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 into the Adriatic and Mediterranean: "Venice was the center of a great commercial empire situated between East and West, possessing a model constitution to which other states looked with envy and admiration."
However, the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the advance of the Turks had suddenly eroded the republic's power to the east and threatened the maritime commerce on which the city depended so strongly. Venice was also involved in mainland wars agai...