Giovanni Bellini

This book presents a collection of fifteen essays on the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, one of the most innovative and influential artists of the Italian Renaissance. Long renowned for his embrace of oil technique, astute mastery of perspective, and development of landscape painting, Bellini has been admired across the ages as well for the profoundly human and deeply reverent character of his works. Aspects of Bellini’s world, his oeuvre, and his legacy are examined here through a diversity of approaches, many interdisciplinary and supported by the bibliographies of theoretical writings and of specialized fields rarely or not previously brought to bear on the pictures discussed. Topics represented include the study of medicine and healing plants, plant and animal symbolism, portraiture, liturgy, antique sources, material culture and market practices, textual analysis, and collecting and reception.

The altarpiece of Saints Catherine of Siena and Thomas Aquinas, formerly placed above the first altar on the right in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, but destroyed by fire in 1867, is perhaps one of Giovanni Bellini’s most famous works – yet it is also one about which we possess the least material information. Through the analysis of primary sources and the surviving documentation this paper reconstructs the original material characteristics of the panel, including its technique and original size. The paper also discusses the restoration of the stone frame, still in situ and convincingly attributed to Pietro Lombardo and his workshop, and takes into account unpublished photographs of the 1994–1995 treatment supported by Save Venice. On the basis of this information a digital recreation of the original altarpiece is provided, and the opportunity is taken to correct the errors in the previous reconstructions published by Giles Robertson, Rona Goffen, and Denise Zaru.

Vittore Belliniano was an important member of Giovanni Bellini's studio in Renaissance Venice. It is likely that a double portrait of two men in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, attributed to Belliniano, contains an unrecognized portrait of the master painter, and possibly a self-portrait of Belliniano as well. The figures in the painting are similar to portraits of Bellini and Belliniano that survive in a small matched set, created by the latter (or by each man depicting the other). These are accepted as the most accurate likeness of Bellini and the only known image of Belliniano.
Vittore Belliniano (di Mattheo) rose to be a valued assistant who even took his master’s name after Bellini’s death in 1516. Moreover, it is possible there was a romantic relationship between the two men. The Renaissance workshop was home to assistants and Vittore would have had a place within Bellini’s social world. There is documentary evidence in Bellini’s life of homoeroticism.This is explored within the context of homosexuality in Early Modern Europe. A related double portrait in the Louvre with the figures reversed seems to have been painted in response to the Houston work, or a lost original, and takes on a different meaning.

Nato intorno al 1430 e formatosi a bottega presso il padre Jacopo.  Andò oltre il descrittivismo gotico osservando Mantegna, Piero della Francesca, Antonello da Messina e i fiamminghi. Assimila tutti questi elementi, li unisce eli rielabora in chiave personale.  È il più grande pittore del paesaggio nell'Italia del 1400, non solo riproduce forme e colori ma restituisce il legame imprescindibile fra uomo e natura (= San Francesco).  Il rapporto con una committenza raffinata ed aristocratica permette all'artista di sperimentare anche fuori dagli schemi tradizionali e soprattutto nelle opere religiose.

Titian is acknowledged as the greatest of the sixteenth-century
Venetian painters, best known for his portraits,mythological
pictures and religious subjects. Yet his first great achievement as
a painter, schooled in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, was to
refashion the portrayal of nature in his own distinctive style by
studying the work of Albrecht Dürer, whose naturalistic paintings
of plants, animals and landscape – for which northern European
artists were renowned – had caused a sensation in Venice in the
first decade of the sixteenth century.
In this beautifully illustrated book, AntonioMazzotta presents
this experience, together with Titian’s native landscape of Pieve
di Cadore, as crucial influences in the artist’s early representation
of nature. The recently restored Flight into Egypt (now in the
StateHermitageMuseum, St Petersburg) – probably painted
when Titian was still a teenager – is vivid proof of his interest in
the depiction of animals, plants and figures in the landscape.
The author’s carefully chosen comparisons of paintings, prints and
drawings by the young Titian, Dürer and their contemporaries
(including Sebastiano del Piombo and Giorgione) suggest that
Titian was as innovative and as influential in his unique view of
nature as he was in portraiture.

Per avventurarsi in alcuni dei più seducenti ‘misteri’ della civiltà e della storia umane basta recarsi nelle maggiori pinacoteche di mezza Europa dove si custodiscono i più celebri ed enigmatici capolavori dell’arte pittorica italiana. Tentando di decifrare i  ‘soggetti segreti’ che si celano in essi, questo saggio è un invito ad abbandonare le più tranquille rotte iconologiche per intraprendere un viaggio in una delle più affascinanti avventure dell’uomo: l'alchimia. Il rapporto tra le grandi commissioni artistiche e la scienza della trasmutazione degli Elementi costituisce l’itinerario tematico del saggio che si dipana, come un filo di Arianna, all’interno del dedalo dei ‘misteri’ iconografici che si celano in alcuni tra i più grandi capolavori di Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Tiziano, che si considerano come icone sublimi dell'Arte e del Bello universali.

Questo studio parte dal ritrovamento di una nota autografa di Giulio Cantalamessa sul retro della fotografia di un Cristo benedicente di Giovanni Bellini, dalla quale si evince che il dipinto fu venduto a metà Ottocento dall’allora parroco di Santo Stefano. Lo studioso ipotizzava che si trattasse dell’opera che Carlo Ridolfi nel 1648 diceva essere stata donata da Giovanni Bellini ai padri di Santo Stefano. Questa interessante ipotesi è messa accanto a quella formulata di recente da Antonio Mazzotta, ovvero che quel dipinto possa essere quello citato nel testamento di Giovanni Zancaruol (1515), in cui chiede di venire seppellito a Santo Stefano e che lì fosse posto il dipinto con il Cristo di Bellini, pagato 50 ducati. Attraverso un lavoro svolto in varie fototeche, italiane e statunitensi, è stato possibile ricostruire numerosi passaggi collezionistici del dipinto, nonché di identificare l’opera conosciuta da Cantalamessa con quella attualmente conservata ad Amburgo, presso le Galerie Hans.

Contributi d'archivio per la decorazione pittorica della Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista', Arte Veneta 32 (1978), pp.293-94. 4 'Le prime cose che diedero fama a Iacopo furono [. . .], et una storia della Croce, la quale si dice essere nella Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista: le quali tutte e molte altre furono dipinte da Iacopo' con l'aiuto de' figliuoli. E questa ultima storia fu fatta in tela, Vasari 1971, op. cit. (note 2), p.428. 5 'Iacopo e Gentile feciono, come di sopra si è detto, le prime loro opere in tela; e poi Gentile da per sé, alla detta ultima storia della Croce, n'aggiunse altri sette overo otto quadri, ne' quali dipinse il miracolo della Croce di Cristo, che tiene per reliquia la detta Scuola', ibid., p.429. 6 Schizzerotto, op. cit. (note 2), p.84.

For nearly a decade Carl W. Hamilton was in possession of one of the most important private collections of Italian Renaissance painting in America. A self-made millionaire from humble beginnings, the young Hamilton captivated the art dealer Joseph Duveen and Duveen’s foremost experts in Italian Renaissance painting, Bernard and Mary Berenson. By inspiring and instructing Hamilton, Duveen and the Berensons hoped to focus his wealth and ambition to create a great collection and thereby profit by both him and the glory of his achievement. Though Hamilton’s personal collection proved ephemeral, many of his most important works of art nevertheless found their way into American public collections. Furthermore, Hamilton’s formative collecting experience – which developed his prejudices and preferences, sharpened his keen negotiating skills and solidified his zeal for collecting – helped to shape two significant collections of Old Masters in the Carolinas: the Museum & Gallery at Bob Jones University and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Santa Maria Gloriosa de’ Frari is one of the best-loved and most celebrated churches in Venice, renowned for its imposing Gothic architecture and its rich display of works of art, but it is in no sense a museum.  Founded as the principal church of the Conventual Franciscan order in Venice, the church has been the setting for ritual, sacred music, prayer and preaching ever since the Middle Ages.  This book presents the rich and varied history of the church in a new light.  This is neither a guide book nor a catalogue of the works of art.  Instead, it is the first true monograph on the Frari, whose role included charitable and educational functions as well as devotional life.  Spanning eight centuries, the book explores the lives of the friars, worshippers, local residents and artists, both within its walls and round about.  A profusion of new colour photographs offers the reader the chance to appreciate many details that have never before attracted attention.
The book considers the Frari in the context of the immediate neighbourhood and its local concerns and activities.  The present church was begun in 1328, and the Franciscans continued to occupy its spacious cloisters until the Napoleonic suppression in 1806, which led to their banishment for more than a century.  At this point, the church became the centre of a parish, incorporating the nearby areas of San Tomà and San Polo.  Meanwhile, Titian’s famous Assunta, one of the masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance painting, was removed from the high altar, to be displayed for nearly a hundred years in the galleries of the Accademia.  The altarpiece was not returned to the church until 1920, just two years before the return of the Franciscans. Remarkably, the complete list of the Franciscan guardians and parish priests survives back to 1241 and is included in the book. 
The twenty-three chapters guide the reader through this complex history, allowing a new appreciation of the works of art, whether familiar or little known, in terms of their meaning and devotional function.  The patronage of chapels by prominent families, and by immigrant communities such as the Milanese and Florentines, has enhanced the rich variety of painting and sculpture.  The role of women patrons is highlighted in several cases.  The book examines the importance of relics as the focus of local devotion, and explores the role of the local confraternities (scuole) in the ceremonial and music. 
An important aspect of the Frari was the commemoration of prominent individuals, whose tombs and monuments adorn the walls and floor of the church.  Doges, military leaders, bishops, artists, musicians and businessmen found their last resting place within its walls.  Because of its size and beauty, the church has played a major part in the lives of local residents, and the memorials enshrined within have inspired generations of Venetians and visitors alike.  This uniquely interdisciplinary book contains a wealth of new material and insights into this long and complex institutional history.

Giovanni Bellini (1435 ca.-1516) è unanimemente riconosciuto come il maggiore protagonista dell'arte veneziana fra Quattro e Cinquecento. La lezione si concentrerà monograficamente sulla produzione del maestro, da un lato, spiegando, attraverso la sua crescita, la successione degli stili nell'età dell'Umanesimo e, dall'altro, mettendone in luce la singolare coerenza di temperamento lungo circa sessant'anni di pittura.

Con questo volume, il Centro Internazionale d’Arte e di Cultura di Palazzo
Te prosegue un progetto editoriale iniziato con Indagando Mantegna del
2007, e che, come aveva a suo tempo chiaramente indicato il presidente
Enrico Voceri, “si inserisce pienamente negli obiettivi culturali che da anni
il Centro di Palazzo Te è impegnato a perseguire”. Al pari di allora, il volume
nasce, per così dire, “all’ombra” di una grande esposizione: all’epoca fu
Mantegna a Mantova, nel 2006, oggi è Giovanni Bellini, da poco conclusa
alle Scuderie del Quirinale a Roma. Se ho scelto di virgolettare il termine
“all’ombra”, è perché non vorrei in alcun modo ingenerare equivoci; mostre
e volumi sono stati e sono del tutto indipendenti, ognuno col proprio sapore
particolare, così come un bel fungo nei pressi di un albero; ma, come
è l’albero ad offrire al fungo l’habitat ideale, così le mostre, e la raccolta di
opere in esse contenute, hanno offerto l’occasione di un numero rilevante
di esami scientifici sui dipinti, subito raccolti dal Centro di Palazzo Te.
Come il libro precedente, anche questo porta nel titolo il verbo al gerundio,
Indagando; si vuol trasmettere in tal modo il messaggio di un sapere
che non è scritto una volta per sempre come le tavole della legge, non è
ingabbiato e cristallizzato in sistemi divenuti più rigidi di un cilicio ideologico,
ma “si fa” davanti ai nostri occhi, tentando percorsi nuovi della
ricerca; e può, anzi deve, offrire gli spunti per essere quanto prima superato.
A chi non è addentro ai riti della storia dell’arte, il fatto che siano
possibili, su un unico oggetto, opinioni critiche del tutto diverse e contrastanti
può sembrare frutto o di scarsa professionalità, sempre possibile,
o di qualcosa che somiglia alla magia divinatoria, alla rabdomanzia; ed
è per questo che, in special modo negli ultimi trenta o quarant’anni, si è
fatta sempre più pressante l’esigenza di trovare terreni di discussione che
consentano, se non proprio la replicabilità del dato tipica delle scienze
esatte, almeno una forbice minore di alternative, così che lo statuto della
storia dell’arte divenga più conforme a quello di tali scienze.
(dall'introduzione di Mauro Lucco)

Pier Dandini e Carlo Maria Maggi: una inedita commissione artistica del 1687 (Roberta Piccinelli) SERVIZIS EEDI TORIALI PARAGONE Rivista mensile di arte figurativa e letteratura fondata da Roberto Longhi ARTE Anno LXIV -Terza serie -Numero 112 (765) Ruggeri detto lo Zoppo realizzò nella sua bottega veneziana una grande pala per la città di Pesaro.

A number of longstanding questions have surrounded the early life of the fifteenth-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516), generally believed to have been the son of Jacopo Bellini (ca. 1400–70/71) and the younger brother of Gentile Bellini (1429/35–1507). The artist’s year of birth and the legitimacy of his birth have been the subjects of debate for well over a century. By reevaluating Bellini-related legal documents under the relevant fifteenth-century Venetian civil laws, this article makes a case that Giovanni Bellini was not Jacopo Bellini’s son, but rather his half-brother, and that they were both sons of Nicol
o Bellini; that Giovanni was therefore Gentile Bellini’s uncle rather than his brother; and that he was born legitimate between the late summer of 1424 and 13 September 1428, several years earlier than the birth year of ca. 1435 (or later) favored by many contemporary Bellini specialists. The ramifications of situating Bellini’s birth year in the mid- to late 1420s are then considered.

Here the text is based on the famous Fatih Sultan Mehmed portrait by Gentile Bellini. But also it includes other works of Gentile Bellini and his families. 

If you want to deliver whole work, please contact me via email: [email protected].

The article presents the lecture notes from the first of three university courses on Venetian painting taught by Roberto Longhi at the University of Bologna (1945-1946). Preserved in typescript form in the library of the Department of Visual Arts in Bologna, the volume regards the same topics addressed in a concise, razor-sharp manner in Longhi’s contemporary Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana (1946), embracing a period of about two centuries, from the Trecento of Paolo Veneziano to the Quattrocento of Giovanni Bellini. Through its dissection of the most significant parts of these notes, the article casts light on their concordance with other celebrated essays by Longhi (especially his “Lettera pittorica” a Giuseppe Fiocco, Giudizio sul Duecento and Viatico), offering a response to thorny questions concerning fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Venetian painting left unresolved or unaddressed in Longhi’s text of 1946.

The Madonna and Child known as ‘The
Dudley Madonna’ was painted around 1508
by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516), one of the
most celebrated of Italian artists. This book
charts the painting’s recent provenance and
reception and revisits the context in which
it was created. It retraces its critical history
from Dudley’s nineteenth-century London
until today, and reassesses an autograph
work by Bellini that during the twentieth
century was almost completely overlooked.
The years 1505–10 were crucial in Giovanni
Bellini’s career, and this book examines
anew the part he played in the Venetian
High Renaissance, noting his response to
the upcoming generation (above all Titian)
and new ideas coming from central Italy
– from Raphael and in particular from the
visiting Florentine Fra Bartolomeo.

La complessità delle operazioni di restauro così come l'importanza dell'opera, hanno richiesto per la tavola del Battesimo di Cristo un'ampia campagna di indagini diagnostiche, comprendenti in buona parte analisi di tipo non invasivo eseguite sia prima che durante le preliminari operazioni di pulitura. A riprese riflettografiche in infrarosso 1 , utili ai fini conservativi per individuare le aree oggetto di ridipinture o rifacimenti integrali -e di conseguenza le zone da sottoporre alle misure locali -si sono affiancate analisi spettrometriche locali tra loro complementari. Ossia misure in riflettanza nel visibile (vis-RS), condotte su 71 punti 2 , e in fluorescenza X caratteristica (EDXRF), su 43 punti 3 , necessarie le prime al riconoscimento dei pigmenti impiegati nello strato pittorico superficiale, le seconde alla determinazione degli elementi chimici, e quindi dei pigmenti, di tutto lo strato pittorico fino alla preparazione 4 . Per ulteriori confronti, altre 30 misure vis-RS sono state eseguite a restauro avviato, quando la rimozione della vernice ha migliorato la leggibilità delle aree sottoposte a indagine, integrazioni incluse, nel mese di ottobre 2006. La complementarietà tra EDXRF e vis-RS, e quindi la fondamentale importanza di quest'ultima, è anche testimoniata dal fatto che l'identificazione di un pigmento costituito essenzialmente da elementi leggeri come il lapislazzuli, o di coloranti organici come indaco e lacche, è possibile mediante riflettanza ma impossibile con misure di fluorescenza X, le quali rilevano, di norma, gli elementi chimici di numero atomico maggiore di 13 (alluminio). La lettura congiunta dei risultati delle due metodologie analitiche permette inoltre di ottenere, nel caso di stratigrafie pittoriche semplici -costituite da un paio di strati di pigmenti diversiun'attendibile ricostruzione stratigrafica della zona esaminata 5 . Per risolvere casi più complessi, per validare alcune interpretazioni, ma soprattutto per approfondire la ricerca dei materiali anche non originali costitutivi degli strati di preparazione e degli strati pittorici, si è reso necessario il prelievo di sette campioni, inglobati in resina e quindi sottoposti ad analisi in microscopia ottica in luce riflessa, in luce UV, e a microscopia elettronica ESEM-EDS 6 . Le stesse sezioni sono state poi sottoposte ad analisi spettrofotometrica micro-FTIR 7 , volta a ottenere ulteriori informazioni su pigmenti, coloranti, leganti e altre sostanze organiche eventualmente osservabili nei diversi strati. In quattro ulteriori casi, per valutare il materiale presente in alcune velature superficiali presunte non originali, si è provveduto alla raccolta di campioni in polvere quasi invisibili a occhio, sottoposti alle sole analisi FTIR.

In 1985 Colin Eisler brought together a series of panels painted in the Bellini workshop, known to have once been a sin- gle ensemble, which he suggested formed part of the celebrated altarpiece produced in 1459-1460 by Jacopo, Gentile and Giovan- ni Bellini for the Gattamelata chapel in the Basilica del Santo in Padua. Though problematic, the hypothesis has found widespread agreement, generating an inevitable shift in the early chronology of Jacopo’s sons. The article seeks to highlight the difficulties, first and foremost stylistic, in Eisler’s proposal. The author believes that Eisler’s reconstruction of the Santo provenance can be ruled out, instead hypothesizing that the work may be associated with the high altar of the church of San Giobbe in Venice.

Lazzaro Bastiani distinguishes himself as one of the most interesting yet less considered fifteenth-century Venetian painters. Noted in San Lio since 1456, where he seems to have settled with his workshop, Lazzaro enjoyed widespread appreciation among his contemporaries, as demonstrated by the importance of commissions and documentary evidence. Nevertheless, scholarly focused on rival artistic families, such as those of Vivarini and Bellini, academics have not sufficiently stressed the importance of Bastiani’s course for the development of Venetian painting in the second half of the Quattrocento. This paper deals with a reexamination of the artist’s career from the seventh to the ninth decade of the fifteenth century, specifying some new aspects regarding style and chronology and discussing the relationship between some autographs pieces and bottega works, with particular attention to the reuse practice of the same cartoons for different oeuvres. As a result, archaisms and medieval legacy seem to confirm the workshop culture in which Bastiani’s painting arose.

Per una nuova lettura dell'Apparitio di Domenico Tintoretto: il Miraculum de anulo beati Marci pag. 161 ESTER BRUNET "Ubi charitas, ibi Deus". Per una lettura teologica della decorazione della Scuola Grande di San Marco pag. 165 ROSELLA LAUBER Tra le meraviglie della Scuola Grande di San Marco a Venezia. Note sulle dispersioni di opere d'arte, dal "naufragio del fuogo" alle soppressioni pag. 175 ALESSANDRO PORRO, LORENZO LORUSSO Le collezioni: la Biblioteca, il Museo di medicina, la Farmacia e il Museo di anatomia patologica pag. 197 GRAZIA FUMO La facciata della Scuola Grande di San Marco e gli interventi di restauro degli ultimi due secoli: problematiche e metodologie di lavoro pag. 211 SALVATORE SETTIS Ripristinare o riprodurre? pag. 221 Schede pag. 233 Bibliografia pag. 297 Indice dei nomi pag. 323

The book is an investigation of the Venetian Renaissance organ, a compendium of the visual arts (architecture, sculpture, painting) at the service of music and worship.
The historical period that I took into consideration (the two centuries between the beginning of the 15th and the early decades of the 17th) was a golden age for the Venetian organ; the instrument roused both curiosity in common people (citizens and travellers) and remarkable suggestions in cul-tured men. Some of these, such as Gioseffo Zarlino (one of the most important Venetian composers, Kapellmeister of the Ducal chapel and music theorist) and Girolamo Diruta (organist, composer and author of one of the most important musical treatises of the Renaissance), described the organ as «a wonderful machine comparable to a living creature».
The loss of these “marvellous machines” prevents us today from understanding their importance and artistic value; only a few organ cases with their balconies are now surviving almost intact. Numerous works that decorated the organ doors or the parapets (painted by artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Sebastiano del Piombo, Tintoretto, Francesco Vecellio, Paolo Veronese, Palma il Giovane) have become mural paintings inside many Venetian churches, or part of museum and private collections.
The book – by means of archival documents, published sources, and more than 400 bibliographi-cal references – reconstructs the artistic and cultural context that gave the organ the significance of an architectural and pictorial monument, whose function and liturgical role were similar to that of an al-tar. It is composed of four introductory chapters (1. The organ in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages; 2. The Venetian organ between the 15th and 17th century; 3. The Venetian organ and the trea-tises; 4. The organs of the basilica of Saint Mark) and a catalogue that contains eighty essays, each dedicated to a different church, with a reconstruction of the architectural context of the buildings, the position of the Renaissance instruments (e. g. the tradition of placing monastic and chapter choirs in the middle of the nave, or above raised structures over the main door of the church, required in fact particular locations for the organs) and their original decorations.
All of information collected allows us to better understand the liturgical and musical functionality of the Venetian churches between the 15th century and the beginning of the 17th, and to comprehend the social and the historical reasons that led to radical changes in the following centuries.

In 1474–1475, the humanist Felice Feliciano of Verona wrote a letter to Giovanni Bellini in which he praised the artist’s ‘resplendent brushes’ (micanti pennelli). This overlooked passage from the early critical literature on Bellini, which is mainly characterized by rhetorical tropes and comparisons with the antique, suggests that the luminous qualities of his art were appreciated by his contemporaries. This paper examines Bellini’s painterly resplendence as it might have been understood by a fifteenth-century audience, through a reconsideration of the visual sources, composition, and symbolism of the artist’s Resurrection altarpiece for San Michele di Murano, Venice (now Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). A painting of the Resurrection by the Louvain artist Dieric Bouts for an altarpiece in an unknown Venetian church (now Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena) is recognized as the primary inspiration for Bellini’s composition. The identification of Bellini’s figure of Christ in a naturalistically rendered dawn sky with the celestial phenomenon of the morning star (stella del mattino) presents an opportunity to reconcile symbolic and naturalistic interpretations of the artist’s sacred landscapes.

The subject of Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis, currently housed at the Frick Collection in New York, has perplexed viewers for more than five centuries.Scholars have suggested several possible texts, but none of these has been proven unequivocally to be Bellini’s reference.

Instead of proposing a new written source, this paper focuses on the formal aspects of the painting. It will thus appear that Bellini bent the representational conventions of his time to produce a work of pictorial intelligence.

The formal quality of the Frick St. Francis is assessed through an analysis of the laurel tree in the left of the painting. Overlooked by many, the tree is the key element of the Frick panel. It is the tree that justifies the variety of exegetical readings, exemplifying as it does a conflation of forms and an experienced handling of visual effects.