Giovanni Bellini and the Bellini Followers

By Giovanni Bellini, the greatest Venetian master of the 15th century, you can admire here two panels with sacred subjects, one from his early period and the other from the artist’s late maturity.
The Madonna con il Bambino, in addition to displaying some Mantegna influences (Mantegna was Giovanni Bellini’s son-in-law), conceals a complex iconographic meaning that finds its symbolic centre in the marble parapet, a metaphorical equivalent of the sepulchral tomb (to which God’s beloved is already predestined).

Symbols of Passion and Redemption are often present in Bellini’s Madonnas, as in the Madonna con il Bambino by Pasqualino Veneto, where Mary holds a book in which her son’s destiny is already written.

Of a completely different inspiration is Cristo portacroce (also by Giovanni Bellini), sometimes thought to be by his pupil Giorgione, from whom the older master borrowed the chromatic and tonal fusion of the pictorial impasto, rendering Christ’s gaze and face dramatic and penetrating.

The Circoncisione by Marco Bello, who attests in his signature to being a “disciple of Giovanni Bellini”, demonstrates how Bellini’s model of half-length episodes such as the Circoncisione or the Presentazione al tempio were so successful that they were replicated by his pupils to satisfy private commissions.

The Madonna col Bambino, quattro santi e un donatore by Girolamo da Santacroce, a pupil of Bellini’s from Bergamo, reproduces, in a small format and with an almost miniaturist taste, the altarpiece painted by the master in 1507 for the Church of San Francesco della Vigna, almost paying a personal tribute to him.

Seventeenth-Century Veneto

The goal of seventeenth-century art was to amaze and inspire admiration in the public, through the choice of bold subjects that prioritize hedonism and wonder over morality.

An example of this is Gerolamo Forabosco’s painting Giuseppe e la moglie di Putifarre, in which the biblical subject is treated with extreme sensuality, both in the depiction of the figures and in the pictorial language.

The same applies to the two works by Sebastiano Mazzoni. The depiction, taken from the book of Genesis, of the intoxication of old Loth, seduced and intoxicated by his daughters, is characterized by an accentuation of the scenographic aspects and the use of a perspective that subverts Renaissance canons. In Morte di Cleopatra, the artist accentuates the drama of the event through the agitated movements of the maids and a frayed, vaporous brushstroke.

The portrait room

For the Accademia dei Concordi, the eighteenth century was a century of rebirth. Having obtained protection from Venice, its representatives can turn to the art world to honor the personalities who have brought prestige to the city, as well as the noble protectors themselves, with portraits.
Canon Ludovico Campo was in charge of contacting the artists and commissioning the works: he oriented himself towards Venice, so as to entrust himself to the most famous painters of the moment.
Giambattista Tiepolo paints the Portrait of Antonio Riccobono: at the peak of his career, he conceives a portrait of great expressive power and devoid of any celebratory emphasis. In 1745 Giambattista Piazzetta painted the Portrait of Saint Cajetan of Thiene, protector of the Academy. While, from 1759 is the Giulio Contarini da Mula by Alessandro Longhi, a masterpiece of Venetian portraiture of the time, both for its introspective strength and for the nuanced technique of the colors, similar to the pastels of Rosalba Carriera.

The portrait room

For the Accademia dei Concordi, the eighteenth century was a century of rebirth. Having obtained protection from Venice, its representatives can turn to the art world to honor the personalities who have brought prestige to the city, as well as the noble protectors themselves, with portraits.
Canon Ludovico Campo was in charge of contacting the artists and commissioning the works: he oriented himself towards Venice, so as to entrust himself to the most famous painters of the moment.
Giambattista Tiepolo paints the Portrait of Antonio Riccobono: at the peak of his career, he conceives a portrait of great expressive power and devoid of any celebratory emphasis. In 1745 Giambattista Piazzetta painted the Portrait of Saint Cajetan of Thiene, protector of the Academy. While, from 1759 is the Giulio Contarini da Mula by Alessandro Longhi, a masterpiece of Venetian portraiture of the time, both for its introspective strength and for the nuanced technique of the colors, similar to the pastels of Rosalba Carriera.

A breathtaking landscape

A painting on paper measuring 22 meters in length and 1.75 in height which depicts a spectacular view of the San Marco basin, created by Giovanni Biasin on the occasion of the 1887 Universal Exhibition in Venice. At that time, panoramic views were very fashionable and Biasin during his numerous trips to Europe, especially on the occasion of exhibitions in which he had the opportunity to participate, was able to draw inspiration from them. It seems that to create it Biasin used sketches made from a boat inside the basin of San Marco and then defined the work in the laboratory, where he admirably combined the various sections of the view.