Barbarigo Altarpiece

Last updated
Barbarigo Altarpiece
Barbarigo Altarpiece.jpg
Artist Giovanni Bellini
Year1488
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions200 cm× 320 cm(79 in× 130 in)
Location San Pietro Martire, Murano

The Barbarigo Altarpiece or Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angel Musicians and Saint Mark, Saint Augustine and Doge Agostino Barbarigo is a 1488 (dated on the throne) oil painting on canvas by Giovanni Bellini, now in the church of San Pietro Martire in Murano.

Contents

Its commission is unusually well-documented for a work by Bellini. Uniquely Agostino Barbarigo had taken over from his brother Marco Barbarigo as doge. Marco and Agostino were not on good terms and Agostino was even suspected of killing his brother. To quell these rumours, Agostino began commissioning works promoting himself as the heir to and loyal supporter of his brother's work. These included St Mark's Clocktower (Torre dell'Orologio) from Mauro Codussi, and at the Doge's Palace, the monumental steps (Scala dei Giganti) from the brothers Marco and Pietro Lombardo, and a new wing reaching towards the Rio. He also privately commissioned a majestic funeral monument for Marco and himself in Santa Maria della Carità  [ it ] and commissioned Bellini twice, first to produce the official portrait of Marco for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (1486–87) and then to produce a "large panel", [1] as his ex-voto for the Doge's Palace. [2]

Ex-voto

In Venice it became the custom in the Renaissance for the higher officials, beginning with the Doge, to commission (at their personal expense) an ex-voto painting in the form of a portrait of themselves with religious figures, usually the Virgin or saints, in thanks for achieving their office. For lower officials only their coat of arms might represent the official. The painting was hung in the public building where they worked or presided. [3]

Aspects of the picture hint at what many contemporaries saw as the excessive self-aggrandizement of the Barberigo brothers. Rather being presented to the Virgin and Child by his name-saint Augustine, as was usual, the Doge is presented by Saint Mark, patron saint of the Venetian Republic, as well as Marco Barberigo. Instead of looking towards the Child, the Doge looks out towards the Venetians passing the painting. There was opposition to hanging it in the Doge's Palace, which may be why Barberigo instead bequeathed it to a convent (so probably saving it from a later fire). [4] Before this it apparently hung in his home, the Palazzo Barbarigo Nani Mocenigo (which survives; not the Palazzo Barbarigo). [5]

In 1501, already dying, Agostino left the canvas to the nunnery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Murano to be its high altarpiece, but it was soon moved from there (to make room for Titian's Annunciation) to San Pietro Martire. Vasari mentioned it as being in San Michele di Murano but probably mistook it for another Bellini work, now lost, which was already in the Cappella della Santissima Croce in the church of the Camaldolese.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ (in Italian) Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA. VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007. ISBN   88-8117-099-X
  2. ↑ Ruggiero, 344
  3. ↑ Lino Moretti, "Portraits", in Jane Martineau (ed), The Genius of Venice, 1500–1600, 1983, Royal Academy of Arts, London
  4. ↑ Ruggiero, 344–345
  5. ↑ (in Italian) Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA. VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007. ISBN   88-8117-099-X

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ex-voto</span> Votive offering to a saint or to a divinity in Christianity

An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or a divinity, given in fulfillment of a vow or in gratitude or devotion. The term is usually restricted to Christian examples.

<i>Presentation at the Temple</i> (Bellini) Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Presentation at the Temple is a painting of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple by the Italian master Giovanni Bellini, dating to c. 1460. It is housed in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, in Venice, Italy.

<i>Contarini Madonna</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Contarini Madonna is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from c. 1475–1480 now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

<i>Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels</i> (Bellini, Venice) Painting by Giovanni Bellini

Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels is a tempera painting on panel by the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, created around 1460. It is now in the Museo Correr in Venice.

<i>Alzano Madonna</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Madonna with Child, or Alzano Madonna, is an oil-on-panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, executed around 1485.

<i>Madonna of the Small Trees</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Madonna of the Small Trees is an oil-on-panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, executed in 1487. It is housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

<i>St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini and Gentile Bellini

St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance artists Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, dated to 1504–1507, and held in the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan.

<i>St. Jerome in the Desert</i> (Bellini, Washington) Painting by Giovanni Bellini in the National Gallery of Art, Washington

St. Jerome in the Desert is a 1505 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Little remains of the signature on the first rock in the left foreground, but it has been confirmed as genuine during restoration and can be reconstructed as "[Johannes Bellinu]s. 1505". This is problematic, since the work's general style is linked to fashions no later than 1490, whereas Bellini's style of figures and landscapes had already begun to be influenced by Giorgione by 1500, with the backgrounds more fused and unified in terms of atmosphere. The composition makes it more analogous to his earlier works, such as the c. 1480 St. Jerome in the Desert. The Washington work may have been a collaboration, a work completed by a pupil in Bellini's studio or left incomplete and only finished by Bellini himself much later.

<i>Frari Triptych</i> Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini

The Frari Triptych or Pesaro Triptych is a 1488 oil-on-panel triptych painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini. It is signed and dated 1488 on the centre of the Virgin Mary's throne, though it may have taken several years to produce, meaning he started it in 1485. On the reverse is a label dating its completion more precisely, to 15 February 1488. It is in the basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.

<i>Pietà</i> (Bellini, Bergamo) Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Pietà or Christ's Body Supported by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist is a tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, now in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. Dated to around 1455, it is one of his earliest independent works and the prototype for his series of pietàs. It draws on Byzantine icons of the 'imago pietatis', of which there were many examples throughout Venice, and of 'Ritratti di Passione' or 'portraits of the Passion', in which the dead Christ invites the viewer to contemplate his wounds. The crossed arms are drawn from a famous Roman mosaic-icon from Santa Croce in Gerusalemme basilica which was held to be miraculous and had according to legend been commissioned by pope Gregory the Great based on a vision during a mass.

<i>Dead Christ Supported by Angels</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini in the City Museum of Rimini

Pietà or Dead Christ Supported by Angels is a tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, now in the city museum of Rimini. It is dated to around 1470, making it one of his early mature works, around the same time as another of his Pietà (Brera).

<i>The Dead Christ Supported by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

Pietà or The Dead Christ Supported by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist is a c. 1465–1470 tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

<i>Saint Vincent Ferrer Altarpiece</i> Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini

The Saint Vincent Ferrer Altarpiece is a tempera-on-panel painting by Giovanni Bellini, dating to 1464–1470 and still in on the altar dedicated to Saint Vincent Ferrer at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, for which it was originally commissioned. Ferrer was a Spanish Dominican who had only been canonised in 1455 and his order was continuing to promote his cult.

<i>Pietà</i> (Bellini, Milan) 1455–1460 painting by Giovanni Bellini

Pietà is a tempera-on-panel painting executed c.1455–1460 by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. One of his earliest works, it is the prototype for his long series of other Pietas such as Pietà (Bergamo).

<i>Madonna and Child</i> (Bellini, Milan, 1510) 1510 painting by Giovanni Bellini

The 'Madonna and Child or Madonna with the Christ Child Blessing is a 1510 oil-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, painted when he was already in his eighties but still responding to new developments in painting. It is similar to the 1505 Madonna del Prato and the 1509 Madonna and Child. It is now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

<i>Madonna and Child</i> (Bellini, Milan, 1460–1465) Painting by Giovanni Bellini

Madonna and Child is a c. 1460–1465 tempera painting on panel by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, signed on the trompe-l'œil parapet. It dates from his early phase, when he was still strongly influenced by his father Jacopo and by Andrea Mantegna. The Christ Child holds a fruit, symbolising Original Sin and foreshadowing his Passion. Some art historians feel the haloes and drapery are too archaic for the work to be by Bellini, but the signature's authenticity was confirmed by a 1999 restoration.

<i>Greek Madonna</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Greek Madonna is a 1460–1470 tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini. It is named after the Greek monograms at top left and top right and after the major influence of Byzantine icons on the painting. The Christ Child holds a golden apple, perhaps referring to the Judgement of Paris and to Mary as the "new Venus".

<i>Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine and Saint Mary Magdalene</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine and Saint Mary Magdalene is an oil on panel painting by Giovanni Bellini, formerly in the Renier Collection in Venice and now in that city's Gallerie dell'Accademia. It dates to 1490, just after the Barbarigo Altarpiece and belongs to the popular sacra conversazione genre. The painting is also referred to as Sacred Conversation.

<i>Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and a Female Saint</i> Painting by Giovanni Bellini

The Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and a Female Saint or the Giovanelli Sacred Conversation is an oil painting on panel by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dated to before 1504. It is kept in the Gallerie dell'Accademia of Venice.

<i>San Lorenzo Triptych</i> Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini and others

The San Lorenzo Triptych is a tempera-on-panel altarpiece by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini and others. Its central panel of Saint Lawrence measures 127 by 48 cm, its lunette of the Madonna and Child 59 by 170 cm and its side panels of John the Baptist and Antony of Padua 103 by 45 cm each. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.