Today is a guest post by Rosemary Flannery about Giovanni Bellini, influences croisés exhibit at the Jacquemart-André Museum.
The Jacquemart-André Museum is featuring a stunning exhibition on the work of Giovanni Bellini (1435 – 1516), considered one of the greatest Venetian artists of the Renaissance. His paintings and that of his contemporaries - sculptures by Donatello, paintings from his father’s atelier and masterpieces by Mantegna - tell his story and that of his era.
Born an illegitimate child in Venice near San Marco, Bellini trained along with his elder half-brother Gentile in the studio of his natural father Jacopo, a prominent painter, resulting in a hugely successful artistic dynasty. Giovanni will come to be recognized as the founder of the Venetian tradition.
The diverse influences of this prosperous city – from Byzantine icons, created on wood panels with tempera and gold leaf, to the prevalence of the art of Flemish painters, who developed oil painting, and added delicate landscape backgrounds to their work – will infuse Giovanni Bellini’s style throughout his life.
The martyr Saint Justine is rendered by Giovanni Bellini in tempera, offering crisp details and the distinct, local colors of the Quattrocento.
Many of Giovanni’s early work were collaborative, such as this intricate Annunciation scene painted together with Gentile.
In 1453, Andrea Mantegna, another giant of the early Renaissance, marries Bellini’s half-sister Nicolosia, creating an artistic dialogue between the two painters. A rare and precious drawing of Mantegna’s Mary with Dying Christ is on display, along with his celebrated Ecce Homo.
Bellini pioneered the use of color and light to create mood in landscapes that he observed around Venice, and incorporated into masterpieces such as this scene of The Virgin and Child with Saints.
Private devotional pictures were in great demand; Bellini forms his own studio which includes great talents such as Titian and Giorgione. This monumental work depicts the Virgin and Christ child enthroned, featuring the elongated figures of his later style. A rope slung with drapery prefigures the cross of the Crucifixion.
By the age of 48, Bellini is named official painter of the Republic of Venice, in the great hall of the Doge’s Palace. His characteristic deep, rich tints and shadings, and sumptuous colors distinguish his last brilliant masterpiece, The Drunkenness of Noah. This narrative work represents an episode from the Old Testament: Noah is drunk after taking wine from one of his vineyards, and has fallen asleep naked. His son Ham discovers him sleeping and laughs at the scene while his brothers take the responsibility of covering him up.
As Venice transitions to the later Renaissance, the hallmark of Bellini’s style becomes the exaltation of sensuality and of atmosphere over shape and form, achieved through oil painting.
Jacquemart-André Museum, 158 boulevard Haussmann, 75008
Through July 17, 2023
https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/giovanni-bellini
Rosemary Flannery is an American artist and writer, based in Paris, and is the author of the best-selling book Angels of Paris: an architectural tour through the history of Paris. https://tinyurl.com/3u8k3ft8
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