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BELLINI, GIOVANNI.
Term Paper ID:22089
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Essay Subject:
Focuses on altarpieces. 15th Cent. Venetian artist's career, religious works, themes, significance, cultural background.... More...
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8 Pages / 1800 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Focuses on altarpieces. 15th Cent. Venetian artist's career, religious works, themes, significance, cultural background.
Paper Introduction:
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
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They present a particularly intriguing chronicle of a rich andtumultuous period. Venice lost control of many of its territories inNorth Italy and found its continued existence threatened. . Giovanni Bellini. One such result was that individuals began to earnestlycommission painted altarpieces as a way of begging God's favor on the city. As his work continued, Bellini's background settings becameincreasingly detailed, sophisticated, and innovative. The Art of Renaissance Venice. But their formdid become problematical whenever art underwent a fundamental change."[23]Bellini's careful integration of old and new influences reduced thepotential for such problems. . .and a confidence not only higher than ever but buttressed by the . The church establishment came to see artwork added tochurch interiors as educational, illustrative narration for the illiteratemasses. . the effect was that of a window opening on to a view beyondthe confines of the church."[25] Bellini's windows opened the new world ofthe Renaissance to Venice's parishioners: "Bellini reminds us that thepurpose of the Renaissance artist is to reflect nature, to mirror and torecreate reality. [3]Martineau and Hope, 13. Historians note that it would be erroneous "todate the Venetian Renaissance in architecture and sculpture earlier thanthe middle of the [fifteenth] century,"[1 ] and many remark on the lengthof time the republic resisted adopting the influences of the Renaissance.Humfrey suggests in fact that Bellini may have intentionally demonstratedthis reluctance of his fellow citizens, maintaining "the continuity of hisaltarpiece with Venetian ecclesiastical tradition and with Venice'sByzantine past"[11] in his designs both of his altarpieces and of theirsettings within the churches they were painted for. Venice wasalso involved in mainland wars against the Pope, the emperor in Rome, andFrance and for the first time in its history found itself on the losingside in all these wars. publications . [2]Jane Martineau and Charles Hope, eds., The Genius of Venice: 15 -16 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1983), 9. [2 ]Martineau and Hope, 29. The Mosaic Decoration of San Marco, Venice. Artistically, Belliniclung to Venice's historical traditions as Venetians themselves were losingtheir power and standing in the international community. [9]Ibid., 4. architecture . Rona Goffen observes,"Venetians responded to . Art thus regained what had been lost inreality."[6] Strictly speaking, altarpieces are not an ecclesiastical necessity.Churches require an altar, but in the earlier centuries of Christianityaltar decoration was considered at least superfluous and possibly evensacrilegious. military losses with a renewed Byzantism inarts and letters . Soon, Belliniand other artists began to dispense with these inner frames, creatinginstead large, single-canvas compositions, usually symmetrically arranged.This required the artist to feature the most important central figures,often seated on thrones or in front of narrow panels, in order to be easilyidentifiable to the viewer. [22]Humfrey, 4 -42. . both physically and psychologically, heroval face is dominated by large, unusually dark eyes that look inward,rarely at the Child and almost never at the viewer."[18] Bellini's skillas an artist is also evident in his use of paint; first working in tempura,later in oils, he endows the face of many of his Madonnas with an innerglow, and this "luminosity is not merely illusionism; he exploits light andspace to establish the meaning of his sacred image."[19] In all hispaintings, "Bellini created diffuse chromatic harmonies by using subtleglazes."[2 ] As Bellini's work continued, he carefully considered what theRenaissance had to offer: "He was an artist . andfifty-nine monasteries" in Venice,[5] an exceptional number of spaces forpublic and private devotion in a city of this size. . . . . Few artists have equalled and none has surpassed Bellini'sability to engender a profoundly religious response in the viewer."[16]These portrayals were popular subjects for private viewing as well.Martineau and Hope note, "In the fifteenth century virtually all picturesin private hands were religious subjects on panel, and most belonged to thetype of Madonna and Child compositions made popular by Bellini and hisworkshop."[17] Bellini's Madonnas in particular retained Venice's artistictraditions, which may also account for their popularity with the citizenry. . In his altarpiecefor the church of San Giobbe, Bellini painted an architectural background,the interior of San Marco, perhaps the best-known church in Venice: "sological does this seem that we take for granted what was a remarkableinnovation, the first such composition in Venetian art and one of the firstin Italian art."[13] Goffen writes: Bellini's Byzantinizing architecture is best understood in reference to the ducal chapel of San Marco, that most sacred shrine of the Venetian republic . [1 ]Huse and Wolters, 12. Humfrey observes, "Thecharacter of the Renaissance church interior carried at least theimplication of a different relationship between architecture and thealtarpiece than had existed in Gothic churches."[24] Within the newerstyle of church, artwork simply looked different: "In the Gothic tradition,the relationship between the altarpiece and the church wall was one ofcontrast between object and surface . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.Goffen, Rona. and in thepainting of Giovanni Bellini. [5]Norbert Huse and Wolfgang Wolters, The Art of Renaissance Venice(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 199 ), 72. Goffen writes, "Perhaps noartist is more intimately associated with the Madonna and Child thanBellini . BibliographyDemus, Otto. .admiration of other states."[3] Venetians, however, had experienced theirfirst significant tests of the republic's power and traditions, and theeffects were felt most particularly in the arts and culture immediatelyfollowing. Goffen observes that in many of these portraits, "Mary's loveliness ispoignant, tinged with tragic understanding but never distorted by it.Resembling Byzantine icons . . [4]Ibid, 58. San Marco was thus a fitting environment for the Madonna and Child in Venice.[14]Bellini had Venetian pride on his side as a reason for choosing San Marcoas his first detailed backdrop for an altarpiece, as Otto Demus observes: Saint Mark was regarded as a specifically Italian apostle; furthermore, he was believed to have been the apostolic missionary of the Northern Adriatic and, as such, the real founder of the patriarchate of Venetia. . Bellini was nevertheless sensitive to Venetian pride in itshistorical traditions; he proved a particularly graceful master at bridgingthe gap between Byzantine and Renaissance influences, especially whendesigning his works for placement in existing Gothic structures. [6]Rona Goffen, Giovanni Bellini (New Haven: Yale University Press,1989), 3. Bellini's works helped his fellow Venetians cross a substantialvisual gap in both painting and architecture. These works are most distinctly products of their timeand place. . [12]Ibid., 218. [8]Ibid., 1. [11]Humfrey, 188. With the new Renaissanceaesthetic . However, through the exquisite artistry of aparticularly Venetian form of art and the particular skill of one artist,the republic entered the Renaissance at its own pace and retaining the fullflavor of its own unique character. . 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, uniqueto its time and place. Removing the frames also opened morebackground space which Bellini began to fill with detailed landscapespeopled by background figures which have no thematic relationship to thesaints and martyrs in the foreground. . . According to tradition, Venice had been founded on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, and so the Virgin Mary was considered the protectress of the Serene Republic, which, by analogy, identified itself with Christ Incarnate. [21]Huse and Wolters, 191-192. . Gradually, however, the clergy began to permit artisticembellishments and eventually came to embrace physical representations ofchurch teachings. [27]Humfrey, 6-7.----------------------- 6 They visually chart the evolution of Venetiansociety's movement from its Gothic and Byzantine roots into the fullflowering of the Renaissance. . who constantly rethoughthis work, neither taking over accepted types and traditions untested norrejecting them without reason."[21] This conservatism was even morepronounced in the Venetian landscape around Bellini: "At this date [146 -7 ], no full-scale example of Renaissance church architecture had yet beenbuilt in Venice, and the situation was therefore the reverse of that inFlorence in the 142 s and 143 s, where Renaissance buildings precededRenaissance altarpieces by some years."[22] However, as newer ideas beganto transform the ways that Bellini and his contemporaries approached theircanvases, architecture began finally to move forward as well. . Historicalstrife hardly destroyed Venice: "Tested on all fronts, Venice settled intothe golden age of its culture with a more loyal subject population . Humfrey observes, "The Venetian government had good reasons to encouragenot only the regular attendance of its citizens at mass, but also theendowment of votive masses, and the maintenance of numerous chapels andaltars."[4] A census in 1581 recorded "seventy parish churches . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.Humfrey, Peter. . By the mid-fifteenth century altar decoration, and most particularlypaintings designed to be installed over the altar, was commonplace inEuropean Christian churches. As Huse and Wolterspoint out, "Altarpieces had no indispensable liturgical function, since analtar could fulfill its purpose in a mass without them . . Working witharchitects, framers, drapers, and other skilled artisans, Bellini plannedhis paintings as a complete whole within each particular church.Initially, his pieces were divided by frameworks that confined individualfigures within brightly painted, elaborately carved frames. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.Huse, Norbert and Wolfgang Wolters. [26]Goffen, 257. . [14]Goffen, 153. Peter Humfrey describes Giovanni Bellini as "a master whose longcareer, extending from about 146 until his death in 1516, dominatesVenetian painting for most of the period."[1] Bellini's work, more thanthat of any other painter of his age, reflects the pressures and influencesworking 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 concernedspecifically with his paintings designed for the altars of Venice'snumerous churches. [15]Otto Demus, The Mosaic Decoration of San Marco Venice (Chicago:The University of Chicago Press, 1988), 2. [19]Ibid., 53. [23]Huse and Wolters, 183. The Altarpiece in Renaissance Venice. While the conventions of such paintings werenot formalized, artists, patrons, and clergy alike understood that "thealtarpiece was expected to reflect, and in some way to lend assistance to,the sacred work accomplished at the altar beneath it."[7] Humfrey furtherobserves that "over and above its role as a visual complement to the altar,the altarpiece could fulfil a broad range of religious and aesthetic, andeven social or political functions, that might vary in emphasis accordingto the needs and tastes of the particular donor, clergy, or artist."[8]The fact that rules were unwritten allowed for a remarkable range insubject matter, treatment, and placement of the painting within its churchsetting: "it was precisely this tension between the conventions of thetype, and the freedom to experiment within it, that enabled the altarpieceto become one of the most important and expressive vehicles of ItalianRenaissance art."[9] As Giovanni Bellini came into his own as one of the foremost paintersin Venice, the Venetian altarpiece was also coming into its own as adistinct artistic form, though it could not yet be considered an expressionof Renaissance thinking. . London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1983.----------------------- [1]Peter Humfrey, The Altarpiece in Renaissance Venice (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1993), 1. Yet Humfrey alsopraises Bellini's ability to begin to bridge the artistic gap between themore traditional and the newer styles: "Bellini shows his characteristicmastery of combining new with old, and deliberate archaism with boldinnovation."[12] Bellini followed the family tradition of his father, Jacopo, indesigning and executing altarpieces that were site-specific. . [13]Ibid., 143. The Venetians regarded themselves as the first-born sons of Saint Mark and found in this the justification for robbing Alexandria of the saint's relics and transferring them to Venice.[15]While the background is innovative, the central figures, Mary and theChrist Child, are characteristically Bellini. . [17]Martineau and Hope, 19. [25]Ibid., 42-43. . Venice's geography -spread out over numerous island clusters, some well connected by bridgesand moats, others more isolated - encouraged individual neighborhoods tobuild their own churches and petition their own saints. . [24]Humfrey, 42. Every church hadan altar, and every altar needed an altarpiece. In so doing, Bellini imitates the Creator whose creationis mirrored in art."[26] Humfrey provides the historical perspective for Giovanni Bellini'sremarkable career: "In Bellini's youth, in the years around 145 , theprevailing style was still that of the late Gothic; by the decade after hisdeath, innovations deriving from the Roman High Renaissance were alreadyfully integrated with local tradition."[27] The transition from proud tradition and unconquered power to a modernworld in which they had tasted defeat could have been a bitter anddifficult time for Venice. 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 outinto the Adriatic and Mediterranean: "Venice was the center of a greatcommercial empire situated between East and West, possessing a modelconstitution to which other states looked with envy and admiration."[2] However, the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the advance of theTurks had suddenly eroded the republic's power to the east and threatenedthe maritime commerce on which the city depended so strongly. The church also recognized an opportunity to consolidate wealth bycommissioning sacred artwork and encouraging its upper class parishionersto follow its lead. [16]Goffen, 23. Thissensitivity was particularly important in light of the quasi-ecclesiasticalrole that altarpieces served in the church hierarchy. The Genius of Venice, 15 -16 . [7]Humfrey, 57. This was a difficult transition for therepublic; Bellini's work exhibits the pride and grace with which his fellowcitizens ultimately came to embrace the new order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 199 .Martineau, Jane and Charles Hope, Eds. [18]Goffen, 34.
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