Altarpieces of Renaissance Venice

This paper is a history of the altarpieces of Renaissance Venice, typified by the most famous artist of the form, Giovanni Bellini. Bellini's altarpieces represent a very particular type of painting, unique to its time and place. They visually chart the evolution of Venetian society's movement from its Gothic and Byzantine roots into the full flowering of the Renaissance. This was a difficult transition for the republic; Bellini's work exhibits the pride and grace with which his fellow citizens ultimately came to embrace the new order.

Peter Humfrey describes Giovanni Bellini as "a master whose long career, extending from about 1460 until his death in 1516, dominates Venetian painting for most of the period." Bellini's work, more than that of any other painter of his age, reflects the pressures and influences working on the Venetian republic as it moved slowly into the Renaissance. While he painted a wide variety of subjects and commissions - portraits, historical and mythological tableaux, landscapes - this paper is concerned specifically with his paintings designed for the altars of Venice's numerous churches. These works are most distinctly products of their time and place. They present a particularly intriguing chronicle of a rich and tumultuous period.

For a considerable period just before Bellini began his career, Venice had enjoyed a position as one of the strongest, most vibrant city-states, commanding wide control north into Italy's mainland and far out i

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i came into his own as one of the foremost painters in Venice, the Venetian altarpiece was also coming into its own as a distinct artistic form, though it could not yet be considered an expression of Renaissance thinking. Historians note that it would be erroneous "to date the Venetian Renaissance in architecture and sculpture earlier than the middle of the [fifteenth] century," and many remark on the length of time the republic resisted adopting the influences of the Renaissance. Humfrey suggests in fact that Bellini may have intentionally demonstrated this reluctance of his fellow citizens, maintaining "the continuity of his altarpiece with Venetian ecclesiastical tradition and with Venice's Byzantine past" in his designs both of his altarpieces and of their settings within the churches they were painted for. Artistically, Bellini clung to Venice's historical traditions as Venetians themselves were losing their power and standing in the international community. Yet Humfrey also praises Bellini's ability to begin to bridge the artistic gap between the more traditional and the newer styles: "Bellini shows his characteristic mastery of combining new with old, and deliberate archaism with bold innovation." Bellini followed

Category: Arts - A