DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0160
134
OLD WORLD MASTERS
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.
Giovanni Bellini Collection of
(1428-30-1 316). Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady.
The Madonna at half-length turned towards the left, supports the
Holy Child with both arms as He reclines in her lap against her right
knee, which is raised. She is dressed in a blue mantle arranged to
form a hood, with embroidered border. A graceful white veil, also
embroidered, covers the head and falls below the neck.
The Holy Child gazes upward into his mother’s face and she, with
eyes slightly veiled by drooping lids, looks tenderly downward towards
him. The background is hilly, with a castle on the left. The picture,
oil on a panel (28X x 2324), is signed “Joannes Bellinus.”
This Bellini Madonna comes from the Collection of the Grand
Dukes of Oldenburg, Oldenburg Castle, near Bremen, Germany, and
was also formerly in the Collection of Count Montija in Madrid.
Much has been written about Bellini’s Madonnas. They differ greatly
from those painted by the Florentines; and the following sympathetic
note tells us why:
“If we turn to the religious art of Venice, we shall be struck by a
lack of anything like mystic rapture, or absorption in the sufferings
of Christ. We have but two examples in Venice of Bellini’s portrayal
of the facts of Christ’s mature life, but he has treated the theme of
the Madonna and Child with a unique profundity. The mystery of
life seems to be shadowed in the face of the Madonna; his saints and
apostles, so striking in their individuality, so virile in their piety,
have a significance beyond their perfect act of worship. No Venetian
religious painter before Tintoretto equalled Bellini in solemnity and
depth of conception; but in all we find the same pervading calm, the
same absence of tumult, or the disturbing elements of pain or agony.” *
Is it not the quietness of Bellini’s Madonnas that give them their
peculiar charm?
Beryl de Selincourt, Venice (London, 1907).
OLD WORLD MASTERS
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.
Giovanni Bellini Collection of
(1428-30-1 316). Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady.
The Madonna at half-length turned towards the left, supports the
Holy Child with both arms as He reclines in her lap against her right
knee, which is raised. She is dressed in a blue mantle arranged to
form a hood, with embroidered border. A graceful white veil, also
embroidered, covers the head and falls below the neck.
The Holy Child gazes upward into his mother’s face and she, with
eyes slightly veiled by drooping lids, looks tenderly downward towards
him. The background is hilly, with a castle on the left. The picture,
oil on a panel (28X x 2324), is signed “Joannes Bellinus.”
This Bellini Madonna comes from the Collection of the Grand
Dukes of Oldenburg, Oldenburg Castle, near Bremen, Germany, and
was also formerly in the Collection of Count Montija in Madrid.
Much has been written about Bellini’s Madonnas. They differ greatly
from those painted by the Florentines; and the following sympathetic
note tells us why:
“If we turn to the religious art of Venice, we shall be struck by a
lack of anything like mystic rapture, or absorption in the sufferings
of Christ. We have but two examples in Venice of Bellini’s portrayal
of the facts of Christ’s mature life, but he has treated the theme of
the Madonna and Child with a unique profundity. The mystery of
life seems to be shadowed in the face of the Madonna; his saints and
apostles, so striking in their individuality, so virile in their piety,
have a significance beyond their perfect act of worship. No Venetian
religious painter before Tintoretto equalled Bellini in solemnity and
depth of conception; but in all we find the same pervading calm, the
same absence of tumult, or the disturbing elements of pain or agony.” *
Is it not the quietness of Bellini’s Madonnas that give them their
peculiar charm?
Beryl de Selincourt, Venice (London, 1907).