Sacred Allegory, 1485–1488, Giovanni Bellini. Tempera (?) and oil on wood panel. Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY
“The best in the art of painting”: Giovanni Bellini and Landscape
GETTY CENTER
Museum Lecture Hall
Mountains, walled towns, castles, caves, rocks, trees, flowers, sunrises, and sunsets are just as much the protagonists in the paintings of Giovanni Bellini as are the human figures. Davide Gasparotto, curator of the exhibition Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice, explores the meaning and function of landscape in the painter's work. Created for intellectually sophisticated private patrons, Bellini's masterpieces set familiar Christian subjects in a dimension of reality and lived experience that was unprecedented in the history of Italian painting.
