Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516)
Presentazione di Gesù al Tempio (Presentation of Jesus in the Temple)
c.1470
Oil on wood, 82 x 106 cm
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia
Image: © Fondazione Querini Stampalia Onlus, Venezia
The Presentation at the Temple is one of Giovanni Bellini’s (Venice, ca. 1438/40 – 1516) masterpieces. Painted in about 1470, it represents a private form of devotion: these kinds of subjects are often found in family chapels, bedrooms and studies. The figures stand out against a dark background. The intensity of their gaze, Mary’s gesture of holding baby Jesus as if to protect him, the way he is swaddled as if he is already in the sepulchre, the parapet that alludes to a sarcophagus: all these elements foretell death and the Calvary. Its resounding modernity makes it a symbol of the Renaissance. (Querini)
The figures in the picture:
Anna Bellini, Giovanni‘s mother.
His sister Nicolosia Mantegna, née Bellini
Jacopo Bellini, his father, who died c.1470.
Andrea Mantegna, or his brother Gentile Bellini.
Giovanni Bellini‘s self-portrait?
Compare:
Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506)
Presentazione al Tempio
c.1454
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Presentation painted by Bellini (left) and by Mantegna (right)
Nicolosia painted by her brother (left) and by her husband (right).
Andrea Mantegna painted by Giovanni (left) and by himself (right).
See also:
• Bellini, Anna | Bellini, Gentile (c.1429-1507) | Bellini, Jacopo (c.1400-c.1470) | Bellini, Nicolosia | Jerusalem (Israel) | Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506)