicture of Doge Mocenigo, after 1478,canvas. National Gallery, London.

image beneath a baldachin, emphasizing the picture’s bilateral symmetry bymeans of the red curtain, the two music-making angels, the groups ofcherubs and the lateral sections of landscape and sky. The colours and posi-tions of the other figures impart a subtle dynamic quality to this symmetricalarrangement. St Augustine is shown standing and wearing a splendid cloakof white damask with gold and red. His counterpart opposite is the kneelingdoge, who wears a gold habit with an ermine cloak and an extremely pre-cious version of the corno, the so-called zogia, worn by the doge at his coro-nation, and annually at Easter for the procession to the church of San Zaccaria.Behind the kneeling doge wearing coronation robes stands St Mark, whorepeats Mary’s colours. The asymmetry of this votive picture was readaptedalready by this doge’s successor, Leonardo Loredan.48

Unusual for a votive picture for a doge is the inclusion of the two angelswith musical instruments. The motive for their inclusion was probablyAgostino Barbarigo’s fondness for music, a trait that should be seen in thecontext of the growing prestige associated with music and of the multiplica-tion of musical activities at Italian cultural centres and courts during thefinal decades of the fifteenth century.49 On 19 September 1485, when MarcoBarberigo was still a procurator of San Marco, Pietro de Fossis, born inFrance or Flanders, was appointed as a singer and awarded an exceptionallyhigh annual salary at the Cappella ducale in San Marco. In 1491 AgostinoBarberigo appointed the singer as the first maestro of the Cappella ducale, in abid to engage in competition with the pope’s Cappella pontificia in Rome.With the appointment of Pietro de Fossis, the office of maestro di Cappella


ducale gained a high level of prestige, which explains his annual salary of 70ducats, while Giovanni Bellini and Alvise Vivarini received 10 ducats fewer,the same number as the organist of San Marco.50

It was recently proposed that this painting, dated 1488, was found in thedoge’s private residence in Venice during his lifetime, and that, based on theprovisions of his will, it was moved from there to the church of Santa Mariadegli Angeli in Murano.51 Based on a more precise examination of this doc-ument, however, the identification of the first-named location must be reject-ed.52 In his detailed will, Agostino Barbarigo specified that the large palashould be deposited in the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where it wasto be set up on the high altar of the church with the appropriate ornamenta-tion, that is to say, surrounded by a frame with figures. The current locationof the panel is given as ‘la crozola de el palazzo’, and Barbarigo explicitly for-bids his heirs, his son-in-law, his daughter and grandchildren from setting upthe panel in his large house (‘la caxa granda nostra’) or at any other locationbesides the high altar of the church in the above-named convent. The ‘palaz-zo’ named by Barbarigo in his will can only be the Doge’s Palace, which mustbe distinguished from his own large house opposite the church of SanTrovaso.53 This accords with contemporary Venetian idioms, which were forthe most part followed well into the eighteenth century: the term palazzo wasreserved for the Doge’s Palace, while private homes, regardless of their degreesof splendour, were always referred to by the terms casa or casa grande (‘house’or ‘large house’).

The relevant passage in Agostino Barbarigo’s will reads:

At the same time, we specify that our large Pala, which is found in ‘lacrozola’ of the palace should be sent to the above-mentioned cloister ofthe S. Maria degli Angeli. And so that the figure of the Madonna withAngels should be as suitable as possible to being set up on the large altarof a church, our commissary should have them ornamented, both belowand on the sides, in a way that is satisfactory to ourselves and to our ven-erable Madonna. And the more quickly this picture is set up in thatlocation, the sooner we can hope to have the divine Virgin Mary as ourintercessor with our most exalted Creator and God. And under no cir-cumstances should either our son-in-law, our daughter, or our grand-children entertain the idea of bringing [this picture] to our large house,nor to any other place besides the high altar of that highly devout andreligious cloister.54

It is possible that the shrewd Agostino Barbarigo requested a symmetricalvotive picture from Giovanni Bellini in order to ensure that he could reusethe image for himself once its titular function for Venice no longer stood inthe foreground. A prototype for this image may have been supplied by theVirgin and Child with Saints executed by Paolo Veneziano for the tomb of thedeceased Doge Francesco Dandolo in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in 1339.Visible in a lunette above the sarcophagus, which rests on two consoles set


high above the floor, is a centrally positioned painting of an enthroned Virginand Child framed by St Francis and St Elizabeth, who commends the dogeand his wife to the Virgin with highly affecting intercessory gestures.Barbarigo’s motive for bequeathing Bellini’s picture to Murano, where it wasto be set up on an altar, must have been the fact that in Venice it was not per-missible to insert portraits into altar paintings – at least until this interdictionwas transgressed in 1526 by the Pesaro family, which acquired a combinationof votive picture and Sacra conversazione from Titian for their tomb in theFrari. Among the typological preconditions for Titian’s Pesaro Madonna isBellini’s Votive Picture of Doge Agostino Barbarigo.

Seen on the left-hand portion of the picture behind the balustrade is alittle copse, and above it a cloud-filled sky. On the right is a terrace and abalustrade that is occupied by three birds: a partridge, a heron and a peacock.Behind appear a bare tree and a castle with many towers on a hillside. In thefar distance is another castle atop a hill. The castle on the first hill resemblesthe one seen through the throne window of the Pesaro altarpiece, whoseresemblance to the Rocca di Gradara near Pesaro has long been noted. Thatthese pictures are actually meant to depict the fortification seized from theMalatesta by Alessandro Sforza in 1463 can be dismissed. As DeborahHoward has correctly noted, the repeated use of the same fortification per-mits the conclusion that it belonged to the workshop’s general repertoire ofbackgrounds.55

The significance of this fortification in both cases can be deduced fromthe Pietà with Two Angels (illus. 59) in the Museo Correr, whose backgroundincludes such a multi-towered, rising structure, which is meant to depict thewalls surrounding the city of Jerusalem. On this basis, we could accept thatin both the Pesaro altarpiece, with the Coronation of the Virgin as its subject,and in the Votive Picture of Doge Agostino Barbarigo the castle structure isintended as an allegory of the Heavenly Jerusalem. According to a four-teenth-century hymn, the ‘castrum muris institum’ (the fortification sur-rounded by a wall) was among Mary’s attributes.56 The symbolic dimensionis also opened up by the birds: the peacock whose flesh was imperishable,according to St Augustine, announces the Annunciation; the partridge orrock partridge alludes to the Imitation of Christ, the heron to the love ofChrist, and the goldfinch on the left-hand side to the Passion.57


opposite:81 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with theVirgin and St John, before 1460, wood. Galleria dell’AccademiaCarrara, Bergamo.

Emotions

Three half-figures appear on the small panel of Giovanni Bellini’s first Pietàwith the Virgin and St John (illus. 81), executed before 1460 and currently onview in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo.1 Mary and John have been setagainst a dark background behind a narrow parapet on either side of thedead Christ. Mary, whose eyes and down-turned mouth express infinite sor-row, gazes at her son’s head, which is crowned with thorns, while holdingone of his bent arms in her own right hand. To the right, John supports oneof Christ’s elbows with one hand while bringing the other up to his face in agesture of lamentation, not unlike that of Donatello’s lamenting angel. John’sgaze is directed towards the spectator, and he expresses his emotional state byhis furrowed brows, partially lowered eyelids, tears flowing down the sidesof his nose and half-opened mouth.

The configuration of the dead Christ together with Mary and John wasfamiliar to fourteenth-century Italy. In 1345 Paolo Veneziano had executed aprotective cover intended for everyday use – a Pala feriale – for the Palad’Oro in San Marco in Venice. It comprises fourteen scenes, with the Man ofSorrows at the centre of the upper register and Mary and John at his sides.2

For his own composition, Giovanni Bellini reused models that had been var-ied repeatedly ever since Giusto da Menabuoi’s altarpiece of circa 1370 in theBaptistery in Padua. The usual location of the Pietà with three figures of thistriadic icon, was the multi-panel altar retable. In works such as the Pragliapolyptych by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d’Alemagna, now in the Brerain Milan, we find a new version of the triadic icon at the centre of the upperregister. In his St Luke polyptych, executed in 1453 for the church of SantaGiustina in Padua, Andrea Mantegna set a unified scene consisting of threeseparate panels and including half-figures of Christ, Mary and John theEvangelist at the centre of the upper register, directly above the panel show-ing St Luke.3

The Pietà with the Virgin and St John, with SS Mark and Nicholas (illus.82) was probably painted in the early 1460s for the chapel of San Nicola inthe Doge’s Palace.4 This painting on canvas was removed from its originallocation in 1525. In 1571 it was enlarged and painted over, and was finally

iv

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82 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with theVirgin and St John, with SS Mark andNicholas, c. 1460–65, canvas. PalazzoDucale, Venice.

restored and reduced in size in 1948. Attempts at determining its authorshipor date of execution are complicated by its ruinous condition. A collaborationbetween Gentile and Giovanni for this commission for the Doge’s Palacecannot be ruled out.5 In comparison to the first attempt in Bergamo, theexpression of anguish, in which the dead Christ is also involved, has beenheightened to the point of exaggeration. The mouths of all three figures areopened as though they are crying out, and the result is a visible song oflamentation in three voices.

Giovanni Bellini’s reformulation of the triadic icon that has received thegreatest attention is the Pietà (illus. 83) in Milan. It takes up the motif ofChrist’s downward-falling arm that extends forward, and that of the figure ofJohn turning away, while restricting the motif of the cry of sorrow to John.The inventory of 1795 of the collection of Marchese Luigi Sampieri in Bolognalists this painting among works that were displayed in the second room of thegallery: ‘Nostro Signore, la Beata Vergine, ed un Appostolo. Di Giovanni Bellini.In Tavola, mezza figura’.6 In 1811 the Pietà entered the Pinacoteca of theAccademia di Brera in Milan as a gift from Eugène Beauharnais, Viceroy ofItaly and ‘Principe di Venezia’, adding to the collection of Venetian paintingsassembled between 1808 and 1809, primarily through confiscation.7

The Pietà in the Brera shows Christ as the Man of Sorrows betweenMary and John the Evangelist. He is depicted as a standing half-figure in asarcophagus whose anterior wall serves the function of a parapet – a parapetto.On this new presentation of the subject, Roger Fry writes: ‘The subject in thisform is derived by Giovanni from Jacopo; but the changes introduced by theson are significant of his greater depth of feeling.’ Fry was aware of no otherPietà that rendered the tenderness and intimacy of grief to a comparabledegree, and emphasized the new humanization in the expression of divinesuffering: ‘The sorrow which Bellini has here conceived is divine only in itsexcess of humanity.’8 In contrast to all of the visual references for Bellini’scomposition cited here, his three figures are shown under a naturalistic skyand in front of a landscape background. As in the Imago pietatis (illus. 58) inthe Museo Poldi Pezzoli, the light that here endows the figures – especially


83 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà, c. 1465–70,wood. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

the body of Christ – with a relief-like three-dimensionality is that of evening.Unlike that image, here the landscape opens towards the city in the distanceonly on the side of the Virgin, while the sky shades off from the bright streaksof twilight into a leaden grey covering suggestive of the Sirocco.

Except for his loincloth, the body of the dead Christ is naked, and hisenervation is vividly depicted through his head, which sinks to the side, hisslack arm and crumpled left hand. The Virgin brings her face into tenderproximity to her son’s head, which is inclined towards her own, while hold-ing his right hand by the wrist at breast height in partial conformity to theByzantine type of the Imago pietatis. John holds Christ’s body in his outspreadleft hand, but turns his head away in an expression of suffering and lamenta-tion. Christ’s left arm hangs downwards, while his folded, powerless handlies on the edge of the sarcophagus. Affixed directly beneath his bent fingersis the cartellino with its Latin inscription. In 1985 Hans Belting called atten-tion to the significance of this inscription, whose interpretation entails consid-erable difficulties.9 Two different translations are possible. The first wouldbe: ‘Every time the swollen eyes elicit lamentations from [the beholder], this

Invention | 97

84 Giovanni Bellini, Raffael Zovenzoni,c. 1474, parchment. BibliotecaTrivulziana, Milan.

work of Bellini Giovanni could [and can] weep’. A second and more gram-matically correct translation would read: ‘Since these swollen eyes consistentlyelicit lamentations from [the beholder ], this work by Bellini Giovanni had[and still has] the power to weep [itself].’10 Since Belting, various interpreta-tions have been proposed. Despite philological disagreements, all agree thatthe inscription formalizes a repeatable interaction between image and beholder,according to which the latter evidently erupts in lamentation in the face of thepainting’s expression of suffering (the swollen eyelids), while in turn Bellini’simage as a whole is said to be capable of breaking into tears in response tothe viewer. The inscription demonstrates the mode of interaction that wasestablished above with reference to the devotional image.


The inscription was derived from an elegy by the Latin poet SextusPropertius (50–15 bc) from Umbria. The penultimate elegy in the first bookconsists of a fictive inscription for the cenotaph of his friend Gallus, who fellin the Perusian War in 41 bc after Caesar’s assassination. In this fictitiousspeech, the deceased warrior turns to the poet with the question: ‘Why doyou turn with swollen eyes away from my lament?’11 While the first editionof the Elegies of Propertius appeared in Venice in 1472 in a volume thatincluded the Elegies of Tibullus and the Carminae of Catullus, the Elegies ofPropertius had in fact already been diffused in numerous manuscriptsduring the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.12 One of these was in thepossession of Petrarch, who in 1362 resolved to bequeath his library to thecity of Venice, thereby providing the city’s ‘wise and noble burghers’ withperpetual delectation.13

It has yet to be determined who composed the inscription for Bellini’sPietà and who commissioned the work. Among the potential authors is thepoet Raffael Zovenzoni from Trieste (illus. 84), who was portrayed byGiovanni Bellini around 1474 for the collection of Zovenzoni’s Latin poemsassembled for Giovanni Hinderbach, bishop of Trent.14 Zovenzoni, born in1434, was about the same age as Bellini, and circa 1474 was living in theparish of Saint Bartolomeo in Venice, thus in the painter’s vicinity. Zovenzonipraised Bellini for his skill as a portraitist, comparing him with Apelles, themost celebrated painter of antiquity. But this poet must be excluded as apossible author of the inscription for Bellini’s Pietà, since he would surelyhave been capable of formulating a Latin text correctly.

In 1971 Michael Baxandall proposed identifying Andrea Mantegna’sengraving of the Entombment (illus. 85) with a master sheet that follows LeonBattista Alberti’s theory of historia. The indications for this are the number offigures, the depiction of the dead body, the sense of corporeal and spiritualmovement and the festaiuolo in the form of John, who suggests emotion to

85 Andrea Mantegna, The Entomb-ment, c. 1470, engraving. Eidgen-össische Technische Hochschule,Zürich (Graphische Sammlung).

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the beholder.15 In 1985 Hans Belting interpreted Bellini’s Pietà as a counter-model to a Venetian interpretation of Alberti’s theory of art. Instead of dra-matic effects, Bellini attempts to create lyrical depth with his close-up viewof animate or dead individuals, and with the inscription attempts to rivalclassical poetry.16

In his treatise on painting, Alberti asserts that the emotional effect of theimage on the beholder constitutes the highest aim of painting. For the trans-mission of affects from the depicted figures to the mind of the beholder,Alberti is oriented towards remarks on classical rhetoric, borrowing fromCicero and Quintilian the notion that the physical expressiveness of thespeaker in the actio is more important for emotional effect than words, sincegesture and physiognomic expression are immediately comprehensible. WithHorace’s Ars poetica, Alberti invoked the natural correspondence betweenindividuals and the exhibited affects. Hence Alberti formulated the followingprecondition for the transmission of affects: if the beholder is to be moved,then the depicted figures must clearly display their own mental agitation out-wardly. Since such mental agitation can be perceived only through outwardbodily movements, the painter must be as familiar with the movements of thebody as he is with the physical expression of such inner agitation. But Albertialso demanded that all the bodies in an image ‘must move in concert accord-ing to a certain mutual harmony’, and that all the objects in the image mustcorrespond to the events transpiring there.17 The concept of concinnitas, intro-duced by Alberti for the composition of figures and for colours, paves the wayfor the idea that emotional expression ought not to be restricted to individualfigures, but must instead encompass the image as a whole.

The inscription on Bellini’s Pietà combines this idea with the notion ofan interaction between image and beholder. The inscription, however, notonly enhances the relationship between image and beholder.18 Rather, itintroduces a new idea into the realm of aesthetic lifelikeness, one that hasbeen understood since Alberti in relationship to the emotional or physicalmovements of depicted figures, and one that was described by Nicholas ofCusa as the alert and watchful gaze of an icon of Christ.19 By analogy withthe aesthetic lifelikeness of a depicted figure, the inscription asserts that theimage as a whole – Bellini’s opus – is capable of bursting into tears.

Poetry

In the Dialogo di pittura of 1548 by the Venetian painter Paolo Pino, aVenetian, Lauro, and a Florentine, Fabio, discuss the seemingly antiquatedquestion of whether painting should be regarded as one of the mechanical orone of the liberal arts. In favour of categorizing painting as one of the fourmathematical liberal arts (geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy), Fabiosubmits a far-reaching rationale, following this with a bold assertion concern-ing the art of painting:


[Painting] is a type of poetry which not only compels belief, but alsorenders sayings visible: the heavens, emblazoned by the sun, the moonand the stars, the rain, snow and fog created by the wind, the water andthe earth; it allows us to enjoy the manifold phenomena of springtime,the beauty of summer, and makes us huddle together before depictionsof the cold, damp winter season.20

Fabio defines painting as the imitation of all natural phenomena, andsubdivides it into disegno, invenzione and colorire: drawing, invention andcolouring. The author, Pino, attributes to Fabio the contention that paintingis poetry, further specifying that invention is first of all the ingenious, praise-worthy and rare capacity for discovering poetry and histories. Secondly,invention also encompasses the capacity for differentiating, ordering anddividing well those things said by others, and furthermore for harmonizingthe actions of the figures in relation to the scene, while embellishing the workwith a great diversity of contrasting figures, animals and perspectives. In cir-cumscribing invention, Fabio uses Alberti’s exposition on composition con-tained in his second book on the art of painting.21 This is followed once againby the assertion that painting is poetry. This assertion is no longer based onthe imitation of things, but instead on invention, which enables things toappear that do not actually exist: ‘And painting, hence, is actually poetry,meaning a form of invention which allows things to appear that do not actu-ally exist’.22

In the first chapter of his book on painting, written in Padua around1400 and primarily concerned with the craft of painting, Cennino Cenninimakes several brief yet fundamental remarks on the status of the art of paint-ing, on the demands made on the painter and on his freedom. Painting, hesays, is based on handicraft and fantasy, since it is a question of discoveringunseen or never before seen things and fixing them with the labour of thehands in order to display that which does not exist. For this reason, paintingmust be accorded a secondary position after science, and crowned togetherwith poetry. From this Cennini derives the painter’s claim to be entitled tothe same freedom enjoyed by the poet, who connects and conjoins thingsaccording to his fancy: ‘In the same way the painter is given freedom to com-pose a figure, standing, seated, half-man, half-horse, as he pleases, accordingto his imagination (fantasia).’23 The assertion of this free conjoining of manand horse to create a centaur runs directly counter to the Ars poetica ofHorace, who, while attributing the same audacity to both poet and painter,rejected such ludicrous inventions with reference to the example of thechimera. This expansion of freedom in the direction of amusement and arbi-trariness is well known, but more important is the fact that Cennini relatesthis artistic freedom first and foremost to compositions with figures, a realmfor which the painter is responsible.24

For Alberti, who always insisted on the observation and imitation ofnature by the artist, invention and imitation are not antipodes. With regardto invention, he named the following preconditions: the painter should

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86 Nicoletto da Modena, Apelles, c. 1507, engraving. KunstmuseumBasel (Kupferstichkabinett).

master geometry (the foundation of painting), whilebeing sufficiently well educated to enjoy the companyof poets and rhetoricians, who can be helpful in com-posing pictures. Alberti sees the success of a paintingprincipally dependent upon inventio, which can alsogive pleasure without being translated into painting,and for which Lucian’s description of Calumny byApelles serves as an examplar. Apelles’ lost paintingis said to have surpassed this description in grace andcharm. On Apelles’ invention, Alberti based the pres-tige and fame of the painter in relation to the man ofletters. This posed the question of the position of rhet-oric (or poetry) and painting, and the status of theirexponents.

This problem was taken up by Nicoletto daModena in his engraving Apelles (illus. 86), which hasbeen dated circa 1507. In a landscape with ruins, themost celebrated painter of antiquity stands before hismonument, which is decorated by a pair of brokencolumns, and meditates over a panel containing geo-metric figures. The inscription on the base includes hisname and refers to him as a mute poet and formerly ofgreat fame: poeta tacentes a tempo svo ciliberimvs.Below the inscription are a pair of compasses and a pot

containing paintbrushes. The laurel wreath of the poeta laureatus claims forApelles the rank and distinction of a poet; the geometric figures allude to thescientific basis of his art; and the angles and compasses confirm the precisionof such work in a way that is related to Filarete and Pacioli; while the brokencolumns, finally, testify to the transitoriness of earthly might – just as at thetomb of Archimedes in Syracuse.25

To be sure, Giovanni Bellini staked out no claim to the rank of poet, incontrast to his brother-in-law Mantegna, who embellished his bronze self-portrait, intended for his sepulchral chapel, with a laurel wreath, andthrough its tondo form made it into an imago clipeata, the depiction of a cel-ebrated personality.26 In his book of 1648, containing Mantegna’s self-portraitwith a laurel wreath (illus. 87), Carlo Ridolfi took up Mantegna’s claim.Highly illuminating for Bellini’s position in relation to the question of inven-tion are his lengthy discussions with Isabella d’Este (illus. 88) concerning apainting for her studiolo in Mantua. The mistress of Mantua wanted toassemble paintings by the most celebrated painters of Italy in her studiolo,adding them to works by her court painter Mantegna, who had already exe-cuted his Parnassus (illus. 89) and Minerva Chasing the Vices from the Gardenof Virtue.27 These almost seamlessly documented negotiations between themarchesa and her agents and Giovanni Bellini have been analysed manytimes.28 Participating in these communications, which lasted more than nineyears, were (besides the marchesa and Giovanni Bellini) the agent Michele


87 Jacob Picinus, Andrea Mantegna,etching and engraving, from CarloRidolfi, Le Meraviglie dell’Arte(Venice, 1648).

88 Leonardo da Vinci, Isabella d’Este,c. 1500, pastel. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

89 Andrea Mantegna, Parnassus, c. 1497, canvas. Musée du Louvre,Paris.

Vianello and the instrument-maker Lorenzo da Pavia, both in Venice, aswell as the poet and courtier Pietro Bembo.

In 1496 Isabella d’Este learned that Giovanni Bellini was willing to accepta contract for her studiolo. Yet nothing occurred during the ensuing five years.In March 1501 Isabella was informed by her agent Vianello that Bellini – whowas currently preoccupied with work for the Doge’s Palace and other commis-sions – had given assurances that he would execute a storia according to theinstructions of the marchesa within the coming year and a half. In June 1501,after the marchesa had succeeded in having the price reduced from 150 to 100ducats and the deadline for delivery shortened to one year, Bellini received adown payment of 25 ducats and instructions concerning the painting’s subjectmatter. As in the case of commissions awarded to Pietro Perugino, theseinstructions must have consisted of detailed descriptions of the prescribed sub-ject, referred to by Isabella as ‘la poetica nostra invenzione’ (‘our poetic inven-tion’), and intended for translation into painted form without alteration.Perugino even received his detailed descriptions accompanied by a small sketch,and with an explicit injunction to add absolutely nothing of his own invention.On the other hand, he was permitted to omit some of the ancillary figuresshould the available space prove too restricted for such a large number.29

With these prescriptions, the noble client created serious difficulties forher artist, and even endangered the commission.30 Still in the same month, heragent reported that Giovanni Bellini, while indeed an assiduous worker, hadfound that he could not make a good picture from such a bad storia, andfeared that in the end his picture would be vulnerable both to the judgementsof the marchesa and to comparisons with the work of Mantegna. The agentreported that Bellini believed he could serve his mistress much better if shewould grant him the freedom to paint what he pleased. At this point, themarchesa withdrew her own subject and expressed her approval: the paintercould depict a history or an antique fable ‘according to his own invention’,which was to include something from antiquity and to be of finer significance.In August 1501 the agent Lorenzo da Pavia sent word to Mantua explainingthat Bellini had promised ‘una bela fantasia’ (‘a beautiful invention’) for thepainting, but had not yet begun work. At the same time, the agent recom-mended that the marchesa commission a painting from Perugino during herstay in Florence, since Bellini was in the habit of working very slowly.31

In Perugino’s case, Isabella imposed a pictorial invention that had beenelaborated by her adviser Paride da Ceresara; but Bellini had succeeded incompelling her to withdraw her own proposed programme. Bellini wouldnot agree to be confined to realizing a pre-established subject. This con-frontation pertained to the assignment of responsibility for inventing pictori-al ideas, to the conceptualization of the creative process and the status of theartist in relation to the client.32 Bellini regarded the invention of composi-tional programmes to be the task of the painter, and he was able to enforcethis claim in relation to Isabella d’Este because, in contrast to his brother-in-law, he was not a subject of Mantua, but a cittadino of the Republic of Venice.Meanwhile, Isabella saw herself not only as Bellini’s client and social superior,


90 Lorenzo Costa, The Coronation of a Poetess, 1504–6, canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

but also as a poetess and tenth Muse. In 1504 her continuing difficultieswith Giovanni Bellini prompted her to look around for other artists.Recommended to her was Lorenzo Costa from Ferrara, who was active inBologna. In accordance with the prescriptions of the client, he painted hisCoronation of a Poetess (illus. 90) for Isabella’s studiolo. Paride da Ceresara’sinvenzione for this work has not survived. Costa’s picture shows a broad land-scape divided into two zones: on the right-hand side, as the setting for thecoronation, an elevated grove, a garden of harmony, and on the left-handside, on the lower level, a joust between knights, as well as a ship anchoredin an inlet. The coronation group is symmetrically ordered, with Venus,Cupid and the poeta laureata at the centre. Among the members of a grouparranged in a circle are a female musician (Harmonia) and a musician withstringed instruments, as well as Pythagoras and mythological figures such asDiana with her bow and arrow to the right and Cadmus with his halberd tothe left.33 In 2004 Stephen Campbell proposed identifying the crowned poetas Sappho, who had enjoyed favour with Boccaccio and Poliziano as theinventor of poetry and of the mixolydian mode, and called attention towardssupposed parallels between this poet and Isabella d’Este.

The marchesa was so disappointed with Giovanni Bellini that, on 15September 1502, she wrote to her agent Vianello that she was withdrawingher order for the studiolo picture, and instead wanted a presepio (Nativity)showing the Virgin and Child with SS Joseph and John the Baptist, alongwith the animals, that is, the ox and the donkey. Bellini declared his readi-ness to paint such a picture, and moreover in the same format and for thesame price as the previously agreed-upon storia. Isabella would not agree to

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91 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and St Elisabeth, c. 1500, wood. StädtischeGalerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut,Frankfurt am Main.

this, since the new proposal involved fewer figures, and she offered him 40or 50 ducats for a small-format painting intended for her bedchamber, spec-ifying that he should feel free to deliver one of his latest Madonnas. Belliniwas unwilling to combine the birth of Jesus with John the Baptist in accor-dance with Isabella’s prescriptions, and instead offered to execute a paintingin half-figures including the Virgin, the Child and John the Baptist, as wellas a landscape and ‘altra fantaxia’, that is, including additional elements tobe invented by the artist. Isabella agreed to this proposal, but also desired aSt Jerome, explicitly authorizing ‘le altre inventione’ (‘other inventions’)according to the judgement of the artist, and fixing the price at a non-nego-tiable 50 ducats, provided delivery proceeded promptly. Just ten days later,she expressed her desire for the presepio as well, while granting Bellini per-mission to omit John the Baptist.34 Two years later, not before issuing threatsof serious sanctions, Isabella received a painting from Bellini, upon which shehad 25 ducats sent to him. There is no question of a presepio, and the price of50 ducats suggests that, in accordance with her understanding of 1502, shehad received a Sacra conversazione in half-figures of the type that GiovanniBellini and his workshop produced in numerous variants. The model maybe identified with the versions in Frankfurt am Main (illus. 91) or Urbino,


92 Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Man(Pietro Bembo), 1500–05, wood. RoyalCollection, London.

possibly executed around 1500, or with a version containing a larger numberof invented accessories, such as the Virgin and Child with St John the Baptistand a Female Saint (Sacra Conversazione Giovanelli) (illus. 173), which is dat-able to circa 1505.35 In a letter dated 9 July 1504 Isabella promised to forgivethe artist all of his affronts should his picture correspond to his fame, whilerefusing to renounce her intention of acquiring a presepio from Bellini’s handfor her studiolo.

Pietro Bembo (illus. 92), the learned courier and poet, was commis-sioned with the task of intervening with the painter. In January 1505 Bemboinformed Isabella that the painter would be glad to serve her. With regard tothe ‘invenzione’ that was to be elaborated for the painter on commissionfrom Isabella, Bembo stated that it must be adapted to the painter’s ‘fantasia’,for he was accustomed to ‘di sempre vagare a sua voglia nelle pitture’

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93 Giorgione or Titian, The Adorationof Shepherds (Allendale Nativity),1505 /10, wood. National Gallery ofArt, Washington, dc.

(‘finding his way around his paintings according to his own pleasure’).Bembo advised the marchesa, who still wanted to acquire a picture fromBellini’s own hand for her studiolo, to address a friendly letter to the artist.Isabella followed his counsel, requesting an additional painting, expressingher agreement with the theme of the Nativity of Christ, and ceding to him allresponsibility for the poetic invention.36 Whether or not Bellini actuallyfulfilled this commission remains unknown. It has been proposed that theAdoration of the Shepherds (the Allendale Nativity) (illus. 93), which is attrib-uted to either Giorgione or Titian, should be regarded as a response to Bellini’spainting of the Nativity of Christ for Isabella d’Este.37

Even in relation to a noble client, and one whose husband, FrancescoGonzaga, occasionally served as military leader of the Serenissima, the VenetianBellini, state painter of the Venetian Republic, was able to prevail in his respect-ful yet persistent expressed demands for control over artistic invention. Hechose inattentiveness and tardiness as methods for indirectly conveying his posi-tion, but quite clearly expressed his judgement of the invention that was to beimposed on him. The instrument-maker Lorenzo da Pavia responded withincomprehension, regarding Bellini as incapable of painting istorie, although hewas aware of the fact that Bellini had designed and executed storie for both theScuola Grande di San Marco and the Doge’s Palace, and was still active withcommissions for the palace. Apart from several scenes for predellas, none ofBellini’s narrative paintings has survived. A design such as the one seen onpaper in Berlin (illus. 94) could serve to investigate the verdict of ‘incapacity’.Shown here is an episode from the life of St Mark in Alexandria, in which a


94 Giovanni Bellini (attrib.), St MarkHealing the Cobbler Ananias, c. 1485,pen on paper. Gemäldegalerie Berlin.

cobbler, who has injured himself while working, is shown being healed by thesaint.38 Lorenzo da Pavia’s attempt to attribute this invention to a poet indicatesthat in his judgement Bellini was incapable of inventing istoria.

When Isabella and her agents referred to a storia or to an istoria, theymeant a narrative or allegory taking a textual form. This colloquial notioncoincided only partially with Alberti’s concept of historia, described by him asthe ‘ultimum et absolutum pictoris opus’ (‘the highest and most absolute workof the painter’). Such a work resulted first from art, which was entrusted to thehand of the artist, and which was subdivided into description, composition,illumination and colouration, and secondly from invention, which emergedfrom the painter’s ingenium. A work of this kind exercised classical effects onthe beholder.39 The customary restriction of Alberti’s historia to pictorial nar-ratives or to later history painting is unjustified. Instead, compositions withfigures, architecture and landscape must be grouped under the category histo-ria, defined as the painter’s great opus, which demands all of the art of his handand all of the inventiveness of his ingenium. During the period when GiovanniBellini asserted his artistic claims in relation to Isabella, he had VettorGambella execute his portrait medallion (illus. 24), whose reverse displays anowl and the motto virtvtis e[t] ingenii: perspicacity, strength and ingenium.

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95 Giovanni Bellini, St Francis in theDesert, 1475–80, wood. Frick Collection,New York.

Song and Light

In the house of Taddeo Contarini in Venice in 1525, Marcantonio Michiellisted a series of extraordinary paintings. Contarini, who owned no preciousobjects besides paintings, could with justice be numbered with Albertiamong the artis studiosi, the committed connoisseurs of art. In Contarini’spossession were three paintings by Giorgione, two by Jacopo Palma ilVecchio, two by Giovanni Bellini, and an anonymous work from Milan andanother from Brescia. One of the paintings by Bellini was a portrait of awoman, now lost; the other, which entered the Frick Collection in New Yorkin 1915, depicts St Francis in the Desert (illus. 95). Of extraordinary interest isMichiel’s notation of 1525: ‘The panel of St Francis in the wilderness, in oil,was the work of Giovanni Bellini, begun by him for Messer GiovanniMichiel, and it has a landscape close by, marvellously finished and studied.’40


96 Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni),Stigmatization of St Francis, 1430–32,wood. National Gallery, London.

Apparently, Giovanni Michiel provided the initialcommission, which was then passed along for reasonsyet to be ascertained. Marcantonio Michiel’s designa-tion of the subject, St Francis in the desert or wilder-ness, is remarkable, and Michiel used the expressionpaese to refer to the marvellous landscape, whileIsabella d’Este around 1500, for example, still used thelovely term luntani, meaning ‘view into the distance’.The word paese occurs often in Michiel’s descriptionsof Venetian collections. In 1521, for example, he notedthe presence of ‘molte tavolette de paesi’ in the houseof Cardinal Grimani, and in 1530, in the home ofGabriel Vendramin, he refers to Giorgione’s Tempestas ‘A small landscape, on canvas, with a thunderstorm,a gipsy, and a soldier, by the hand of Giorgio ofCastelfranco’.41

Michiel notwithstanding, the determination ofthe subject of Bellini’s painting of St Francis in thedesert encountered unexpected difficulties.42 Thereasons for this lay in its deviations from establishedFranciscan iconography. Millard Meiss summarizes hisresearches as follows: ‘As an ecstatic St Francis in anextended landscape, Bellini’s painting would thus seemto be both unprecedented and unique until a muchlater time’.43 Meiss referred to the former high altar-piece for the church of San Francesco in BorgoSansepolcro, commissioned from Sassetta (Stefano diGiovanni) in 1437, painted in Siena and installed by theartist in June 1444 in its intended setting.44 One side of the central panel of thisaltar shows an enthroned Virgin and Child surrounded by music-makingangels; the other shows St Francis within a mandorla of angels, as he triumphsover the Vices with outstretched arms (illus. 96). The three subjugated Vices ofLasciviousness, Ire and Miserliness are complemented by three angels person-ifying Chastity, Obedience and Poverty hovering above the saint. Sassetta rep-resents St Francis ‘in Gloria’.45 Meiss assumes that Bellini’s painting depicts anepisode from the saint’s life, which he tries to identify. An idea proposed byKenneth Clark in 1949, that the saint is shown in the act of composing theCanticle to the Sun, is rejected by Meiss on the grounds that his pose is recep-tive rather than creative, and that the setting must be a hut in the vicinity of theconvent of San Damiano outside Assisi. Bellini did not follow the prevailingrepresentation of the stigmatization – although earlier, in the predella of thehigh altarpiece for the church of San Francesco in Pesaro, he had adhered tothe standard iconography, according to which Francis is shown kneelingbefore a hovering crucified seraph from which he receives the wounds in hishands (illus. 97). Brother Leo, conceived as an eyewitness, conventionallymakes his status known with a gesture of astonishment. Instead, Bellini shows

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97 Giovanni Bellini, Stigmatization ofSt Francis, 1470–75, wood. MuseoCivico, Pesaro.


Leo reading, paying no attention to the miracle. Similarly, in both of the draw-ings in the two books now in Paris and London, Giovanni’s father, Jacopo,shows Brother Leo reading, but otherwise adheres to the traditional iconogra-phy – with one exception: the radiance emitted by the seraph, which causes thestigmata to appear, is omitted (illus. 98).46

Meiss attempts to salvage the thesis that Bellini’s painting of St Francisin the desert represents a stigmatization: ‘[Bellini] took the bold step of sym-bolising a supernatural power in a Stigmatization not by a seraph but by apartly natural, partly unnatural radiation in the sky.’47 Despite the fact thatboth the radiance and stigmata are missing, other scholars have attempted tosupport the thesis of a stigmatization by assuming that the seraph was pres-ent in a now apparently lost upper section of the picture.48 Numerous subse-

98 Jacopo Bellini, Stigmatization of St Francis, 1430–55, brown ink, fromBellini book of drawings. Musée duLouvre, Paris.

quent proposals have purported to identify a reference text for this scenefrom the wide-ranging literature on St Francis.49 Such endeavours overlookthe fundamental question of whether or not this image can be traced back totextual sources at all, whether one or several. As a rule, iconographical analy-ses do not pose this question. Is it conceivable that a painting such as StFrancis in the Desert was not invented on the basis of textual sources? Orcould it be instead that texts played only a subsidiary role here, and that inthis instance the primacy of the text assumed by iconography was reversed byBellini? Can we concede the possibility that Bellini composed his St Francison the basis of visual, and not textual precedents?

A depiction of Francis in this pose was unprecedented: striding for-wards with one outstretched leg and slightly outspread arms, the upper bodyarched backwards, the gaze directed upwards. This is a pose of reverenceand pious surrender, but not of rapture. A similar if not in all respects iden-tical pose is seen in Andrea Mantegna’s Man of Sorrows in his St Luke altar-piece, which was set up in Santa Giustina in Padua 1454/5.50 Francis’s atti-tude corresponds to that of the dead Christ in Michele Giambono’s Pietà(illus. 99) in New York, which dates from circa 1430. Christ, crowned withthorns, stands in a sarcophagus that is covered with a cloth, in front of the

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beams of the cross and against a gold ground. His armsfall downwards in front of the sarcophagus, the palmsturned outward. The crown of thorns and the bloodfrom the wounds are rendered in plaster in three dimen-sions and painted. Flowing from the stigmata are thinthreads of blood that are drawn towards the small figureof Francis, who kneels behind the sarcophagus. This isan unusual depiction of the stigmatization.51 Bellinishows St Francis in the attitude of such an Imago pietatis,thereby pointing out the similarity between Christ andthe saint, who is depicted elsewhere displaying thestigmatization. Titian, who cites Bellini’s Francis in hisMadonna of the Pesaro Family (illus. 100) of 1519–26 forthe Franciscan church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari,has the saint assume the same pose in order to commendthe family of Benedetto Pesaro to the infant Jesus.52

Titian reinterpreted Francis’s pose in the context of anact of intercessio, of intercession, an act of speech. In aneffort to interpret Francis’s attitude, Jaynie Andersoncites a woodcut appearing in Franchinus Gaffurius’Pratica musicae of 1512, which contains a figure withslightly outspread arms among the singers (illus. 101).53

This image demonstrates that a pose similar to the oneassumed by St Francis could be used to depict someonewho is singing. Since Bellini’s St Francis has his mouth

slightly open, it seems plausible to take up again the proposal that he is shownhere singing, albeit without renewing the unverifiable claim that he is inton-ing the Canticle of the Sun.

Francis presents himself to the light of the sun, and Bellini depicts thepresence of sunlight in this image: originating from a light source locatedoutside the picture on the upper left, the sunlight falls on a laurel tree thatbends inwards into the picture, and onto the town and fortress in the back-ground, and onto the field with the herd in the middle ground, while alsoilluminating the cliffs that tower above one another. The light falls withoutinterruption onto the figure of the saint, clad in the habit of his order, ontothe lectern with its book, and onto the death’s head, while also singling outthe little pergola with its grapevines. The light falls in a similar way in allthree versions of St Jerome in the Desert (illus. 102), among which the largeversion in Florence may have been executed during the same period as theNew York St Francis, between 1475 and 1480. The layouts of both pictures –the piled-up and layered cliffs on the right, the open landscape, the town, themountain surmounted by a castle – are closely related. But Jerome sits withhis back to the light in a way that suitably illuminates the book he is reading,while St Francis faces the light in a broad landscape.

For his presentation of Francis, Bellini actualized a variety of problems.One of these is the under-researched relationship between the optical and the


99 Michele Giambono, Pietà, c. 1430,wood. Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York.

100 Titian, detail of St Francisfrom Madonna of the Pesaro Family,1519–26, canvas. Church of S. MariaGloriosa del Frari, Venice.

101 Singing Monks, woodcut fromFranchino Gaffurio, Pratica Musicae(Venice, 1512).

overleaf:(left) 102 Giovanni Bellini, St Jeromein the Desert, 1475–80, wood. Galleriadegli Uffizi, Florence.

(right) 103 Giovanni Bellini,Transfiguration, about 1460, wood.Museo Civico Correr, Venice.

acoustic, between light and tone, through which both the painting and thebeholder are carried to the limits of art and of perception. The problem wasdiscovered by Bellini in the Pietà in Milan and named in an inscription. Hewould never again be free of it. The other problem is the relationship betweennatural and transcendental light. This problem of conversion preoccupiedBellini subsequently in his Transfiguration and Annunciation. The third prob-lem is the transcendence of the landscape, or actually, of the world vedute.This question is raised insistently in St Francis in the Desert. Plants, animals,the desert, the town, the castle: the objects contained in the picture are inter-woven into a symbolic text about humility (the donkey), sinfulness (the greyheron), the Eucharist (the grapevines), redemption (the fig tree), the Lord’sprovidence (the water that the bird drinks) and divine inspiration (the light),to the promise of the hereafter (in the form of the Heavenly Jerusalem). Theview of the world offered by Bellini’s singing St Francis bathed in light is per-meated by signs that must be understood as religious symbols.

The Transfiguration

The first version of the Transfiguration (illus. 103) in the Museo Correr inVenice dates from around 1460, and was intended for a polyptych.54 Thepanel has been cut down above, and in the process a red patch from one of

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104 Giovanni Bellini, Transfiguration,1478/79, wood. Museo e GallerieNazionale di Capodimonte, Naples.

the seraphs has remained. Christ in white robes stands on Mount Taborbetween Moses and Elijah, while the apostles Peter, James and John rest on astrip of grass between two rocky steps. Visible on the lower step on the rightis a tree stump, beside which a new branch grows upwards, bearing leaves.The foreground is divided between a meadow with blossoming flowers anda pool with a ruffled surface. Inscribed on the plaque is a verse from Job 19:21: ‘Miseremini.mei.saltem / vos.amici.mei’ (‘Have mercy on mine, havemercy on mine, my friend’). The severed tree-trunk with its new growth, thewater, the invocation of Job, who maintained his faith in the Redeemerthrough all adversity, suggest that Bellini’s first Transfiguration was in someway connected to a funeral.55

In a second version of The Transfiguration (illus. 104), which followed in1478–9, Giovanni Bellini took extraordinary liberties with 900 years of icono-graphic tradition.56 He neglected the topographic element, referred to explic-itly in St Mark’s Gospel (9: 1) as a ‘high mountain’ (‘mons excelsus’). In Bellini’spainting, the setting for these events is a flat area that is delimited on the rightby a town, and on the left by buildings set atop a hill. The rocky barrier in frontof the apostles and the cliffs rising on the right-hand side, contained by a fence,


refer symbolically to the wanderings of Jesus with his apostles, while at thesame time closing off the picture space to beholders.

A text on Moses’ scroll dates the Transfiguration of 1478–9 to the year5239 of the Jewish calendar, that is, between September 1478 and October1479. The inscription and its dating were decoded for the first time on theencouragement of Meinolf Dalhoff.57 After the portrait of Jörg Fugger of1474, the Transfiguration is the second dated painting by Bellini, and the soledated work from the important second half of the 1470s.58 Its original desti-nation is unknown. The horizontal format with the dimensions of 116 x 154centimetres suggests neither a private nor a public function. The verticalTransfiguration (illus. 105) in Berlin, which measures 148 x 128 centimetres,originally stood on an altar endowed by Marin Zorzi in a choir chapel of theVenetian church of San Michele in Isola.59 In 1956 Edoardo Arslan proposedidentifying the Transfiguration in Naples with a work by Giovanni Bellini,which was, at least according to a seventeenth-century document, found for-merly in the chapel of the Fiocardo family in Vicenza Cathedral.60 In his lasttestament of 8 July 1467, the archdeacon Alberto Fiocardo specified, amongother things, that the as yet unfinished chapel that had been reserved for himin Vicenza Cathedral should be elaborately furnished with two monuments,bars that could be locked and polychrome marbles.61 This will, which in gen-eral attempts to provide for all foreseeable details, makes no mention of apainting. Battista Fiocardo, who had been named by Alberti as executor ofhis estate and as his heir, specified in his own will of 8 July 1484 that he want-ed to be interred in a sepulchre designated for this purpose in the ‘CapellaSalvatoris’ that he himself had built in Vicenza Cathedral.62 Bellini alludes toa funereal context with the Mausoleum of Theoderic in Ravenna, visible inthe background below Christ’s left arm. In 1641 the Transfiguration wasentered in the inventory of the Farnese collection in Rome as a work ofGiovanni Bellini.63

At the centre of the picture, dressed in white and assuming the pos-ture of an orator, Christ stands with bent arms between Moses and Elijah,each of whom holds a scroll in one hand while using the other to declare hisrole as a witness. Only a few barely visible radial beams of light behind theclouds indicate the participation of heaven. The synoptic Gospels describethe transfiguration as an optical and acoustic phenomenon: Christ’s face isradiant like the sun, his clothes are luminous white, while a voice cries outfrom a cloud, identifying Jesus as the ‘beloved son’ and demanding that hiswords be heeded. According to Luke 9: 32, the apostles fell asleep, andawoke to the sight of Jesus between the prophets, while the cloud struckterror into their hearts. In Matthew 17: 6 the youths fall onto their faces infear, while in Mark 9: 6 they are confounded by the appearance of thecloud. The voice and the terror of the youths make it clear who is identify-ing Jesus here.

In the second version of the Transfiguration, Bellini concentrates on theproblematic of hearing and seeing: James, who is shown kneeling with onehand stretched out before him, gazing over his left shoulder, expresses terrified

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106 Giovanni Bellini, Christ (fragmentof a Transfiguration), 1500–05, wood.Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.

astonishment. Peter, who mirrors James’s kneeling pose, gazes upwards inthe direction of the cloud from which the voice resounds, which is located,however, outside the picture field, somewhere above the beholder. John hasraised himself from his reclining position, and reaches out with one hand,which, like Peter’s, is covered by his robes, up into the sky above. His gazeis directed neither at Jesus nor in the direction of the cloud, identifying himas being able to hear what is transpiring, yet unable to catch sight of it.Moses and Elijah, the pair of prophets, lower their gazes reverentially.Christ, in his luminous white robes, set in the sunlight-bathed landscape in

opposite:105 Giovanni Bellini, Resurrection, 1475–80, wood.Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

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107 Giovanni Bellini, Fragment withsignature, c. 1500–05, wood. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

front of bands of clouds, presents himself to thebeholder to be recognized in his dual nature as a manwho walks upon the earth yet at the same time revealshis divinity. Bellini manipulates the range of registersinvolving the opposition of and interdependencybetween the visual and the aural. First, he shows howthe three apostles cannot see Christ, yet are able tohear the voice that emerges from the cloud. Second,he shows us the prophets, who can see Christ, butwho look away from him out of deference. And third,the beholder of the image, who can neither enter thespace of the picture nor hear the voice emanatingfrom heaven, is able to gaze upon the transfiguredform of Christ, and to perceive that the apostles arecaught up in the act of listening. The Naples paintingstimulates the interaction of eye and ear, of eye andmemory. The luminous Christ, his head wreathed inbeams of light, presents himself as the lux mundi, the‘light of the world’, as written in verse 8: 12 of StJohn’s Gospel, where Christ, prompting the indigna-tion of the Pharisees, announces himself and promis-es his followers the light of life. At the same time, thelandscape is set with symbolic motifs: to the leftstands a severed tree that springs to new life, whileChrist, situated in the middle distance, has been setagainst a flock of sheep and a city with a church and

mausoleum; on the right is a fortified city, in front of which stands a beard-ed man who addresses a pagan.

Of the third version of the Transfiguration, only two fragments have sur-vived, both found today in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice. They showthe Face of Christ (illus. 106) and a stalk with buds and a cartellino bearing therevealing signature ioannes bellinvs me pinxit (‘Giovanni Bellini paintedme’) (illus. 107).64 In this form, seldom used by Bellini, the rhetorical imagewith its signature attests to its author, while in the form ioannes bellinvs.p.(where the ‘p.’ stands for ‘pinxit’), used by Bellini in the Morelli Madonna, forexample, the picture is identified as a finished product.65

Incarnation: The Transfigured Body

Between 1481 and 1489 Pietro Lombardo built the church of Santa Maria deiMiracoli in Venice as a marble shrine for a miraculous image of the Virginthat had brought in 30,000 ducats in donations in a brief period of time. Thissum, as Francesco Sansovino reported, made possible the purchase of the siteand the erection of the splendid structure, along with a small cloister.66 Thesame author notes that Bellini delivered an altarpiece of Jerome in the Desert,


now lost, for the church, and that a certain Giovanni de Pennacchi of Trevisopainted several heads of prophets. Sansovino mentions classical putti belowthe organ, then regarded as the work of Praxiteles, but not the wings of theorgan, whose exterior displayed the Annunciation (illus. 108) and whose inte-rior showed the apostles Peter and Paul. The organ wings were removed anddispersed in the early nineteenth century, and in the process the canvas ofPaul was lost. In the early twentieth century the three surviving picturescame into the possession of the Accademia in Venice, and were caught up inthe back-and-forth of attributions, since in 1664 Boschini had named thepainter Pier Maria Pennacchi of Treviso as their author.67

In her examination of the organ wings, Deborah Howard calls atten-tion to the fact that Bellini paid close attention to the architectural settingfor which his images were intended.68 Until the radical restoration of thechurch between 1865 and 1887, the organ had been located on the left sidewall; the asymmetrical layout of the Annunciation, its vanishing point, shift-ed to the right, and its interior furnishings took account of this fact. Mary,in her bedchamber, kneels upon a precious intarsia prayer stool, using onehand to hold open the book she is reading, the other laid on her breast.Breaking into this reverential silence as a dynamic figure from the left is theArchangel Gabriel with his wind-blown robes. He carries a large lily in hisleft hand, raising his right in greeting. Mary displays no reaction whatsoev-er to the angel’s sudden entry, but maintains an attitude of humiliatio, hum-ble submission.69 The event of the Annunciation is indicated by means ofthe entering light, which thrusts the angel into the room and falls onto thepraying figure of the Virgin: the pale embrasure, the opening of the win-dow with its pale shutters and the door shutters in front of the illuminatedMary, all of which serve to capture the light. Through the open aediculeappear a landscape and a column with a Corinthian capital, which is alignedwith the Virgin. Set below a large white cloud in the sky, the landscapeshows a raised fortress, and in the middle distance is the Flight into Egypt.The clouds, the lily, the vegetation, the fortress, the light: everything alludesto or praises Mary in a way that is consistent with the Mariale of the piousJacopo da Voragine, published in Venice in 1497, which specifies numberlessnames and predicates for the Virgin.70

It was Giovanni Bellini’s invention to represent the Annunciationbeing effectuated by flooding light instead of a single beam of light thatfalls onto the Virgin, albeit perhaps inspired by a version of theAnnunciation (illus. 109) painted by Antonello da Messina. Shortly beforehis stay in Venice, or when already in that city, Antonello painted two half-length pictures of Mary shown bathed in light while reading a psalter. Inthe version in Palermo, she displays a slight conturbatio (alarm), while theversion in Munich is characterized by humiliatio, as seen also in Bellini’sversion.71 Both Carpaccio and Titian responded to Bellini’s ingenious rep-resentation of the Annunciation. In his Dream of St Ursula of 1495 for theScuola di Sant’Orsola, Carpaccio exploited a similar association betweenthe angel’s entrance and the divine light. Titian took up this idea on many

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108 Giovanni Bellini and workshop,Annunciation, 1500, canvas. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

109 Antonello da Messina, Annuncia-tion, 1473/74, wood. Alte Pinakothek,Munich.

occasions, for the first time in 1519 in his Annunciation for TrevisoCathedral, then again in 1530 in the Annunciation in the Scuola Grande diSan Rocco in Venice, which includes a flying angel that surpasses Bellini’sin vivacity, and takes up the older notion of light radiating from heavenand falling onto the Virgin at her prie-dieu. The most impressive version isthe Annunciation of 1560–65 in the church of San Salvatore in Venice, withits onward-rushing angel and open sky. Here, the flesh-coloured edges ofthe clouds, suffused with light, are a vivid reminder of the Incarnationeffected by this heavenly illumination.72

Noteworthy here is the substitution of the Word that is God, andwhich, according to the Prologue of the Gospel of St John (1: 1–18), becomesflesh, and is sent into the world as the true light – the lux vera. It is a questionof an exchange of an acoustic phenomenon – the enunciation of the Word –


overleaf:110 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà, c. 1470–75,wood. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

111 Giovanni Bellini, Madonna degliAlberetti, 1487, wood. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

for an optical one, namely the appearance of the light. The connection withthe act of becoming flesh – the incarnatio, to use the theological term – withincarnadine, the flesh colour used in painting to represent human skin, wasdiscussed for the first time by Cennino Cennini in Padua around 1400. Inchapter 67 of his Libro dell’arte, Cennini describes a procedure for colouring,or incarnating, hands and faces, that is, ‘di colorire o incarnare’.73

Giovanni Bellini approached the connection between light and fleshcolour only slowly. One stage in the conversion of the illuminated body intoa luminous flesh tint is detectable in the works from the first half of the 1470s,in the Berlin Pietà (illus. 110) and in the Pietà with Angels in the NationalGallery in London.74 In the Berlin Resurrection (illus. 105) of 1475–80, whichshows Christ hovering above the horizon line, the glowing incarnadinecolour is deployed for the transfigured body of the resurrected Christ in away that is thematically effective.75 Moreover, Bellini also calls our attentionto the contrast between the glowing incarnadine of the transfigured Christand the dull brown of the dazed, naked figure seated below on rocks next toa shield bearing the head of Medusa. Christ hovers in the rising light of dawnin front of the clouds and the dark sky, his fluttering loincloth stabilizing theglowing flesh colour, which occupies the spectrum between the white of thecloth and the reddish glow of the clouds.

Like the Virgin and Child (Morelli Madonna) (illus. 73) from the secondhalf of the 1480s, the Madonna degli Alberetti (illus. 111) of 1487 displays thenew connection between light, colour and form in a simple composition.76

The position of the Virgin in front of a suspended cloth emphasizes thecomposition’s vertical and bilateral symmetry. Several displacements enliv-en this symmetrical arrangement: in both paintings, the child is shiftedfrom the central axis, and in the Morelli Madonna the Virgin is set at a slightangle, and the golden brown cloth deviates from the central axis. The ultra-marine of the Virgin’s cloak forms a swinging, ascending form, and createsa light–dark contrast with the incarnadine of the child and Mary. Thismarked contrast is attenuated by subtle interpolations: the golden trim-ming, the transparent white veil, the iridescent lining of the cloak and thered of the dress.

The importance attributed to achieving genuinely lifelike and glowingflesh tints is indicated by the works of a number of other painters as well.Antonello da Messina, who arrived in Venice in 1475, was probably respon-sible for a pair of male nudes, a Sebastian for the San Cassiano altarpiece anda Pietà with Angels, both found today in heavily damaged conditions in theMuseo Correr in Venice. A third nude, a St Sebastian (illus. 112) in Dresden,which was intended for a three-part altarpiece in the church of San Giuliano,was probably shipped to Venice by the artist from Messina, together with theother parts of the altarpiece.77 In the San Cassiano altarpiece, St Sebastian ispositioned as a luminous nude in front of column, as we know from a copyby Teniers the Younger. In the San Giobbe altarpiece (illus. 139), Bellini posi-tions the figure of St Sebastian, composed of glowing incarnadine, on the sideof the incidence of light.

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112 Antonello da Messina, St Sebastian,c. 1478, canvas, transferred from wood.Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.

This light-filled, transfigured flesh tint is also recognizable in the cel-ebrated portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan (illus. 113), probably painted byBellini shortly after the election in 1501 of Agostino Barbarigo’s successor.78

Instead of simply painting the doge as a half-figure behind the parapetto,Bellini conceived a bust that is fully three-dimensional in appearance. In1995 Alison Luchs drew attention to the rarity of sculpted portrait busts inVenice in comparison with Florence. Produced in the Tuscan city between1450 and 1500 were a dozen dated and signed marble busts, along with acountless number of busts in various materials representing men, womenand children. For Venice and the Veneto during the same period, only four


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works are known, among them a terracotta bust in Budapest, which hasbeen identified as a portrait of Doge Marco Barbarigo.79

The fully plastic quality of the painted bust of Doge Loredan, createdby Bellini by means of effects of light and shadow, might lead to the ideathat he sought out a paragone (contest) between painting and sculpture.80 Itis more probable, however, that he had a different objective. Using light andshadow, Bellini renders the silvery white and gold of the damask withextraordinary subtlety, and shows the golden border of the corno ducale (thebiretta of the doge), and the indirect proximity of the doge’s skin to gold.The silvery white and gold contrast with the reddish-brown of the parapetand the blue of the ground. Bellini insinuates an analogy between this por-trait and a reliquary bust in gold and silver. The golden flesh colour and thefacial expression, effected by the slightly raised corners of the mouth, serveto enliven this portrait – or reliquary bust.

Sacred Allegory

Through the mediation of the art historian Luigi Lanzi, an enigmatic paint-ing (illus. 114) was transferred from the Imperial Gallery in Vienna to theUffizi in Florence in 1793.81 In 1871 Crowe and Cavalcaselle proposed reat-tributing this allegorical composition, then regarded as a work by Giorgione,to Giovanni Bellini, with the comment: ‘It is hard to divine the meaning of theallegory which Bellini has depicted.’82 Only rarely was doubt cast on the newattribution, but divergent views were expressed concerning both dating andcomposition. To be sure, a number of individuals and many objects are imme-diately recognizable, but despite many attempts they have never been success-fully integrated into a unified interpretation. Bellini’s Sacred Allegory belongsto that group of works that refuse to be decoded, and which thereby continu-ally generate new readings. The most celebrated work in this category isGiorgione’s little painting Tempest (illus. 115) in the Accademia in Venice.83

The foreground of Bellini’s Sacred Allegory contains a large terracepaved in marble that terminates on three sides in a balustrade. This was thesecond time that Bellini had painted a terrace paved in this way and with anopen balustrade, the first of which appears in Blood of the Redeemer (illus. 41)from the first half of the 1460s. In the Sacred Allegory, the balustrades to theleft and right are quite broad, while the rear side is much thinner, as can beseen by examining the opened double door. A strip of lawn is visible betweenthe openings in the balustrade and the water’s edge. The water extends intothe depths of the picture to various distances. On the right-hand side, theopposite shore is quite close, while on the left the water continues into thedistance between cliffs and precipices until it reaches a small settlement.Behind it, on a forested hill, sits a large fortified castle, while towering up tothe left of the settlement is a steep mountain. The surface of the water (a lake,part of a lagoon) is quite still, and reflects the surroundings in parts. In con-trast to the water, the landscape is markedly fissured, the three strongly eroded

114 Giovanni Bellini, Sacred Allegory,1460, wood. Galleria degli Uffizi,Florence.

115 Giorgione, Tempest, 1505–10, canvas. Galleria dell’Accademia,Venice.

opposite:113 Giovanni Bellini, Doge LeonardoLoredan, c. 1501/02, wood. NationalGallery, London.

masses of cliffs showing splits and cracks, light and shadow, while the dark-ly forested portions in the cliffs introduce strong bright–dark contrasts.

Set at the centre of the terrace, marked by a set of four white marbleslabs, and in front of the opening leading to the lawn and the water, is abroad, low urn containing a small tree. Four children, three of them nude,play with and around the tree: one little boy stands on the rim of the urnholding the trunk of the sapling as though he wanted to shake it; a secondboy picks up an apple; and two additional boys – one of whom is seated on acushion and dressed in a white shirt – hold apples. To the right of this cen-tral group stand Job and Sebastian in varied contrapposto poses, both nude butfor their loincloths. Sebastian holds his hands behind his back, while Jobfolds his in prayer. To the left, a throne carved from stone stands on a basewith four steps. The ombrello, an insignia of the doge, is suspended above thethrone. Seated on the throne is a female figure with folded hands. Her reddress is visible through small openings in her blue cloak, and her hair is cov-ered by a white cloth. Kneeling to her left is the figure of a woman dressedin blue and red and wearing a golden crown. To the right of the thronestands an elongated female figure who wears a grey skirt and a black cloak.Painted like reliefs on the black surface of the throne base are two satyrs witha vase, or a satyr and a sea monster. Behind the balustrade is a bearded manwearing a red cloak who raises a large sword, while a man wearing a redrobe with a yellow cloak observes the playing children, his hands folded. Onthe far left, a man wearing a white turban is shown about to stride off.

On the near bank of the water are various primitive structures and acave that serves as a natural dwelling. A hermit descends from a terrace thathas been provided with a crucifix and which is delimited by a wooden fence,while a centaur waits below on the narrow strip of riverbank. A shepherd ina red cloak, accompanied by a lamb or sheep, sits on a block of stone in frontof the entrance to the cave. Along the water’s edge, nature has assumedartificial form: the natural terrace is strikingly delimited by three stones thatform an obelisk, while the spur of the cliffs terminates at the water’s edge intwo blocks that imitate human physiognomies. Conspicuous in the back-ground landscape is the contrast between the natural forms of the mountainsand cliffs and the buildings at the water’s edge or set atop the hill. The shapesof the buildings, though diverse, are regular in form, while the cliffs arerough and irregular. Visible along the banks of the river in front of the build-ings are four figures and a donkey.

In the twentieth century a large number of interpretations were pro-posed for this picture. In general, these can be grouped into two tendencies.The first approach invokes textual sources either as keys or as guarantors andclaims to identify a unified meaning in Bellini’s composition. The other ten-dency casts doubt on this approach, even to the point of denying the possibil-ity of locating or constructing a unified meaning at all.84 Could this paintingbe among those that are generated not from a textual source, but that insteademerge from the artist’s sense of fantasy or inventive faculties? In his negoti-ations with Isabella d’Este, did Bellini not claim and win the right to supply


his own invention, informing the poet Bembo that he loved to find his wayin his paintings according to his own sense of fantasy? Is the Sacred Allegory,as Werner Hofmann postulated in 1996, the first capriccio of modern times,that is to say, a subjective invention of the artist, one laid out not according toa coherent web of significance, but instead contradicting this approach,and even more, setting up a composition without order in opposition to theelevated pictorial order achieved in the Sacre conversazioni?85 Hofmann’sproposal provokes scepticism: is his characterization of Giovanni Bellini as ‘oneof the most revolutionary artists of all time’ not based on an anachronism?86

In fact, such a projection had already occurred in the area of the capric-cio and capriccioso with Giorgio Vasari.87 In 1550 Vasari used the termcapriccio for inspirations leading to feats of artistic performance, for difficultrepresentations such as the one Mantegna created in the Cappella Belvederein the Vatican, where he had introduced a marvellously inspired inventionfor a special figure in the Baptism of Christ: ‘He had the capriccio to representamong the others a figure, wishing to remove a stocking which clings to hisleg owing so sweat, pulls it off inside out across his other leg, while hisexpression clearly indicates effort and inconvenience. This ingenious detailamazed everyone who saw the painting in those days.’88 In the second editionof the Vite, Vasari describes a brilliant invention of Giorgione’s that had beenprompted by a dispute about the paragone, the argument about the priority ofpainting or sculpture. By creating an arrangement involving the reflectivesurface of a body of water and a mirror, Giorgione devised a method of visualdoubling that permitted the simultaneous depiction of a nude figure frommultiple points of view, which could be translated into painted form. Withthis ‘cosa di bellissimo ghiribizzo e capriccio’, which brought him praise andadmiration, Giorgione demonstrated that painting demanded greaterinventive gifts than sculpture, and also that it was capable of simultaneouslydisplaying more sides of a figure than the three-dimensional medium.89 Thephrase ‘cosa di bellissimo ghiribizzo e capriccio’ refers to the painter’s clever-ness and capricious creativity. As Benedetto Varchi remarked critically in1547, the terms ‘ghiribizzo’ and ‘capriccio’ are plebeian expressions for thatwhich ought to be referred to as beautiful ideas, creative fantasies and divineinventions.90 In his Dialogo della pittura of 1557, the Venetian Lodovico Dolceused the opening of Horace’s Ars poetica to distinguish the utterly contradic-tory combination from the one that the painter truly required, namely afertile intellect and alert inventiveness. According to Dolce, the contradic-tory combination of elements having divergent origins, Horace’s chimera,arises from the susceptibility of capricious creativity (‘un suo capriccio’) onthe part of the painter.91 The term capriccio was used publicly for the firsttime in 1534 in Aretino’s authorial declaration in his Ragionamento dellaNanna e dell’Antonia, which reads: ‘Composto dal divino Aretino per suocapriccio’.92

Is the Sacred Allegory a capriccio – and a capricious fantasy of the painter?Is it really misleading to conceive of it as a pious narrative simply becauseno one has yet succeeded in identifying its textual source or constructing a

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unified sense for it? Augusto Gentili recently summarized the results ofscholarly research as follows: ‘Most scholars attempting to interpret the pic-ture have sought to identify a single literary source that would account forevery detail. But any such attempt is misguided, since this is a visual medita-tion made up of a collage of figurative elements deriving from different tra-ditions and origins.’93 As a title for the painting in the Uffizi, Robertson hadalready proposed ‘A Meditation on the Incarnation’ in 1968.94 Gentili calledattention again to the fact that the identifiable figures and objects werederived from different contexts: Job is a prefiguration of the Christ of thePassion, Sebastian a martyr, the Virgin Mary sits on Solomon’s throne (theSedes sapientiae), but is not accompanied by the infant Jesus; the encounterbetween Anthony Abbott and the centaur takes place on the journey to thehermit Paul, etc. There are also several figures, like the feminine ones at thesides of the throne, that have no recognizable attributes, just as the prayingfigure behind the balustrade who has been somewhat unpersuasively iden-tified as Peter or Joseph. At the centre stands the Tree of Life, and the chil-dren are playfully occupied with its fruits. The terrace has been providedwith a balustrade on three sides only, and it opens onto a body of water; thusit is not a hortus conclusus.

As in Christ the Redeemer, emphasis is placed on the contrast betweenthe terrace with balustrade and the landscape. In both paintings, the terracehas the appearance of a sacred zone, and the landscape is set apart from it andequipped with hermits, animals and buildings. A hermit in front of a cavebeneath a palm tree appears in the central zone of the Baptism of Christ (illus.145) of 1500–02, now in Vicenza. The Baptism represents an event takingplace in the River Jordan, in the Terra Santa, and was commissioned andendowed by Battista Graziani to ensure his safe return from a pilgrimage tothe Holy Land. According to religious notions, hermits – John the Baptist,Jerome and others – were among the God-fearing anchorites in the desert,and with the cartellino beneath Giovanni Battista’s feet in the Baptism ofChrist, Giovanni Bellini calls attention to his name.

Because no over-arching or unified theme has been identified for theSacred Allegory, the work has been referred to as ‘polyfocal’. In fact, Belliniwas fond of superimposition and condensation, as, for example, in the aug-mentation of the Baptism of Christ with the Transfiguration, the Trinity andthe Resurrection. In other cases, he negated clarity, for example in the StFrancis in the Desert or in the small allegory (illus. 116), the subject of whichis unknown, whether it is a Vanitas or whether it is intended to representPrudence, Truth, False Fame or Self-Knowledge. Visible in the SacredAllegory, as in Blood of the Redeemer, is a painstakingly constructed terrace setbefore a landscape that is at least partially formed as a wasteland – a deserto– where God-fearing anchorites meditate. On the terrace in Christ theRedeemer, an angel collects the blood of Christ, while the Sacred Allegoryalludes to the events of the Redemption. It is the Terra Santa, the Holy Landfrom which Redemption emanates, and which Paul defends with his sword.On the right-hand side, its effect is the healing of the body, hence the plague


116 Giovanni Bellini, Allegory of Vanitas or Prudentia, c. 1490–95,wood. Galleria dell’Accademia,Venice.

saints, Job and Sebastian, and on the left side the redemption of the soul,alluded to through the communion of the Virgin and saints. The Virgin,enthroned beneath the ombrello of the doge, has another name as well,Venezia, the city that was founded on an island in the middle of a lagoon onthe day of the Annunciation, the first date in the narrative of redemption. Inhis publication on Venice of 1581, Francesco Sansovino explores exhaustive-ly the coincidence between the foundation of the city and the Annunciation,that is to say, of the event that set the ‘redentione del mondo’, the ‘redemp-tion of the world’, into motion via the Incarnation of the divine Word.Sansovino presented his observations on the occasion of the ninth officialprocession of the doge, the ‘Andata per la Madonna di Marzo’, which tookplace on 25 March, and which culminated inside the church of San Marco.95

The Sacred Allegory proffers a meditation on the Terra Santa, on redemption,resurrection, salvation – and Venice. The image is an invitation that pre-scribes little in the way of pre-set meanings. The beholder is solicited toengage with the work on a personal level, perhaps in a pious spirit, and cer-tainly in order to take pleasure in a captivating painting that demonstratesthe artist’s powers of ingegno. To this end, the image not only offers a set ofvisual data, but also generates a sense of utter tranquillity.


The Sacra conversazione in Venice

Up until the fateful night of 15 and 16 August 1867, the Dominican church ofSanti Giovanni e Paolo (illus. 117) in Venice had retained possession of the twomost important early altarpieces by Giovanni Bellini, executed between 1465and 1475. The polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer (illus. 118), produced on a com-mission from the Scuola di San Vincenzo Ferrer, has remained in its originaland intended location, although it was set during the eighteenth century in alarger stone frame that was intended as a counterpart to the marble frame ofTitian’s large altarpiece, the Martyrdom of St Peter Martyr of circa 1530. For thesake of the new stone frame, the original lunette containing a depiction of Godthe Father was removed and replaced by a gilded semicircular shell.1 The otherBellini altarpiece in the church, the Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinasand Catherine (illus. 119), was executed on a commission from the Scuola diSanta Caterina, founded in 1461, and fell victim to a still unexplained fire in1867, together with Titian’s altarpiece in the Cappella del Rosario.2 Both ofthese large paintings had been removed to a side chapel in Santi Giovanni ePaolo in order to undergo restoration. All that remains of Titian’s Martyrdomof St Peter Martyr is a graphic reproduction by Martin Rota and a number ofpainted copies, among them a small-format version executed by ThéodoreGéricault when the painting was in Paris between 1798 and 1815 as part of theNapoleonic booty, and a large-format version by Niccolò Cassana, which nowhangs in Santi Giovanni e Paolo as a substitute for the lost original.3 As recordsof the Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine, on the otherhand, we have only a stone frame in the church and a very few pictorialrecords: a linear copy that was engraved; an engraving by J. A. Raab thatappeared in Zanotto’s publication of 1860, but which includes only the upperhalves of the female figures on the right side; and a black-and-white photo-graph of an anonymous lost watercolour.4 Giovanni Battista Cavalcasellecovered three sheets with a number of sketches of the painting, among thema sketch of the composition with colour notations (illus. 120).5 A rough notionof the appearance of Bellini’s lost work can be acquired from altarpieces byCima da Conegliano, such as the Virgin and Child and Saints and Angels of1492–3 in the cathedral of his home town of Conegliano.6

v

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117 Detail (the Church of SS.Giovanni e Paolo (‘San Zanipolo’)from Jacopo de’ Barbari, Bird’s-eyeView of Venice, 1500, woodcut.

118 Giovanni Bellini, polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer, 1465–70, wood. Church of SS Giovanni ePaolo, Venice.

In their three-volume work on the history of Italian painting, whichfirst appeared in 1864–6, Crowe and Cavalcaselle expressed enthusiasm forBellini’s Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine in the churchof Santi Giovanni e Paolo:

If the word grandiose were applicable to any Venetian picture it wouldbe appropriate here. We have before us a grand manifestation of skillby a man who is a master of his craft, representing a school rising togreatness – the first superior effort of an artist who has gone throughevery sort of probation and reached maturity7

This affirmative assessment is of special significance given the fact that thesetwo outstanding connoisseurs were the last experts who were actually able toexamine Bellini’s altarpiece in situ before its destruction.

The authorship and dating of the polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer werematters of controversy for a very long time. The canonization of the preach-er Vincent Ferrer of Valencia was carried out in 1455, but proclaimed byPope Pius ii only 1458. A scuola or religious confraternity had been foundedalready in 1450, and in 1454, the year before the canonization, a first provi-sional altar had been erected. It is presumed that Bellini’s polyptych was pro-duced during the second half of the 1460s. Humfrey assumed that the greatplague of 1464 provided the decisive impetus for the commission, and forthe iconography, which includes Sebastian, healer of plague victims, andChristopher, who offered protection from sudden death.8 In 1581 FrancescoSansovino named Giovanni Bellini as the author of both altarpieces in Santi


119 Giovanni Bellini, Sacra Conver-sazione with SS Thomas Aquinas andCatherine, 1470–75. Destroyed in 1867;formerly in the Church of SS Giovannie Paolo (‘San Zanipolo’), Venice.

120 Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle,Sketches of Giovanni Bellinis SacraConversazione in SS. Giovanni e Paolo,c. 1860, pencil. Biblioteca NazionaleMarciana, Venice.

Giovanni e Paolo, the polyptych and the Virgin and Child with SS ThomasAquinas and Catherine.9 In opposition to this, Ridolfi and Boschini regardedthe polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer as the work of Alvise or BartolomeoVivarini, while additional names were subsequently proposed, including thatof the illuminator Lauro Padovano – as if any painter could have made suchan instantaneous transition from the minute to the monumental.10 Robertsonassumed that Sansovino had been able to take advantage of the second halfof Marcantonio Michiel’s notations concerning the works of art containedin the churches of Venice (this second half was later lost).11 Rona Goffenremarks on the divergent qualities observable in the individual parts of thepolyptych, arriving at the conclusion that the main panel was Giovanni’swork, and proposing a date of the mid-1450s, which is surely approximatelya decade too early.12 Keith Christiansen labelled it perverse to attribute thiscrucial work of the Venetian Renaissance to anyone other than GiovanniBellini, with the exception of the predella, for which Bellini had perhaps sup-plied the design.13 For Christiansen, the polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer repre-sented the sum of Bellini’s strivings towards artistic maturity during the1460s, under the influence of Mantegna. He demonstrated a new mastery inthe two enormous figures of Christopher and Sebastian in particular, and inthe heads, turned upwards and illuminated from below, he took up the chal-lenge represented by Mantegna’s depiction of Assumption of the Virgin in theOvetari chapel in Padua. St Vincent Ferrer, who stands on a bank of cloudsand is surrounded by cherubs, now black through oxidization, is Bellini’sfirst contribution to the rendering of a saint in glory.14

With the Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine, Bellinicreated a prototype for the specifically Venetian form of the single-panelaltarpiece with a symmetrically arranged community of saints. The termSacra conversazione, used for the first time in 1763, should be understood as a

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121 Bartolomeo Vivarini, Virgin andChild with Saints, 1465, wood. Museo e Gallerie Nazionale di Capodimonte,Naples.

‘holy community’, and not in the context, for example, of a ‘conversation’.Rona Goffen has also called attention to the biblical, patristic and liturgicalreferences of the Sacra conversazione.15 In the corresponding iconographictype, this saintly community must be arranged symmetrically within aunified pictorial field or space around a centrally positioned individual. Inmost cases, the centre is occupied by the enthroned Virgin and Child, andonly seldom do other saints take the place of honour, for example, in Titian’sSt Martin Enthroned with Saints of 1511 in the sacristy of Santa Maria dellaSalute in Venice.16 The convention of an undivided pictorial field distin-guishes the Sacra conversazione from the symmetrical arrangement of saintsaround a centrally positioned Virgin in a polyptych. Only with the represen-tation of several figures within an undivided pictorial field do compositionalproblems emerge, along with the requirement for variation within a bilater-ally symmetrical scheme.

The development of this new pictorial type of the Virgin with the ChristChild and saints set within the same pictorial space began in Florence in thelate 1430s in the works of Domenico Veneziano, Filippo Lippi and FraAngelico. These artists worked out this new compositional type primarily inworks whose dimensions were approximately square. In Florence, elsewherein Tuscany and in northern Italy, this association between type and format


122 Leonardo Bellini, Baptism ofChrist, frontispiece to Promissione of Doge Cristoforo Moro, c. 1462,miniature. British Library, London.

was widely disseminated up to the end of the fifteenth century.17 With thesquare panel depicting the Virgin and Child with Saints (illus. 121) of 1465,intended for a church in Bari, Bartolomeo Vivarini depended uponFlorentine models to configure a unified pictorial space for his saintly protag-onists, but adhered to the earlier convention of a disparity in size between theVirgin and the saints.18 Peter Humfrey draws attention to a miniature byLeonardo Bellini, contained in a promissione of Doge Cristoforo Moro of 1463(illus. 122), whose unified pictorial space betrays familiarity with Florentinemodels of the Sacra conversazione.19 Giovanni Bellini’s Virgin and Child withSS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine distances itself from this model. He intro-duced new premises to define an independent Venetian type, one that wouldexert an influence beyond Venice well into the sixteenth century.20

The photographic reconstruction (illus. 123) showing a drawing of thealtarpiece and its stone frame in the form of a triumphal arch, which remainedin Santi Giovanni e Paolo, documents the fact that Bellini created an illusion-istic setting in which painted pillars correspond to the three-dimensional

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123 A reconstruction of GiovanniBellini, Sacra Conversazione with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine.

pilasters of the frame. This space, a baldachin that opens onto the sky andclouds above, terminated in a groin vault. The Virgin with standing Child onher left knee sits atop a high throne exactly at the centre of the picture, andtheir importance is enhanced by a curtain that is suspended from a corddecorated with a laurel wreath, by a glass lamp that hangs downwards fromthe apex of the vault, and by three singing putti that stand before the tall baseof the throne. Crowding into the narrow spaces on either side of the thronein a symmetrical arrangement are the female saints, Catherine of Siena andLucy, on the right, and the male saints, Thomas Aquinas and Jerome, on the


left, enlivened by means of variations in pose, attire and dimensions. Thesketch executed by Cavalcaselle, and provided with colour notations, enablesthe colour scheme to be determined: red, blue, white and incarnadine in thecentre, set against the throne and cloth in yellow before the blue of the sky,then red and brownish-green on the side of the male saints, black and whitefor Catherine of Siena terminating in brown-green for St Lucy, which con-trasts with the yellow and with the red flowers of her dress.21 Cavalcaselle’snotation reads ‘Temp[era]’, which suggests that, like Charles Blanc, he didnot believe that oil was used as a medium.

Giovanni Bellini’s innovation consisted in designing for the commun-ion of the Virgin and saints a tall, unified pictorial space with a rounded top,having the character of a baldachin, to which the sculpted triumphal arch ofthe frame and painted architecture contribute.22 The perspectival construc-tion and the positions of the saints, who are depicted life-size, take intoaccount the position of the beholder standing in front of the altarpiece. Theground plane of the saints and the Virgin and Child has been set somewhathigher than the eye level of the priest and faithful. The photographic recon-struction shows that a strip of the painting is missing below. It is not knownwho executed the stone frame for Bellini’s altarpiece, but its maker should besought in the workshops of architects and sculptors such as Mauro Codussi,Andrea Rizzo and Pietro Lombardo, who were preoccupied with the newRenaissance forms.23

Pre-eminent among the preconditions for Bellini’s new depiction of theSacra conversazione was Andrea Mantegna’s altarpiece for San Zeno inVerona, which was completed in 1459, and perhaps the large Montefeltroaltarpiece, painted by Piero della Francesca around 1472 on a commissionfrom Federigo da Montefeltre, the ruler of Urbino, and certainly the Trinity,the fresco executed by Masaccio around 1427 in the church of Santa MariaNovella in Florence.24 Mantegna’s altarpiece for San Zeno in Verona (illus.124), with its three-dimensional frame in the form of a temple front, itspainted pilasters behind the actual sculpted half-columns of the frame, andthe creation of an illusionistic throne-room, may have provided the immedi-ate impetus to redefine the relationship between frame and pictorial architec-ture. For the vertical format with arched top of the Virgin and Child with SSThomas Aquinas and Catherine, for its painted architectural setting, and forthe technique involved in executing such a large wooden panel – one that inthe case of the San Giobbe altarpiece has been substantially preserved – Pierodella Francesca’s Montefeltro altarpiece (illus. 125) was a more importantprecedent than Mantegna’s altarpiece from Verona. Doubly unfortunate forthe elaboration of this important relationship is the fact that Piero dellaFrancesca’s altarpiece arrived late at its intended location, San Bernardinooutside Urbino, and was subsequently removed from the church, wherebythe support system for the wooden boards and a portion of the picture itselfwere lost.25 This painting has been in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan since1811. Reconstructions have been attempted and rejected, and, most impor-tantly, it has not been explained whether a relationship existed between the

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124 Andrea Mantegna, The Altarpieceof San Zeno, 1456–9, wood. Church ofSan Zeno, Verona.

frame and the painted architecture. Piero grouped his saints with angelssymmetrically alongside and behind the slightly elevated enthroned Virginand Child, whose sleep alludes to the Passion. The donor, Federigo daMontefeltro, in full armour but with his helmet and gloves removed, kneelson the right-hand side immediately in front of his patron saint. The group ofsaints with angels and the Virgin is positioned at an intersection, that is, atthe interpenetration of longitudinal and transverse spatial volumes.Adjoining this space is a sanctuary with a coffered barrel vault that termi-nates in a flat apse, whose conch is formed by a large scallop shell. An ostrichegg hangs from the apex of the shell along the central axis of the image. Inthe vertical axis, this symbol of the Resurrection is seen directly above theVirgin and Child, although it is actually located far behind them at thespringing point of the apse.

Albeit in different ways, both Piero della Francesca’s Montefeltro altar-piece and Giovanni Bellini’s Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas andCatherine relate to Masaccio’s revolutionary Trinity fresco (illus. 126) in the


125 Piero della Francesca, Pala Montefeltro, c. 1472, wood.Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

126 Masaccio, Trinity, c. 1427, fresco.Church of S. Maria Novella, Florence.

Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella.26 In Bellini’s case, the painted tri-umphal arch with its fictive spatial depth is brought into relationship withthe sculpturally rendered arch. While Piero della Francesca expanded thesetting for the group and shifted the vanishing point to the height of theVirgin, Bellini narrowed the space, retaining the eye-level viewpoint ofMasaccio’s fresco and its novel orientation towards the beholder.

As long as wood was used as a support, the technique for erecting alarge-format frame for a unified altarpiece still had to be established. Up until1470 supports were assembled from a series of vertically aligned woodenboards. Since these could be manufactured only in restricted lengths, theheights attainable by images were limited. The fabrication of larger, that is,principally taller wooden panels, of the kind still used for Titian’s Assumptionof the Virgin in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, was made possible only by thevertical assembly of horizontally positioned boards. This in turn presupposeda support system capable of meeting two different requirements simultane-ously: first, the wooden boards had to be prevented from tipping out of verticalalignment, and second, allowances had to be made for the natural shrinkageand expansion of the wood. For the Montefeltro altarpiece, Piero dellaFrancesca invented a system that met both of these requirements. According

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to Carlo Bertelli’s reconstruction, it consisted of three eyebolts that were setinto the wooden boards at equal intervals, and three iron rods that wereshunted into place vertically through the bolts.27 This system, which held aboard assembly that reached a height of approximately 3 metres, wasdestroyed in 1811 when the painting was removed from San Bernardino.Whether Giovanni Bellini used the same or a similar system for his first one-piece altarpiece in Venice can no longer be determined. Despite having beencut down, the extraordinarily large San Giobbe altarpiece (illus. 139) is in itspresent condition still 4.71 metres in height, and was originally approximately5.25–5.30 metres tall. It is evident that this incredibly tall structure of layeredboards must have been held in place by a robust support system. In Venice,the construction of such large panels was unknown prior to the activities ofGiovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina in the 1470s. For example, thelarge-format panel, measuring 2.28 x 1.77 metres, on which Michele Giambonopainted his Coronation of the Virgin in Paradise in 1447 for the church ofSant’Agnese, consisted of four vertically set boards.28 Only with GiovanniBellini and Antonello did it become customary in Venice to construct panelswith horizontally layered boards, not only for such large-format works asCarpaccio’s Presentation of Jesus in the Temple of 1510, which measures 4.20 x2.31 metres, but also for a relatively small-format work such as Cima daConegliano’s Madonna of the Orange Tree, which measures 2.11 x 1.39 metres,and for the same artist’s altarpiece in Santa Maria del Carmine.29 In SantiGiovanni e Paolo, as well as later in San Giobbe, or in Santa Corona in Vicenza,it also became necessary for painters and stonemasons to work together closelyin order to create altarpieces.30

The Altarpiece for San Francesco in Pesaro

As for the technique used in Giovanni Bellini’s first Sacra conversazione,Lodovico Dolce observed in 1557 that it was executed in tempera; CharlesBlanc in 1860 and Giovanni Battista Cavascaselle were convinced of this,based on their own examinations.31 As is well known, analyses of bindingmedia are complicated and difficult to perform. But it seems certain that inhis next monumental work, the large altarpiece (illus. 127) for the church ofSan Francesco in Pesaro, Bellini used desiccative oil to bind the pigments,just as he did in his portrait of Jörg Fugger (illus. 15) of 1474.32 This wouldmean that around 1470 Bellini had begun to change his technique, and thatby the first half of the 1470s he was feeling confident enough to undertakelarge panels in oil.

Based on the payment made to the church of San Francesco in Pesarofor its high altar in 1476, which is documented in a will, we can conclude thatBellini completed his altarpiece at the latest that year.33 The altarpieceremained in the church, not on the high altar, but instead in a side aisle, whilethe cimasa with the Anointing of Christ (illus. 128) was separated from it andmoved to the sacristy. In 1797 French troops seized the cimasa as a work of


127 Giovanni Bellini, The Coronationof the Virgin (Altarpiece for S. Francescoin Pesaro), 1471–4, wood. MuseoCivico, Pesaro.

Giovanni Bellini and transferred it to Paris. With the recuperation of Italianworks of art by Antonio Canova and Antonio d’Este in 1815, it entered theVatican museums with an attribution to Andrea Mantegna. In the PinacotecaVaticana in 1871, the work was reattributed to Giovanni Bellini by Croweand Cavalcaselle. During an exhibition in Pesaro in 1988, the large altarpiecewas temporarily completed by the addition of the cimasa from the Vatican(illus. 129).34

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opposite:128 Giovanni Bellini, The Anointing of Christ, 1470–75, wood. PinacotecaVaticana, Rome.

Bellini’s large altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin with Four Saintsis novel in every respect, with the exception of its subject, which was founddisplayed in prominent positions throughout Italy, including Venice. There,Guariento’s fresco of circa 1365 occupied the most prominent location in themain hall of the Doge’s Palace. Of Guariento’s work, only remnants andJacobello del Fiore’s reduced copy have survived (illus. 164). For the firsttime, Bellini transferred this heavenly event to earth, where it is bathed ina warm, terrestrial light. The broad throne in coloured marbles rises at thecentre of the picture, its rear wall taking the form of a tabernacle. Thepilasters are ornamented, while a painted relief displaying battle scenesbetween nude mounted warriors and infantrymen can be seen on the frieze.The virtually square aperture in the back of the throne encloses the heads ofJesus and Mary, while offering a view onto a landscape whose central hill isoccupied by a massive, fortified castle with many towers. Jesus sets the crownon his mother’s head as she leans towards him, her hands crossed. The throneis surrounded by saints in meditative attitudes: on one side are Paul with hissword and Peter, on the other Francis and Jerome. Bellini has varied themeditative attitudes of his figures: with the exception of Paul, all have low-ered gazes. Peter reads from an opened book; Jerome holds a book open infront of him, his closed eyes indicating introspection; Francis holds a book inone hand and a simple cross in the other. Above the back of the throneappears the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, surrounded by a wreath ofcherubs and by a luminous phenomena resembling the sun, which casts areddish glow onto the clouds in the dark sky. At the sides of the throne, fourrows of cherubs hover on bands of clouds.

The predella displays scenes from the lives of the saints surrounding thethrone, with the Nativity of Christ in the centre. The base of the frame con-tains a depiction of St George slaying the dragon, and a standing image of StTerence set on a plinth. The latter, a local patron saint from Pesaro, carries amodel of a towered and fortified castle in his hand, creating a link betweenthe castle on the hill seen through the opening in the throne of the Coronationof the Virgin.35 In the pilasters of the frame, eight figures of saints have beenpainted in fictive niches; the horizon lines of the figures take the beholder’sviewpoint into account: only in the two lowest niches – those containing StJohn the Baptist and St Andrew – has the flooring been depicted.

Attempts have been made to identify the fortified castle appearing inthe Coronation of the Virgin with the Rocca di Gradara of the Sforza family.The resemblance between Bellini’s painted castle and the Sforza bastion isundeniable, yet the question remains whether Bellini intended to represent aspecific structure, or instead simply a representative of the type. As Roger Fryhas already pointed out, Bellini included a similar structure in his VotivePicture of Doge Agostino Barbarigo (illus. 79) of circa 1487. In that case, hecannot possibly have intended to depict the Sforza castle, since the Sforzafamily had nothing to do with the commission for the altar of San Francescoin Pesaro. On the other hand, they did commission the altarpiece painted byMarco Zoppo of Padua in 1471 for the church of San Giovanni Battista in

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opposite: 129 A reconstruction of GiovanniBellini, Coronation of the Virginaltarpiece.

Pesaro (illus. 130), which was itself erected by either Giorgio da Sebenico orLuciano Laurana on a commission from Alessandro Sforza, and which wasintended to contain the Sforza family mausoleum.36 It is safe to assume thatin commissioning a work from Giovanni Bellini, the Franciscans, who wereclosely associated with the former ruling family, the Malatesta, were attempt-ing to compete with Zoppo’s altarpiece in San Giovanni Battista. Humfreyrelates Zoppo’s altarpiece for San Giovanni Battista in Pesaro directly toBartolomeo Vivarini’s altar panel of 1465 (illus. 121), and this despite anessential difference between the two works, since Vivarini depicted the

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130 A reconstruction of MarcoZoppo’s 1471 Pesaro altarpiece.

Virgin on a larger scale and elevated above the saints, while Zoppo loweredthe level of the seated Virgin’s head in relation to the standing saints. In hisCoronation of the Virgin, Giovanni Bellini proceeded in exactly the same way,thereby taking into account Florentine models of the Sacra conversazione, andnot the Venetian types of the Coronation familiar to him. According to thereconstruction of Zoppo’s altarpiece, in fact, both its structure and that ofBellini’s altarpiece for San Francesco in Pesaro followed a Florentine patternof the kind exploited by Fra Angelico around 1437–40 for the altar of theconvent of San Vincenzo d’Annalena, which had been donated by AnnalenaMalatesta. According to one reconstruction, this altarpiece consisted of analmost square altarpiece, a predella, a pair of framing pilasters into whichdepictions of saints were set, and a terminating architrave. During the sameperiod, Fra Angelico repeated this pattern without the depictions of saintsin the pilasters for the main altar of San Marco in Florence, whose originalframe has not survived.

In the Pesaro altarpiece, Bellini presented a deliberate deviation froma conventional model, following neither the Venetian precedent providedby Guariento nor the Florentine type exemplified, for instance, by FraAngelico’s Coronation of the Virgin of circa 1435, where the event is a grandceremonial one, enveloped in a golden light and celebrated in the presence ofheavenly hosts and countless saints.37 Bellini deviated from traditional repre-sentations of the Coronation of the Virgin in a second respect: in the altarpiecefor San Francesco in Pesaro, the event is depicted as a mystery occurring inan atmosphere of silent meditation; the ceremonial strains of trombones andthe joyful angelic music have been eliminated. In contrast to the representa-tions of the subject by Guariento and his followers, and in contradistinctionto Fra Angelico’s version, Bellini’s Coronation of the Virgin is soundless. Asthe poses and expressions of the saints indicate, this is an event that disclosesitself to an inner, meditative vision. For this reason too, despite its resem-blance to its purported model the fortified castle can hardly be intended torepresent the actual preserve of a specific ruling family in the ItalianMarches. Instead, the opening in the rear of the throne offers a view ontoa celestial settlement, one that appears miraculously like a terrestrialfortification. As we know from a fourteenth-century hymn, the ‘castrummuris institum’ – the fortress enclosed by a wall – is found among the count-less attributes of the Virgin Mary.38 Bellini’s picture offers a meditation onthe possibility that the celestial and terrestrial realms could become oneunder the sign of Mary.

For the gable, the cimasa, Bellini represented the Anointing of the Bodyof Christ, the preparation for his internment. Mary Magdalene takes the lefthand of Christ in her own left hand and spreads balsam on the wound, whileJoseph of Arimathea holds Christ’s upper body upright and Nicodemusholds a jar of ointment. All the protagonists have lowered their gazes, there-by resembling the deceased, whose eyelids are closed. Bellini took the intend-ed position of the beholder into account for the scene’s intended placementabove the frame of the main panel, that is to say sotto in su, to be viewed from


131 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with FourAngels, 1470–75, wood. PinacotecaComunale, Rimini.

below. In this work, Bellini invented a new and independent Passion scene,one that is inserted into the place of the traditional Pietà as cimasa. Like thePietà with Four Angels (illus. 131) in Rimini, the legs of the dead Christemerge from the sarcophagus and project into the viewer’s space. The datingof the Rimini panel, which was probably painted for Carlo Malatesta, grand-son of Sigismondo, General Commander of the Venetian military, and amember of the Scuola Grande di San Marco, is problematic and also dependsupon our understanding of the competition between Giovanni Bellini andAntonello da Messina.39

Another artistic relationship may also be of considerable importance forBellini’s large altarpiece in Pesaro. Never before had Bellini painted figuresthat were as powerful and fully three-dimensional as those of Paul (illus. 132)and Francis, which stand securely on both legs or suggest a readiness to takea step forward. Such figures were not found in either Venice or Mantua, butexisted in the works of Piero della Francesca. A figure such as John theEvangelist from the dispersed St Augustine polyptych (illus. 133), now in theFrick Collection in New York, is a possible model for Bellini’s St Paul in thePesaro altarpiece, and the black undergarments of Piero della Francesca’s StAugustine seem to be repeated in St Francis’s dark-grey robe with its verti-cal folds.40 When painting the Pesaro altarpiece, Bellini must have beenacquainted with the grandiose majesty and utter tranquillity of Piero della

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132 Detail (SS Peter and Paul) fromGiovanni Bellini, Coronation of theVirgin (illus 127).

133 Piero della Francesca, St John theEvangelist, about 1468/69, wood. FrickCollection, New York.

Francesca’s figures, as well as with their lighting.41 Nonetheless, nothing isknown about Bellini’s acquaintance with Piero’s figures. At this point, thedemonstration of formal similarities is only a point of departure for futurearchival and biographical investigations. We simply do not know whetherGiovanni Bellini actually saw the works of Piero della Francesca or wasacquainted with him.


134 Antonello da Messina, Pietà withAngel, c. 1477/78, wood. Museo delPrado, Madrid.

The Antonello Problem

Enumerated in Marin Sanudo’s Chronachetta among the most remarkableobjects in Venice are two altarpieces and a cycle of paintings: GiovanniBellini’s San Giobbe altarpiece, Antonello da Messina’s San Cassiano altar-piece and a St Ursula cycle by Vittore Carpaccio.42 For Venetian painting, andespecially for Giovanni Bellini, Antonello da Messina’s activities in Venicefrom 1475 to the spring of 1476 were of decisive importance, and representeda turning point that – beginning in the sixteenth century and continuingall the way to the nineteenth – was erroneously regarded in a one-sided fash-ion as representing the invention or introduction of oil painting.43 The timein Venice represented a turning point for Antonello as well: for the painterfrom Messina, who probably arrived in Venice in 1475 in the company of hisson Jacobello, the encounter with Venetian painting proved a potent stimu-lus and led towards outstanding achievements. On a commission from theVenetian patrician Pietro Bon, Antonello painted the altarpiece for Bon’ssepulchre in the church of San Cassiano. Antonello required eight months inorder to execute this commission. It has been assumed that he painted oneor two versions of his Pietà with Angels and several portraits while in Venice,yet Mauro Lucco has argued that both versions of the Pietà with Angels (illus.134), now in Venice and Madrid respectively, wereproduced only after his return to Messina.44 In 1529Marcantonio Michiel mentioned the presence in thehouse of Antonio Pasqualino of the painting St Jeromein his Study with an attribution to Antonello, and in1532, in the same house, two paintings by the sameartist, apparently dated 1475.45 Until recently, it wasbelieved that while still in Venice, Antonello had exe-cuted a polyptych for the church of San Giuliano.Sansovino writes of a statue of the plague saint Rochand two other panels, attributing the St Christopher toAntonello and the St Sebastian (illus. 112) to the artist’sson Jacobello.46 Since the patron of the altar in SanGiuliano was the confraternity of San Rocco, whichwas founded and certified only in 1478, it is assumedthat the commission was fulfilled in Messina.47 Thepanel of St Sebastian was exhibited in Vienna in 1873with an attribution to Giovanni Bellini and purchasedfor the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, where Crowe andCavalcaselle recognized it as a work by Antonello.48

In early 1476 Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke ofMilan, decided to take Antonello da Messina into hisservice, due to the death of his former court painter,Zanetto. In March 1476 Pietro Bon replied in writingto his request, explaining that Antonello had beenworking since August of the previous year on an altar-

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135 Antonello da Messina, S. Cassiano altarpiece (fragments),1475/76, wood. KunsthistorischesMuseum, Vienna.

piece, which was scheduled for completion in twenty days time, for whichpurpose he requested an extension for the painter. About this nearly complet-ed work, the client wrote: ‘His work, my illustrious lord, will number amongthe most outstanding works of painting in Italy and beyond its borders.’49 Inthe sixteenth century, the San Cassiano altarpiece (illus. 135) was still foundin its original location, for in his book Venezia, città nobilissima of 1581,Francesco Sansovino noted of the church of San Cassiano: ‘Antonello daMessina, the inventor of oil painting, painted an altarpiece here.’50 In contrastto Sanudo, Sansovino placed little stress on Antonello’s two altarpieces inVenice. As for Giovanni Bellini’s altarpieces in Santi Giovanni e Paolo and inSan Zaccaria, Sansovino expressed himself in a similarly disenchanted tone,noting simply: ‘Remarkable among paintings is an altarpiece of the Madonnafrom the hand of Gian Bellino’.51 Only rarely did Sansovino single outextraordinary achievements in a commensurate way. He lavished praise onDürer’s altarpiece for San Bartolomeo: ‘An altarpiece of the Madonna fromthe hand of Albrecht Dürer, of singular beauty with regard to drawing, therendering of flesh and colouration’.52 His praise for Giovanni Bellini’s SanGiobbe altarpiece (illus. 139) – regarded by Sansovino as being the first oilpainting executed by this painter – could almost be termed effusive: ‘Andjust as it was highly valued back then by the best masters, it is still held inhigh regard today for its singularity.’53

Because of the reconstruction of the church of San Cassiano in the earlyseventeenth century, the altarpieces by Antonello da Messina were removedfrom their original locations between 1605 and 1607. It remains unexplained


136 I. Popels, ‘Two Saints’, Fragmentof Antonello da Messina’s S. CassianoAltarpiece, engraving in David Teniersthe Younger, Theatrum Pictorium(Brussels, 1660).

why the patrician Bon family, whose descendants stilllive today, had lost interest in a work to which theyprobably still possessed rights of ownership. To beginwith, Antonello’s altarpiece came into the collection ofBartolomeo della Nave. Later, it entered the Hamiltoncollection through the mediation of Sir Basil Fielding,the English envoy. Its dismemberment occurred priorto its arrival in England, certainly before it was trans-ported from Venice. The motivation for doing so isundocumented, but it may have been as petty as a desireto minimize transport costs and the difficulties associat-ed with moving the work. After 1650 five figural frag-ments, now regarded as works of Giovanni Bellini,arrived in Brussels and entered the collection of theAustrian archduke Leopold Wilhelm, at which timethey were reproduced in publications of the collectionby David Teniers the Younger, the custodian of thecollection (illus. 136), still under the name of GiovanniBellini.54 Two of the five fragments have vanishedwithout trace. Still present in the KunsthistorischesMuseum in Vienna are three pieces and a small copy ofthe St Sebastian by Teniers.55 In 1917 Bernard Berensonmade a start at identifying the fragments; the two sec-tions to the sides of the Virgin were added afterwards.56

The first reconstruction of the San Cassiano altarpiecewas presented by Johannes Wilde in 1929, who reliedupon the fragments and on Teniers’ reproductions inorder to supplement the figural groups. For his recon-struction of the architecture, Wilde referred to morerecent works, such as Alvise Vivarini’s Belluno altar-piece of circa 1485. While the reconstruction of thefigural group is still regarded as definitive, the addi-tion of monumental architecture to form a paintingapproximately 3.6 metres in height is today regarded asimplausible.57

Wilde’s reconstruction provokes questions concerning the invention ofthe Venetian Sacra conversazione. The preconditions for an adequate treat-ment of this problem are extremely unfavourable, and such efforts are hob-bled by the loss and insecure dating of Bellini’s altarpieces from the 1470s, themangling of panels by Antonello da Messina, the total loss of the old churchof San Cassiano and the absence of preparatory drawings for the SanCassiano altarpiece, as well as subsequent drawings documenting the workand copies. A varied repetition of Antonello’s figural composition may havebeen found in Alvise Vivarini’s Belluno altarpiece, which was destroyed byfire in Berlin in 1945.58 Moreover, while Antonello da Messina became anartist of legendary proportions during the nineteenth century, Giovanni

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137 A reconstruction of Antonello daMessinas, S. Cassiano altarpiece.

Bellini’s reputation recovered only slowly from Giorgio Vasari’s unfavour-able verdict.

To the degree that they have survived and have been identified, how-ever, the works of Antonello da Messina executed prior to his stay in Venicein 1475–6 in no way anticipate the development of such a decisive inventionas the Venetian Sacra conversazione.59 No evident path leads from his lastlarge-scale work, the polyptych of 1473 for the church of San Gregorio inMessina, to the San Cassiano altarpiece.60 And while Giovanni Bellini’sworks of the 1460s do point towards the multi-panelled altarpiece of StVincent Ferrer, they can hardly be said to anticipate the first Sacra conver-sazione or the Pesaro altarpiece. For both Antonello and Giovanni, Venetianaltarpieces such as those by Bartolomeo Vivarini constitute possible prece-dents, while Piero della Francesca’s monumental Montefeltro altarpiece forUrbino counts as a secure and immediate predecessor for the designs of theirSacre conversazioni.

Correspondences are detectable between Bellini’s Virgin and Child withSS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine and Antonello’s San Cassiano altarpiece.In both paintings, the enthroned Virgin is set at the same height betweenthe saints, and is rendered in the same perspectival foreshortening, that isto say, is seen by the beholder from the same point of view. The lateral wallsof Mary’s throne terminate in a similar fashion and support balls that arerecognizably of gold, seen in Antonello’s painting, like those carried onthe book held by St Nicholas of Bari. These concordances are unusual.


Moreover, both Bellini and Antonello painted a curtain behind Mary, andAntonello spread out an additional curtain, which reaches all the way to thefirst four saints. The most conspicuous differences are seen in the groupingof the saints at the sides of the throne. Bellini configures them into com-pressed groups. Catherine and Thomas Aquinas stand to the side in front ofthe throne, with space for an additional figure next to each of them.Compressed into the interspaces between the figures and the edge of the pic-ture are the heads of three saints on both sides. Antonello, however, chose abroader format, setting only four saints in pairs on either side of the throne,and by means of the outermost figures, George and Sebastian, positionedtowards the front, opened up the space for the figures. Set back spatially,they are followed by St Nicholas of Bari on one side and St Dominic on theother. The female saints are arranged in the interspaces: Rosalie and Lucyon the left, Ursula and Helena on the right. On the whole, by arrangingalmost the same number of saints one behind the other in two spatially stag-gered rows, Antonello hit upon a much more satisfactory solution than theone adopted by Giovanni Bellini for the St Catherine altarpiece. It would begrotesque to assume that Bellini would still have been incapable of devisinga better composition for the Sacra conversazione in Santi Giovanni e Paolo ifhe had been preceded by Antonello’s San Cassiano altarpiece. The awkwardcomposition of the figures in Bellini’s altarpiece in Santi Giovanni e Paoloconstitutes a conclusive argument for its production prior to the San Cassianoaltarpiece, and for acknowledging Bellini as the inventor of the VenetianSacra conversazione.

Already in the Pesaro altarpiece, Bellini had decisively improved thefigural composition by means of a reduction from five to two saints on eachside of the throne and a less crowded staggered arrangement within a rela-tively flattened perspective. In the San Cassiano altarpiece, Antonello hadarranged the staggering of the saints more broadly than had Bellini in hisPesaro altarpiece. It is questionable whether an architectural backgroundlaid out with a steep perspective could have followed from this more spaciousdisposition of the figures, as in Wilde’s reconstruction. Rather, one wouldhave to consider a composition like the one devised by Alvise Vivarini in hisVirgin and Child with Saints of 1480 (illus. 138) for a side altar of the churchof San Francesco in Treviso.61 For this altarpiece, Alvise may have modelledhimself on Antonello’s San Cassiano altarpiece, completed in 1476, whichhad already enjoyed considerable attention, in particular from Florentineartists around 1480.62 In any event, it is clear that Alvise Vivarini painted asplendid brocade dress for his Virgin, which competed with the paintedmaterial of Antonello’s figure, itself based on Netherlandish models. It lieswithin the realm of possibility that Antonello painted a Sacra conversazione inVenice with a horizontal Florentine format, just as Alvise Vivarini did severalyears later for San Francesco in Treviso.63

A competitive relationship between Antonello da Messina andGiovanni Bellini can be assumed. Antonello surpassed the figural composi-tion of Bellini’s first Sacra conversazione, but Bellini took up this challenge for

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138 Alvise Vivarini, Virgin and Childwith Saints (Treviso altarpiece), 1480,wood. Galleria dell’Accademia,Venice.

his masterpieces, the San Giobbe altarpiece of circa 1480–85 and the SanZaccaria altarpiece of 1505 (illus. 160).

Pala or Triptych

It is assumed that the contract for the extraordinary San Giobbe altarpiece(illus. 139) was issued after the terrible plague epidemic of 1478, and thatBellini completed the painting before 1485. Between 1470 and 1485, at theinstigation of Doge Cristoforo Moro, the church was remodelled in the styleof the Florentine Renaissance by the architect Pietro Lombardo.64 The promi-nent representation of two of the three plague saints suggests a connection toan epidemic: Job, also the title saint of the church, and Sebastian. The votiveimage was probably commissioned by the Scuola di San Giobbe with the par-ticipation of Marco Cavallo, whose coat of arms are displayed on the columnbases.65 The painting stood on the second altar on the right-hand side of thechurch in a stone frame resembling a triumphal arch.66 Beginning in 1510,Bellini’s altarpiece was flanked by Marco Basaiti’s altarpiece of Christ in theGarden at Gethsemane, which stood on the first altar next to the entrance, andCarpaccio’s Presentation of Christ, a variation of Bellini’s altarpiece, on thethird altar. In 1815 all three paintings were removed from their original loca-tions for reasons related to conservation and brought to the Accademia. Theynow hang in the second room of the gallery in the positions that they originally


139 Giovanni Bellini, S. Giobbe altar-piece, c. 1480–85, wood. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

140 The altarpieces from the church ofS. Giobbe by Marco Basaiti, GiovanniBellini and Vittore Carpaccio. Galleriadell’Accademia, Venice.

occupied in the church (illus. 140). Bellini’s enormous panel was heavily dam-aged when it was removed from its frame: a piece of the semicircular top waslost, as was also the case for the San Zaccaria altarpiece, which was carried offin 1797 to Paris as booty, losing both its arched terminus and lowermost boardin the process. The assertion, made in 1987, that the San Giobbe altarpiecewas also missing its lowermost board remains unverified.67

In the church of San Giobbe the stone frame, a triumphal arch construct-ed for Bellini’s large panel, has survived in situ. A restoration of 1997–8 onceagain rendered visible the Istrian marble with its blue paint and gilding.68 Thephotographic reconstruction (illus. 141) restores the relationship between theframing triumphal arch and the painted architecture. The Virgin and Child andthe saints are found in a tall enclosure, a ciborium with apse, golden apse conchand coffered barrel vault. The light is depicted entering from the right and illu-minates the group and the architecture, thereby showing the open interspacesbetween the columns at the front and the recessed painted pilasters. In this way,an apparently totally symmetrical composition of architecture and figures isenlivened by the asymmetrical incidence of light. The arrangement of thefigures at the sides of the throne occupies the space, and differs on the two sides:on the left are Francis and Job towards the front with John the Baptist behind,while on the right only Sebastian stands forward, with Dominic and Louis ofToulouse standing behind him. Not only in relation to the crowded configura-tion of the saints in the Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherineand the arrays of figures in the Pesaro altarpiece, but also in relation to the dou-bled rows in the San Cassiano altarpiece, the San Giobbe altarpiece has attaineda new freedom in the disposition of figures within a symmetrical framework.Precisely these two elements are played artfully against each other: the strict geo-metrical symmetry of the framing triumphal arch and the painted architecturewith its emphatic central axis, within which the pyramidal group consisting ofthe angels, the throne with the Virgin, seated upright, and the baldachin with itslaurel wreath, actually an ombrello, are arranged.


141 A virtual reconstruction of the San Giobbe altarpiece in its framein the Church of S. Giobbe.

In the San Giobbe altarpiece, the enlivening of the symmetry is effect-ed primarily by light and less by colouristic means. In contrast to the black ofDominic, the nude figure of Sebastian, exposed to the light on the right-handside, takes on a luminous quality as though transfigured, while on the otherside the aged Job and the pale blue angel seated in front of him catch the lightthat falls from the right. Subtle displacements enliven the composition: theVirgin, aligned with the central axis, turns her head slightly towards theentrance and raises her left hand in a majestic gesture that should be under-stood as one of greeting or welcome.69 The child sits upright on her rightknee, his luminous white incarnadine echoing Sebastian’s transfigured form.

The believer or beholder approaches Bellini’s altarpiece from the direc-tion of the incidence of light, and is greeted by the Virgin. As he stands beforethe altar, the sanctuary with the company of saints opens itself to him at eyelevel. When he raises his gaze to the celestial apse conch, he sees the five seraphsin a golden mosaic with the ave gratia plena (sic), and above it the greeting,addressed by the golden heavens to Mary: +ave virginei flos intemeratepudoris (‘Greetings to you, unstained flower of virginal honour’). The originof this line cannot be determined with certainty, although individual expres-sions appear in an acrostic and in a psaltery from the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies, and its relation alludes rather to the doctrine of the perpetual virginityof the mother of Jesus than to the doctrine of the immaculate conception (i.e.,conceived free of original sin) of Mary herself.70

With Giovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina, the pala, or unifiedaltarpiece, became the principal field of innovation in Venice. Appearing nowin the context of a prescribed hieratic symmetry is a subtle dynamization ofthe figural composition by means of the varied positioning of colour and light.The proportions of figural groups and architecture are harmonized with oneanother. It should not be forgotten, however, that multi-panel altarpiecescontinued to be produced. Still, it would be a mistake to draw a distinctionbetween a progressive and an old-fashioned type. In Venice even as late as thesecond or third decade of the sixteenth century, the choice in Venice betweena unified altarpiece, or pala, and a multi-panel one was determined primarilyby the work’s intended location. As the examples by Bellini demonstrate, theunified vertical pala was developed for the side wall of a church, while thepolyptych remained the rule for the altars in the main and side choirs, andpresumably retained greater prestige. It is not primarily a question of the pro-gressive or conservative tastes of clients or artists, but instead a problem ofinstallation, and in the case of export works, of transport as well. In 1993 PeterHumfrey focused on the fundamental matters of mounting and transport,which had hitherto received inadequate attention.71 In Venice, the conventiondescribed above no longer applied after Titian’s painting of the Assumption,executed in the years 1516–18 for the Pesaro family for the church of SantaMaria Gloriosa dei Frari.72 An earlier exception was the St Ambrose altarpieceof circa 1500–10, executed by Alvise Vivarini and Marco Basaiti for one of thechoir chapels of this church.73 A later example again sheds light on the con-nection between structure and intended location: in 1522 Titian produced a


multi-panel altarpiece for the high altar of the church of Santi Nazaro e Celsoin Brescia.74 Since the relatively small format of 2.78 x 1.22 metres could eas-ily have corresponded to a one-piece altarpiece, we can only assume that thepolyptych form continued to enjoy greater prestige.

After the development of the pala, Giovanni Bellini delivered three orfour multi-panel altarpieces. In the spring of 1489, the triptych (illus. 142) forthe Pesaro family was completed and set up in the choir of the sacristy of theFrari. During the second half of the 1480s, Bellini also worked on a triptychfor the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, built by Pietro Lombardo. Thiswork, whose central panel showed St Jerome in the desert, is lost.75 After1500 Bellini and his workshop painted a triptych for Pietro Priuli, which wasintended for the altar of the chapel of San Michele in Isola.76 Giovanni Bellinimay have received the commissions for the San Giobbe altarpiece and theFrari triptych around the same time, circa 1478. The clients for the Frari trip-tych were Nicolò, Benedetto and Marco Pesaro, the sons of Pietro Pesaro.The occasion was the internment of their mother Franceschina in a sepulchrein the sacristy that was intended for the family, and which was consecrated,like the church itself, to the Virgin.77 The frame for the triptych was thework of Jacopo da Faenza, who signed it on the reverse, entering the date of15 February 1488 according to Venetian reckoning (more veneto), or 1489according to our calendar. Bellini signed and dated the work on the base ofthe throne. A collaboration between painter and framemaker is certain.

Bellini adopted a similar formula to Mantegna’s San Zeno altarpiece,with three parts contained by a unifying frame. The saints occupying the lat-eral panels are shown staggered in narrow, shallow cabinets, while the Virginand Child are set on a raised throne in the central panel, its rounded arch ris-ing above the side panels. The frame is constructed of four pillars set on aplinth, connected by two architraves and the arch: this form was later knownin architectural history as a Serliana (or Palladio motif), but it would be moreapt to refer to it as a Belliniana. The funereal context is emphasized by thesculptural decoration above the frame: candelabra with burning flames sup-ported by dolphins and winged sea creatures, and an urn or vase at the apexof the arch, from which a candelabrum rises. In the panels themselves, thepillars of the framing façade are repeated without ornamentation on the sideof St Nicholas of Bari and St Benedict and in the throne-room of the middlepanel. The Virgin is enthroned atop a tall base at whose feet two angels playmusic, and she holds the standing Child on her knee. The throne itself is notvisible, because here Mary herself is the throne, or sedes sapientiae.

In the golden conch of the apse in the central panel, an inscriptionrefers to the Virgin as the Gate of Heaven: ianua certa poli duc mentemdirige vitam // quae peragam commissa tuae sint omnia curae (‘securegates of heaven, lead my spirit, direct my life, all my actions are commend-ed to your solicitude’). Rona Goffen has established the origin of this citationin Leonardo Nogarolis’s Liturgy of the Immaculate Conception, published forthe first time in Venice in 1478. Based on a number of indications (the formof the tabernacle frame, the prayer and the apse conch, and Benedict’s book,

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142 Giovanni Bellini, the Frari trip-tych, 1489, wood. Church of S. MariaGloriosa del Frari, Venice.

which is open to Ecclesiasticus), Goffen concludes that the theme is the hopeof salvation through the intercession of the sinless Mother of God.78

The form of the frame, however, is related to another context (illus.143). It is not a tabernacle, but instead a genuine temple front, depictedmore explicitly than in Mantegna’s San Zeno altarpiece, for which aByzantine model had been drawn on. In the Museum of Nicosia on Cyprusand in the Metropolitan Museum in New York there are four Byzantine sil-ver bowls from the seventh century ad, each of which displays four pillars,segments of architraves and a raised arch at the centre, that is to say, theSerliana form of Bellini’s Frari triptych. Various scenes are set in front ofthis architecture: the anointing of David by Samuel, David before Saul (illus.144), the Emperor Theodosius with courtiers and guards. In the biblicalscenes containing David, the architecture with its spiral columns refers tothe Temple in Jerusalem. Bellini adopts this for his Frari triptych in orderto display the attribute Templum Salomonis for Mary and to add it to theother predicates.79


143 The sacristy of S. Maria Gloriosadei Frari with the Frari triptych.

144 David before Saul, Byzantine silver plate, beginning of the 7th century. Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York.

Symmetry and Asymmetry

The Baptism of Christ (illus. 145) was painted byGiovanni Bellini on a commission from BattistaGraziani for the church of Santa Corona in Vicenza,where the altar was erected between 1500 and 1502.Graziani had made a vow to endow an altar in orderto ensure his safe return from a pilgrimage to the HolyLand. With two inscribed stone panels set on the pil-lars in front of the altar structure between the naveand the aisle, the donor maintains his memory andthat of the date 1500.80 Bellini’s painting is found onthe wall of the left-hand aisle immediately in front ofthe transept, in a grandiose altar structure by Rocco daVicenza. For the lighting of the picture, he tookaccount of the windows on the side of the choir. Thesupport is wood, the boards arranged horizontally.

With its dimensions of 4.0 metres in height and 2.63 metres in width, theimage is extraordinarily large, but nonetheless approximately one metreshorter than the large altarpieces of San Giobbe and San Zaccaria.

For his Baptism of Christ in Vicenza, Bellini took up the compositionused by Cima da Conegliano for the same theme circa 1492–4 for SanGiovanni Battista in Bragora in Venice (illus. 146).81 Like Cima, Bellini sethis figural group in the foreground, positioning John the Baptist and theangels on the bank across the water and lowering the level on which Christstands in the centre.82 In both paintings, John holds a bowl above Jesus’shead, above which a white dove hovers at the central axis, and from which aray of light falls directly downwards. Behind the group of figures, a broadlandscape containing the River Jordan opens toward mountains that rise upin a staggered formation all the way to the blue horizon beneath the brightstreaks of the sky. The marvellous composition devised by Cima, who wasborn roughly between 1459 and 1469, and who arrived in Venice perhapsonly in the first half of the 1480s, where he was employed in the workshop ofAlvise Vivarini, must have made an extraordinary impression on GiovanniBellini. For the first time, Bellini adopts here a composition by a youngercolleague for one of his own works.

The changes made by Bellini to Cima’s composition were preciselyplanned enhancements. Bellini emptied the picture, shifting the tree next toChrist behind the angels along the left edge of the picture, eliminating thefigures in the central area, lowering the fortified hill, and juxtaposing a curtain-walled castle, a church and a hermit’s dwelling under a palm tree at middleheight. In Cima’s painting, a cloud floats above the dove, surrounded by aring of cherubs. The Gospels of Matthew (3: 17), Mark (1: 11) and Luke (3:22) are unanimous in reporting that during the Baptism the skies parted anda dove glided downwards, while a voice intoned, identifying Jesus to thepeople, as ‘my son’. Above the cloud, in extreme foreshortening, Bellini showsGod the Father with outspread arms surrounded by cherubs and seraphs in


145 Giovanni Bellini, Baptism ofChrist, 1500–02, canvas. Church of S. Corona, Vicenza.

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a way that resembles Vittore Carpaccio’s painting of 1491, St Ursula in Gloryfor the Ursula cycle. In doing so, Bellini makes the Trinity visible along thevertical central axis, just as his father did in one of his drawings of theBaptism of Christ, namely the one now in London.83 In both drawings byJacopo, Christ and John are surrounded by a large group of music-makingangels as an indication of the supernatural event. Giovanni Bellini, in con-trast, worked with iconographic concentration and with light and colour in

146 Cima da Conegliano, Baptism of Christ, 1492–4, wood. Church of S. Giovanni in Bragora, Venice.

order to reveal the event of Christ’s baptism as a revelation of his dual nature.Christ belongs simultaneously to the vertical axis of the Trinity and to theevent of the Baptism occurring along the horizontal axis, and the waters ofthe River Jordan reach up to his shoulders (that is to say, on the two-dimen-sional plane of the picture). Christ is depicted frontally and enlivened by agentle contraposto, while Cima favoured asymmetry, rotating the figure ofChrist slightly towards John. The luminous body of Christ takes up theincarnadine of the Transfiguration, confirmed by the frontally depicted head,as compared with a fragment of the contemporary Transfiguration of Christ(illus. 106) in the Accademia. In addition, the half-figure in the Resurrectionof Christ (illus. 147) in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth is closelyrelated to the Christ in the Baptism in Vicenza. The head of the frontallydepicted body of the resurrected Christ is ringed with golden beams of lightin a way similar to the Baptism in Vicenza. The relationship to the act of


147 Giovanni Bellini, Resurrection ofChrist, c. 1500–10, wood. Kimbell ArtMuseum, Fort Worth, Texas.

Redemption, finally, clarifies the position of the arms of the baptized Christ,which echoes the crossed arms of the deceased Christ in images of the Passion(illus. 58) from the 1460s.

On the basis of Cima’s composition, Bellini was able to develop anextraordinary allegory of the history of Salvation: in his Baptism of Christ, theTrinity, the Incarnation, the Baptism, the Passion and the Redemption becomeone. He also included the earthly consequences of these events: the castle, thechurch and the hermit’s cave. And he incorporated the three angels, two ofwhich bear Christ’s red and blue robes: red and blue are the colours of God theFather and the Virgin Mary. Set in opposition to the luminous colours of theangels and to Christ’s radiant incarnadine are the grey and green seen to oneside of the Baptist and his brownish flesh tint. On his side, however, we findthe obligatory severed tree-trunk from which a new sapling shoots upwards.Bellini also makes reference to himself, placing the cartellino bearing his

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signature beneath the feet of John the Baptist. Between the cartellino and Christ,he painted a red-and-green bird perched on a branch. This is apparently a red-green type of parrot, the so-called Purple-naped Lory, which was captured onthe Moluccas and arrived in Europe via the Arabian import trade.84 Since theparrot was regarded as the herald of Caesar, its presence might be interpretedas an allusion to the donor’s journey to the Holy Land, or as promulgating thearrival of God’s Son or alluding to his earthly status. Battista Graziani wasennobled as a minister to Emperor Frederick iii and named a count palatine.85

In an engraving of the Baptism of Christ (illus. 148), executed after 1507,Girolamo Mocetto combined the paintings of Cima da Conegliano andGiovanni Bellini and altered much without understanding. Although theTrinity appears, it has been displaced from the central axis. Bellini’s well-composed group of angels has been replaced by a row, and Christ stands withdry feet upon a stone slab in the Jordan, his hands folded together in prayer,as in the Cima.

Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ (illus. 149), produced after1451, served as the central panel of a polyptych, the remaining parts ofwhich were supplied by Matteo di Giovanni up to circa 1465.86 Placed abovethe panel was God the Father seen in foreshortening, establishing theTrinitarian context. In his painting, Piero della Francesca re-established thearchaic frontality of the figure of the baptized Christ, from which narrativepainting since Giotto had deviated. In the Baptism, Piero displays the light-filled body of Christ, although this effect has been obscured by early andincompetent cleaning.87 There is a connection between Bellini’s baptizedChrist in Vicenza and Piero’s, but not between Piero’s and Cima’s luminousChrist. Yet Bellini worked with a thoroughly metrical composition, whilePiero della Francesca, although positioning his frontal Christ along thecentral axis, ultimately cancelled the bilateral symmetry of the compositionthrough the lateral positioning of the two trees and additional subsidiaryfigures.

For Bellini, the symmetrical character of the altarpiece remained deci-sive, and he introduced only deviations and enlivenments, while Cima daConegliano, and later Sebastiano del Piombo and Titian, worked towarddynamizing their compositions. In the Virgin in Glory with Eight Saints (illus.150), Bellini assembles his figures on a terrace and has them gaze at a hoveringVirgin surrounded by cherubs and seraphs.88 Of interest is the arrangement ofthe saints in a half-circle, since it was impossible to fit an ensemble of eightfigures into the central area. Louis of Toulouse appears in a frontal pose belowthe Virgin, but not on the central axis. The fortresses – again, predicates ofMary – and the landscape have not been subjected to a strict bilateral symme-try.89 Around the same time, Bellini executed the symmetrical San Zaccariaaltarpiece (illus. 160).

Only in 1513 did Bellini venture to introduce a restrained dynamism inthe altarpiece with SS Jerome, Christopher and Louis of Toulouse (illus. 151) forthe church of San Giovanni Crisostomo. The painting displays the year in thepainter’s signature on a cartellino: mdxiii // ioannes // bellinvs.p [inxit]. The


148 Girolamo Mocetto, Baptism of Christ, after 1507, engraving.Bibliothèque Nationale de France,Paris.

149 Piero della Francesca, Baptism ofChrist, about 1445. National Gallery,London.

client was the tradesman Giorgio Diletti, whose last will and testament of 1494provided for the erection of a tomb chapel in the church, which had fallenvictim to fire in 1475 and was to be refurbished. Mauro Codussi began workin 1497, and his son Domenico completed construction in 1504. Giorgio Dilettidied in 1503, when he ceded all rights to the chapel to the Scuola Grande diSan Marco in exchange for the total remission of his sins. In 1511, afterconfirmation from the widow, the Scuola transferred the contract to GiovanniBellini, who was a member.90

For the Diletti chapel in San Giovanni Crisostomo, Bellini elaborated anew solution for the altar painting, which involved three figures. Standing ina narrow zone in the foreground, which is delimited laterally by pillars andclosed above by a short barrel vault, are Christopher and Louis. Passing behindthem and terminating at hip height is a white parapet with dark inserts,and above is a layered block of live rock dotted with plants that serves StJerome as both seat and throne. A fig tree to the left with a fortuitous bendserves the saint as a reading lectern. Jerome, dressed in white robes and a redcape, towers above the mountain chain into the sky. Although he now findshimself in the desert, the saint is shown in profile reading, as though he werecomfortably ensconced in his studiolo.

In his high altarpiece for San Giovanni Crisostomo of 1510–11,Sebastiano del Piombo presented the titular saint in profile facing right and

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overleaf:150 Giovanni Bellini and workshop,Virgin in Glory with Eight Saints, c. 1500–05, wood. Church of S. PietroMartire, isle of Murano, Venice.

151 Giovanni Bellini, S. GiovanniCrisostomo altarpiece, 1513, wood.Church of S. Giovanni Crisostomo,Venice.

152 Titian, St Mark Enthroned, c. 1511, wood. Church of S. Mariadella Salute, Venice.

six additional saints in a wholly asymmetrical composition in front of a row ofcolumns that lead diagonally into the depths of the picture.91 For Venice,this bold disruption of symmetry was a novelty, for hitherto only Cima daConegliano had ventured to depict an architectural setting in steep recessionin this way. Sansovino was still aware that Giorgione had begun the highaltarpiece, and that Sebastiano del Piombo completed it.92 Bellini justified hisdepiction of St Jerome in profile by his absorption in his book. His challenger


was less Sebastiano del Piombo than the young Titian, who propelled himselfinto the foreground with boldness and vigour after Giorgione’s death. Withthe altarpiece for the church of Santo Spirito in Isola (illus. 152), executed circa1510, Titian produced a novel type of altar painting: St Mark is set on a tallbase and raised up against the sky, through which white clouds drift.93

Unprecedented is the shadow falling across the head of the patron saint ofVenice and across his chest onto the right side. Mark balances a large book onhis right knee, his right arm outstretched, and his angled stance is emphasizedby the blue cloth falling from one side, by the green cloth falling downwardfrom the base, and by his line of vision. The saints, Cosmas and Damian, Rochand Sebastian, are arranged in pairs at the sides of the throne, and the pavingof the floor suggests a customary symmetrical arrangement. Rising all the wayto a terminating arch between Roch and Sebastian, however, is a dark greypillar with recessed columns, disturbing the symmetry of the scheme. DavidRosand has proposed an explanation for the shadow that falls across St Mark,perceiving it as an allusion to the outbreaks of plague that frequently threat-ened Venice.94 There is no explanation for the revolutionary act of abandon-ing bilateral symmetry. With the Pesaro Virgin and Child for the church ofSanta Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Titian would radically dynamize the altarpainting and the Sacra conversazione.

In the Diletti altarpiece, Belini alludes to Titian, albeit without entirelyembracing the boldness of his asymmetry: in both paintings, the principalsaints are positioned well above the heads of the others and set against cloud-filled skies in an untypical fashion. Bellini’s fig tree marks the left-hand sidejust as Titian’s architecture does the right-hand side, and, moreover, the legpositions of Christopher and Sebastian are borrowed from Titian.

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153 Domenico Gandini, engraving of Jacopo d’Andrea’s 1856 GiovanniBellini and Venetian Artists WelcomeAlbrecht Dürer, from Gemme d’artiitaliane 11 (1858).

Musical Painters

At the Congress of Vienna of 1814–15, Venice became a province of Austria.In 1866 Emperor Franz Joseph i was forced to cede Venice to Napoleon iii,who arranged a plebiscite for Italian unification. As a result an overwhelm-ing majority voted for Venice to become a part of the Kingdom of Italy. In1848 the Venetians had attempted to shake off Austrian domination byrebelling and proclaiming the ‘Repubblica di San Marco’. Austria respondedwith forceful repression. In 1855 Franz Joseph i visited the defeated city withhis wife Elisabeth, awarding a commission to the Friulian painter JacopoD’Andrea for a painting that was to depict Albrecht Dürer being cordiallywelcomed to Venice, and intended for the gallery of modern art in theBelvedere in Vienna.1 In 1856 the painting was exhibited in Venice, where itremained for a time in the company of an additional representation of anartistic encounter, namely Antonio Zona’s painting of the aging Titian withthe young Paolo Veronese. In 1858 Jacopo D’Andrea’s painting was circulatedthrough its publication in the journal Gemme d’arti italiane in the form ofa steel-plate engraving by Domenico Gandini (illus. 153), accompanied bya commentary by Pietro Selvatico.2

The idea for the painting was supplied by a letter written by Dürer dur-ing his stay in Venice some time between late 1505 and mid-1507 andaddressed to Willibald Pirckheimer in Nuremberg. The letter was publishedfor the first time in 1781 in the Journal zur Kunstgeschichte und zur allge-meinen Literatur, and appeared in a French translation in 1842.3 JacopoD’Andrea invented a festive greeting of the German artist by his Venetiancolleagues, setting it in a barque in the Bacina. In Giovanni Bellini andVenetian Artists Welcome Albrecht Dürer, we see a large company of men andwomen grouped in the large barque: at the stern and beneath a canopy,Bellini speaks to Dürer, who listens attentively, while the gondolier pausesfrom his labours in order to eavesdrop on their conversation. Three individ-uals follow Bellini’s speech with interest: one of these, seen in profile, is rec-ognizable as Titian; the other two have been identified as Pellegrino da SanDaniele and Palma il Vecchio. At the centre of the barque, Giorgione plays alarge lute, while the rest of the company, consisting of lovely young women

vi

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and men, amuse themselves by making music and singing. Visible are sever-al musical instruments: a harp, two or three lutes and a viola da gamba.4

Jacopo D’Andrea’s painting yokes together nineteenth-century notionsof a carefree artistic life with the attitude that the Austrians would have likedto see expressed by the Venetians, and projects these back onto the early six-teenth century. The artistic-political message could be summarized as fol-lows: the Venetian artists honour their German colleague, Dürer; GiovanniBellini acts as a mentor to the greatest German artist of the Renaissance, aswell as to young geniuses from the Veneto, such as Giorgione and Titian.The cosmopolitan Venetian artists, who take pleasure in music, song andfemale companionship, celebrate the arrival of the famous German artist inVenice. The fact that Dürer himself described his encounter with his artisticcolleagues in Venice somewhat differently was evidently of no importance.On 7 February 1506 Dürer wrote to Pirckheimer in Nuremberg that hehad become acquainted with a number of friendly, sensible and learnedmen in Venice, ‘good lute players and pipers, judges of painting, men ofsuch noble sentiment and honest virtue’. The counsel to avoid diningtogether with painters incited Dürer’s fears of being poisoned by jealouscolleagues. They would, he complains, both copy his works and disparagethem because they were not done in the classical style. Dürer extended histrust only to Giovanni Bellini, who praised him to the nobility and visitedhim in order make a purchase.5 This did not, however, actually happen.Dürer became aware of the contrasting social statuses of artists in Nurembergand Venice. In Venice, he wrote on 18 August 1506, he had become a ‘gen-tiluomo’, writing in anticipation of his return to Nuremberg: ‘Here I am agentleman, at home only a parasite.’6 As early as 1498, a splendid self-portrait(illus. 154) testifies through its confident pose and expensive clothing andgloves to Dürer’s self-image as a ‘gentiluomo’, and supresses all references tomanual labour.7

Giorgione, who was positioned together with his lute at the centre ofD’Andrea’s painting, was the first painter in Venice (illus. 155) whose talentsas a musician and a connoisseur of music were explicitly praised by Vasari. Hetook pleasure in singing love songs while accompanying himself on the lute,and he sang and played in such a divine manner that he was often engaged bythe nobility for their festivals and concerts.8 Mastery of a musical instrumentand of musical improvisation were hallmarks of a cultivated lifestyle longbefore Baldassare Castiglione demanded in his Cortegiano of 1528 thatcourtiers learn to sing from musical texts and to play several instruments.9 Inhis autobiography, Leon Battista Alberti claims to have mastered music with-out lessons, in particular organ playing, to such an extent that even knowl-edgeable musicians could learn from him.10 Leonardo da Vinci told Vasarithat Ludovico Maria Sforza, who took great pleasure in lute playing, hadsummoned the artist from Florence to Milan for this reason. Leonardo arrivedin Milan with a lyre made of silver in the novel and bizarre form of a horse’shead, an instrument that enabled him to endow his harmonies with especiallypowerful and beautiful sonorities.11 Leonardo, moreover, was the best


improviser of verses and rhymes. Similar accomplishments were reportedfor Bramante. The painters strove for professional advancement, improvingtheir social standing through their activities as musicians. Writing in 1949,Rudolf Wittkower claimed: ‘A familiarity with musical theory became asine qua non of artistic education.’12 The court in Milan was celebrated forits musical culture, while the Serenissima Repubblica under Doges Marco andAgostino Barbarigo competed with the papal chapel in Rome; in 1491 the firstofficial state musician was appointed maestro di cappella, namely the French orNetherlandish master Pietro Fossa.13 Among the princedoms of northernItaly, it was the dukedom of Ferrara in particular that, alongside Milan, placedspecial emphasis on music. In order to recuperate from military expeditionsand war games, Alfonso i d’Este occupied himself by making musical instru-ments and playing music.14 With his Marriage Feast at Cana (illus. 156), execut-ed in 1561–2 for the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, PaoloVeronese provided a grandiose depiction of musical painters performingtogether at an imposing banquet: Titian with a viola da gamba, Tintoretto andVeronese with viols, Veronese’s brother with a lira da braccio and perhapsJacopo Bassano with a flute. This performance of real-time music is no anec-dotal accessory, but instead a metaphor for the emotional effect and the contestbetween the harmony of colours and the harmony of tones.

Concerning Leonardo’s appearance at the court in Milan with thehorse’s head lyre he had invented, Vasari writes: ‘Leonardo’s performance

154 Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait,1498, wood. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

155 Jacob Picinus, Portrait of Giorgione,engraving from Carlo Ridolfi,Le Meraviglie dell’Arte (Venice, 1648).

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was therefore superior to that of all the other musi-cians who had come to Ludovico’s court.’ At stakehere was the wide-ranging courtly competition, orparagone, concerning the capacities and relative rank-ings of the arts and of the social status of painters,musicians and poets. At the court in Milan, Leonardowas especially relentless and rigorous in his attempts toacquire the most elevated status for the art of painting.The dispute is contained in the Libro di Pittura, whichwas assembled in the mid-sixteenth century. Theoriginal manuscript of the paragone was presumablycontained in the lost Codex Sforza, produced at theurging of Lodovico Sforza.15 Leonardo’s argumentsin favour of painting and against poetry and music areas follows: painting is a science constructed on math-ematical principles; it is addressed to the eye, whilemusic stimulates a less noble organ of sense. The imi-tations of painting encompass all phenomena; theyshow us bodies in lively motion, in contrast to which

the letters on the page are dead. Leonardo conceded the existence of anaffinity between painting and music on the condition that the latter wasregarded as a late-born sister art. The Conclusione on poets and painters is amarvellous panegyric to the eye as the sovereign among the sense organs andan instrument of mathematics, astronomy, cosmography and the other sci-ences of measurement, including architecture, perspective and painting. Themusician who advocates assigning the same rank to his own art as to paintingis countered by Leonardo, who asserts that the harmony of tones is transito-ry, while in painting, the harmony of well-proportioned bodies is permanentand preserves the beauty that perishes in its natural models. ‘Unfortunatemusic’ – sventurata musica – is Leonardo’s appellation for the little sister ofpainting, because its harmonies fade away immediately upon sounding forth.A comparison between the art of words, dismembered by succession, and thesimultaneous depiction of bodies yields the final argument in favour of paint-ing and against poetry. Moreover, because poetry is incapable of polyphony, itranks even lower than music. In order to make explicit the disadvantage ofthe successive character of words, Leonardo compares poetry to a piece ofmusic whose different voices are performed successively instead of simulta-neously: first the soprano, then the tenor, than the countertenor and finallythe bass. A poet cannot describe the harmonies of music, but painting candepict the harmonies of the proportions simultaneously: ‘According to this,the poet remains as far behind the painter in the figuration of corporeal thingsas he remains behind the musician in the figuration of invisible things.’16

The ranking adopted by Leonardo is not consistent with the actual state ofaffairs. Together with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, music belongedto the educational program of the Quadrivium, and hence numbered amongthe liberal arts, the artes liberales, while the painter had to defend himself


156 Detail from Paolo Veronese, The Marriage Feast at Cana, 1563, oil on canvas, (painters as musicians:Titian, Paolo Veronese and his brother,Tintoretto and another, probablyJacopo Bassano). Musée du Louvre,Paris.

157 The opening of Luca Pacioli’s 1498De Divina proportione. BibliothèquePublique et Universitaire, Genf.

constantly against the classification of painting amongthe mechanical arts.

Four important works concerning the paragone ofthe visual arts with music and poetry appeared between1499 and 1509.17 The texts of Francesco Lancilotti,Francesco Colonna, Pomponius Gauricus and LucaPacioli are all concerned with the idea of setting thevisual arts on a par with music and poetry, and theydocument a protracted debate centring in Milan andVenice around 1500.18 Particularly illuminating is theargument presented by Luca Pacioli in his Divina pro-portione of 1509. The extended title commends thebook, which deals with the golden section and withregular bodies, as absolutely necessary for anyone whois determined to study philosophy, perspective, paint-ing, sculpture, architecture, music or the other mathe-matical disciplines with an alert and penetrating spirit.They are promised an admirable and enjoyable lesson,and one that also deals with the problems of the mostesoteric sciences.19 In his dedication Pacioli addressesPedro Soderino in Florence and the Venetian patricianAndrea Mocenigo. The text begins with an epistolaaddressed to Prince Ludovico Maria Sforza of Milanand dated 9 February 1498 (illus. 157). Based on a dis-tinction between the fundamental and the derivative mathematical disci-plines, Pacioli turns toward the demand either that music be removed fromthe Quadrivium, or else that the subject of ‘prospettiva’ should be rangedalongside arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music on equal terms. ForPacioli, as for Alberti, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo and Dürer, prospetti-va meant something far more comprehensive than a method for representingspace, and encompassed the mathematical bases of painting, optics, the projec-tion of shadows and the depiction of light and shadow, as well as colouration.In opposition to those who support their arguments by citing Plato, Aristotleand Isidore of Seville, Pacioli states his argument directly: music satisfies theear, while perspective satisfies the eye, the highest sense organ of the intellect:‘If music recreates the soul by its harmony so too does perspective delightit by the measurement of distance and the variation of colours. If the one artexploits harmonic proportions, the other exploits arithmetical and geomet-rical ones.’20

The Music of Angels

In 1505 Giovanni Bellini painted his last great Sacra conversazione for thechurch of San Zaccaria, where it was joined together with the splendid altararchitecture (illus. 158), probably the work of Pietro Lombardo.21 The San

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158 The St Jerome Altar (attributed to Pietro Lombardo) in the church of S. Zaccaria, Venice, with GiovanniBellini’s altarpiece in situ. Church ofS. Zaccaria, Venice.

159 L. Normand, engraving ofGiovanni Bellini’s Pala di S. Zaccaria.

Zaccaria altarpiece and the framing architecture are coordinated with oneanother. In 1816 Bellini’s painting (illus. 160) was brought from Paris back toits original location, albeit with far-reaching alterations. In 1797 it had num-bered among the numerous items of war booty that were seized by theFrench army and transported to Paris for exhibition at the Musée Central desArts, the future Musée Napoléon.22 During its capture, the painting lost anarched segment above and one board below, the latter bearing a segment ofpainted flooring. Like many other paintings, Bellini’s San Zaccaria altarpiecesuffered mistreatment at the hands of restorers in Paris, when it was subjectto a procedure commonly practised after 1750: the separation of the paintlayer from its wooden support and its transfer to canvas. The records con-cerning its restoration have been preserved in the Archives du Louvre, andthe painting’s sojourn in Paris is also documented in Charles Landon’sAnnales du musée of 1807 (illus. 159). The San Zaccaria altarpiece became wellknown through John Ruskin. In his Lectures on Sculpture, delivered atOxford University in 1870–71, Ruskin analyses the opposition betweenFlorentine and Venetian art, praising Giovanni Bellini as the most importantVenetian artist for the transition from Michelangelo to Tintoretto. Theenthusiastic Ruskin named the Frari triptych and the San Zaccaria altarpiece


160 Giovanni Bellini, Pala di S.Zaccaria, lower part, 1505, canvastransferred from wood. Church of S. Zaccaria, Venice.

as the most eminent paintings in existence: ‘These two, having every qualityin balance, are as far as my present knowledge extends, and as far as I cantrust my judgment, the two best pictures in the world.’23

In his last Sacra conversazione, as in the San Giobbe altarpiece, Bellinidesigned a ciborium with apse and conch with a gold mosaic, but in contrastto the earlier composition, the ciborium in the San Zaccaria altarpiece openslaterally towards the landscape and the blue sky above, and the painted archi-tecture is dominated by a solemn colour chord consisting of white and gold.Like the architecture, the figural composition is strictly symmetrical: the malesaints, Peter and Jerome, stand frontally in front of the pillars; the femalesaints, Catherine of Alexandria and Lucy of Syracuse, are turned towards thecentre; and the Virgin and Child are set on a white marble throne inset withcentral reddish-gold panels. On the right-hand side is Lucy, the saint of lightwho was prominent in Venice. As in Antonello’s San Cassiano altarpiece, sheholds a transparent glass in her hand. At the feet of the Virgin, an angel playsa lira da braccio.24

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opposite:162 The contest between Pan andApollo, woodcut from Ovid,Metamorphoseos vulgare (Venice: G.Rosso, 1497).

163 Detail (the angel concert) fromGiovanni Bellini, Pala di San Giobbe(see illus. 139).

161 Detail (an angel playing a lira dabraccio) from Giovanni Bellini, Pala diS. Zaccaria (see illus. 160).

The colour composition is one of refined simplic-ity: for the male saints, the contrast is between broadareas of yellow and small areas of blue for Peter, andbroad areas of red with small areas of white forJerome. Visible along the axis is the full range ofcolour and bright–dark contrasts: pale red-gold withgreen for the angel, and blue, green, red and white atthe centre for the Virgin and Child, set in front of thewhite rear wall of the throne with its inlaid Veronesemarble. The two female saints play a mediating rolewith their restrained colours and raise the level ofchromatic diversity through their exposure in shadowand light.

Among the symbolic objects are Lucy’s lamp, herattribute as the saint of light, the glass lamp above theVirgin – ‘nostra lux vera’ (‘our true light’) according tothe Venetian litany – with the ostrich egg symbolizingthe Resurrection, and the acacia and fig tree as signs ofthe Passion and Redemption. Assigned to the gold

mosaic of the apse conch are the rock or great partridges and the lamp as asymbol of the knowledge of Christ.25 Appearing above the Virgin’s throne is aleaf mask of the face of Solomon (not David), as an expression of her identityas ‘sedes sapientiae’ (‘throne of wisdom’), and because Solomon receiveddivine illumination via celestial harmonies instructing him to erect a temple.These harmonies are represented in the painting by the angel with the lira dabraccio (illus. 161). Once again, Bellini elaborates acoustic phenomena in visualterms. An angel plays, and all of those present are depicted as listeners withlowered or inclined heads, with the exception of Jerome, who is shownabsorbed in his book, and thereby emblematizes the opposition between read-ing and listening.

The strings of the angel’s instrument, the lira da braccio, which was incommon use and which is frequently depicted, could be either plucked orstroked. Also known as a viola or lira, this was the preferred instrument ofboth virtuosi and dilettantes for improvising together with voice.26 In the latefifteenth century the lira da braccio became the mythic instrument of Apolloand Orpheus. In the illustrated edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses thatappeared in Venice in Italian in 1497, Apollo plays a lira da braccio with sevenstrings during his contest with Pan, which was witnessed by Midas, while hisopponent blows on pan pipes with seven pipes (illus. 162). The same editioncontains an illustration of Orpheus, who sings to the animals and trees of theforest, accompanying himself on a lira da braccio, and thus creating a newparadise with his pastorale.27 The lira da braccio with seven strings, as depict-ed by Bellini in the San Zaccaria altarpiece, can be related to the seven plan-ets, while other instruments with nine strings – including the one played byApollo in Raphael’s Parnassus in the Vatican – are associated with the nineMuses. The lira da braccio often has two additional outer bass strings that can


be plucked together with the other strings, which aretuned in fifths. This instrument is suitable for per-forming both melodies and simple harmonies.

In the San Giobbe altarpiece, Bellini sets threemusic-making angels (illus. 163) on the steps of thethrone at the Virgin’s feet, and gives them a moreprominent place than the crowded putti in the Virginand Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine (illus.119). The angels in the San Giobbe altarpiece, shownseated on the steps of the throne, are combined in apyramidal arrangement. All three are supplied withinstruments, the first with a rebec whose fingerboardterminates in a lion’s head, the other two with largelutes. The angel seated directly below the Virgin holdsthis instrument in such a way that the pale soundingside is almost parallel to the picture plane, and cover-ing the lower part of its face. The dark, circular soundhole within the surface corresponds to the row of fiveseraphim in the gold mosaic of the apse conch, each ofwhom carries a round shield. The musical angels onthe throne steps wear blue, green and yellow. The bluecontrasts with a salmon-red and has been given whitehighlights, so that this angel presents a variation on theVirgin’s colours, which are blue, red and white. Thegreen of the middle angel, whose gaze is directedupwards, is taken up by the robe of John the Baptist, ofwhich only a narrow strip is visible, and in particularby the marble of the first throne step and by the bal-dachin with its laurel wreath, which hangs verticallyabove the Virgin. The angel in yellow, finally, who alsodisplays a shadowed blue sleeve, echoes the gold of theapse conch and the blue of the seraphim.

Singing and music-making angels began appear-ing in paintings in the twelfth century in the highestcelestial spheres. Painters could depict angels withmusical instruments, but their music was inaudible,just as the songs and the music of celestial angelsremained imperceptible to mortals. Giotto includedmusic-making angels in his Coronation of the Virgin inthe Baroncelli polyptych, and around 1350 PaoloVeneziano included a large number of angels with var-ious musical instruments above the throne in the cen-tral panel of the large polyptych of the Coronation of theVirgin for the church of Santa Chiara in Venice, andplaced two kneeling angels with portable organs at thefeet of the enthroned pair. These angels open their

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164 Jacobello del Fiore and workshop,Coronation of the Virgin, 1438, wood.Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice

mouths in song. Between them, at the feet of Christ and Mary, are found thediscs of the sun and moon.28 In his enormous fresco of the Coronation of theVirgin in the Doge’s Palace, Guariento assembled music-making angelsaround the celestial throne. In Jacopello da Fiore’s reduced copy of 1438, todayin the Accademia in Venice, the lower steps of the cone-shaped centre of par-adise are occupied by angels with all the known musical instruments,arranged in double rows (illus. 164). Since Giotto, hardly any Italian depictionof the Coronation of the Virgin had failed to include musical angels, with theexception of Giovanni Bellini in his altarpiece for San Francesco in Pesaro(illus. 129).

In the central panel of his Valle Romita polyptych (illus. 165), executedin Venice, Gentile da Fabriano, who was Jacopo Bellini’s teacher, depicts theCoronation of the Virgin with God the Father and cherubs hovering above thethrone.29 Along the lower edge of the picture a section of the continuous goldground has been reserved for the firmament, with sun, moon and stars, intowhich the artist’s signature has been inscribed. The eight angels with theirinstruments have been positioned above the last sphere; they belong to heav-en, the setting of the coronation scene. For human beings, their angelic musicremains as inaudible as the music of the spheres made by the sun and theplanets, although some individuals believed that they could hear the voices ofangels, and derived plainchant from them. The sweet melodies played by anangel on a lute brought St Francis such celestial joy that, as his biographerreported, he felt as though he were already in the next world.30


165 Detail (central panel, theCoronation of the Virgin) fromGentile da Fabriano, Valle Romitapolyptych, c. 1410, wood. Pinacotecadi Brera, Milan.

The Involvement of the Beholder

In fifteenth-century Italy it was primarily Marian iconography that wasenriched by the musical angel.31 They arrived in the Sacra conversazione frompolyptychs with the enthroned Virgin, as seen in the central panel ofMasaccio’s Pisa polyptych. An important source for the musical angel at thethrone of Mary in the Venetian Sacre conversazioni was Andrea Mantegnawith his San Zeno altarpiece of 1459 (illus. 166). With Bellini, music-makingangels accompany the Venetian Sacre conversazioni, which represent the com-munion of saints. In his writings on the effects of music, the Netherlandishmusician Johannes Tinctoris, who served as chaplain at the Aragonese courtin Naples between 1471 and 1475, offers a revealing interpretation of thepainted musical angel: ‘When the painter wants to depict the bliss of thesaved, he paints angels which make various instruments ring out.’32

It was and remains uncertain just what viewers were expected to makeof these delightful yet mute accessory figures. A synaesthetic sensibility isdocumented for the first time by Carlo Ridolfi and Marco Boschini.Concerning the saints and musical angels in Bellini’s San Giobbe altarpiece,Ridolfi wrote in 1648:

In truth, he sees natural figures which Giovanni strove to endow withthe reverential sense of compassion expected of images of saints: byavoiding those foreshortenings or [elaborate] positions practiced sooften in later painting, he fully exposes the gracefulness and beauty ofthe three little angels sitting at the Virgin’s feet, one of which plays aviola, another a lute, and a third of violin; but their friendly faces andcheerful movements, they touch the soul; such figures awaken the great-est veneration in the spirits of the faithful, so that one has good reasonto concur with the words: They lack only words to seem fully alive // Youcould almost believe they speak if you trust your eyes.33

The quoted verse is from Canto xvi of Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme libera-ta. From the poet Ridolfi borrows the extraordinary challenge to believe one’seyes, thereby encouraging the beholder to use both senses: vision and hear-ing. In his Carta del navegar pitoresco (sic) (‘Nautical Chart of Painting’) of1660, Marco Boschini takes up this challenge. By way of the Virgin andChild, Boschini’s meditations go on to the saints, which seemed to him alive,passing over to the correspondence between real and painted architecture,and finally to the angels, which elicit the remark that it seemed to him asthough he could actually hear their harmonic music.34 In his Cicerone of1855, Jacob Burckhardt wrote two remarkable sentences about GiovanniBellini’s depictions of companies of saints gathered around the throne of theVirgin and Child:

The assemblies of saintly figures, without affect, even without anydefinite devotion, nonetheless makes a superhuman impression


166 Detail (putto with lute) of AndreaMantegna, altarpiece of S. Zeno, (illus. 124)

through the sounding together and the beatificexistence of so many free and beautiful charac-ters. The marvellous angels on the steps of thethrone, which sing and play lutes and violins,are only an external symbol for this authenticallymusical general content.35

Burckhardt did not explore this idea further, leavingthe question of how, going beyond metaphors, the‘musical general content’ could be more preciselydefined for Bellini and Venice. An example drawnfrom the works of another celebrated art historianexemplifies again how comparisons between GiovanniBellini’s colour schemes and musical harmony havesuggested themselves at first, but only to remain unde-veloped beyond sudden flashes of insight. In his earlywork The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, firstpublished in 1894, Bernard Berenson compares theeffects of Venetian colour with those of music. Of theVenetian painters and their colour schemes, he writes:‘Their mastery over colour is the first thing thatattracts most people to the painters of Venice. Theircolouring not only gives direct pleasure to the eye, butacts like music upon the moods, stimulating thoughtand memory in much the way as a work by a greatcomposer.’36 On the other hand, even a writer such as Richard Wagner per-ceived no transition leading from painting to music, whether in front of theSan Zaccaria altarpiece or the Frari triptych, which fascinated him, andwhich he referred to as the ‘perfection of painting’.37 It was art historianswho employed metaphors in order to keep alive the old aspiration to seepaintings acquire voices and sounds, whether through deception or throughthe imagination of the beholder. In 1490, in his epitaph for Filippo Lippi inSpoleto Cathedral, Angelo Poliziano offers the formula according to whichthe hand of the painter has enlivened the colours so effectively that their voic-es are audible to the deceived ears of the living.38

Painters were experts at deception and at eliciting the collaboration ofthe beholder. Around 1490 the Ferrarese-born painter Lorenzo Costa, whowas active in Bologna from 1486, produced an astonishing painting of musi-cians (illus. 167).39 Positioned as half-figures behind a wide marble parapet area female singer, a singing lute player and a male singer. Lying on the left-handside of the parapet is a stringed instrument, a rebec, across which lies a bowand a recorder, or flauto dolce. The rebec overlaps the edge of the picture,thereby emphasizing that the instruments are being offered to the beholder.On the right-hand side of the parapet lie an opened musical manuscript anda closed book. The lute player at the centre, who is also singing, looks downat the open manuscript, and is evidently reading the notes. The painting sug-

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167 Lorenzo Costa, A Concert, about1490, wood. National Gallery,London.

gests a participation of the beholder in the way that hetakes up an instrument – whether recorder or rebec –and adds to the music made visible here by the threesinging figures and the lute. This challenge is empha-sized by the singers at the sides, both of whom pointtowards the instruments and the musical manuscript.The painter himself invites the beholder’s anticipation,for the singer with the lute is a self-portrait. LorenzoCosta belonged to a family of painters, and had notpreviously attracted notice with depictions of musi-cians or musical angels or through exceptional inven-tions. He was familiar with the practice of includingmusical angels in pictures of the Virgin, as shown byhis painting for the abbey of Santa Maria Assunta nearBologna.40 Slightly later, in 1493, Costa painted agroup of ten male and female singers. Their names –they are members of the Bentivogli family alongsidepriests and the name ‘Lorenzo Costa pittore’ – are reg-istered on the painting itself, and a sheet of musicpaper is shown upside down so that the beholder isinvited to read it.41

An important work for the theme of seeingand hearing is Carpaccio’s Vision of St Augustine (illus. 168) in the Scuola diSan Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice. Legend has it that Augustine com-posed a treatise on the joys of the blessed, and wanted Jerome’s counsel.While Augustine was formulating his letter, he experienced a luminousvision and heard the voice of Jerome, who had just died, and whoreproached him for the idleness of his strivings for knowledge of the here-after. Carpaccio has the supernatural light fall visibly from the right


168 Vittore Carpaccio, The Vision of St Augustine, c. 1505, canvas. Scuola diS. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice.

169 Titian, The Andrians (Bacchanal),c. 1523–5, canvas. Museo del Prado,Madrid.

through a window parallel to the picture plane, traversing the studiolo.Augustine and his dog look in the direction of the light source, but are notblinded, and the Church Father at least displays no reflex action.Carpaccio uses an optical phenomenon to suggest an acoustic one.Augustine seems to need his eyes less than his ears. The acoustic dimen-sion is illustrated by Carpaccio through the presentation of legible musicalmanuscripts, one secular and one religious, both of which have been iden-tified.42 In Venice, Augustine was not only familiar as a Church Father,but also as the author of the treatise De musica, which was published inVenice for the first time in 1491.43

In one of his paintings for the studiolo of Duke Alfonso i d’Este inFerrara, Titian proffers a similar invitation to the beholder. The painting TheAndrians (Bacchanal) (illus. 169), executed around 1523–5, follows the ekphra-sis of Philostratus in showing the residents of the island of Andros madedrunk by Bacchus’ stream of wine, drinking, dancing or singing. With thebewitching female nude in the right-hand corner, Titian answers Giorgione’sVenus and the half-naked Lotis in Bellini’s Feast of the Gods (illus. 178) of1514. Just at the feet of this artful nude, and in front of two reclining youngwomen with recorders, lies a sheet of music paper that bears the title ‘Canon’,and which has been identified by Edward Lowinsky as the canon per tonos bythe Netherlandish composer Adrian Willaert.44 Willaert was a musician atthe d’Este court in Ferrara, and rose in 1527 to become maestro di cappella ofthe doges in Venice.

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The challenge of transgressing the boundaries between the visual andthe acoustic indicates the kinds of activities that were suggested to beholdersin the late fifteenth century. This involved reinterpreting a demand issued byAlberti, who explicitly called on the painter to depict objects that would becapable of inciting viewers to engage in intellectual activity – he uses theItalian word pensare, meaning to think, whose Latin equivalent is excogitare,meaning to discover, to conceive: ‘All these things, then, must be sought withthe greatest diligence from Nature and always directly imitated, preferringthose in painting which leave more for the mind to discover than is actuallyapparent to the eye.’45 Here, Alberti confronts the beholder and the artis stu-diosus with the challenge of engaging in conceptual activity, in active excog-itare, just like the artist, whose principal intellectual activity consists of inven-tion. A collaboration on the part of the beholder, one that extends from per-ception to excogitare, transcends mere delectation in, and emotional engage-ment with, the work of art. Lorenzo Costa, Vittore Carpaccio and Titian alsoproffered invitations for simulating an auditory response, regarded as anintellectual activity. Was the beholder, then, expected to listen inwardly toharmonies or melodies when viewing an open-mouthed painted figure witha musical instrument? When confronted by hosts of musical angels, was heexpected to imagine celestial music?

In his Dialogo della pittura of 1557, Lodovico Dolce, a learned historiog-rapher in Venice and an admirer of Titian, has his interlocutors discuss theimaginative faculties of the beholder with the writer Pietro Aretino and theFlorentine Fabrini. Following an exchange on a series of oft-repeatedreflections on poetry and painting (such as ‘mute poetry’ and ‘eloquent paint-ing’), Fabrini comes to the assertion that although his figures are silent, thepainter nonetheless causes them to seem to cry out, to weep or to laugh. Tothis, Aretino objects that this illusion corresponds to nothing real. Fabriniinvokes the example of a musician named Silvestro, who painted so excel-lently that beholders were convinced that his figures could speak almost likeliving people. Fabrini attributes this familiar aesthetic conceit to a paintingmusician, at which point Aretino disputes the view that is a question of thecapacities of the painting itself. He leads these observations back to the imag-ination of beholder, who is stimulated by the actions presented: ‘This idea isplain imagination on the spectator’s part, prompted by different attitudeswhich serve that end. It is not an effect or a property of painting.’46

With the collaboration of the beholder, painters redeem a challengepresented to them by Pliny with the story of Apelles, the most celebratedpainter of antiquity. It is a question of the unpaintable, of the boundary thatonly Apelles was able to surpass: ‘He even painted things that cannot be rep-resented in pictures – thunder, lightning and thunderbolts.’47 The paintingof the unpaintable, the surmounting of the boundaries of the medium, waspursued by Leonardo in Milan in his depiction of a thunderstorm, and byGiorgione in Venice in his Tempest. Erasmus of Rotterdam praised Dürer forsuccessfully meeting the challenge laid down by Apelles by representingthe non-representable.48 The numerous depictions of acoustic phenomena


170 Giovanni Bellini, Madonna of theMeadow, 1500–5, canvas transferredfrom wood. National Gallery, London.

observable in the works of Giovanni Bellini document the objective of sur-mounting the boundaries of painting, just as the legendary Apelles had done.The singing and music-making angels included by Bellini in his first Sacraconversazione during the 1470s, and the ones he added to later works for SanGiobbe, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari and San Zaccaria, and to the votivepicture commissioned by Doge Agostino Barbarigo, are undramatizedattempts to meet Pliny’s challenge by activating the beholder’s imagination.

Musica pittoresca

At the start of his career, Giovanni Bellini’s painting was oriented towardsinvention and poetry, but with the cultivation of colour harmonies, it begantending towards a paragone with music. Literary references remain isolated.In the inscription of the Pietà (illus. 83) in Milan, it has been possible to enu-merate them. For the Madonna of the Meadow (illus. 170) in London, Beltingcalled attention to the fact that the spring landscape contained literarily pre-formed motifs drawn from Virgil’s Georgics, hence poetic in character.49 In

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the liturgical calendar, spring is associated with Good Friday and Easter, thetime of the Passion and the Resurrection. The sleeping child in the Virgin’slap is a metaphor for the Passion and Resurrection. Consequently, thehumanistically educated beholder was able to follow the correspondencesbetween the Christian mystery and the cycle of nature, as well as the com-petition between painting and poetry that was conveyed by a concealed lit-erary motif. In his Feast of the Gods of 1514, Bellini again had recourse to aliterary text. By means of the development of chromatic harmony andthrough expression through colouristic unity, he gradually approached theparagone of painting and music. The problems of such theses are readilyapparent: the perception of analogies between the two arts developed slow-ly and found expression in reciprocal metaphors and comparisons. Musicapittoresca is one such metaphor, introduced by Vincenzio Borghini inFlorence during the second half of the sixteenth century to refer to compo-sitional unity, which he regarded as the most important element require-ment of a good painting. The painter, Borghini believed, should not proceedlike a farmer, sowing his grain across the field, but instead must dispose overthe different parts of the painting with discernment, according to rule, andwith grace: ‘And the result as a whole of this procedure is a harmony and apainterly music, as I refer to it.’50 Musica pittoresca appears to be the reversalof a metaphor invented by a poet, Petrarch, when naming his own activitywith the expression pinger cantando (to ‘paint while singing’), in a sonnet inwhich he laments the incapacity of language to represent the beauty of thedead Laura for posterity.51

In the Pietà (illus. 171) in the Accademia in Venice, which may wellhave been executed around the same time as the Madonna of the Meadow,Bellini elaborated the expression of sorrow through colouration.52 He juxta-posed muted blue, brown and violet, deprived the red and white of theirintensity, and used flesh tones for the aged Virgin and the dead Christ toapproximate the grey-brown of the cliffs and the field. The monuments –citations from Vicenza, Cividale and Ravenna – stand beneath a gloomy sky,and the distance appears not blue, but grey. The symbol of hope – the sev-ered tree-trunk that sprouts with new life – is integrated into this sorrowfulatmosphere. Bellini strove for a similar colouristic expressiveness in thepainting of the Crucifixion (illus. 172), which may have been executed justafter 1500.53 Despite the somewhat problematical condition of the Madonnaof the Meadow, the original state of the colour and light quality can be deter-mined. Here, they move in the direction of cheerfulness, but not jollity,forming a counterpart to the expression of sorrow in the Pietà and theCrucifixion in Prato.

The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and a Female Saint (Sacraconversazione Giovanelli) (illus. 173) of circa 1500–05 offers a heightenedcomplexity of compositional effects involving colour, light and shadow. Atthe centre is the Virgin in white, bright red and blue, which combine withthe bright incarnadine of the Christ Child. The head and hands of theunidentified saint next to the Virgin are shown in bright light, while the


171 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà, 1500–5,wood. Galleria dell’Accademia,Venice.

dress and cloak, mostly in shadow, form a contrast between the dark green-ish-blue and dark red and gold. John the Baptist, who stands in shadow onthe left-hand side, wears dark brown, grey and green; light falls on him onlyfrom the left. Between John and the Virgin, the shadowed brown is carriedover from one figure to the next. Light and shadow combine to create dramain a way similar to the Berlin Pietà with the Virgin and St John (illus. 174)from the second half of the 1490s.54 The dramatic conception of the figuresin the Sacra conversazione Giovanelli is toned down by their physiognomicexpressions and contrasts with the pale building, the landscape and thebright light above the horizon. Comparison with the Berlin Lamentationand the San Zaccaria altarpiece shows that Bellini exploited colour, light andshadow in the Sacra conversazione Giovanelli to generate a mixed form ofexpression. This mixed mode is repeated in the Virgin and Child (illus. 175)of 1510 in the Brera in Milan.55 The Virgin with the standing Child on herknee sits enthroned as the powerful draped figure before a landscape, fromwhich she is separated by a green curtain with a red border. The Child isrendered in radiant incarnadine; the face of the Virgin is in shadow; and theevening landscape has been deprived of light. Above the horizon line shinesthe fading light of the setting sun, and above the clouds the sky turns dark.

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173 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Childwith St John the Baptist and a FemaleSaint (Sacra Conversazione Giovanelli),c. 1500–5, wood. Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.

The melancholy of this evening atmosphere is opposed solely by the stand-ing Child with his radiant flesh tint and gesture of greeting.

Manifested in this work from the first decade of the sixteenth centuryis a new colouristic variety, a new harmonic diversity and an expression ofwholeness that is capable of generating either simplicity or complexity.Evidently, Bellini was testing out new possibilities for achieving chromaticunity and a corresponding form of expression through new correspondencesand contrasts. Equivalent reflections on painting manifested themselves onlyin the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There were fewprecedents for Bellini. In Book xxxv of his Natural History, Pliny the Elderintroduced the terms ‘tension’ and ‘harmony’ for the relationships of shadowand light and the reciprocal effects of colour in painting:

Later, art became further differentiated, discovering light and shadow,and the reciprocal effects of various colours on one another. Added laterto these effects was lustre [Latin: splendor], which is somewhat differentfrom light. What lies between the two [that is, light and lustre] is calledtónos [tension], while mixtures of colours and the transitions betweenthem are referred to as harmogé [consonants, harmony].56

opposite:172 Giovanni Bellini, Crucifixion, c. 1501–2, wood. Galleria di Palazzodegli Alberti detta Cariprato, Prato(Collection Cariprato).

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174 Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with theVirgin and St John, c. 1495–1500,wood. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

This Natural History by the Roman encyclopaedist, who lived during the firstcentury , was known during the Middle Ages, and was published by aGerman printer in Venice as early as 1469.

In the treatise on the art of painting that Alberti composed in 1435–6in an Italian version addressed to artists, and a Latin version addressed tosavants and patrons, the compositional unity of the image and the harmon-ic interrelationships between the colours were elaborated in a theoreticalframework for the first time. The unity of the painting was to be attained insuch a way that all of its parts contribute to the theme, and the painter hadto examine his compositional design to ensure that ordo and modus wereobserved. The rhetorical concept ordo corresponds to the disposition of thefigures in the larger narrative or action, and modus may be regarded as anal-ogous to the genera dicendi, the type of style or expression involved. Albertidevoted only a few sections to the illumination of painted surfaces and theharmonization of the colours. The origins of the pigments, the theme ofoptics, are avoided, since a working knowledge of the types and varieties ofpigments and their uses is deemed sufficient for the painter. Alberti rejectsthe Aristotelian notion that there are seven colours, and against their linear


175 Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child,1510, canvas transferred from wood.Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

arrangement in a scale between white and black, intended to present the ori-gins of the colours as admixtures of light and dark.57 Instead, he posits fourcolour genera (genera colorum) that correspond to the four elements: fire =red; air = sky blue; water = green; earth = ash colour. The other colours aresaid to result from mixtures of these four. White and black alter the colourgenera by lightening or darkening them to form infinitely various types ofcolours (species colorum). This schema of four colour genera correspondingto the four elements brings painting into correspondence with the harmon-ic proportions of the four elements according to Plato, and with the fourcolours used by Greek painters, which were, alongside black (according toPliny), the earth colours, white, ochre and red.58 It remains a riddle whyAlberti numbered grey (color cinereus) among the basic colours. John Gagehas demonstrated that grey, a mixture of white and black, was thought capa-ble of ensuring the coherence of colour and of relief, and hence the unity ofthe image.59

The uninterrupted coherence of colours and relief is served by theavoidance of gold, pure white and pure black. Alberti has no objections to theuse of gold and silver for frames, but excludes them entirely from picturesurfaces, since the lustre or darkness of metallic areas fall outside the givencolouristic scheme. In the same way, he holds that pure white or black can

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only interfere with colouristic unity. Alberti introduces a new term for themutual enhancement of juxtaposed colours, referring to the ‘friendship’(amicitia) between the colours: ‘There is a kind of sympathy among colours,whereby their grace and beauty is increased when they are placed side byside.’60 As an example of the harmony of the colours, Alberti refers to adepiction of Diana with her entourage. For the costumes of the figures, herecommends green alongside white, followed by purple and saffron yellow,with the remaining figures attired alternately in dark and bright colours.The colour combinations are to be based on contrasts between bright anddark values and between chromatic values.61 Alberti also comments brieflyon the expressive capacities of colours: in combination with almost all othercolours, white conveys cheerfulness, while darker colours set among brightones convey dignity.

In this way, he presents the rudiments of reflections on the harmoniesand expressive capacities of colour in painting. Attempts to establish corre-spondences between musical tones and colours, or between musical scalesand the colour spectrum (attempts undertaken repeatedly since Aristotle andcontinued well into the twentieth century), have never produced satisfactoryresults.62 In the case of a music theoretician and composer such as FranchinoGaffurio, who was a friend of Leonardo, the colours are not incorporatedinto the larger system of world harmony discovered by Pythagoras and stillmaintained by Johannes Kepler. For his work Practica musicae, Gaffurio hadan artist design an illustration of the harmony of the spheres, and he reusedthis woodcut in his De harmonia musicorum of 1518. This grand harmonyencompassed the Muses, the modes, the planets and intervals, and connectedelements of the earth with the throne of Apollo by means of the great, three-headed serpent of time, the monster Serapis.63 Missing, however, from thisgrandiose harmony are the colours.

Standing open alongside attempts to establish direct correspondencesbetween colours and tones were only two postulates capable of orientingpainting towards music. The first was the analogy between musical harmo-ny and tones and colours, the other the analogy between expressive capacitiesof the modi and those of colours. Vasari deals with colour in the context of hisdiscussions of technique under the category of colour unity, unire i colori.Already in the first edition of 1550, he offered the following definition:

Unity in painting is produced when a variety of different colours areharmonized together, these colours in all the diversity of many designsshow the parts of the figures distinct from one another, as the flesh fromthe hair, and one garment different in colour from another.64

Vasari then employs a circumlocution familiar from Gaffurio: ‘Harmonia estdiscordia concors’ (‘harmony is concord out of discord’). In his book Lightand Color, Moshe Barasch shows how Venetian theories, especially those ofPino and Dolce, attempted concurrently to analyse the colouristic unity thathad already been achieved by painting.65


176 Giovanni Bellini, Feast of theGods, 1514, canvas. National Galleryof Art, Washington, dc.

Finale

In 1514 Bellini dated his Feast of the Gods that he had painted on a commis-sion from Alfonso i d’Este for his Camerino di Albastro in Ferrara.66 In con-junction with paintings by Titian and Dosso Dossi, the Feast of the Gods (illus.176) formed one of the most celebrated cycles of painting produced duringthe Renaissance. In 1598, in the wake of disputes over inheritance initiated byIppolito Aldobrandini (Pope Clement viii), Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandinitransported the cycle to Rome illegally.67 Vasari regarded the Feast of the Godsas one of Bellini’s most beautiful works:

The duke also wanted to have there some pictures by Giovanni Bellini,who painted on another wall a vat of red wine with some Bacchanals

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177 Lotis and Priapus, woodcut fromOvid, Metamorphoseos vulgare (Venice:G. Rosso, 1497).

around it, together with musicians and satyrs and other drunken figures,both male and female, and near them a nude and very beautiful Silenusriding on his ass in the middle of various figures with their hands full ofgrapes and other fruits. This work was coloured and finished so dili-gently that it is one of the finest pictures Giovanni Bellini ever painted,though there is a certain sharpness in the style of the draperies whichsuggests the German manner. This is not surprising, for he imitated apicture by the Fleming Albrecht Dürer which about this time had beenbrought to Venice and lodged in the church of San Bartolomeo; it is arare work of art, alive with beautiful figures painted in oils.68

Around the middle of the sixteenth century, Bellini’s reputation suffered. Inthe Vita of Titian, Vasari proposed a decisive devaluation on the grounds thatGiovanni Bellini had done without study of classical antiquity, and that heconsequently drew everything from life, that is to say, without judgementand without the ideal, and moreover ‘in a dry, hard and stiff manner’.Vasari’s negative judgement was momentous. Only in the nineteenth centu-ry would art historians revise this verdict of Giovanni Bellini’s historicalranking, in particular through Jacob Burckhardt, Charles Blanc, JohnRuskin and the British-Italian research team Crowe and Cavalcaselle. Thisrevaluation of Bellini’s work was ushered in by Jacob Burckhardt in 1855 inhis Cicerone. The young art historian ranked Giovanni Bellini above all of hiscontemporaries, regarding him as the model for all other painters, even ‘theirliberator’. The reason given is that Bellini ‘could be burlesque in his depic-tions of the classical world of the gods; his inestimable so-called Bacchanal inthe Camuccini collection parodies the banquets of the gods, bringing themdown to the level of a “festa” of Italian peasants’.69 Burckhardt assessed theextraordinary breadth of Bellini’s artistic achievements on the basis of thepolarity formed by his Feast of the Gods and his Sacre conversazioni.

In 1948 Edgar Wind uncovered the literary references of Bellini’s Feastof the Gods in Ovid’s Fasti, referring in particular to the possible collaborationof Pietro Bembo in determining the theme of Priapus and Lotis.70 Bembowas an ardent admirer of Lucrezia Borgia, who had married Alfonso i d’Estein 1502. Bembo himself had composed an elegy on Priapus in the style of

Virgil, and belonged to the Venetian circle aroundAldus Manutius, who brought out a critical edition ofclassical Priapea in 1514.71 According to Wind, Bellinidepicts Priapus’ attempt to molest the sleeping nymphLotis, an act that would be prevented by a donkey’scry.72 The edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses publishedin Venice in 1497 illustrates the pursuit of Lotis by thearoused Priapus, and her escape and transformationinto a lotus tree (illus. 177).

Jacob Burckhardt seems to have perceived thingscorrectly: the Feast of the Gods is not a representationof a mythological scene, but instead a scene in antique


178 An x-ray of Giovanni Bellini,Feast of the Gods (illus 176).

style being played out as a pastorale by costumed contemporaries. The paint-ing depicts a theatrical presentation, a staging featuring ludicrous, inebriat-ed, erotic and comic figures. All that is needed to detect the facetious charac-ter of Bellini’s painting is to look at Mercury, seated on a pile of rocks in theforeground wearing a barber’s bowl for a helmet, which resembles the oneCervantes would stick on Don Quixote’s head a century later, or the Apollonext to Priapus, wearing a laurel wreath and raising a bowl of wine to hislips. Unexpectedly, Bellini allows himself a double joke: the disguise of thecontemporaries playing a pastorale, and the satire on the gods, representedhere by actors.

In Vasari’s opinion, Bellini’s advanced age had prevented him from com-pleting the Feast of the Gods, which had been finished by Titian. But ever sincethe publication of John Walker’s x-ray photographs in 1956, it has been a well-

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179 Giovanni Bellini, The Assassinationof St Peter Martyr, c. 1505–10, wood.National Gallery, London.

known fact that Titian had been confronted by a completed work, and nonethe-less painted over the left-hand side of the landscape with steep cliffs topped witha castle, as well as the sky (illus. 178).73 Titian’s presumed objective was to adaptBellini’s painting to his own works for the camerino. Bellini had set his figuralgroup against a piece of forest that he subdivided rhythmically by means of thevertical tree-trunks in a way similar to the painting of the Assassination of StPeter Martyr (illus. 179) of circa 1505–10 in the National Gallery in London.

Eliminated by Titian’s intervention was the contrastbetween the figural group, so markedly animated bymeans of colour, and the regular repetition of tree-trunks and the uniform dark green of the leaf canopy.

Bellini’s figural group is rhythmically accented bywhite, which is steadily augmented from left to right.On the left, white is introduced in small quantities inthe arm of the infant Bacchus, repeated in larger areasleading from Mercury to Jupiter to the standingnymph before receding entirely in the group of Cybeleand Neptune, only to return at full strength in the twostanding nymphs, the kneeling Ceres and the seatedApollo. The closing is formed by Priapus in a whiteshirt and Lotis in her radiant white garb, with the finalperiod and close supplied by Bellini’s white cartellino,affixed to a tub. In between, the other colours dance toand fro from left to right: brown is heightened to red,subsiding to blue with the grey of the donkey, whilesalmon pink effects a transition to Mercury’s steel grey,green and white, and his shot-coloured robe, with itschangeant blue and pink. The central group followswith cinnabar and white, blue and white, pink, greenand red, followed by the highly festive conclusion with


180 Giovanni Bellini, Infant Bacchus,c. 1510–15, wood. National Gallery of Art, Washington, dc.

181 Giovanni Bellini, Woman with aMirror, 1515, wood. KunsthistorischesMuseum, Vienna.

182 I. Popels, etching of GiovanniBellini’s 1515 Woman with a Mirror, in David Teniers the Younger,Theatrum Pictorium (Brussels, 1660).

183 Giovanni Bellini, Dead Christ,1510–15, wood. Nationalmuseum,Stockholm.

multiple sonorities composed of white with gold, blue,red and blue, and green. Never before had Bellinipainted such a melody of colours in a unified rhythm.In contrast to the melody of colours stands the regularbeat of the tree-trunks and the continuum of its dark-green leaf canopy, not unlike a pictorial version of amusical basso continuo. With his partial overpainting,Titian destroyed Giovanni Bellini’s unique musicalcomposition.

After 1514 Bellini completed only a few works.One is a variation of the figure of the child Bacchus inthe Feast of the Gods (illus. 180), now in the NationalGallery of Art in Washington, dc.74 In the Kunst-historisches Museum in Vienna is a small painting inhorizontal format depicting a young nude woman ather toilette with two mirrors (illus. 181), which issigned ‘Giovanni Bellini’ and dated 1515.75 Everythingabout this painting is untypical for Bellini: its subjectmatter, the distorted rendering of the young woman’sleft arm, the competition with sculpture in conformitywith the story of Giorgione, and finally the signatureon the cartellino, which reads: ‘joannes bellinusfaciebat mdxv’. This is the only instance among the fewsurviving signatures of Bellini that employs the imper-fect of facere, which must be understood in the sense ofPliny’s Natural History, namely that the artist makes noclaim to perfection and reserves the possibility ofattaining greater excellence in the future.76

The Dead Christ (illus. 183) in Stockholm is puzzling in severalrespects.77 The attribution of 1933 to Giovanni Bellini proposes identifyingthis painting with a work painted for the church of San Francesco dellaVigna. According to Vasari’s report, this Dead Christ was so highly praisedthat the French king Louis xii compelled the convent to surrender it tohim.78 Neither report nor identification has proved verifiable. The state ofpreservation of the Stockholm picture makes it difficult to form precise con-clusions: the paint is so heavily abraded in parts that its appearance today isvirtually monochromatic. Its original colouration must have been muted, notunlike the portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St Dominic in the NationalGallery in London and the painting of the Drunkenness of Noah (illus. 184) inBesançon, both dating from the final decade of Bellini’s life.79 In the case ofthe portrait of Teodoro, it is even more difficult to draw conclusions aboutthe original tonal unity, based on Leonardo’s development of sfumato, thanin the paintings in Stockholm and Besançon.80

In his Vite, Vasari discusses the contrast between the style of thefifteenth century, which he characterizes as a ‘certa maniera secca e cruda etagliente’ (‘a rather dry, rough, and sharp manner’), and the ‘maniera moderna’


184 Giovanni Bellini, The Drunkennessof Noah, c. 1510–15, canvas. Musée desBeaux-Arts, Besançon.

initiated by Leonardo and adopted by Giorgione in Venice. In Vasari’s view,Giovanni Bellini had contributed nothing to this third – that is to say,modern and perfect – style.81 Bellini’s final pictures demonstrate that he hadindeed developed this mode of tonal harmonization during his last activeyears.82 In comparison to other works from this period, such as the SanGiovanni Crisostomo altarpiece of 1513 and the Feast of the Gods of 1514, itbecomes clear that Bellini regarded such an approach to tonal harmonizationnot as progress, but instead as one mode, one tonality, that was capable ofproducing a specific emotional temperament. The source of the first directreferences to the expressive possibilities of the different musical keys ormodes was Nicolas Poussin in the seventeenth century. In order to respondto the complaints of Paul Fréart de Chantelou, his most important Frenchclient, Poussin invoked the necessity for unifying the great variety of elementscontained in the painting by means of a specific musical key. In this context,the painter referred to a successful book entitled Le istitutioni harmoniche byGioseffo Zarlino, the Venetian theoretician of music and maestro di cappella,which first appeared in 1558.83 In a certain sense, Poussin’s adoption of theterminology of musical modes for his conception of painting concluded along process of generating analogies between the two arts. The case of Poussinperhaps represents a kind of after-effect of the impact of Giovanni Bellini,whose Feast of the Gods was copied by the French artist in Rome.84

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The chronology concentrates on the timeline of the Bellini family. It relies on early archive research and on therecent classification of the documents by Meyer zur Capellen in 1985, Eisler in 1989 and Goffen in 1989.Despite intensive research in the archives, important events remain without documentation. This is true bothof the birth dates of the Bellini family and of information about the organization of their workshops.

The existing documents were examined. One important correction must be made concerning a document thatColin Eisler in 1989 mistakenly dated 1421. A Mariegola der Sculoa Grande di S. Marco, Venice, MuseoCorrer, Biblioteca, Prov. Correr A sc 6, no.32 (ms iv, no. 19) describes an altar in S. Marco with a golden back-ground by ‘maistro Iacomo Belin pentor’. This Mariegola comprises various inventories. The first one origi-nates in 19 July 1421 and comprises fol 1. recto to fol 6. verso. The inventory, which lists the altar of JacopoBellini on fol 7. verso, includes a date of 13 April 1466 and refers to additions made up to 1476. This invento-ry was drawn up by ‘Piero di Chonti, guardian de tutte le chose’. This is important because it backs up the exist-ing information that Jacopo Bellini was employed in the first half of the 1420s in Gentile da Fabriano’s work-shop in Florence. Jacopo’s knowledge of Florentine painting in the 1420s came from direct experience.

The dates of birth of Jacopo and his sons Gentile and Giovanni are not documented. In 1550 and 1568 Vasarimistakenly suggested a birth date of 1421 for Gentile and 1426 for Giovanni. For Gentile nowadays we assumea birth date of between 1432 and 1434, for Giovanni between 1435 and 1438. On the problem of the easilyassumed illegitimacy of Giovanni, please see chapter One.

Abbreviations:asv Archivio di Stato, Venicebmv Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, Venicem.v. more veneto


Chronology

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1424, 11 April Will of Niccolò Bellini: Jacopo and his older sister Elenaeach receive 24 gold ducats and the duty to care for theirmother Franceschina.

asv, Sez. notarile Testamenti, notaio LorenzoBoscarini [also Buscarino], Busta 545, Libro inperg., fol. 10, Nr. 63.

Paoletti 1894, doc. p. 5; Eisler 1989, p. 530.

1429, 6 February[1428 m.v.]

Will of Anna Rinversi, wife of Jacopo Bellini, resident in theparish S. Geminiano, on the occasion of an imminent birth(daughter Niccolosia or son Nicolò?).

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio EnricoSalomon, Busta 946/c, Nr. 313.

Paoletti 1894, pp. 5–6; Meyer zurCapellen 1985, p. 106, doc. p. 1.

Between 1432 and 1434 Birth of Gentile Bellini, son of Jacopo Not documented

Between 1435 and 1438 Birth of Giovanni Bellini, son of Jacopo. Not documented

1437, 3 March In the register of Scuola Grande di S. GiovanniEvangelista is entered ‘Ser Iacomo Belin pentor’. Theentry does not accord with the date of the record.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. GiovanniEvangelista, Registro 72, fol. 43t [48i], lostsince 1999.

Paoletti 1894, p. 6; in Sohm 1982 notentered; Eisler 1989, p. 530.

1439, 6 December Jacopo Bellini buys a decorated panel from the estate ofJacobello del Fiore.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Maria della Carità,Busta 56, commissario Giacomo del Fior, fasc.iv, Testamenti, Nr. 2.

Paoletti 1894, p. 6, Itemised list of theestate with buyers; Eisler 1989, p. 530.

1440, 13 September The half-brothers Jacopo and Giovanni Bellini end theirpartnership and divide their furniture and property.

asv, Cancelleria inferiore, notaio VettorePomino, Busta 149, Protocolli 1439–1442, fol.55 verso.

Goffen 1989, p. 262, doc. 2. wrongdate: correct is 13 Sept. 1440; seeEisler 1989, pp. 530–31.

1441, 26 August Leonello d’Este of Ferrara sends two bushels of wheatto ‘Jacopo Bellino pictori de Venetijs’.

Modena, Archivio di Stato, Registro de’ man-dati, 1441–1442.

Eisler 1989, p. 531.

1441 Ulisse degli Aleotti writes two sonnets in honour ofJacopo Bellini, who also won the competition, ahead ofPisanello, to paint the portrait of Leonello d’Este.

Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Ms. ix, A. 27. Eisler 1989, p. 531.

1441, 22 October The Scuola Grande di S. Giovanni Evangelista listJacopo Bellini as ‘decano’.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. GiovanniEvangelista, Registro 72, fol. 112. Lost since1999.

Paoletti 1894, p. 6 under the year1437; Sohm 1982, pp. 317–18, Nr. 178document; Eisler 1989, p. 531.

1443, 23 August Jacopo Bellini takes his nephew Leonardo, the son of hissister Elena, into his workshop.

asv, Cancelleria inferiore, notaio, Francesco(dagli) Elmis, Busta 74, fasc. 28, fol. 20.

Paoletti 1894, pp. 7–8, doc.; Goffen1989, p. 262, doc. 3; Eisler 1989,p. 531.

1443 Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) becomes the artisticadvisor of Leonello d’Este for the projected horsebackmonument of Niccolò iii. Jacopo Bellini sends in twodrawings for the competition.

London, British Museum, Jacopo Bellini,Pattern book, fol. 27 verso and 79 verso.

Alberti 2000, pp. 370–71, doc. 6; Eisler1989, p. 31, 172, 253, 258–9, Pl. 131,132.

1452, 19 June Comission for a banner for the Scuola Grande di S.Maria.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Maria della Carità,Busta 3, Perg. Nr. 105.

Paoletti 1894, p. 8–9; Sohm 1982, p. 303, doc. 134; Eisler 1989, p.531.

1453, 25 February Jacopo Bellini receives support from the Scuola Grandedi S. Giovanni Evangelista of 20 ducats for the marriageof his daughter Niccolosia (with Andrea Mantenga).

asv, Scuola Grande di S. GiovanniEvangelista, Registro 72. Lost since 1999.

Paoletti 1894, p. 9; Eisler 1989, p. 531.

1456–7 Payment by Lorenzo Giustiniani (1380–1465), firstPatriarch of Venice since 1451 to Jacopo Bellini for a paint-ing (?) ‘d’ auer p[er] una figura del n° predecessor postasop[ra] la sua sepultura duc. 16’ (for the gravestone) andfor an altarpiece with three saints for die Sala del Patriarca‘3 figure fate su tela mese i[n] la salla del patriarca duc 21’,also called ‘pala grande’.

asv, Mensa Patriarcale, [Registro. di Cassa1444-59], Busta 58, 1: Librette carte, cop. perg.elenco affittali, spese [ . . . ] e varie 1456–60,fol. 106, 107, carta 122 (left).

Paoletti 1894, p. 9 (Busta 66); Eisler1989, p. 521, doc. updated place), p. 531 (still Busta 66 how Paoletti); thedocument ‘Mensa Patriarcale’ wasreordered from 1980 until 1995.

1459, 2 April Giovanni Bellini signs as witness to the will ofMargarita, wife of the doctor Aritinio. Giovanni Bellinilives in the contrata S. Leonis / San Lio.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio GiuseppeMoisis, Busta 727, Nr. 32, fol. 1 verso, 2 verso.

Paoletti 1894, p. 11; Goffen 1989, p. 262, Nr. 5 document (first archiveof Giovanni Bellini).

1459 Andrea Mantegna finishes the Pala di S. Zeno for S.Zeno in Verona commissioned by the Abbot GregorioCorrer from Venice.

Lightbown 1986, Kat. No. 9, pp. 406–8.

1460 Andrea Mantegna takes up the position of court painterto Count Lodovico Gonzaga and moves to Mantua.

Lightbown 1986, pp. 81–97.

1460–64 Four altar triptychs for S. Maria della Carità, Venice(today in the Galleria dell’ Accademia, Venice) – proba-bly executed by Jacopo, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.Only the names of the donors are mentioned in the doc-uments: Andrea da Molin donates 2 x 50 ducats for analtarpiece with the saints Ursula, Victor, Francis andPeter Martyr, and another hundred ducats for additionsand improvements. Zuane Pelestrina donates 80 ducatsfor a picture of the Capella di Sta Ursola.

asv, Convento di Sta Maria della Carità, serieiii°, Busta 3 [busts in carton]: ‘Memoriale etspese per lo barco et organo, 1460-63’, fol. 25verso, 31 recto, 33 verso, 34 recto, 54 verso.

Eisler 1989, pp. 518–19, 532.

1464 Giovanni Bellini signs the picture of hl. Hieronymus imGehäuse for the Scuola di San Gerolamo (lost).

Ridolfi 1914, Bd. 1, p. 64. Goffen 1989, p. 259.


1465, 31 January Payment of the Scuola Grande di S. GiovanniEvangelista to Jacopo Bellini for the cycle withepisodes from the life of the Virgin Mary. Work byhis sons Gentile and Giovanni von Ridolfi enteredin 1648.

asv, Scuola S. Giovanni Evangelista, Registro 72,fol. 269 recto. Lost since 1999.

Ridolfi 1914, Bd. 1, p. 54; Meyer zurCapellen 1985, p. 106; doc. 4; Sohm1982, p. 320, doc. 185.

1466, 13 April The inventory of the Scuola Grande di San Marcorecords an altar of S. Marco with golden back-ground by ‘maistro Iacomo Belin pentor’.

Venice, Museo Civico, Racc. Correr, Ms. perg. iv,Nr. 19, carta 9, fol. 7 verso (Inventar of 13 April1466 of Piero di Chonti).

Correction of the wrong dating byEisler 1989, pp. 26–7, 530.

1466, 17 July Commission by the Scuola Grande di S. Marco toJacopo Bellini for two paintings: Carrying of theCross and Crucifixion.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro 16bis,Not. 1428–1503, p. 35, Sala Diplomatica, autografi.

Molmenti 1888, pp. 225–7; Sohm1982, p. 259, doc. 19; Eisler 1989, pp. 524, 532.

1466, 15 December Commission by the Scuola Grande di S. Marco toGentile Bellini for two paintings: Moses in the Desertand Flood of Sin [or: Downfall of the Pharaoh].

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro 16bis,Not. 1428-1503, p. 36, Sala Diplomatica, autografi.

Sohm 1982, pp. 259–60, doc. 20;Meyer zur Capellen 1985, pp. 106–7,doc. 6.

1467, 10 January The Scuola Grande di S. Marco commission Andreada Murano and Bartolomeo Vivarini to continueJacopo Bellini’s work.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro. 16bis,Not. 1428–1503, p. 37, Sala Diplomatica, autografi.

Paoletti 1894, p. 10; Sohm 1982, p. 260, doc. 21.

1469, 13 February Friedrich iii gives Gentile Bellini the titles ‘VenetusEques’ and ‘Comes Palatinus’.

Subsequent notarial act 1501, 28. August: asv,Cancelleria Inferiore, Notai, Busta 29, i, GiovanniBonetti 1501, filza viii (1-2), without pagination.

Paoletti 1894, p. 18; Meyer zurCapellen 1985, p. 107, 116–17, doc. 55.

1470, 24 April Giovanni Bellini is commissioned by the Grande diS. Marco for the paintings Noah’s Ark and the Floodof Sin.

asv, Scuola Grande di San Marco, Registro 16bis,Not. 1428–1503, p. 38, Sala Diplomatica, autografi.

Momenti 1888, pp. 228–9; Sohm1982, p. 260, doc. 23.

1471, 25 November Will of Anna Rinversi, widow of Jacopo Bellini. OnlyGentile and Niccolò are taken into consideration, notNiccolosia and Giovanni, which leads to the supposi-tion that Niccolosia was already dead and Giovanniwas not the child of Anna Rinversi. The will promisesthe artist’s estate of the father to Gentile.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio Francesco(dagli) Elmi, Busta 361, Fasc. in perg. Nr. 173.

Paoletti 1894, p.11; Meyer zurCapellen 1985, p. 107, doc. 8; Goffen1989, p. 263, doc. 9.

1472 Dating of the Pietà by Giovanni Bellini in thePalazzo Ducale by Zanetti. Dating of TheCrucifixion with the Three Marys and the ChurchFathers, Venice, S. Maria della Carità.

Zanetti 1771, p. 49.

1473 The Signoria decides on the decoration of the Saladel Maggior Consiglio with paintings of the Storia diAncona.

Marino Sanudo, Cronaca veneziana, bmv, MSSItal. Cl. vii.cxxv (7460), fol. 340 verso.

1473, 18 April Antonio di Choradi in Pera commissions his broth-er-in-law, the stonemason Nicolò Gratto, to order apainting of Christ by Lazzaro Bastiani and in thecase of his death, gives the commission to GiovanniBellini.

asv, Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Busta 23. Paoletti 1894, pp. 12–13; Goffen 1989,p. 263, doc. 10.

1474 Date of Giovanni Bellini’s Portrait of RaffaleZovenzoni.

1475, 5 June Decree by Marin Zorzi, the patron of theResurrection of Christ in San Michele in Isola, forGiovanni Bellini to build a chapel.

asv, S. Michele d’Isola, Busta 2, Tom. 1, fol. 284and 285; attached are 1. The will of the mother of1479 and 2. An addition of 1515 by the notary ofZorzi.

Meneghin 1962, pp. 320–23;Tempestini 1992, p. 112, Nr. 36.

1475, August Antonello da Messina (1431–1479) arrives in Veniceat the invitation of Pietro Bon and completes analtarpiece for his tomb in the Church S. Cassianoand other works.

Gronau 1897, p. 348; Antonello daMessina Kat. 2006, Nrn. 34, 36, 42,44.

1476 Giovanni Bellini is appointed as decano of the ScuolaGrande di S. Marco.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro cariche 6bis, 1440–1743, fol. 24 recto.

1478/79 First dated painting by Giovanni Bellini:Transfiguration of Christ, Naples, Museo diCapodimonte.

Dalhoff 1997, pp. 35, 191–3.

1478/79 The altar donated by Marin Zorzi is erected in SanMichele in Isola.

asv, S. Michele in Isola, Busta 1 and 2. Paoletti 1893–7, p. 166; Meneghin1962, pp. 320–23; Tempestini 1992, p. 112, Nr. 36.

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1479, 29 August Declaration by Maggior Consiglio about the replace-ment for Gentile Bellini during his mission to Istanbulwith Giovanni Bellini to carry out the works in theSala del Maggior Consiglio: Giovanni is promised thenext available position as negotiator at Fondaco deiTedeschi, as well as compensation for the materialsand a yearly salary of 80 ducats, for as long as thework is worth this amount.

asv, Maggior Consiglio, Deliberazioni, Vol.Regina, 1455–79, fol. 192 recto (new fol. 200 recto).

Meyer zur Capellen 1985, p. 110, doc.16; Goffen 1989, p. 263, doc. 11.

1480, 1 July Ditto. asv, Collegio, Notatorio Registro 12, 1474–81, fol.127 verso.

Meyer zur Capellen 1985, p. 111, doc.19; vgl. Goffen 1989, p. 263.

1481, 15 January Letter from Sultan Mehmet ii to Gentile Bellini,bestowing on him the titles ‘Miles Auratus’ and‘Comes Palatinus’.

Innsbruck, Landesregierungsarchiv,Standnummer: Kunstsachen, i, 65.

Meyer zur Capellen 1985, p. 111, doc.20.

1483, 26 February[m.v. 1482]

The college names Giovanni Bellini as state painterand frees him from the obligation of paying incometo the guild of painters.

asv, Collegio, Notatorio Registro 13, 1481–9, fol.22 recto (new 25 recto).

Goffen 1989, pp. 263–4, doc. 13.

1485, 30 July Giovanni Bellini guarantees his wife GinevraBocheta the contents of her dowry for their heirs.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio LorenzoStella, Busta 875, Nr. 162.

Paoletti 1894, p. 13. doc. [[AQ: ?]];Goffen 1989, p. 264, doc. 14.

148? Birth of their son Alvise. Not documented.

1485, 25 November Agostino Barbarigo (1419–1501) is elected as succes-sor to his brother Marco as Procuratore di S. Marcode supra.

Nani-Mocenigo 1909, pp. 234–40.

1486 Giovanni Bellini is named as decano of ScuolaGrande di S. Marco.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Busta 202, unpag-inated., bzw. Registro cariche 6bis, 1440–1743, fol.25 recto.

Goffen 1989, p. 264, doc. 15.

1486, 30 August Agostino Barbarigo (1419–1501) is elected Doge assuccessor to his brother Marco.

Nani-Mocenigo 1909, pp. 234–40.

1488 Giovanni Bellini signs and dates the Pala votivaBarbarigo.

1489 Giovanni Bellini signs and dates the Pesaro-Triptychfor S.M. Gloriosa dei Frari with ioannes bellinvs/.F./1488. A note on the reverse of the middle panelincludes the date 15 February 1488 (m.v. d.i. 1489).

Tempestini 1992, pp. 172–7, Nr. 60;Tempestini 1997, p. 179, Nr. 72.

1489, 23 September Giovanni Bellini’s wife, Ginevra Bocheta, makes awill and names her brother, her cousin and her husband as executors.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio LorenzoStella, Busta 877, Nr. 829, (Lettering on pergamentin the Protocolli, fol. 59 verso, Nr. 214).

Paoletti 1894, p. 13, doc. Goffen 1989, p. 264, doc. 19.

1491 Pietro Priuli, Procuratore di S. Marco has theCappella della Croce in S. Michele in Isola built.

asv, Sez. notarile, Miscellanea, notai diversi, Busta1235 atti di Antonio Savina, Nr. 142 and Busta1237, Nr. 227 fol. 205 verso–206 recto

Meneghin 1962, p. 322; Tempestini1992, Nr. 79, pp. 224–5.

1492, 15 July Gentile and Giovanni Bellini make an offer to theScuola Grande di S. Marco to replace paintings lostin the fire in Albergo in 1485 with new works at reasonable prices.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro 135,Note e conti di fabbriche e Palazzi, unpaginated.

Paoletti 1894, p. 17, doc; Sohm 1982,p. 272, doc. 62.

1494 Giovanni Bellini is listed as Decano of the ScuolaGrande di S. Marco.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro 202, attidiversi 1301-1676 unpaginated, bzw. Registrocariche 6bis, 1440–1743 fol. 15 verso.

Goffen 1989, p. 264, doc. 21.

1495, 23 December Listings of the salaries of the painters working onthe Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doges palaceby the Officio da Sal: since May 1492 GiovanniBellini and Alvise Vivarini have received paymentsof 5 ducats a month, more than other artists.

asv, Consiglio de’Dieci, Misto, Registro 26, 1493-1495, fol. 199 recto–200 recto, and Provveditori alSal, Busta 2, fol. 74 verso–76 verso.

Meyer zur Capellen 1985, pp. 115–16,doc. 47; Goffen 1989, p. 264, doc. 22.

1496, 26 November Beginning of correspondence with Isabella d’Esteabout Giovanni Bellini’s comission for the Studioloin Mantua.

Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Busta 1439, c. 317. Brown 1982, p. 157 (Alberto daBologna to Isabella d’Este); Goffen1989, p. 264, doc. 23.

1497, 10 August Will of the Knight Donato Civalelli: 300 ducats foran altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini in the tomb of theCivalelli in S. M. in Zara in Dalmatia (Croatia).

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio PietroGiovanni Floriano, Busta 408, Nr. 95.

Goffen 1989, p. 265, doc. 24.


1497, 4 October Francesco Gonzaga, Count of Mantua, sends a canvas to Giovanni Bellini to paint a view of Paris.

Goffen 1989, p. 265, doc. 25.

1497, 12 October Negative answer by Giovanni Bellini to CountFrancesco Gonzaga.

Letter apparently in Mantua, Archivio di Stato, vgl.Goffen.

Goffen 1989, p. 265, doc. 26.

1498, 26 April Letter from Isabella d’Este to Cecilia Bergamini-Visconti asking her to lend her portraits byLeonardo da Vinci to compare ‘some beautifulimages by the hand Giovanni Bellini’.

Goffen 1989, p. 265, doc. 27.

1498, 14 December Alvise, son of Giovanni Bellini, makes his will. asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio Stella,Lorenzo, Busta 877, Nr. 755 as Busta 875, Nr. 162.

Paoletti 1894, pp. 13–14; Goffen1989, p. 265, doc. 28.

1500 Consecration of the Cappella Garzadori in theChiesa di S. Corona, Vicenza.

Inscription Goffen 1989, pp. 163–6, and p. 265,doc. 29.

1501, 17 July and 5 August

Will of the Doge Agostino Barbarigo ‘Item nuilassemo al predicto monasterio [St. Maria degliAngeli in Murano] quatro de i nostri bancali et unotapedo grando in do pezi per ornamento dela suagiexa. Item nui ordenemo che la palla nostra grandache e’ in la crozola de el palazzo la sia mandada almonasterio de santa maria di anzioli predicto: et peresser ben conforme quella figura de nostra donacum i anzioli ad essere messa sopra el suo altargrando de la sua giesia: ma che i nostri Commissarijla debia farla adornarla si dessoto come dai ladi etdesopra per modo che la sia ben adornata per con-tento nostro et de quelle venerabile done: et quantopluj presto sera messa tal palla in opera, tanto plujsperemo in la beata verzene maria habia essere nos-tra advocata apresso el nostro sumo creator idio: etche nostri zeneri, ni nostre fie ni nostri nevosi nonpensano de metterla ni in la caxa granda nostra niin altro luogo salvo sopra latar grando de quellodevotissimo et religioso monasterio: le qual semocerti che in ogni tempo le habia pregar idio per lanima nostra de tuti ialtri nostri che sono passati de questa vita.. . . ’

The will is given different forms auf der asv, Sez.notarile, Testamenti, notaio Canciano de Florini,Busta 416, secundus quinternus 14-15-16, fol. 2verso–fol. 8 recto [lettering in pergament]In the same Busta 416 there are in Faszikel 6 thethree documents, dated from 17 July 1501 and from5 August 1501.

Roeck 1991, pp. 99–126 (transcrip-tion after lettering in pergament).

1501, 2 March until1505, 19 October

Correspondence between Isabella d’Este and vari-ous agents about a painting by Giovanni Bellini.

Brown 1982, pp. 158–65; Goffen1989, pp. 265–8, doc. 30–51.

1503, 23 January Gentile and Giovanni Bellini are included in a col-lection of the Scuola Grande di San Marco.

asv, Scuola Grande di San Marco, NotatorioRegistro 17 (im Alphabet. Index and z).

Meyer zur Capellen 1985, p. 117,doc. 56.

1505 Giovanni Bellini signs and dates Pala di S. Zaccaria,Venice, S. Zaccaria; The Sacra Conversazione Vernon(Birmingham) and dates the painting of Hl.Hieronymus (Washington, dc, National Gallery).

Tempestini 1992, pp. 252–5, Nr. 90.

1505, 9 March The paintings which were promised to the ScuolaGrande di S. Marco by Gentile and GiovanniBellini in 1492 were still not executed up to 1504.

asv, Scuola Grande di San Marco, NotatorioRegistro 17, fol. 28, nach dem Index

Paoletti 1894, pp. 18–19, doc.; Meyerzur Capellen 1985, p. 119, doc. 68;Sohm 1982, p. 279, doc. 82.

1506, 7 February Letter by Albrecht Dürer from Venice to WillibaldPirckheimer in Nürnberg.

Dürer 1956–69, vol. i, p. 42–3. Goffen 1989, p. 268, doc. 52

1506, 13 September Death of Andrea Mantegna. Lightbown 1986, p. 242.

1506, 7 February [1505m.v.]

Will of Giacomo Dolfin about the chapel in S.Francesco della Vigna and Giovanni Bellini’sunfinished painting for it.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio CristoforoRizzo, Busta 1228, Nr. 205.

Goffen 1898, p. 268, Nr. 53.

1507, 18 February Will of Gentile Bellini, in which he bequeaths hisbrother Giovanni a book with drawings by theirfather Jacopo, on the condition that he finishes thepainting for the Scuola Grande di S.Marco.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio, Bernardo (de)Cavagnis, Busta 271, Nr. 307.

Molmenti 1888, pp. 231–2; Meyerzur Capellen 1985, p. 120, doc. 75.

1507, 23 February Marino Sanudo notes the burial of Gentile Bellini,‘optimo pytor’, but does not give his age at death.

Sanudo 1888, vol. vi, col. 552. Goffen 1989, pp. 268–9, doc. 56.

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1507, 7 March Giovanni Bellini informs the Sucola Grande di S.Marco that he will complete Gentile’s painting onthe same conditions.

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Notatorio,Registro 1498–1526, fol .34, after the Index.

Molmenti 1888, pp. 233–4; Sohm1982, p. 279, Nr. 83; Meyer zurCapellen, p. 129, doc. 77; Goffen1989, p. 269, doc. 57.

1507, 28 September Giovanni Bellini is pressed to complete the threepaintings for the Sala del Maggior Consiglo includ-ing the one which Alvise Vivarani had begun. Threepainters, amongst them Vittore Carpaccio, areassigned to Bellini as helpers.

asv, Provveditori al Sal, Busta 6, Registro 4,1482–1514, fol. 183 verso–184 recto.

Goffen 1989, p. 269, doc. 58.

1507, 1 December ‘Ducat 100 a Zuan Bellin per la Palla della Croce, 15il Monastero, il resto Ca Prilli’ in S. Michele d’Isola,see above, 1491.

Rome, Archivio del monastero da San Gregorio alCelio, Cod. 1080.

Meneghin 1962, p. 322, Anm. 84.

1508, 11 December Giovanni Bellini sits on a commission for Giorgioneon the honorarium for his works on the Fondaco deiTedeschi. Giorgione had complained about it on 8November.

asv, Notatorio dei Provveditori al Sal, Registro 2,1491–1529, Busta 60, Nr. 3, fol. 123 verso(Beschwerde Giorgiones) – Registro 6, 1505–14,Busta 63, fol. 95 recto (Settlement of the complaint).

Goffen 1989, p. 269, doc. 59 [not:Busta 62].

1510 Signed and dated The Madonna with the Blessed Child(Milan, Brera).

Tempestini 1992, pp. 282–3, Nr. 100.

1511 Giovanni and Nicolò Bellini sell their father’s inher-ited antique bust of Plato to Isabella d’Este.

Brown/Lorenzoni, in: GBA, 97, 1978,p. 77; Goffen p. 269, doc. 60.

1513, 31 May Tizian demands the Consiglio dei Dieci, in the Saladel Gran Consiglio that he works under the sameconditions as Giovanni Bellini.

asv, Consiglio de’Dieci, Misto, Registro 35, fol. 103verso-104 recto (new fol. 236 verso-237 recto).

Goffen 1989, p. 269, doc. 61.

1513 Giovanni Bellini signs and dates the Pala di S.Giovanni Crisostomo.

Paoletti 1893–7, p. 179; Tempestini1992, p. 287, Nr. 102.

1514 Giovanni Bellini signs and dates the painting Feast ofthe Gods, painted for Alfonso d’Este, duke of Ferrara.(Today in National Gallery of Art, Washington, dc.)

1514, 14 November Alfonso d’Este sends a last installment of 85 goldducats for Feast of the Gods

Goffen 1989, p. 269, doc. 62.

1515, 27 February[1514 m.v.]

Giovanni Bellini works in the Sala del MaggiorConsiglio.

asv, Provveditori al Sal, Busta 60, fol. 176 verso. Goffen 1989, p. 269, doc. 63.

1515, 4/5 July Contract between the Scuola Grande di S. Marco andGiovanni Bellini about the painting of the Martyrdomof the Holy Markus (completed by Vittore Belliniano,dated 1526, Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia).

asv, Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Registro 17, fol. 60. Paolettti, p. 14; Sohm 1982, p. 281,doc. 89; Goffen 1989, p. 270, doc. 64u,pp. 271–3, 326; Tempestini 1992, Nr.107, pp. 302–3.

1515 Giovanni Bellini signs and dates the painting NakedWoman with Mirror (Vienna, KunsthistorischesMuseum).

Tempestini 1992, Nr. 104, pp. 296–7.

1515, 31 October Consiglio de’Dieci: Report about the Madonna picture that is to be gifted to Madame d’Alençon, sister of King Francis i.

asv, Capi del Consiglio de’Dieci, Lettere, filza 16(1515), Nr. 383.

Goffen 1989, pp. 95–6 and pp. 305–6;Toscano 2004, pp. 198–9.

1516, 15 January[1515 m.v.]

Letter to Giovanni (?) not Francesco Badoer in Paris,in which the writer informs the reader that the picture for the King’s sister by Giovanni Bellini is almost completed.

asv, Procuratori di San Marco, Misti, Busta 57(Commissaria di Francesco Badoer), fascicle xxii b(15 January 1515 m.v.).

Goffen 1989, pp. 95–6 and pp. 305–6;Toscano 2004, p. 199.

1516, 29 November Marino Sanudo marks the death of Giovanni Bellini,but does not give his age at death. The place of burial is the cemetery of the Scuola di Sant’Orsolabehind the apsis of SS. Giovanni e Paolo.

Sanudo 1888, vol. 23, col. 256; Goffen1989, p. 270, Nr. 68.

1528, 16 May Will of Jeronimo Hollivier [= Girolamo Olivieri]:Bellini’s Madonna picture should be installed on analtar in S. Madonna dell’Orto.

asv, Sez. notarile, Testamenti, notaio GirolamoCanal, Busta 192, Nr. 339, addition to will fromthe year 1524, Busta 190.

Paoletti 1894, p. 15; Goffen 1989, pp. 90–92, Anm. 85–7, p. 302, p. 270,doc. 71.

220

Preface1 Petrarch 2003, pp. 56–69; Felix Gilbert, ‘Humanism in Venice’ in 1979, vol. i, pp. 13–26.2 Zanetti 1771, p. vii: ‘Egli è pur troppo il vero che l’immensa copia di libri onde ripieno è il mondo, e

tutto dì va crescendo proviene in gran parte dal ripetere le cose già dette prima, che per voglia di scrivere e di stampare si tornano a dire; e si vestono con abito di novità e di apparente grazia originale, a misura della sagacità di chi vuol farla da autore.’

3 Robertson 1968.4 Huse 1972.5 Goffen 1989; cf. Giovanna Nepi Sciré’s obituary on Rona Goffen in Studi Tizianeschi, iii (2005), p. 126. 6 Tempestini 1992; Tempestini 2000.7 Bellini 2004.8 Kasl 2004.

i Training1 Eisler 1989, fig. 60, p. 70, dated ‘1460(?)’; pp. 396, 403.2 Martin Davies, The Early Italian Schools before 1400, National Gallery Catalogues (London, 1988), no.

3543, pp. 117–18; Friedmann 1980, pp. 45–6, 229.3 On the bestiary of St Jerome, see Friedmann 1980, pp. 229–53 (lion), 286–8 (rabbit or hare). The exteri-

or of the left wing of the Sforza triptych from the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden in the MuséeRoyal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, displays a depiction of St Jerome as a cardinal with a lion in the desert,without a throne; a copy from Lombardy is found in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. For anopposed analysis of this painting by Bellini, see Gentili 2004, pp. 167–8.

4 For the text passages in Latin and English, see Friedmann 1980, pp. 20–22.5 Johannes Andreae, ‘In Laudem Hieronymi Carmen’, in Johannes Andreae, Hieronymianus divi

Hieronymi vitae mortis prodigiorum dictorum ac scriptorum exflorationes perstingens […] (Basel, 1514), fols a3r–a4v.

6 Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1871, vol. i, pp. 139–40.7 Tempestini 1992, no. 1, pp. 18–19.8 Longhi 1949, p. 278. 9 Robertson 1968, pp. 16–17.

10 Goffen 1989, pp. 4–5, 259: ‘1434 ca.’11 Humfrey 2004, p. 6.12 The notation reads: ‘Johan bellino veneto pictor quando era morto in cathalecto’. The drawing was

published for the first time by Jennifer M. Fletcher in Sunday Times Magazine (14 December 1975), p. 22.

13 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, p. 441; Longhi 1949, pp. 274–83; see also Christiansen 2004a, pp. 53, 282–3, n. 11: ‘Perhaps the greatest disservice to Bellini scholarship’.

14 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 56.15 Berenson 1916, p. 60.16 Vasari 1966–87, vol. vi, pp. 158–9.17 Wilson 2004, p. 101.18 Conway 1889, p. 48; see Dürer 1956–69, vol. i, p. 43–4.19 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 56, with a birth year, however, of ‘1421’ after Vasari; Gibbons 1963; Meyer zur

Capellen 1985, p. 10.20 Robertson 1968, pp. 10–11; Humfrey 2004, p. 14: ‘c. 1435–6, or even a year or two later’.

References

21 See the discussion in Humfrey 2004, p. 6; Christiansen 2004a, pp. 52–3.22 Steer 1982, p. 1.23 Robertson 1968, p. 11: ‘In fact the hypothesis of illegitimacy seems quite unnecessary and Giovanni’s

omission from the will (the daughter Niccolosia was also omitted, unless we accept a not wholly con-vincing emendation of the text) may be more easily explained by the hypothesis that he had alreadyreceived his portion of the estate under Jacopo’s will, which has not come to light.’

24 Tempestini in Magherini, Paolucci and Tempestini 2001, pp. 28–9, concludes, for example, based onGiovanni’s maintenance of a separate residence and the absence of any mention of him in the last willand testament of Anna Rinversi: ‘forces the conclusion that Giovanni was the result of an adulterousrelationship by Jacopo, which he must have acknowledged, because he named the son Bellini andbecause the name Giovanni was that of Jacopo’s brother. The latter was certainly illegitimate, born outside the father’s, Nicolò’s, marriage with the mother of Jacopo and Elena, who in turn, was calledGiovanna. It would be part of a secret game in which Nicolò gives the name of his own wife to an illegitimate son and it’s the same name which the son Jacopo imparts in turn his son in adultery.’

25 Lorenzi 1868, no. 197, p. 92 (26 February 1483): ‘Ioannes Bellinus per egregium ingenium suum in artepicture, pictor nostri Dominij est appellatus et ideo assumptus ad renovandam Salam Maioris Consilij’.

26 Schulz 1982.27 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Cancelleria inferiore. Miscellanea notai diversi, busta 33. Neither for Gentile

nor for Giovanni is such a paper found among these notarized documents.28 Fletcher 2004, p. 25, holds the opposing view, once again with the presumption of illegitimacy: ‘On

the downside Giovanni was almost certainly illegitimate, which ruled him out of an inherited share of the family firm and must have precipitated his departure from home.’ Against this view, seeHumfrey 2004, p. 5.

29 The division of 13 September 1440 of the workshop by Jacopo and Giovanni Bellini is documented:Venice, Archivio di Stato, Cancelleria inferiore, Notaio Vettore Pomino, Busta 149, Protocolli de1439–[1442], fol. 55v.

30 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, p. 438: ‘Rimaso Givoanni vedovo di Gentile, il quale aveva sempre amato tener-issimamente’.

31 Robertson 1968, pp. 124–5; Goffen 1989, pp. 271–2; Humfrey 1990, no. 17, pp. 88–94; Tempestini 1992,no. 97, pp. 274–7.

32 Maria Tiepolo, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, regards this construction as plausible, but nonethelessdeems it unusual that not even something small, a shawl or something similar, was bequeathed.

33 Pallucchini 1962, pp. 11–35, 37–54, 81–5; Steer 1982, pp. 1–6.34 Humfrey 1993, especially pp. 137–60.35 Steer 1982, pp. 44–61; see the document on p. 97 and a translation on p. 44 with the informative central

sentence: ‘And for the moment I ask no more than the canvas for the picture and the expenses, includ-ing that of assistants, which I shall incur, in the same way as is done for the said Bellini.’

36 Steer 1982, pp. 99–100.37 Lightbown 1986, no. 1, pp. 387–400.38 Bauer-Eberhardt 1989.39 Christiansen 2004a, pp. 52–3.40 On its reverse, the portrait or an inscription with the names of the depicted and the date 20 June 1474.41 Robertson 1968, p. 58; Goffen 1989, pp. 197–201; Tempestini 1992, no. 24, pp. 80–81. 42 Dirk de Vos, Hans Memling: The Complete Works (London, 1994), no. 9, pp. 100–03.43 Martin Davies, Early Netherlandish School, National Gallery Catalogues (London, 1968), no. 696,

pp. 55–6; Renaissance Venice 1999, no. 1, pp. 184–5 (B. Aikema); Lucco 2004.44 Lightbown 1986, no. 11, pp. 408–10.45 Meyer zur Capellen 1985, pp. 14–17, 107–8 (docs 9–11).46 Bellini exh. cat. 2005.47 See chapter Six.48 Gibbons 1965; Gentili 1991; Conti 1994; Paris 1995; Galassi 1998; Fletcher 1998; Bambach 1999;

Dunkerton 2004.49 Baxandall 1972.50 Kasl 2004; See also Galassi 1998.51 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, p. 428.52 Boskovits 1986.53 Eisler 1989, pp. 60–64, 516–17; Humfrey 1993, pp. 177–80, no. 3, p. 341; for a contrary view, see Conti

1994; see also Michiel 2000, p. 27.54 Scirè Nepi 1991, no. 39, pp. 86–7, 13–15; Tempestini 1992, no. 5, pp. 26–30.55 Eisler 1989, pp. 26–7, 530. Mariegola of the Scuola Grande di S. Marco, Venice, Museo Correr, Biblioteca,

Prov. Correr a sc 6, no. 32 (ms iv, no. 19). It is a question here of a volume encompassing multiple inven-tories. The first is dated 19 July 1421 and encompasses fols 1r–6v. The inventory, which lists the altarpieceof Jacopo Bellini on fol. 7v, bears the date 13 April 1466 on the same sheet and displays supplements aslate as 1476. This inventory was compiled by ‘Piero di Chonti, guardian de tutte le chose’.

References | 221

56 Sohm 1982, doc. 19, p. 259.57 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 54.58 Sohm 1982, doc. 21, p. 260.59 Sohm 1982, docs 19–23, pp. 259–60.60 Boskovits 1986.61 Conti 1994; I hope I have grasped the view contained in my late friend’s last essay, a text that cultivates

a genuinely Byzantine manner of expression.62 Goffen 1989, p. 1. 63 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 52: ‘La Famiglia de’ Bellini tenne ne’ tempi andati honorato luogo trà Cittadini

Veneti dalla quale essendo usciti valorosi Pittori.’64 Fletcher 2004, p. 13.65 On the documents, see the Chronology.66 Voltolina 1998, vol. i, no. 105, pp. 132–3. 67 Fletcher 1998; Fletcher 2004, p. 40.68 ‘ioannes bellinvs. venet[us]. pictor.op[timus]’; see Pollard 1967, no. 146, p. 31; Voltolina 1998, vol. 1,

no. 227, p. 273; Fletcher 2004, p. 40.69 Erizzo 1559, pp. 155–60.70 On the artist’s claim to genius, see Kemp 1977, pp. 389–91. 71 Sanudo 1879–1903, vol. vi (1881), col. 552; vol. xxiii (1888), col. 256; Goffen 1989, p. 270, no. 67.72 Lorenzi 1868, no. 197, p. 92 (26 February 1483): ‘Ioannes Bellinus per egregium ingenium suum in arte

picture, pictor nostri Dominij est appellatus et ideo assumptus ad renovandam Salam Maioris Consilij:[…]; cf. the earlier reference to Gentile Bellini as ‘pentor egregio et optimo maistro’, no. 188, p. 85 (1September 1474); or for Giovanni Bellini as ‘pictor egregius’, no. 192, p. 89 (28 August 1479).

73 Eisler 1989, p. 515; Humfrey 1990, no. 1, pp. 25–7.74 Eisler 1989, p. 525.75 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, pp. 427–8. 76 Michiel 2000, p. 31.77 Eisler 1989, pp. 24–5, pp. 520–21; Gentile da Fabriano exh. cat. 2006, pp. 20, 124–7. During the final

third of the fifteenth century, the fresco was incorporated into the successor work executed by Gentileand Giovanni Bellini and other painters. The heavily damaged fresco was not repaired, but insteadreplaced by paintings on canvas. In 1577 the entire furnishings of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio wereburnt.

78 Baxandall 1964, pp. 100–01.79 Eisler 1989, pp. 26–7.80 Eisler 1989, pp. 26–7; 530. The inventory cited by Eisler dates from 13 April 1466 (see note 54 above). 81 Fletcher 1998.82 Gentile da Fabriano exh. cat. 2006, pp. 19–51 (K. Christiansen).83 Krautheimer/Krautheimer-Hess 1956, no. 53, p. 349; Eisler 1989, p. 30.84 Eisler 1989, p. 30.85 Cf. the later commentary by Angelo Decembrio: Baxandall 1963, pp. 314–15.86 Rosenberg 1997, pp. 54–82.87 Jacopo Bellini, London, British Museum, fols 27v and 79v; see the eagle on fols 54r and 95r; Eisler 1989,

pp. 252–3, pls 131–2; Rosenberg 1997, p. 56; Grafton 2000, pp. 217–19. 88 Rosenberg 1997, pp. 57–61; Grafton 2000, pp. 217–19; Alberti 2000, doc. 6, pp. 370–71.89 Grafton 2000, pp. 261–92.90 Alberti 2000, pp. 365–6. 91 Alberti 2004, pp. 48–51.92 Vasari 1966–87, vol. 3, pp. 289–90: ‘Figurò ancora una Vinegia in prospettiva e San Marco, ma le

figure che vi sono furono condotte da altri maestri, et è questa una de le miglior cose che si vegga di suo pittura.’

93 Eisler 1989, p. 197.94 Eisler 1989, p. 533, doc. 1493; Meyer zur Capellen 1985, p. 114, doc. 39.95 Alberti 2000, pp. 69–72.96 Baxandall 1963.97 Ames-Lewis 2000, p. 141.98 Röthlisberger 1960; Eisler 1989; Degenhart and Schmitt 1990; Ames-Lewis 2000, pp. 37–8, 262–4.99 Pacioli 1494, fols 1r–2v.

100 Meyer zur Capellen 1985, no. a20, p. 135.101 Leonardo exh. cat. 1992.102 Pacioli 1509, fol. 29v.103 Bauer-Eberhardt 1989; Christiansen 2004a, pp. 57–8.104 Bätschmann 1997; Pon 2004.105 Lambert 1999, nos 643–5, pp. 345–6; cf. the use of a figure by Bellini for the Bacchus, no. 640, p. 341. 106 Fry 1899, pp. 1–2.


ii Orientations1 Lightbown 1986, pp. 64–76, no. 9, pp. 406–8.2 Christiansen 2004a; see Baxandall’s excursus ‘Against influence’ in Baxandall 1985, pp. 58–62.3 Christiansen 2004a, pp. 54–6; see the discussion of this Crucifixion group in Robertson 1968, pp. 31–2;

Goffen 1989, pp. 9–13; Tempestini 1992, no. 12, pp. 54–5.4 Eisler 1989, pp. 346–52; Degenhart and Schmitt 1990, no. 2/720.5 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, no. 12, pp. 206–7 (B. Aikema).6 Belting and Eichberger 1983.7 Cyriel Stroo and Pascale Syfer-d’Olne, The Flemish Primitives, Catalogue of Early Netherlandish

Painting in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, vol. i (Brussels, 1996), no. 9, pp. 131–51. 8 Robertson 1968, p. 37; Tempestini 1992, no. 4, pp. 24–5.9 Robertson 1968, pp. 32–3; Huse 1972, pp. 6–10; Goffen 1989, pp. 106–7; see Lightbown 1986, no. 6,

p. 404, c. 1455, confirming Longhi’s dating.10 Goldner 2004, pp. 227–30.11 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 66.12 Landino 1974, vol. i, pp. 123–5 (Fiorentini eccellenti in pittura e scultura): ‘Andreino fu grande diseg-

natore e di gran rilievo, amatore delle difficultà dell’arte e di scorci, vivo e pronto molto e assai facile nelfare.’

13 Robertson 1968, p. 33: ‘Light is seen here as love, the divine element permeating and binding natureand man in a single order. This realization of the formal and spiritual function of light ist the trueessence of Giovanni’s achievement.’

14 Christiansen 2004a, pp. 60–65. 15 Lightbown 1986, no. 10, p. 408; Mantegna exh. cat. 1992, no. 10, pp. 129–34; Fletcher 2004, pp. 31–2.16 Christiansen 2004a, p. 66.17 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 28, pp. 198–207 (M. Lucco).18 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, pp. 176–83 (B. Aikema, B. L. Brown).19 See chapter Three.20 Mantegna exh. cat. 1992, nos 65–71, pp. 258–72.21 Lightbown 1986, no. 70, p. 461, no. 216, p. 492; Mantegna exh. cat. 1992, nos 65–71, pp. 258–72; Schulze

Altcappenberg 1995, pp. 64–5.22 Tempestini 1992, no. 33, pp. 106–7.23 Berenson 1916, p. 60.24 Mantegna exh. cat. 1992.25 Fletcher 2004.26 On Feliciano (1433–1479): DBI, vol. xlvi (1996), pp. 83–90.27 Fletcher 2004, p. 34.28 Lucco 2004, p. 75; see Meiss 1976, pp. 19–35, 36–59; Robertson 1968, pp. 1–9.29 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999.30 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, pp. 31–43 (Peter Stabel).31 Campbell 1981; Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, no. 1, pp. 184–5 (B. Aikema).32 Baxandall 1964.33 Campbell 1981, p. 468; Humfrey 1993, pp. 159, 330.34 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, especially Bernard Aikema, ‘The Lure of the North:

Netherlandish Art in Venetian Collection’, pp. 83–91; Michiel 2000; Lauber 2005.35 See Aikema 2005; Lauber 2005.36 Pomian 2003; Collezionismo a Venezia 2005.37 Burckhardt 2000, p. 296.38 Baxandall 1971, pp. 51–60.39 Baxandall 1971, pp. 140–43.40 Querini diptych, fifth century, ivory, 24.5 x 14 cm, Brescia, Museo Cristiano.41 Tilman Buddensieg, ‘Die Statuenstiftung Sixtus iv. im Jahre 1471: von den heidnischen Götzenbildern

am Lateran zu den Ruhmeszeichen des römischen Volkes auf dem Kapitol’, in Römisches Jahrbuch fürKunstgeschichte, xx (1983), pp. 33–73.

42 Dunkerton 2004, p. 203. For different datings, see Tempestini 1992, no. 31, p. 100. 43 Tempestini 1992, no. 31, pp. 100–01.44 Vos 1994, no. 42, pp. 190–91.45 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, no. 8, pp. 198–9, with the dating ‘ca. 1490–1500’ (B. Aikema);

Tempestini 1992, no. 55, pp. 160–61, with dating according to Longhi to 1480–85. 46 See Boehm 1985, pp. 143–54.47 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, p. 307.48 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, pp. 358–61.49 Luigi Lanzi, Storia pittorica della Italia, 6 vols (Bassano, 1809), vol. i, pp. 64–72. 50 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 65.

References | 223

51 Nougaret 1776–80, vol. i, p. 263: ‘Tous les Auteurs attribuent à Jean Bellin la gloire d’avoir généreuse-ment répandu en Italie la connoissance de la peinture à l’huile, dont Antoine de Messine faisoit ungrand mystère. Voici comment Jean Bellin eut, à son tour, l’art de tromper Antoine de Messine. Il s’ha-billa en Noble Vénitien, alla chez Antoine, qui ne le connoissoit pas, lui fit faire son portrait, observa lemélange des couleurs, tandis que l’Artiste étoit au travail; & apprit, par ce moyen, un secret qu’il se fitaussi-tôt un devoir de publier.’

52 Nougaret 1776–80, vol. i, p. vii.53 Merimée 1830. 54 ‘Giovanni Bellini, fingendosi un nobile Veneto, si fa ritrarre dal pittore Antonello da Messina onde

potere scoprire la nuova maniera di dipingere ad olio, che quell’artista appreso da Giovanni da Bruges’,1870, canvas, 100 x 129 cm, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera; see Pinacoteca di Brera. Dipinti dell’Ottocento edel Novecento. Collezioni dell’Accademia e della Pinacoteca, ed. F. Mazzocca, 2 vols (Florence, 1994), vol.ii, no. 754, pp. 676–8. The painting by Edmond Lechevallier-Chevignard is lost; an illustration is repro-duced in an article by Paul Mantz, ‘Salon de 1872’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xiv (1872), pp. 472–3.

55 Gemme d’arti italiane 1845–61, vol. iv, before p. 3, text by Pietro Selvatico, pp. 3–13. The painting mustbe considered lost. Selvatico notated the name and origin of the client, a certain Signor Hirschel ofTrieste. Pietro Estense Selvatico (1803–1880), son of Marchese Bartolomeo Selvatico, studied law inPadua and taught himself painting, sculpture and architecture. In 1849 he became a secretary of andinstructor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice and served as its president between 1851 and 1856.

56 Teniers 1660; Berenson 1917.57 Bellini exh. cat. 2000, p. 180.58 Dunkerton 2004, pp. 198–201; Dunkerton 1999.59 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, nos 10–12, pp. 202–7 (B. Aikema). 60 Cennini 1995, pp. 97–102.61 See Investigating Jan van Eyck, ed. Susan Foister, Sue Jones and Delphine Cool (Turnhout, 2000), espe-

cially pp. 97–105.62 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2005, pp. 61–7 (Ursula Baumer, Irene Fiedler, Johann Koller); Antonello

da Messina exh. cat. 2006, pp. 91–113 (Gianluca Poldi, Giovanni C. F. Villa).

iii Transformations1 Byzantium exh. cat. 2004, no. 131, pp. 221–3; Wolf 2002, pp. 164–5.2 Belting 1981, pp. 281–8.3 Wolf 2002, pp. 166–70.4 Another engraving by van Meckenem shows the figure of Christ in an open grave surrounded by the

instruments of the Passion, while a fourth work shows Christ flanked by Mary and John.5 Belting 1981, pp. 67, 251–63.6 Belting 1981, pp. 53–68.7 Robertson 1968, p. 36; Goffen 1989, pp. 77, 79 (with dating according to the Dead Christ Mourned by

Angels in the Museo Correr), p. 287; Tempestini 1992, p. 15 (workshop). Museo Poldi Pezzoli. Dipinti,Milan: Electa, 1982, no. 102, pp. 115–16.

8 Belting 1981, pp. 17–18.9 Van Os 1994, no. 32, pp. 106–11.

10 Tempestini 1992, no. 11, pp. 52–3.11 Fry 1899, pp. 16–17.12 Pope-Hennessy 1992, p. 219.13 Belting, 1986, pp. 19–20.14 Burckhartd, ‘Das Altarbild’, published posthumously in 1898, in: Burckhardt 2000, p. 50.15 Goffen 1975; Kecks 1988; Goffen 1989, pp. 24–118; Van Os 1994; Kasl 2004.16 Erwin Panofsky, ‘Imago pietatis. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des ‘Schmerzensmannes’ und der ‘Maria

Mediatrix’ [1927], in: Panofsky 1998, vol. 1, pp. 186–233; cf. among others Ringbom 1984; Belting 1981;Kecks 1988; Van Os 1994; Hauser 2000; Wolf 2002.

17 Goffen 1989: ‘Images for Private Devotion’ and ‘Images for Public Devotion’.18 Baxandall 1972, pp. 40–45; Belting 1981, pp. 76–104.19 Kecks 1988, illus. 1, 28, 29, 11.20 Colonna 1499, fol. d8 recto.21 Belting 1990, pp. 87–91, 220–32, 571.22 Goffen 1986, chapter Five: ‘The Cult of the Madonna in Venice’, pp. 138–54.23 Roeck 1991 and 1992.24 Ronda Kasl, ‘Holy Households: Art and Devotion in Renaissance Venice’, in Kasl 2004, pp. 59–89.25 Boskovits 1985, p. 117; Eisler 1989, pp. 519–20, proposes a dating between 1450 and 1460; Humfrey

1990, p. 25, accepts the proposal of Boskovits.26 Christiansen 2004b; cf. The Early Venetian Paintings in Holland, ed. Henk Van Os et al., Maarssen:

Schwartz, 1978.


27 Christiansen 2004b, pp. 10–11; cf. on this Gentili 1991; Tempestini 1992, no. 14, pp. 58–61; Galassi 1998.28 Tempestini 1992, no. 32, pp. 102–5.29 Christiansen 2004b, p. 13; for the situation in Florence, cf. Kecks 1988.30 Cf. among others the contributions of David Alan Brown, David Bull, Joyce Plesters in Titian

Symposium 1993; Bellini exh. cat. 2000; Dunkerton 2004; Kasl 2004.31 Bambach 1999; cf. ‘Artist’s Workshop’ 1993.32 Golden 2004, p. 91; cf. the works by Gentili 1991; Gibbons 1965.33 Kasl 2004.34 Baxandall 1972, pp. 17–23.35 Tempestini 1992, no. 62, pp. 179–80; no. 56, pp. 162–3; no. 64, pp. 184–5. 36 Michiel 2000, p. 31: ‘Il quadro in tavola picola della Nostra Donna che presente il puttino alla circunci-

sione, fu di mano dil Mantegnia, et è a mezze figure.’37 Lightbown 1986, no. 7, pp. 404–5.38 Tempestini 1992, no. 19, pp. 70–71.39 Ringbom 1984, pp. 72–93.40 Lightbown 1986, no. 43, pp. 445–6.41 Tempestini 1992, no. 69, pp. 200–01 (Vienna, New York, Verona); Heinemann 1962–91, vol. i, pp. 41–2,

lists altogether 29 variants of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Tempestini 1992, no. 76, pp. 214–15;Heinemann 1962–91, vol. i, pp. 42–3, mentions 34 variants.

42 Sandra Gianfreda, Caravaggio, Guercino, Mattia Preti: Das halbfigurige Historienbild und die Sammler desSeicento (Emsdetten and Berlin, 2005).

43 Burckhardt 2000, pp. 298–303.44 Ringbom 1984, pp. 72–106.45 On Agostino Barbarigo, Doge until 1501, see F. Gaeta, ‘Barbarigo, Agostino’, in DBI, vol. vi (1964),

pp. 47–9.46 Meyer zur Capellen 1985, pp. 64–5; Tempestini 2000, no. 47, p. 178.47 Lucco 1990, vol. ii, p. 450; Tempestini 1992, pp. 168–70.48 Cf. Votive Picture of Doge Leonardo Loredan, c. 1501–2, marble relief, Venice, Doge’s Palace, Sala degli

Scarlatti; attributed to Pietro Lombardo, and Titian, Votive Picture of Doge Andrea Gritti (c. 1531), burntin 1574; the composition is repeated in a large-format woodcut of the Votive Picture of Doge FrancescoDonà, between 1545 and 1553.

49 Rosand 1977. 50 R. Grisley, ‘De Fossis, Pietro’, in DBI, vol. xxxvi (1988), pp. 23–4.51 Tempestini 1992, no. 59, pp. 168–71. As a location, we can exclude the Palazzo Barberigo alla Terrazza,

with the Palazzo Barberigo opposite San Treviso perhaps coming into question; see Finocchi Ghersi2003, p. 110.

52 Roeck 1991; Roeck 1992.53 Roeck 1991, p. 44, identifies the entry ‘la crozola’ with a t-shaped arrangement of two rooms in the

Doge’s Palace and hence arrives at the ‘Sala dello Scudo’.54 Cf. Chronology 1501.55 Howard 2004, pp. 149–50.56 Meersseman 1958–60, vol. i, p. 218, the Venetian litany, however, does not contain this predicate; ibid.,

vol. ii, pp. 215–22.57 Dittrich 2004, pp. 347–60, 379–88, 391–7, 508–13.

iv Invention1 Robertson 1968, pp. 29–30. 2 Meiss 1951, pp. 121–2, fig. 121; Ringbom 1984, p. 107. Paolo Veneziano, Coperta dipinta per la Pala

d’Oro, Venice, Museo di San Marco.3 Humfrey 1990, no. 2, pp. 28–32; no. 3, pp. 33–8.4 Tempestini 1992, no. 13, pp. 56–7.5 Tempestini 1992, no. 13, pp. 56–7, gives the date of 1472, which Zanetti was still able to read from the

cartellino in 1771, although this was probably not especially reliable after the overpainting of 1571, allthe more so since this date is no longer visible. Bellini exh. cat. 2000, no. 30, p. 153.

6 Descrizione italiana e francese di tutto ciò che si contiene nella Galleria del. Sig. Marchese Senatore LuigiSampietri (Bologna, 1795), pp. 26–7.

7 Humfrey 1990, no. 4, pp. 39–42; for the history of the Pinacoteca, see pp. 11–22.8 Fry 1899, pp. 24–5.9 Belting 1985, pp. 28–31.

10 The inscription reads: haec fere qvvm gemitvs tvrgentia lvmina promant // bellini poterat flereioannis opvs. For both new translations, my thanks to Christoph Schäublin. See the discussion of thevarious translations and interpretations in Grave 2004, pp. 119–30.

11 Propertius, ‘Quid nostro gemitu turgentia lumina torques?’; see Charles Brink’s reference to Propertius

References | 225

in Robertson 1968, p. 55, note 1; Belting 1985, pp. 28–31; Goffen 1989, pp. 71–3; Arasse 1993.12 Tibullus, Elegiae (Venice, 1472); the elegies of Propertius on fols 33r–42r; Biblioteca Marciana, Venice,

Inc.v.553. 13 Felix Gilbert, ‘Humanism in Venice’, in Florence and Venice 1979, vol. i, pp. 13–26.14 Fletcher 1991; Fletcher 2004.15 Baxandall 1971.16 Belting 1985, pp. 27–36.17 Alberti, De pictura, 42: Alberti 2000, pp. 271–3.18 Shearman 1992.19 Fehrenbach 2003; Fehrenbach 2005.20 Pino, Dialogo di pittura [1548], in Trattati d’arte 1960–63, vol. i, p. 106.21 Alberti, De pictura, 35–45; Alberti 1991, pp. 71–81; Alberti 2000, pp. 256–81. 22 Pino, Dialogo di pittura [1548], in Trattati d’arte 1960–63, vol. i, pp. 115–16: E perché la pittura è propria

poesia, cioè invenzione, la qual fa apparere quello che non è. See Puttfarken 2000, pp. 177–80.23 Cennini 1995, cap. 1, p. 4: ‚Per lo simile al dipintore dato è libertà potere comporre una figura ritta, a

sedere, mezzo uomo cavallo, sì come gli piace, secondo sua fantasia’.24 Kemp 1977; Pfisterer 1996. 25 On the use of rulers and angles, see the recommendation in Filarete 1972, vol. ii, p. 643.26 Roesler-Friedenthal 1996.27 Lightbown 1986, nos 39–40, pp. 442–3.28 Robertson 1968, pp. 134–40; Verheyen 1971; Jennifer M. Fletcher, ‘Isabella d’Este, Patron and

Collector’, in Gonzaga exh. cat. 1981, pp. 51–63; Brown 1982 (documents on Bellini pp. 157-167);Goffen 1989, pp. 264–8 (documents); Land 1994, pp. 102–11; Ames-Lewis 2000, pp. 177–87;Christiansen 2004a, pp. 49–50; Campbell 2004.

29 Verheyen 1971, pp. 41–4.30 Brown 1982, pp. 158–9.31 Brown 1982, pp. 159–60, 59: ‘Giovane Belino dice farà una bela fantasia cercha al quadro dela Signoria

Vostra, ma ancora non l’à principiato.’32 Land 1994, p. 102.33 See the comprehensive analysis by Campbell 2004, pp. 191–204.34 Brown 1982, pp. 162–5. 35 Tempestini 1992, no. 74, pp. 209–11; no. 88, pp. 246–7.36 For the documents, see Goffen 1989, p. 268, docs 49–51; Bembo 1987–93, vol. i, no. 225, pp. 209–10.37 Gibbons 1978; Land 1994, p. 106.38 As in so many cases, the identification and attribution of this drawing remain uncertain: Robertson

1968, p. 73; Schulze Altcappenberg 1995, pp. 66–8.39 Alberti 2000, pp. 256–9 (De pictura, 35); for the discussion of the various interpretations of Alberti’s his-

toria, see Alberti 2000, pp. 87–94; Bätschmann 2001.40 Michiel 2000, p. 53: ‘La tavola del San Francesco nel deserto a oglio fo opera de Zuan Bellino, comincia-

ta da lui a M. Zuan Michiel et ha un paese propinquo finito e ricercato mirabilimente.’41 Michiel 2000, pp. 56–7: ‘El paesetto in tela cun la tempesta, cun la cingana et soldato, fo de mano de

Zorzi da Castelfranco.’ Cf. the classic study by Ernst H. Gombrich, ‘The Renaissance Theory of Artand the Rise of Landscape’ [1953], in Gombrich 1966, pp. 107–21.

42 Janson 1994, pp. 41–3.43 Meiss 1964, p. 21.44 The polyptych was sold and subdivided in 1810. See Enzo Carli, ‘Sassettas Borgo San Sepolcro

Altarpiece’, Burlington Magazine, xciii (1951), pp. 145–52.45 Hecht 2003, pp. 127–8.46 Eisler 1989, pls 255–7, pp. 292–3.47 Meiss 1964, p. 31.48 But see the report on the work’s condition in The Frick Collection: An Illustrated Catalogue, vol. ii:

Paintings (New York, 1968), pp. 203–9. Robertson 1968, pp. 76–7; Goffen 1989, pp. 107–10. 49 Cf. Grave 2004, pp. 29–42.50 Humfrey 1990, no. 3, pp. 33–8.51 Land 1980; Wolf 2002, pp. 162–3.52 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, no. 55, pp. 101–3.53 Anderson 1996, pp. 158–9.54 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, no. 9, pp. 200–01 (B. Aikema). 55 Dalhoff 1997, pp. 85–8.56 On the painting: Robertson 1968, pp. 91–2; Goffen 1989, pp. 139–40, with a date of between 1475 and

1480; Tempestini 1992, no. 50, pp. 147–9; 57 Dalhoff 1997, p. 35; see note 100, pp. 191–3, on the deciphering of this by Vera Bendt and David Jacoby;

see Humfrey 2004, p. 6.58 Tempestini 1992, no. 58, pp. 166–7.


59 Tempestini 1992, no. 36, pp. 112–15.60 Tempestini 1992, no. 50, pp. 147–9; Goffen 1989, pp. 137–40; Humfrey 1993, p. 222, no. 30, p. 347. 61 Cf. Dalhoff 1997, doc. iv, pp. 149–53.62 Dalhoff 1997, doc. v, pp. 153–6. 63 Dalhoff 1997, Inventory, pp. 157–70.64 Tempestini 1992, no. 73, pp. 206–8.65 Matthew 1998.66 Sansovino 1581, fol. 62v; this amount corresponds to approximately 18–19 million euros in today’s

currency67 Scirè Nepi 1991, no. 38, pp. 84–5; Boschini 1664, pp. 414–15; Tempestini 2000, no. 56, p. 189; Bellini

exh. cat. 2000, no. 11–13, p. 134. In the Virgin and Child in the sacristy of Santa Maria della Salute inVenice, Pier Maria Pennacchi adopts Giovanni Bellini’s style.

68 Howard 2004, pp. 157–60.69 Baxandall 1972, pp. 45–56.70 Iacopo da Voragine 1497; see also the comprehensive compilation of the predicates of Mary in

Meersseman 1958–60.71 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 35 (Palermo), pp. 232–5, no. 41 (Munich), pp. 254–5, with dat-

ing prior to the version in Palermo. See also Antonio de Saliba’s copy of the Palermo version, probablyexecuted in Venice during the 1480s (Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia).

72 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, nos 9–11, pp. 70–72.73 Cennini 1995, pp. 73–80; cf. the analysis by Kruse 2000, which also demonstrates the connection to

Petrarch.74 Tempestini 1992, nos 34–5, pp. 108–11.75 Painted for the tomb chapel of Marin Zorzi in the church of San Michele in Isola; Tempestini 1992,

no. 36, pp. 112–15. 76 Bellini exh. cat. 2000, no. 11, p. 133.77 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 34, pp. 226–31; no. 42, pp. 256–9; no. 46, pp. 274–93; Humfrey

1993, pp. 198–201; Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2005; see chapter Five.78 Robertson 1968, pp. 109–10; Boehm 1985, pp. 150–52; Goffen 1989, pp. 197, 212; Tempestini 1992,

no. 82, pp. 230–32. 79 Luchs 1995, pp. 10–13.80 Pincus 2004, especially concerning contacts between Bellini and Pietro Lombardo.81 Tempestini 1992, no. 78, pp. 218–23.82 Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1871, vol. ii, pp. 124–5.83 Cf. the most recent interpretations: Belting 2001; Eisler 2004; Aikema 2004.84 Cf. the presentation of this exegesis in Magherini, Paolucci and Tempestini 2001, pp. 31–9; Graziella

Magherini has given a novel turn to this variegated interpretive history; she examines the painting withan eye towards the childhood, life and sexual problems of the elderly Bellini, who was unloved by hissupposed stepmother. Cf. Robertson 1968, pp. 99–103.

85 Hofmann 1996.86 Magherini, Paolucci and Tempestini 2001, p. 36.87 Kanz 2002 on Vasari’s introduction of the term capriccio to art theory.88 Vasari 1927, vol. ii, p. 106; Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, p. 553 (edition of 1550): ‘E fra gli altri gli venne

capriccio di fare una figura che si cava una calza, che per essersi per il sudore appiccata alla gamba,colui la tira a rovescio, appoggiandosela allo altro stinco con tanta forza e disagio ch e l’una e l’altro gliappare nel viso, cosa ch fu tenuta molto in que’ tempi in maraviglia e venerazione.’

89 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iv, p. 46; Vasari 1927, vol. ii, p. 171. The translation ‘a beautiful and ingeniouswork’ is only approximately relevant to Vasari’s argument.

90 Benedetto Varchi, ‘Lezione sopra un sonetto di Michelangelo’ [1547], in Scritti d’arte 1971–7, vol. ii, pp. 1322–41 (especially p. 1329).

91 Roskill 1968, pp. 122–5.92 G. Innamorati, ‘Aretino, Pietro’, in dbi, vol. iv (1962), pp. 89–104.93 Gentili 2004, p. 174.94 Robertson 1968, p. 101.95 Sansovino 1581, fols 202v–203v: ‘Andata per la Madonna di Marzo’.

v Composition1 Cf. Humfrey 1993, pp. 181–4, no. 9, pp. 342–4.2 Humfrey 1993, pp. 184–8.3 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, no. 133, pp. 153–5.4 Zanotto 1860, pl. 5.5 Cavalcaselle 1973, nos 60–62, pp. 88–90.6 Humfrey 1983, pp. 16–21; Humfrey 1993, pp. 208–12, no. 42, p. 349.

References | 227

7 Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1912, vol. i, p. 154.8 Humfrey 1993, pp. 183–4.9 Sansovino 1581, fol. 23v: ‘Ma dalla destra, la palla di San Tommaso fu opera di Gian Bellino, il quale

dipinse anco quell’altra di San Vicenzo, San Rocco, & San Sebastiano.’ On Humfrey’s discussion, seeHumfrey 1993, pp. 342–3.

10 Cf. Tempestini 1992, no. 9, pp. 38–49.11 Robertson 1968, p. 43.12 Goffen 1989, pp. 274–6; Bellini exh. cat. 2000, no. 27, pp. 145–9.13 Christiansen 2004a, pp. 67–9.14 For the iconography, see Hecht 2003.15 Goffen 1979.16 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, no. 119, p. 143.17 From the immense literature, we should single out Jacob Burckhardt’s treatise of 1897 on the altar

painting (see Burckhardt 2000); English version by Peter Humfrey (see Burckhardt 1988); ItalianAltarpieces 1994.

18 Humfrey 1994b, pp. 151–2.19 Humfrey 1994b, p. 152.20 On the Venetian Sacra conversazione, see Humfrey 1993, with a comprehensive bibliography pp. 361–72.21 Cavalcaselle 1973, nos 60–62, pp. 88–90. 22 Maurer 1982.23 Humfrey 1993, p. 188. 24 Lightbown 1986, pp. 64–77, no. 9, pp. 406–8.25 Bertelli 1991, pp. 131–50, 212–13.26 Schmidt Archangeli 1998, pp. 33–8, with a discussion of additional references.27 Bertelli 1993.28 Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia, since 1816.29 Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia, previously in San Giobbe (Carpaccio) and Santa Chiara in Murano

(Cima da Conegliano).30 Humfrey 1993, pp. 146–57.31 Trattati d’arte 1960–63, vol. i, p. 145 (Dolce 1557).32 Bellini exh. cat. 1988, pp. 127–43.33 Tempestini 1992, no. 25, pp. 82–8; Humfrey 1993, pp. 188–93, no. 17, p. 345; Humfrey 2004, with the

dating ‘c. 1473–6’ (pl. v) or ‘c. 1471–5’ (p. 148). 34 Bellini exh. cat. 1988, pp. 35–9 (Maria Rosaria Valazzi).35 Bellini exh. cat. 1988, pp. 15–28 (Patrizia Castelli).36 Humfrey 1993, pp. 188–93.37 Florence, Uffizi, formerly in the church of the Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.38 Meersseman 1958–60, vol. i, p. 218, but the Venetian litany does not contain this predicate, cf. vol. ii,

pp. 215–22.39 For discussions of this problem, see Robertson 1968, pp. 62–4; Huse 1972, pp. 17–18; Goffen 1989,

pp. 82–5; Tempestini 1992, no. 30, pp. 97–9; Tempestini 2000, p. 72.40 Bertelli 1991, pp. 38–9, 202–5. 41 Bellini exh. cat. 1988, pp. 1–5 (P. Zampetti).42 Sanudo 1980, p. 50.43 Humfrey 1993, p. 195: ‘a turning-point’. On the legend concerning oil painting, see Vasari 1966–87,

vol. iii, p. 307; Ridolfi 1648, vol. i, p. 47; Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 65; see below, chapter Six.44 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, nos 42, 44, pp. 256–9, 264–9.45 Michiel 2000, pp. 51, 56.46 Sansovino 1581, 49r: ‘& Antonello da Messino che fu il primo inventore della pittura à olio, fece il San

Christoforo, & Pino da Messina il San Sebastiano che sono da i lati del San Rocco fatto di rilievo.’ SeeHumfrey 1993, pp. 198–9.

47 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2005.48 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 46, pp. 274–83 (Mauro Lucco).49 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, doc. 31, pp. 361–2: ‘la qual opera illustrissimo mio signor sera de le

più eccellenti opere del penelo che habia Ittalia e fuor d’Ittalia’. 50 Sansovino 1581, fol. 75r: ‘Antonello da Messina inventor del dipingere a olio, vi fece una palla’.51 Sansovino 1581, fol. 23v (Santi Giovanni e Paolo): ‘Ma dalla destra, la palla di San Tomaso fu opera di

Gian Bellino, il quale dipinse anco quell’altra di San Vincenzo, San Rocco, & San Sebastiano’; fol. 27v(San Zaccaria): ‘Di pitture vi è notabile la palla di Nostra Donna di mano di Gian Bellino’.

52 Sansovino 1581, fol. 48v: ‘una palla di Nostra Donna, di mano d’Alberto Duro, di bellezza singolare,per disegno, per diligenza, & per colorito’.

53 Sansovino 1581, fol. 57r: ‘& si come allora fu stimata molto da i buoni maestri, cosi al presente per la suamolta eccellenza è tenuta in gran prezzo’.

54 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 34, pp. 226–31 (Mauro Lucco), with an overview of the history


of the picture and research about it.55 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 34, pp. 226–31; no. 75, pp. 344–5.56 Berenson 1917.57 Humfrey 1993, pp. 195–201; Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 34, pp. 226–31 (Mauro Lucco).58 On Alvise Vivarini’s altar painting of circa 1485, see Humfrey 1993, pp. 208, 348, no. 36.59 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 34, pp. 226–31 (Mauro Lucco).60 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 25, pp. 186–93 (Mauro Lucco).61 Scirè Nepi 1991, no. 41, p. 89.62 Antonello da Messina exh. cat. 2006, no. 34, pp. 226–31 (Mauro Lucco), with reference to the first writ-

ten reports of 1476 and 1480.63 The green curtain in Alvise Vivarini’s altarpiece of 1480 is an early subsequent addition; cf. Scirè Nepi

1991, no. 41, p. 89. 64 Schmidt Archangeli 1998, pp. 14–18.65 Schmidt Archangeli 1998, pp. 22–30.66 Howard 2004, pp. 151–5; Humfrey 1993, pp. 43–5, 203–7; Lucco 1990, Schmidt Archangeli 1998.67 Schmidt Archangeli 1998, pp. 30–33, with a discussion of the earlier reconstructions; Bellini exh. cat.

2000, no. 31, pp. 153–5, with new reconstructions.68 Bellini exh. cat. 2000, no. 31, pp. 153–5. 69 Baxandall 1972, pp. 67–71.70 Meersseman 1958–60, vol. i, p. 210; vol. ii, p. 147. Goffen 1989, pp. 147–54, translated on p. 154: ‘Hail,

undefiled flower of virgin modesty’ and connects the inscription to the Feast of Immaculate Conception(that is to say, of the absence of original sin), propagated in particular by the Franciscans, and to whosefestival on 8 December Pope Sixtus v granted substantial indulgences in 1476. Schmidt Archangeli1998, pp. 42–3, accords preference to an allusion to the Annunciation, and calls attention to the sermonsand writings of San Lorenzo Giustiniani.

71 Humfrey 1993, pp. 193, 217–20. 72 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, no. 14, pp. 74–6.73 Humfrey 1993, pp. 119–20, 233–5, no. 56, p. 351.74 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, no. 92, pp. 126–8.75 Sansovino 1581, fols 62v–63r; Humfrey 1993, p. 218. 76 Tempestini 1992, no. 79, pp. 224–5; Finocchi Ghersi 1999; Fletcher and Mueller 2005. Until 1945 there

was an additional triptych with a lunette in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin.77 Tempestini 1992, no. 60, pp. 172–7; Humfrey 1993, pp. 218–20, no. 38, p. 348.78 Goffen 1986, pp. 58–61: ‘Thus, Bellini’s imagery of the tabernacle, the high pedestal, the prayer in the

fictive mosaic apse, and the Book Ecclesiasticus held by Saint Benedict all express the confident hope ofredemption through the intermediation of the Immaculate Mother of Christ.’

79 Meersseman 1958–60, vol. i, p. 218.80 Ciofetta 1991; Tempestini 1992, no. 85, pp. 236–9. 81 Menegazzi 1981, pp. 99–100; Humfrey 1983, pp. 27–9, no. 154, pp. 157–8; Aikema 1994. 82 On the problem of figure and ground, see Aikema 1994; Puttfarken 2000, pp. 97–121.83 Eisler 1989, pl. 186, p. 321 (London Pattern Book, fol.16r).84 Dittrich and Dittrich 2004, pp. 322–34; Ciofetta 1991, pp. 67–8 (on the parrot as a herald of Caesar).

My thanks to Georg Willi for calling to my attention the resemblance between this bird and the lesserkestrel.

85 See the Baptism of Christ by Giovanni Bellini and his workshop in the church of San Giovanni Battistadel Tempio in Venice with the depiction of the donor Sebastiano Michiel, Bellini exh. cat. 2000, pp. 118,163.

86 Bertelli 1991, pp. 51–61, 178–9.87 Bertelli 1991, p. 54.88 Bellini exh. cat. 2000, p. 91, 139–40, with the correct naming of the Madonna in gloria e otto santi,

cf. Finocchi Ghersi 2003, pp. 114–16; for earlier designations, see Tempestini 1992, no. 98, pp. 278–9.On the type, see Hecht 2003.

89 Bellini’s Madonna in Glory of 1491 preceded Carpaccio’s St Ursula in Glory (Venice, Galleriadell’Accademia); as early as 1506, Lorenzo Lotto imitated Bellini’s Madonna in Glory in his painting forAsolo Cathedral.

90 Robertson 1968, pp. 128–31; Lattanzi 1981; Goffen 1989, pp. 183–8; Tempestini 1992, no. 102, pp. 287–9; Humfrey 1993, no. 81, p. 356; Bellini exh. cat. 2000, pp. 119, 164–6.

91 Humfrey 1993, pp. 238–42, no. 77, p. 355.92 Sansovino 1581, fol. 56v.93 Wethey 1969–75, vol. i, no. 119, p. 143. Since 1656, the location of this painting has been the church

of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. For a discussion on the relationship between the altarpieces ofSebastiano del Piombo and Bellini, with mention of Titian, see Goffen 1989, pp. 183–8.

94 David Rosand, ‘Tiziano sacro e profano’, Studi Tizianeschi, iii (2005), pp. 57–66.

References | 229

vi Harmony1 Venice, Archivio di Stato, Demanio, b. 744, 30 April 1859. 2 Gemme d’arti italiane 1845–61, vol. xi, pp. 3–7.3 Journal zur Kunstgeschichte und zur allgemeinen Litteratur, x (1781), pp. 3–33; Le Cabinet de l’Amateur et

de l’Antiquaire, i (1842), pp. 306–23. 4 Aloisi and Gransinigh 1996, pp. 19–21. 5 Dürer 1956–69, vol. i, pp. 43–4; Conway 1889, p. 48: ‘[. . . ] There are so many nice men among the

Italians who seek my company more and more every day – which is very pleasing to one – men ofsense and knowledge, good lute players and pipers, judges of painting, men of such noble sentimentand honest virtue, and they show much honour and friendship. On the other hand there are alsoamongst them some of the most false, lying, thievish rascals; I should never have believed that suchwere living in the world. [ . . . ] Among the Italians I have many good friends who warn me not to eatand drink with their painters. Many of them are my enemies and they copy my work in the churchesand wherever they can find it; and then they revile it and say that the style is not antique and not sogood. But Giovanni Bellini has highly praised me before many nobles. He wanted to have some thingof mine, and himself came to me and asked me to paint something and he would pay well for it. And all men tell me what an upright man he is, so that I am very friendly with him. He is very old, but is still the best painter of them all.’ Among the numerous works dealing with Dürer in Venice, see Luber 2005.

6 Conway 1889, p. 58; Dürer 1956–69, vol. i, pp. 52, 59: ‘Hier bin ich ein Herr, daheim ein Schmarotzer’.7 Anzelewsky 1971, no. 49, pp. 152–5.8 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iv, pp. 41–2.9 Baldassar Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano (Venice, 1528), lib. i, 47; Haar 1998, pp. 20–37 (‘The

Courtier as Musician: Castiglione’s View of the Science and Art of Music’).10 Alberti 2004, pp. 38–9.11 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iv, pp. 24–5: ‘Lionardo portò quello strumento ch’egli aveva di sua mano fabbricato

d’argento gran parte, in forma d’un teschio di cavallo, cosa bizzarra e nuova, acchiocchè l’harmoniafosse con maggior tuba e più sonora di voce; laonde superò tutti i musici che quivi erano concorsi asuonare.’ Cf. Winternitz 1982, pp. 39–72.

12 Wittkower 1949, p. 117: ‘Das Studium der Musiktheorie wurde eine conditio sine qua non jeder künst-lerischen Erziehung’.

13 Rosand 1977.14 Paul Oskar Kristeller, ‘Music and Learning in the Early Italian Renaissance’ [1947], in Kristeller 1990,

pp. 142–2; Rosand 1977; Lewis Lockwood, Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 1450–1505: The Creation of aMusical Centre in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1984).

15 Farago 1991, p. 162; Leonardo 1995, vol. i, pp. 131–68.16 Farago 1991, pp. 175–287, especially 248–9: ‘E per questo il poeta resta in quanto alla figuratione delle

cose corporee molto in dietro al pittore, et delle cose invissibili rimane dietro al musico.’ 17 Onians 1984, p. 412.18 Onians 1984, p. 414; on the origins of the paragone debate, see Farago 1992; 19 Pacioli 1509; the full title is: Divina proportione opera a tutti glingegni perspicaci e curiosi necessaria Ove

ciascun studioso di Philosophia: Prospectiva Pictura Sculptura Architettura: Musica: e alter Mathematice:suavissima: sottile: e admirabile doctrina consequira: e delecterassi con varie questione de secretissima scientia.

20 Onians 1984, pp. 413–14; Pacioli 1509, fol. b3r–v: ‘Se questi dicano la musica contentare l’udito uno disensi naturali. E quella el vedere, quale tanto e piu degno quanto egli e prima porta al intellecto. [ . . . ]Se quelle recrea lanimo per larmonia. E questa per debita distantia e varieta de colori molto delecta.’

21 Robertson 1968, pp. 116–17; Huse 1972, pp. 72–5; Goffen 1989, pp. 171–7; Tempestini 1992, no. 90, pp. 252–5.

22 Cf. Andrew McClellan, Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern Museum inEighteenth-Century Paris (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 125–4.

23 Ruskin 1903–12, vol. xxii, pp. 88–9.24 Tempestini 1992, no. 90, pp. 252–5; Bellini exh. cat. 2000, no. 34, pp. 159–61. 25 Dittrich and Dittrich 2004, pp. 379–88.26 Winternitz 1982, pp. 25–38 (‘The Lira da braccio’).27 Ovid, Metamorphoseos vulgare, ed. Giovanni de Monsignore (Venice, 1497), fol. 85r.28 On Paolo Veneziano, see Scirè Nepi 1991, no. 2, pp. 30–31.29 Gentile da Fabriano exh. cat. 2006, no. iii/1, pp. 128–35.30 Thomas de Celano, Das Leben des heiligen Franciskus von Assisi, ed. P. Schmidt (Basel, 1921), pp. 181–2.31 Winternitz 1963.32 Johannes Tinctoris, Complexus effectuum musices [circa 1470], in Scriptorum de musca medii aevi novam

seriam, ed. Edmond de Coussemaker, 4 vols (Paris, 1864–76), vol. iv, pp. 191–200: ‘Pictores, quandobeatorum gaudia designare volunt, angelos diversa instrumenta concrepantes depingunt.’

33 Ridolfi 1914, vol. i, p. 66: ‘In vero naturali considerate figure, nelle quali Giovanni cercò d’imprimere


quella piètà, che si richiede nele Imagini de’ Santi: non badando à scorci ò ad atteggiamenti, che furonoposcia praticati da seguenti Pittori: ne si può descrivere à pieno la gratia e la bellezza di tre Angeletti,che siedono à pie di quella Vergine, chi di loro tocca la viola, il liuto & il violino; d’arie così gentili e dimovimenti così soavi, che rapiscono gli animi, qual maniere di figure destano somma divotione nellemente de’ fedeli; e segli può con ragione sottoscrivere quel detto: Manca il parlar, di vivo altro non chiedi:// ne manca questa ancor, se agli occhi credi.’

34 Boschini 1660, pp. 28–30: ‘E par sentir quei musichi concenti’.35 Burckhardt 2000, vol. iv, p. 214.36 Berenson 1897, p. 2.37 Richard Wagner, Werke, Schriften und Briefe , Digitale Bibliothek vol. 107, vol. vi, pp. 550–51. 38 Angelo Poliziano, In Filippum Fratrem, Pictorem: ‘[ . . .] Artifices potui digitis animare colores, // sper-

ataque animos fallere voce diu’. See Fehrenbach 2005. 39 Negro and Roio 2001, no. 9, pp. 87–8.40 Negro and Roio 2001, no. 10, pp. 88–9.41 Negro and Roio 2001, no. 23, p. 101.42 Helen I. Roberts, ‘St Augustine in “St Jerome’s Study”: Carpaccio’s Painting and its Legendary Source’,

Art Bulletin, xli (1959), pp. 283–97; Edward E. Lowinsky, ‘Epilogue: The Music in “St Jerome’sStudy”’, Art Bulletin, xli (1959), pp. 298–301; Patricia Fortini Brown, ‘Carpaccio’s St Augustine in HisStudy: A Portrait Within a Portrait’, in Augustine in Iconography: History and Legend, ed. J. C.Schnaubelt and F. Van Fleteren (New York, 1999), pp. 507–37; Renaissance Venice and the North 1999,no. 18, p. 219 (B. Aikema).

43 Augustinus, Opuscula (Venice, 1491). 44 Lowinsky 1982; cf. Wethey 1969–75, vol. iii, no. 15, pp. 151–3.45 Alberti 1991, p. 77; see also Alberti 2000, pp. 270–73 (De pictura, 42); Cf. Bätschmann 2003.46 Roskill 1968, p. 99; Dolce 1557, p. 153: ‘Questa è certa imaginatione di chi mira causata da diverse atti-

tudini che a ciò servano e non effetto o proprietà della Pittura.’ Cf. Land 1994, pp. 18–19.47 Naturalis Historia 35, 95; Plinius 1958, vol. ix, pp. 332–3: ‘Pinxit et quae pingi non possunt, tonitrua, ful-

getra fulguraque’. 48 Dürer 1956–69, vol. i, pp. 296–7.49 Belting 1990, p. 526.50 Varchi and Borghini 1998, pp. 119–20: ‘E di tutte queste cose insieme ne nasce un’armonia e musica,

dirò così, pittoresca [ . . . ]’. Cf. Puttfarken 2000, ch. 6: ‘In Search of the Whole and its Harmonies’, pp.169–85.

51 Francesco Petrarca, Le rime sparse e i trionfi, ed. E. Chiòrboli (Bari, 1930), no. 308, p. 226.52 Tempestini 1992, no. 87, pp. 243–5; Bellini exh. cat. 2000, no. 18, pp. 137–8.53 Renaissance Venice and the North 1999, no. 14, pp. 210–11 (B. Aikema); Bellini exh. cat. 2003.54 Tempestini 1992, no. 67, pp. 190–93.55 Humfrey 1990, no. 16, pp. 84–7; the painting is badly preserved. The animal on the pedestal bearing

Bellini’s signature was formerly believed to be a monkey, and was recognized as a feline predator onlyafter a restoration, which reduced art-theoretical speculation to dust.

56 Pliny, Naturalis Historia 35, 29; cf. Gage 1993, pp. 227–46.57 Alberti, De pictura, 9–10, 46–9, cf. Alberti 2000, pp. 77–82, 208–13, 280–291; Alberti 1991, pp. 44–6,

81–6.58 Plato, Timaios, 32a–b; Pliny, Naturalis Historia 35, 50.59 Gage 1993, pp. 117–19; cf. Fehrenbach 2003; Fehrenbach 2005.60 Alberti 1991, p. 85; Alberti 2000, pp. 288–9 (De Pictura, 48).61 Baxandall 1972, p. 85; cf. Barasch 1978, pp. 31–2; Gage 1993, p. 119.62 Gage 1993, pp. 227–46; J. Jewanski, ‘Farbe-Ton-Beziehung’, in MGG, vol. iii, cols 345–71.63 Haar 1998, pp. 79–92.64 Vasari 1966–87, vol. i, pp. 124–8: ‘La unione nella pittura è una discordanza di colori diversi accordati

insieme, i quali nella diversità di più divise mostrano differentemente distinte l’una da l’altra le partidelle figure, come le carni dai capelli et un panno diverso di colore da l’altro.’

65 Barasch 1978, pp. 90–134.66 The literature on Alfonso i and his Camerino is abundant. See the bibliography in Camerino di alabas-

tro exh. cat. 2004, pp. 298–309; on the paintings of Bellini, Titian and Dossi, see the contribution byCharles Hope, pp. 83–95; Fehl 1992; Rosen 2001.

67 Wethey 1969–75, vol. iii, pp. 29–41.68 Vasari 1966–87, vol. vi, pp. 158–9.69 Burckhardt 2001, vol. iii, p. 89 (826); on the Camuccini brothers, who were artists and art dealers in

Rome, see Anderson 1993. 70 Wind 1948, pp. 27–35.71 See dbi, vol. viii (1966, pp. 133–51 (C. Dionisotti).72 Anderson 1993 proposed the theme ‘Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus’, in order to assimilate Bellini’s

painting to Titian’s Venus paintings.

References | 231

73 Walker 1956.74 Tempestini 1992, no. 103b, pp. 290–95. 75 Goffen 1989, pp. 252–5; Tempestini 1992, no. 104, pp. 296–7.76 Pliny, Naturalis Historia 1, 26–7; cf. Bätschmann and Griener 1997, pp. 22–35; Matthew 1998.77 Robertson 1968, pp. 113–14; Goffen 1989, pp. 83–5; Tempestini 1992, no. 95, pp. 268–70; Wilson 2004,

pp. 108, 121.78 Vasari 1966–87, vol. iii, pp. 437–9; Vasari wrote to Louis xi, probably erroneously. 79 Robertson 1968, pp. 131, 153; Goffen 1989, pp. 214–17, 249–51; Tempestini 1992, nos 105–6,

pp. 298–301; Titian exh. cat. 1993, no. 3, pp. 270–71.80 Shearman 1962.81 Vasari 1966–87, vol. vi, p. 155.82 Laclotte 1993; Wilson 2004.83 See the famous letter of 24 November 1647 in Nicolas Poussin, Correspondance, ed. C. Jouanny (Paris,

1968), no. 156, pp. 370–75.84 Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland.


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Aikema 1994Aikema, Bernard, ‘Avampiano e sfondo nell’opera di Cima da Conegliano: la pala d’altare e lo spettatoretra la fine del Quattrocento e l’inizio dl Cinquecento’, Venezia Cinquecento, iv/8 (1994), pp. 93–112.

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Alberti 2004––, Vita, ed. Christine Tauber and Robert Cramer (Frankfurt am Main and Basel, 2004).

Alexander-Skipnes 2003Alexander-Skipnes, Ingrid, ‘St Jerome in the Wilderness: Paintings in Venice by Piero della Francesca,Giovanni Bellini and Hieronymus Bosch’, in Jérôme Bosch et son entourage et autres etudes, ed. HélèneVerougstraete (Leuven, 2003), pp. 286–97.

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Bellini exh. cat. 2000Il colore ritrovato: Bellini a Venezia, ed. Rona Goffen and Giovanna Nepi Scirè, exh. cat., Venice (Milan, 2000).

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Bertelli 1993––, ‘Piero della Francesca’s Cradle for the Montefeltro Altar Piece’, in Hülle und Fülle: Festschrift fürTilmann Buddensieg, ed. A. Beyer, V. Lampugnani and G. Schweikhart (Alfter, 1993), pp. 51–5.

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Campbell 1981Campbell, Lorne, ‘Notes on Netherlandish Pictures in the Veneto in the Fifteenth and SixteenthCenturies’, Burlington Magazine, cxxiii, 940 (1981), pp. 467–73.

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Capriccio exh. cat. 1996Das Capriccio als Kunstprinzip: Zur Vorgeschichte der Moderne von Arcimboldo und Callot bis Tiepolo undGoya, ed. E. Mai, exh. cat., [AQ: venues?] Cologne, Zürich and Vienna (Milan, 1996).

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Christiansen 2004aChristiansen, Keith, ‘Bellini and Mantegna’, in Humfrey 2004, pp. 48–74.

Christiansen 2004b––, ‘Giovanni Bellini and the Practice of Devotional Painting’, in Kasl 2004, pp. 7–57.

Ciofetta 1991Ciofetta, Simona, ‘Il Battesimo di Cristo di Giovanni Bellini: patronato e devozione privata’, VeneziaCinquecento, i/2 (1991), pp. 61–88.

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Degenhart, Bernhard, and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300–1450, vol. ii:Venedig, Jacopo Bellini (Berlin, 1990).

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The author and publishers wish to express their thanks to the following sources of illustrative material and/orpermission to reproduce it – excluding those sufficiently credited in the captions (donor or collection details are insome cases also given below):

Photos Jörg P. Anders, courtesy of Scala, Florence: 1, 105, 110, 174; photos (© The Barber Institute of Fine Arts,University of Birmingham / The Bridgeman Art Library: 2, 47; photo Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,Munich: 109; photos courtesy of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice: 162, 177; photos O. Böhm: 69, 82, 100,107, 146, 152, 168, photo © Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives: 45 (bequest of fpm Schiller, 1946); after thereconstruction by Colin Eisler in The Genius of Giovanni Bellini (New York, 1989): 18; courtesy Eidos Processing(team grafico Gulio Bertoncello): 141; photo Estel/Klut 2004 © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: 112; photos© the Frick Collection, New York: 95 (Henry Clay Frick bequest), 133; photo © Galleria degli Alberti, Prato / TheBridgeman Art Library: 172; photos © Galleria dell’ Accademia, Venice / The Bridgeman Art Library: 19, 43;photo © Galleria dell’ Accademia, Venice / Cameraphoto Arte Venezia / The Bridgeman Art Library: 74; fromGoffen, Giovanni Bellini (New Haven, ct and London, 1989): 123; from Humfrey, The Altarpiece in RenaissanceVenice (New Haven, ct and London, 1993): 130; photos © irpa-kik, Brussels: 36, 51; modified from Johannes Wilde,‘Die “Pala di San Cassiano”. . .’ (1929): 137; from Landon, Annales du musée et de l’école moderne des Beaux-Arts (Paris,1807): 159; photos © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 37 (Theodore M. Davis Collection, bequest ofTheodore M. Davis, photo © 1985), 72 (Rogers Fund, 1908), 99 (Rogers Fund, 1906), 144 (gift of J. PierpontMorgan); courtesy of the Museo Correr, Venice: 119 (photograph after a lost copy); photos National Gallery PictureLibrary (© The National Gallery, London): 6, 16, 38, 41, 48, 77, 80, 96, 113, 149, 167, 170, 179; photo NationalMuseums Liverpool: 7 (Weld-Blundell Collection); photo P. Rizzi: 129; photo The Royal Collection Picture Library,© 2007, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ii: 92; photo Saporetti Fotografico dell’Arte: 84; photos © Scala, Florence:13 (© 1990, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 33 (© 2001 Scala, Florence), 44 (© 1990Scala, Florence), 49 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 58 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 59 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 62 (© 1990Scala, Florence), 65 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 73 (© 1991 Scala, Florence), 76 (© 1997 Scala, Florence), 78 (©1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 79 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 83(© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 97 (© 1990 Scala, Florence,courtesy of the Comune di Pesaro/Servizio Musei), 102 (photo © 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministeroper i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Contini Bonacossi collection), 103 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 104 (© 2000 Scala,Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 108 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of theMinistero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 111 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e leAttività Culturali), 114 (© 2004 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 116(© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 118 (© 1990 Scala, Florence),127 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Comune di Pesaro/Servizio Musei), 128 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 131(© 1990 Scala, Florence), 132 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Comune di Pesaro/Servizio Musei), 139(© 2000 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 142 (© 1990 Scala, Florence),151 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 160 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 161 (© 1990 Scala, Florence), 163 (© 2000 Scala,Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 171 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of theMinistero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali), 173 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e leAttività Culturali), 175 (© 1990 Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali),181, 184 (© 1990 Scala, Florence); photos Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici, Venice: 115, 138, 164; photosService Photographique de la rmn: 20 (© rmn/Hervé Lewandowski), 21 (© rmn/Hervé Lewandowski), 26(© rmn-Daniel Arnaudet), 35, 52, 89, 90; photo Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich/Martina Bienenstein:56; photos © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Jörg P. Anders: 9, 50, 75, 94; from Walker,Bellini and Titian at Ferrara (London, 1956): 178.

Photo Acknowledgements

248

Aikema, Bernard 23, 54Alberti, Leon Battista 34–6, 38, 47, 55, 99–100, 101,

102, 109, 110, 184Autobiography 35De pictura 35–6, 198, 204–6De re aedificatoria 35Perspective View of Venice and San Marco 35Self-portrait 35, illus. 29

Aleotti, Ulisse 36Alfonso I d’Este 185, 197, 207, 208Ames-Lewis, Francis 36Amman, Jost

Procession in St Mark’s Square in Venice 76–7, 78,illus. 66

Amsterdam, RijksmuseumGiovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child 72–3, 79, illus.63

Anderson, Jaynie 8, 114Andrea da Murano 28Andrea del Castagno 47, 60Andreae, Johannes 16Anonymous

Descent into Limbo 52–3, illus. 45Giovanni Bellini Dead on his Bier 16, illus. 7Pietà with Two Angels 71, illus. 61The Planet Mercury 25, illus. 17St Jerome in a Landscape 15, illus. 6

Antonello da Messina 50, 62, 63, 64, 150, 157, 168Annunciation (Munich) 123, 126, illus. 109Annunciation (Syracuse) 52Crucifixion 42Pietà with Angel 159, illus. 134Pietà with Angels 127Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiero) 59, 60, illus. 52Portrait of a Young Man 57, illus. 50San Cassiano altarpiece 127, 159–4, 166, 189, illus.

135, illus. 136, illus. 137 (reconstruction)St Jerome in his Study 159St Sebastian 64, 127, 130, 159, illus. 112

Antonio di Cristoforo 34Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

Hans Memling, Portrait of a Man with a Coin of the Emperor Nero 57, 59, 60, illus. 51

Apelles 102, 198, 199

Apollonius of Tyana 49Archer, Joseph 16Aretino, Pietro 135Aristotle 206Arslan, Edoardo 119artis studiosi 9, 55, 110, 198Augsburg 7Augustinus, Aurelius

De musica 197

Balbus, Johannes 76Bambach, Carmen 81Barasch, Moshe 206Barbari, Jacopo de’ 19–20, illus. 11, 12, 117Barbarigo, Agostino 55, 78, 89–93, 130, 185, illus. 79Barbarigo, Marco 22, 23–4, 55, 56, 89–90, 131, 185,

illus. 16Baroncelli, Niccolò 34Basaiti, Marco

Christ in the Garden at Gethsemane 164, 166(and Alvise Vivarini) St Ambrose altarpiece 168

Bastiani, Lazzaro 28Baxandall, Michael 76, 81, 99Beauharnais, Eugène 96Bellini workshops 18–21, 24–31Bellini, Gentile 16–18, 19, 22, 24, 25–31, illus. 22, 83,

96Defeat of Pharaoh (lost) 28Gattamelata altarpiece 18, 25–6, illus. 18Miracle of the Reliquary of the Cross at the Ponte

di San Lorenzo 38Moses and the Israelites in the Desert (lost) 28Portrait of a Man (Self-portrait) 17, illus. 9Procession of the Feast of St Mark (Procession in

Piazza San Marco) 38St Anthony Abbot 28, 29 illus. 21St Augustine 28, 29, illus. 20St Mark Preaching in Alexandria 20–21, illus. 13Triptych with SS John the Baptist, Sebastian and

Anthony Abbot 27, illus. 19Triptychs for Santa Maria della Carità 26, 27Votive Picture of Doge Mocenigo 90–91, illus. 80

Bellini, Gentile and GiovanniSt Mark Preaching in Alexandria 20–21, illus. 13

Index

Votive Picture of Doge Mocenigo 90–91, illus. 80Bellini, Giovanni

portraits of Giovanni Bellini 16–18, illus. 7, 8, 10;30–31, illus. 23, 24Agony in the Garden 43–47, illus. 38Allegory of Vanitas or Prudentia 136, 137, illus. 116SS Jerome, Christopher and Louis of Toulouse

altarpiece 176–7, 179–81, 213, illus. 151Angel (detail from San Zaccaria altarpiece) 190,

illus. 161Annunciation 52, 115, 123–6, illus. 108Anointing of Christ 150–52, illus. 128Assassination of St Peter Martyr 210, illus. 179Baptism of Christ 136, 172–6, illus. 145Blood of the Redeemer 47–9, 131, 136, illus. 41Calvary 40, 41, 63, illus. 33Christ (fragment of a Transfiguration) 121, 122,

174, illus. 106Circumcision 86, 88, 89, illus. 77Coronation of the Virgin (altarpiece for S. Fran-

cesco, Pesaro) 50, 93; 111–12, 150–58, 163, 166, 192, illus. 97 (detail), illus. 127, illus. 128, illus. 129 (reconstruction), illus. 132 (detail)

Crucifixion 202, 203, illus. 172Dead Christ 212, illus. 183Dead Christ with Two Angels (Pietà) 127, 128,

illus. 110Drunkenness of Noah 212–13, illus. 184Feast of the Gods 197, 200, 207–13, illus. 176,

illus. 178 (x-ray)Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St Dominic 212Fragment with Signature 122, illus. 107Frari Triptych 169–71, illus. 142, illus. 143Gattamelata altarpiece 18, 25–6, illus. 18Great Flood (lost) 28Imago pietatis 66–68, 71, 96–7, 175, illus. 58Infant Bacchus 210, illus. 180Madonna degli Alberetti 127, 129, illus. 111Madonna dell’Orto (stolen) 80–81, illus. 71Madonna of the Meadow 9, 199–200, illus. 170Noah’s Ark (lost) 28Pietà (Milan) 88–9, 96–100, 115, illus. 83Pietà (Venice) 9, 200, 201, illus. 171Pietà with Angels 127Pietà with Four Angels 157, illus. 131Pietà with the Virgin and St John (Bergamo) 94,

95, illus. 81Pietà with the Virgin and St John (Berlin) 201,

204, illus. 174Pietà with the Virgin and St John, with SS Mark

and Nicholas 95–6, illus. 82Pietà with Two Angels (detail from the Polyptych

of St Vincent Ferrer ) 70–71, illus. 62Pietà with Two Angels (Venice, Museo Correr)

50, 63, 68–71, 93, illus. 59Polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer 24, 28, 50, 51,

70–71, 90, 139–43, 162, illus. 44 (detail), illus. 62 (detail), illus. 118

Portrait of a Boy 56, 57, illus. 47Portrait of a Man (Pietro Bembo) 59, 107, illus. 92Portrait of a Young Man 59–61, illus. 53Portrait of a Young Senator 57, 58, illus. 49Doge Leonardo Loredan 56–7, 130–31, 132,

illus. 113

Jörg Fugger 22–3, 56, 119, 150, illus. 15Raffael Zovenzoni 98–9, illus. 84Presentation in the Temple 52, 83, 86–7, illus. 76Priuli Triptych 169Resurrection 119, 120, 127, illus. 105Resurrection of Christ 174, 175, illus. 147Sacred Allegory 131–8, illus. 114San Giobbe altarpiece 38, 50, 127, 150, 159, 160,

164–9, 190, 191, illus. 139, illus. 140, illus. 141(reconstruction), illus. 163 (detail)

San Zaccaria altarpiece 166, 176, 187–91, frontispiece, illus. 158, illus. 159, illus. 160(detail), illus. 161 (detail)

St Anthony Abbot 28, 29, illus. 21St Augustine 28, 29, illus. 20St Francis in the Desert 110, 113–15, 136, illus. 95St Jerome in the Desert (Birmingham) 12–16,

illus. 2St Jerome in the Desert (Florence) 114, 116,

illus. 102St Jerome in the Desert (lost) 122–3St Mark Healing the Cobbler Ananias (attrib.)

108–9, illus. 94St Mark Preaching in Alexandria 20–21, illus. 13St Sebastian (detail from the Polyptych of St

Vincent Ferrer) 50, 51, illus. 44St Sebastian (detail from the Triptych for S Maria

della Carità) 49–50, illus. 43Stigmatization of St Francis 111–12, illus. 97Three Studies of a Lying Man 46, illus. 40Transfiguration (Naples) 115, 118–19, 121–2,

illus. 104Transfiguration (Venice) 43, 63, 115, 117, 118,

illus. 103Triptych with St Jerome in the Desert (lost) 169Triptych with SS John the Baptist, Sebastian and

Anthony Abbot 27, 63, illus. 19; 49–50, illus. 43(detail)

Triptychs for Santa Maria della Carità 26, 27Virgin and Child (Amsterdam) 72–3, 79, illus. 63Virgin and Child (Berlin, c. 1460–65) 74, 79,

illus. 64Virgin and Child (Berlin, c. 1470–75) 11, illus. 1Virgin and Child (Davis Madonna) 42–4, 72,

illus. 37Virgin and Child (Fort Worth) 79–80, illus. 70Virgin and Child (Milan) 201, 205, illus. 175Virgin and Child (Morelli Madonna) 81, 83, 84,

127, illus. 73Virgin and Child (Rogers Madonna) 81–2, illus. 72Virgin and Child (Verona) 72, 75, 79, illus. 65Virgin and Child with Seraphim 83, 85, illus. 74Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and a

Female Saint (Sacra Conversazione Giovanelli) 107, 200–201, 203, illus. 173

Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and St Elisabeth 106–7, illus. 91

Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine (destroyed) 24, 139, 145–7, 162, 166, 191, illus. 119 (anonymous copy), illus. 123(reconstruction)

(and workshop) Virgin in Glory with Eight Saints 176, 178, illus.

150

Index | 249


Votive Picture of Doge Agostino Barbarigo 78, 89–93, 153, 199, illus. 79

Votive Picture of Doge Mocenigo 90–91, illus. 80Woman with a Mirror 211, 212, illus. 181

Bellini, Jacopo 18–30, 31–36The London Drawing Book 13–16, 34, 35, 36,

43, 112; St Jerome in the Wilderness 14, illus. 3, Study for Equestrian Monument, illus. 28

The Paris Drawing Book 13–16, 36, 41, 42, 43, 112–13, St Jerome in the Wilderness 14, illus. 4, Seven Lions and Three Stags, illus. 5, Stigmatization of St Francis, illus. 98, Virgin and St John the Evangelist Mourn Christ Crucified illus. 34

Carrying of the Cross (lost) 28Crucifixion (lost) 28Crucifixion (Verona, destroyed) 32Gattamelata altarpiece 18, 25–26, illus. 18Life of the Virgin Mary (lost) 28Madonna of Humility 33, 34, illus. 26Madonna of the Cherubim 78–9, illus. 69Gentile da Fabriano (lost portrait of) 32St Anthony Abbot 28, 29 illus. 21St Augustine 28, 29, illus. 20Triptych with SS John the Baptist, Sebastian and

Anthony Abbot 27, illus. 19Triptychs for Santa Maria della Carità 26, 27Virgin and Child 31, 32, illus. 25

Bellini, Jacopo, Gentile and GiovanniGattamelata altarpiece 18, 25–6, illus. 18St Anthony Abbot 28, 29, illus. 21St Augustine 28, 29, illus. 20Triptych with SS John the Baptist, Sebastian and

Anthony Abbot 27, illus. 19Triptychs for Santa Maria della Carità 26, 27

Bellini, LeonardoDoge Nicolò Marcello before God the Father

Enthroned 22, illus. 14Frontispiece to Promissione of Doge Cristoforo

Moro 145, illus. 122Bellini, Niccolò (father of Jacopo) 32, 33Bellini, Niccolò (son of Jacopo) 19Bellini, Niccolosia 19, 21, 22, 83Belliniano, Vittore

Giovanni Bellini 18, illus. 10Belting, Hans 71, 97, 98, 100Bembo, Pietro 32, 59, 104, 107–108, 135, 208, illus. 92Berenson, Bernard 17, 52–3, 161, 195Bergamo, Accademia Carrara

Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with the Virgin and StJohn 94, 95, illus. 81; Virgin and Child (MorelliMadonna) 81, 83, 84, 127, illus. 73Pisanello, Leonello d’Este 34, illus. 27

Berlin, Gemäldegalerie 23Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Young Man

57, 59, illus. 50Giovanni Bellini, Dead Christ with Two Angels

(Pietà) 127, 128, illus. 110; Pietà with the Virgin and St John (Berlin) 201, 204, illus. 174;Resurrection 119, 120, 127, illus. 105; Virgin and Child (c. 1460–65) 74, 79, illus. 64; Virgin and Child (c. 1470–75) 11, illus. 1

Andrea Mantegna, Presentation in the Temple 83,86, illus. 75

Berlin, KupferstichkabinettGiovanni Bellini (attrib.), St Mark Healing the

Cobbler Ananias 108–9, illus. 94Bertelli, Carlo 150Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Giovanni Bellini, Drunkenness of Noah 212–13, illus. 184

Birmingham, Barber Institute of Fine ArtsGiovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Boy 56, 57,

illus. 47; St Jerome in the Desert 12–16, illus. 2Blanc, Charles 147, 150, 208Boccaccio, Giovanni 105Bon, Pietro 159Borghini, Vincenzio 200Borgia, Lucrezia 208Borgo Sansepolcro 36, 111Boschini, Marco 123, 143, 194Boskovits, Miklòs 26, 28Bramante, Donato 185Brescia, Santi Nazaro e Celso

Titian, The Resurrection altarpiece 168–9Bristol, City Art Gallery

Anonymous, Descent into Limbo 52–3, illus. 45Brown, Beverly Louise 54Bruges 60Brussels, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts

Rogier van der Weyden (workshop), Sforza-triptych 42–3, 55, illus. 36

Burckhardt, Jacob 55–6, 87–8, 194–5, 208Byzantine art

David before Saul (silver plate) 170, 172, illus. 144Hodegetria, icon 78, 79Man of Sorrows, icon 65–6, 68Virgin Nicopeia, icon 78–9, illus. 68

Campbell, Stephen 105Canova, Antonio 151Carpaccio, Vittore 198

Arrival of the Ambassadors 77–8, illus. 67 (detail)The Dream of St Ursula 76–7, 123Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 150, 164, 166St Ursula in Glory 173The Story of St Ursula 159The Vision of St Augustine 196–7, illus. 168

Castiglione, BaldassareIl Cortegiano 184

Cavalcaselle, Giovanni Battista 16, 131, 139, 140, 143,147, 150, 151, 159, 208, illus. 120

Cennini, Cennino 64, 100, 127Christiansen, Keith 41, 52, 72, 79, 81, 143Christus, Petrus 55Cicero, Marcus Tullius 100Cima da Conegliano, Giambattista 139, 180

Baptism of Christ 172–4, illus. 146Madonna of the Orange Tree 150

Ciriaco d’Ancona 55Clark, Kenneth 111Codussi, Mauro 147, 177Colonna, Francesco

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili 77, 187Constantinople 24, 30Contarini, Taddeo 110Conti, Alessandro 28Correr, Gregorio 41

Index | 251

Cortona 37Costa, Lorenzo 198

A Concert 195, 196, illus. 167Coronation of a Poetess 105, illus. 90

Crowe, Joseph Archer 16, 131, 140, 151, 159, 208

D’Andrea, Jacopo Giovanni Bellini and Venetian Artists Welcome

Albrecht Dürer 182–4, illus. 153Dalhoff, Meinolf 119Dandolo, Francesco 92Decembrio, Angelo 36Dente, Marco 39Diletti, Giorgio 177Dolce, Lodovico 150

Dialogo della Pittura 135, 198, 206Donatello 95

Pietà with Two Angels 68, 70, illus. 60Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

Antonello da Messina, St Sebastian 64, 127, 130, 159, illus. 112

Dunkerton, Jill 56, 63Dürer, Albrecht 7, 18, 24, 39, 68, 183, 184, 198

Altarpiece for San Bartolomeo 160Self-portrait 184, 185, illus. 154

Dusseldorf, Museum Kunst PalastGiovanni Bellini, Priuli triptych 169

Eisler, Colin 26, 27, 33Emperor Franz Joseph I 183Emperor Frederick Barbarossa 33Emperor Frederick iii 30, 176Erasmus of Rotterdam 198Eyck, Jan Van (follower of) 63, 64

Marco Barbarigo 23–4, 55, 56, illus. 16Eyck, Jan Van (workshop) 63, 64

Crucifixion 64Eyck, Jan Van 22, 52, 55, 60

Portrait of a Young Man (Tymotheus) 23, 56, 57, illus. 48

Facio, Bartolomeo 33, 55Feliciano, Felice 54Ferrara 33, 34, 55, 207Ferrer, Vincent, of Valencia 140Filarete (Antonio Averlino) 102Fiocardo, Alberto 119Fletcher, Jennifer M 29–30, 33, 54Florence 33, 34, 38, 41, 55, 60Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi 131

Giovanni Bellini, Sacred Allegory 131–8, illus. 114; St Jerome in the Desert 114, 116, illus. 102

Fra Angelico, Coronation of the Virgin 156Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Kings 33

Florence, Museum S. MarcoFra Angelico, Annalena altarpiece 156Florence, Santa Maria Novella

Masaccio, Trinity 147–9, illus. 126Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum

Giovanni Bellini, Resurrection of Christ 174, 175, illus. 147; Virgin and Child 79–80, illus. 70

Fra Angelico 144Annalena altarpiece 156Coronation of the Virgin 156

Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches KunstinstitutGiovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child with St John

the Baptist and St Elisabeth 106–7, illus. 91Fréart de Chantelou, Paul 213Fry, Roger 39, 68, 96, 153Fugger, Jörg 22–3, illus. 15

Gaffurius, Franchinus Pratica musicae 114, 115, 206, illus. 101

Gage, John 205Gambello, Vittore

Medal of Gentile Bellini 30–31, illus. 22Medal of Giovanni Bellini 30–31, 109, illus. 23, 24

Gandini, Domenico 62, 63, 182, 183, illus. 153Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire

Luca Pacioli, De Divina proportione187, illus. 157Gentile da Fabriano 32–3, 55

Adoration of the Kings 33Valle Romita polyptych (central panel) 192, 193,

illus. 165Gentili, Augusto 136Ghirlandaio, Domenico 36Ghirlandaio, Filippo 36Giambono, Michele 70

Coronation of the Virgin in Paradise 150Pietà 113–14, illus. 99

Giorgione 7, 55, 110, 135, 180, 181, 184, 185, 212, 213,illus. 155(or Titian) Adoration of Shepherds (Allendale

Nativity) 108, illus. 93Tempest 111, 131, 133, 198, illus. 115Venus 197

Giotto di Bondone 191, 192Giovanni d’Alemagna 21, 22

Praglia Polyptych 95Goffen, Rona 8, 16, 76, 143, 144, 169, 170Goldner, George 46Gonzaga, Francesco 35Gonzaga, Giovanni Francesco 35Gonzaga, Ludovico 41, 52, 54Graziani, Battista 136, 172, 176Grimani, Domenico 111Guariento 153

Coronation of the Virgin 192

Hinderbach, Giovanni 99Hofmann, Werner 135Holbein the Younger, Hans 39Horace, Quintus Flaccus

Ars poetica 100, 101, 135Howard, Deborah 93, 123Humfrey, Peter 8, 16, 18, 140, 145, 155, 168Huse, Norbert 8

Isabella d’Este 41, 54, 102–9, 111, 134, illus. 88Israel van Meckenem

Imago pietatis 65–6, illus. 57The Mass of St Gregory 65–6, illus. 56

Jacobello del Fiore 32, 153(and workshop) Coronation of the Virgin 192,

illus. 164

Kasl, Ronda 9, 25, 72, 81


Kecks, Ronald 76Kempis, Thomas A 76Kepler, Johannes 206Ketham, Johannes de

Fasciculus medicine 38, illus. 31

Lancilotti, Francesco 187Landino, Cristoforo 47Landon, Charles 188Lanzi, Luigi 60, 131Leonardo da Vinci 36, 38, 184, 185–6, 198, 206, 213

Isabella d’Este 102, 103, illus. 88Leonello d’Este 33–5, illus. 27Leopold Wilhelm 161Lippi, Filippo 144, 195Lombardo, Pietro 122, 147, 164, 169, 187London, British Library

Leonardo Bellini, frontispiece to Promissione of Doge Cristoforo Moro 145, illus. 122

London, British Museum 13–16Jost Amman, Procession in St Mark’s Square in

Venice 76–77, illus. 66Giovanni Bellini, Three Studies of a Lying Man

46, illus. 40Jacopo Bellini, Study for an Equestrian Monument

35, illus. 28London, National Gallery

Anonymous, St Jerome in a Landscape 15, illus. 6Antonello da Messina, Crucifixion 42Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Votive Picture of

Doge Mocenigo 90–91, illus. 80Giovanni Bellini, The Agony in the Garden 43–7,

illus. 38; The Assassination of St Peter Martyr210, illus. 179; Blood of the Redeemer 47–9, 131, 136, illus. 41; Circumcision 88, illus. 77; Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St Dominic 212; Madonna of the Meadow 9, 199–200, illus. 170;Pietà with Angels 127; Portrait of a Man (PietroBembo) 59, 107, illus. 92; Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan 56–7, 130–31, 132, illus. 113

Lorenzo Costa, A Concert 195, 196, illus. 167Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Young Man

(Tymotheus) 23, 56, 57, illus. 48Jan van Eyck (follower), Marco Barbarigo 23–4,

55, 56, illus. 16Masaccio, Pisa polyptych 194Piero della Francesca, Baptism of Christ 176, 177,

illus. 149Stefano di Giovanni Sassetta, Stigmatization of

St Francis 111, illus. 96Longhi, Roberto 16Loredan, Leonardo 56–7, 91, 132, illus. 113Lorenzo da Pavia 104, 108–9Los Angeles, Getty Center

Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Kings 86Lotto, Lorenzo 7Lowinsky, Edward 197Lucco, Mauro 18, 54, 159Lucerne 39Luchs, Alison 130

Madrid, Museo del PradoAntonello da Messina, Pietà with Angel 159,

illus. 134

Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait 184, 185, illus. 154Andrea Mantegna, Death of the Virgin 52Titian, The Andrians (Bacchanal) 197, illus. 169

Malatesta, Annalena 156Malatesta, Carlo 157Mantegna (workshop)

Descent into Limbo 52–53, illus. 46Mantegna, Andrea 16, 19, 21, 22, 36–9, 41–55, 83, 102,

103, illus. 87, 104, 151Adoration of the Kings 86Assumption of the Virgin 143Baptism of Christ (lost) 135Cardinal Lodovico Trevisan 23Death of the Virgin 52Entombment 99, illus. 85Ovetari chapel 41, 50, 70Pallas expelling the Vices from the Garden of

Virtue 102Parnassus 102, 103, illus. 89Presentation in the Temple 83, 86, illus. 75San Zeno altarpiece 41–46, 50, 147–8, 169, 170,

194, 195, illus. 124, illus. 166 (detail), predella:Agony in the Garden 44–7, 70, illus. 39, Crucifixion 43, 70, illus. 35

St Luke altarpiece 70, 95, 113St Sebastian 47–50, illus. 42

Mantua 35, 36, 41, 54, 104Marcello, Jacopo Antonio 49Masaccio

Pisa polyptych 194Trinity 147–9, illus. 126

Medici, Lorenzo de’ 35Meiss, Millard 54, 111, 112Melozzo da Forlì 37Memling, Hans 22

Portrait of a Man with a Coin of the Emperor Nero 57, 59, 60, illus. 51

Menabuoi, Giusto da 95Mérimée, J.F.L. 62Michiel, Giovanni 110, 111Michiel, Marcantonio 32, 55, 83, 110, 111, 143, 159Milan 36Milan, Accademia di Brera 62Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana

Giovanni Bellini, Raffael Zovenzoni 98–9, illus. 84

Milan, Museo Poldi PezzoliGiovanni Bellini, Imago pietatis 66–8, 71, 96–7,

175, illus. 58Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera

Giovanni Bellini, Pietà 88–9, 96–100, 115, illus. 83; St Mark Preaching in Alexandria20–21, illus. 13; Virgin and Child 201, 205, illus. 175

Jacopo Bellini, Virgin and Child 31, 32, illus. 25Gentile da Fabriano, Valle Romita polyptych

(central panel) 192, 193, illus. 165Andrea Mantegna, Montefeltro altarpiece 147–9,

162, illus. 125; St Luke altarpiece 70Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d’Alemagna,Praglia Polyptych 95

Mocenigo, Giovanni 90–91, illus. 80Mocetto, Girolamo

Baptism of Christ 176, 177, illus. 148

Index | 253

Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels 39, illus. 32

Montaigne, Michel de 8Montefeltro, Federigo da 147, 148, illus. 125Montefeltro, Guidobaldo da 36Morelli, Giovanni 68Moro, Cristoforo 145, 164, illus. 122Munich, Alte Pinakothek

Antonello da Messina, Annunciation 123, 126, illus. 109

Munich, Staatliche Graphische SammlungIsrael van Meckenem, The Mass of St Gregory

65–6, illus. 56Murano 19, 42Murano, San Pietro Martire

Giovanni Bellini and workshop, Virgin in Glory with Eight Saints 176, 178, illus. 150

Giovanni Bellini, Votive Picture of Doge Agostino Barbarigo 78, 89–93, 153, 199, illus. 79

Murano, Santa Maria degli Angeli 92

Naples 41, 60Naples, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte

Giovanni Bellini, Transfiguration 115, 118–19, 121–2, illus. 104

Bartolomeo Vivarini, Virgin and Child with Saints 144, 145, 155, illus. 121

Napoleon i 7, 139Napoleon iii 183New York, Frick Collection

Giovanni Bellini, St Francis in the Desert 110, 113–15, 136, illus. 95

Piero della Francesca, St John the Evangelist157–8, illus. 133

New York, Metropolitan Museum of ArtGiovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child (Davis

Madonna) 42–4, illus. 37; Virgin and Child(Rogers Madonna) 81–2, illus. 72

Byzantine art, David before Saul (silver plate) 170, 172, illus. 144

Michele Giambono, Pietà 113–14, illus. 99Niccolò di Pietro 32Niccolò iii d’Este 33Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus) 8, 100Nicoletto da Modena

Apelles 102, illus. 86Nogaroli, Leonardo 169Nougaret, Pierre-Jean-Baptiste 62Nuremberg 7, 24, 183, 184

Ovid, Publius Naso Metamorphoseos vulgare 190, 191, 208, illus. 162,

illus. 177

Pacioli, Fra Luca 102Summa de arithmetica 36–8, illus. 30De divina proportione 38, 187, illus. 157

Padovano, Lauro 143Padua 53, 64Padua, Baptistery 95Padua, Basilica di Sant’Antonio (il Santo)

Gentile, Giovanni and Jacopo Bellini, Gattamelata altarpiece (dispersed) 18, 25–6, illus. 18 (reconstruction)

Donatello, Pietà with Two Angels 68, 70, illus. 60Padua, Eremitani Church, Ovetari Chapel 21, 22,

41, 50, 70Andrea Mantegna, Assumption of the Virgin 143

Padua, Museo CivicoGiovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Young Senator

57, 58, illus. 49Palma il Vecchio, Jacopo 110Palmezzano, Marco 37Panofsky, Erwin 76Paride da Ceresara 104Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Anonymous, The Planet Mercury 25, illus. 17Israel van Meckenem, Imago pietatis 65–6,

illus. 57Mantegna (workshop), Descent into Limbo 52–3,

illus. 46Girolamo Mocetto, Baptism of Christ 176, 177,

illus. 148; Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels 39, illus. 32

Paris, Musée du Louvre 13–16Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Man

(Il Condottiero) 59, 60, illus. 52Giovanni Bellini, St Anthony Abbot 28, 29

illus. 21; St Augustine 28, 29, illus. 20Jacopo Bellini, Madonna of Humility 33, 34,

illus. 26; Stigmatization of St Francis 112–13, illus. 98; Virgin and St John the Evangelist Mourn Christ Crucified 41, 42, illus. 34

Lorenzo Costa, Coronation of a Poetess 105, illus. 90

Leonardo da Vinci, Isabella d’Este 102, 103, illus. 88

Andrea Mantegna, Crucifixion 43, 70, illus. 35; Pallas Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue 102; Parnassus 102, 103, illus. 89

Paolo Veronese, The Marriage Feast at Cana (detail)185, 186, illus. 156

Paris, Musée Napoléon 188Pasadena: Norton Simon Foundation

Giovanni Bellini, Jörg Fugger, 23, 56, 119, 150, illus. 15

Pasqualino, Antonio 159Perugia 36, 37Perugino, Pietro 36–7, 104Pesaro 42, 93Pesaro, San Francesco 24, 111Pesaro, San Giovanni Battista 153, 155Pesaro, Museo Civico

Giovanni Bellini, The Coronation of the Virgin(altarpiece for S. Francesco, Pesaro) 50, 93, 151, 158, 163, 166, 192, illus. 127, illus. 132; Stigmatization of St Francis (detail of the altarpiece for S. Francesco, Pesaro) 111–12, illus. 97

Pesaro family 169Pesaro, Benedetto 114Petrarch, Francesco 7, 56, 99, 200Phidias 36Piero della Francesca 36, 81

Baptism of Christ 176, 177, illus. 149Montefeltro altarpiece 147–9, 162, illus. 125St John the Evangelist 157–8, illus. 133

Pietro de Fossis (Pietro Fossa) 91–2, 185


Pino, Paolo Dialogo di pittura 100–101, 206

Pirckheimer, Willibald 183, 184Pisanello 32, 34, 41, 55

Leonello d’Este 34, illus. 27Pizzolo, Niccolò 21Pliny

Natural History 198, 203–4, 212Poliziano, Angelo 35, 105, 195Pomponius Gauricus 187Pope Alexander iii 33Pope Clement viii 207Pope Eugenius iv 34Pope Gregory the Great 65–6, illus. 56Pope Martin v 33Pope Paul ii (Pietro Barbo) 38, 56Pope Pius ii 140Pope Sixtus iv 56Portinari, Tommaso 22Poussin, Nicolas 24, 213Prato, Galleria di Palazzo Alberti

Giovanni Bellini, Crucifixion 202, 203, illus. 172Praxiteles 123Previtali, Andrea 7Priuli, Peter 169Propertius, Sextus 99Pseudo-Bonaventura 88Pythagoras 206

Quintilian, Marcus Fabius 100

Raimondi, Marcantonio 39Raphael 39

Parnassus 190Ravenna, Mausoleum of Theoderic 119Ridolfi, Carlo

Le Maraviglia dell’Arte 17, 28, 29, 46–7, 60, 62, 102, 103, 143, 185, 194, illus. 87, illus. 155

Rimini, Pinacoteca ComunaleGiovanni Bellini, Pietà with Four Angels 157,

illus. 131Ringbom, Sixten 88Rinversi, Anna 18Rizzo, Andrea 147Robertson, Giles 8, 16, 18, 54, 136, 143Rocco da Vicenza 172Rome 38Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana 151

Giovanni Bellini, Anointing of Christ 150–52, illus. 128

Rome, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme Byzantine art, Man of Sorrows Icon 65–6, 68

Rome, VaticanRaphael, Parnassus 190

Rosand, David 181Ruskin, John 208

Lectures on Sculpture 188–9

Sampieri, Luigi 96San Michele in Isola 169Sansovino, Francesco 122, 123, 138, 140, 143, 159, 160,

180Sanudo, Marco 36Sanudo, Marino 16, 31, 159

Sassetta, Stefano di Giovanni Stigmatization of St Francis 111, illus. 96

Sebastiano del Piombo 176, 177, 180, 181Selvatico, Pietro 62, 183Sforza, Alessandro 42, 55, 93, 155Sforza, Galeazzo Maria 159Sforza, Ludovico Maria 36, 184, 187Signorelli, Luca 37, 81Sommariva, Giorgio 28Stockholm, Nationalmuseum

Giovanni Bellini, Dead Christ 212, illus. 183Sultan Mehmet II 24, 30Syracuse, Galleria Regionale

Antonello da Messina, Annunciation 52

Tasso, Torquato 194Tempestini, Anchise 8, 83Teniers ii, David 127

Theatrum pictorium 62, 161, 211, illus. 136, illus. 182

Tinctoris, Johannes 194Titian 7, 81, 176, 184, 198, 209–10

(or Giorgione) Adoration of Shepherds (Allendale Nativity) 108, illus. 93

The Andrians (Bacchanal) 197, illus. 169Annunciation (Treviso) 123, 126Annunciation (Venice, San Salvatore) 126Annunciation (Venice, Scuola Grande di San

Rocco) 126Assumption of the Virgin 149, 168Madonna of the Pesaro Family 93, 114, 115, 181,

illus. 100Martyrdom of St Peter Martyr (destroyed) 139Resurrection altarpiece 168–9St Mark Enthroned with Saints 50, 144, 180–81,

illus. 152Tours, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Andrea Mantegna, Agony in the Garden 44–7, 70, illus. 39

Treviso, CathedralTitian, Annunciation 123, 126

Varchi, Benedetto 135Vasari, Giorgio 16–17, 18, 20, 28–9, 35, 36, 60, 135,

184, 206, 207–8, 212, 213 illus. 8, 54Vendramin, Gabriel 111Veneziano, Domenico 144Veneziano, Paolo 95, 191Virgin and Child with Saints 92–3Venice, Accademia di Belle Arti 62Venice, Archivio di Stato 9Venice, Ca’ d’Oro

Jan van Eyck (workshop), Crucifixion 64Vittore Gambello, Medal of Gentile Bellini,

30–31, illus. 22; Medal of Giovanni Bellini, 30–31, 109, illus. 23, 24

Venice, San Giovanni Battista in BragoraGiambattista Cima da Conegliano, Baptism of

Christ 172–4, illus. 146Venice, San Giovanni Crisostomo

Giovanni Bellini, altarpiece with SS Jerome, Christopher and Louis of Toulouse 176–7, 179–81, 213, illus. 151

Venice, San Marco Basilica 55, 138

Index | 255

Byzantine art, Icon of the Virgin Nicopeia 78–9, illus. 68

Venice, San Michele in Isola 119Venice, San Salvatore

Titian, Annunciation 126Venice, San Trovaso 92Venice, San Zaccaria, 90, 160, frontispiece

Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria altarpiece 166, 176, 187–91, frontispiece, illus. 158, illus. 159,illus. 160 (detail), illus. 161 (detail)

Venice, Santa Maria dei Miracoli 52, 122, 169Venice, Santa Maria del Rosario

Anonymous, Pietà with Two Angels 71, illus. 61Venice, Santa Maria della Carità 26, 55Venice, Santa Maria della Salute

Titian, St Mark Enthroned with Saints 50, 144, 180–81, illus. 152

Venice, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari 92Giovanni Bellini, The Frari Triptych 169–71,

illus. 142, illus. 143Titian, Assumption of the Virgin 149, 168;

Madonna of the Pesaro Family 93, 114, 115, 181, illus. 100

Paolo Veneziano, Virgin and Child with Saints92–3

Alvise Vivarini and Marco Basaiti, St Ambrose altarpiece 168

Venice, Santi Giovanni e Paolo 21, 31, 139, 140, 160, illus. 117

Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with Two Angels (detail from the Polyptych) 71–71, illus. 62; Polyptychof St Vincent Ferrer 24, 28, 90, 139–43, 162, illus. 118; St Sebastian (detail from the Polyptych) 50, 51, illus. 44; Virgin and Child with SS Thomas Aquinas and Catherine (destroyed) 24, 139, 146, 166, illus. 119 (anonymous copy), illus. 123 (reconstruction)

Niccolò Cassana, copy of Titian’s altarpiece Martyrdom of St Peter Martyr 139

Venice, Doge’s Palace 19, 22, 24, 31, 33, 78, 92, 104, 108, 153

Giovanni Bellini, Pietà with the Virgin and St John, with SS Mark and Nicholas 95–6, illus. 82

Guariento, Coronation of the Virgin 192Venice, Fondaco dei Tedeschi 22, 24Venice, Galleria dell’Accademia

Marco Basaiti, Christ in the Garden at Gethsemane 164, 166

Gentile Bellini, Miracle of the Reliquary of the Cross at the Ponte di San Lorenzo 38; Processionof the Feast of St Mark (Procession in Piazza San Marco) 38

Giovanni Bellini, Allegory of Vanitas or Prudentia136, 137, illus. 116; Annunciation 52, 115, 123–6, illus. 108; Christ (fragment of a Trans-figuration) 121, 122, 174, illus. 106; Fragment with Signature 122, illus. 107; Madonna degli Alberetti 127, 129, illus. 111; Pietà 9, 200, 201, illus. 171; San Giobbe altarpiece 38, 50, 127, 150, 159, 160, 165, 166, 190, 191, illus. 139, illus. 140, illus. 163 (detail); Triptych with SS John the Baptist, Sebastian and Anthony Abbot27, 63, 49–50, illus. 19, 43 (detail); Triptychs for

Santa Maria della Carità 26, 27; Virgin and Child with Seraphim 83, 85, illus. 74; Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and a Female Saint (Sacra Conversazione Giovanelli)107, 200–201, 203, illus. 173

Jacopo Bellini, Madonna of the Cherubim 78–9, illus. 69

Vittore Carpaccio, Arrival of the Ambassadors77–8, illus. 67 (detail); The Dream of St Ursula76–7; Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 150, 164, 166; St Ursula in Glory 173; The Story of St Ursula 159

Cima da Conegliano, Madonna of the Orange Tree 150

Michele Giambono, Coronation of the Virgin in Paradise 150

Giorgione, Tempest 111, 131, 133, 198, illus. 115Jacobello del Fiore and workshop, Coronation

of the Virgin 192, illus. 164Alvise Vivarini, Virgin and Child with Saints

(Treviso altarpiece) 163, 164, illus. 138Venice, Museo Civico Correr 9

Antonello da Messina, Pietà with Angels 127Giovanni Bellini, Calvary 40, 63, illus. 33; Pietà

with Two Angels 50, 63, 68–71, 93, illus. 59; Transfiguration 43, 63, 115, 117, 118, illus. 103

Leonardo Bellini, Doge Nicolò Marcello before God the Father Enthroned 22, illus. 14

Venice, Pinacoteca Querini StampaliaGiovanni Bellini, Presentation in the Temple 52,

83, 86–7, illus. 76Venice, Palazzo Grassi 54Venice, parishes

San Geminiano 19San Lio 18, 19, 20, 21Santa Maria Formosa 21, 78Piazza San Marco 19Rialto Bridge 19

Venice, ScuoleScuola di San Giobbe 164Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni 16Vittore Carpaccio, The Vision of St Augustine

196–7, illus. 168Scuola di San Vincenzo Ferrer 139Scuola di Santa Caterina 139Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista 27,

28, 30Scuola Grande di San Marco 16, 19, 20, 28, 30,

54, 108Scuola Grande di San RoccoTitian, Annunciation 126Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carità 26

Verona, Cathedral 32Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child 72, 75, 79,

illus. 65Verona, San Zeno

Mantegna’s altarpiece 41–6, 147–8, 169, 170, 194, 195, illus. 124, illus. 166 (detail)

Veronese, PaoloThe Marriage Feast at Cana (detail) 185, 186,

illus. 156Vianello, Michele 104, 105Vicenza 119

S. Corona


Giovanni Bellini, Baptism of Christ 136, 172–6, illus. 145

Vienna, Kunsthistorisches MuseumAntonello da Messina, San Cassiano altarpiece

(fragments) 127, 159–64, 166, 189, illus. 135, illus. 136, illus. 137 (reconstruction)

Giovanni Bellini, Woman with a Mirror 211, 212, illus. 181

Andrea Mantegna, St Sebastian 47–9, illus. 42Vivarini, Alvise 18, 22, 92, 143, 161, 172

(and Marco Basaiti) St Ambrose altarpiece 168Virgin and Child with Saints (Treviso altarpiece) 163,

164, illus. 138Vivarini, Antonio 21, 22

Praglia Polyptych 95Vivarini, Bartolomeo 21, 22, 28, 143

Virgin and Child with Saints 144, 145, 155, illus. 121

Voragine, Jacopo daLegenda aurea 13, 15–16, 49, 88Mariale 123

Wagner, Richard 195Walker, John 209Washington, dc, National Gallery of Art

Leon Battista Alberti, Self-portrait 35, illus. 29Giovanni Bellini, Feast of the Gods 197, 200,

207–13, illus. 176; Infant Bacchus 210, illus. 180; Portrait of a Young Man 59–61, illus. 53

Giorgione or Titian, Adoration of Shepherds (Allendale Nativity) 108, illus. 93

Weyden, Rogier van der (workshop) Sforza-triptych 42–3, 55 illus. 36

Wilde, Johannes 161Willaert, Adrian 197Wilson, Carolyn C 18Wind, Edgar 208Wittkower, Rudolf 185

Zanetti, Anton Maria 7Zanotto, Francesco 139Zarlino, Gioseffo 213Zona, Antonio 62, 183

Giovanni Bellini Disguised as a Venetian Senator, in the Studio of Antonello da Messina 63, illus. 55

Zoppo, MarcoPesaro altarpiece 153, 155, 156, illus. 130

(reconstruction)Zorzi, Marin 119Zovenzoni, Raffael 98–9, illus. 84