The ''San Zaccaria Altarpiece'' (also called ''Madonna Enthroned with Child and Saints'') is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

, executed in 1505 and located in the church of

San Zaccaria The Church of San Zaccaria is a 15th-century former monastic church in central Venice, Italy. It is a large edifice, located in the Campo San Zaccaria, just off the waterfront to the southeast of Piazza San Marco and St Mark's Basilica. It is de ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

History

The work was mentioned in 1648 by writer and painter

Carlo Ridolfi Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period. Biography Ridolfi was born in Lonigo near Vicenza. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi (Aliense). He painted a ''Visitation'' for the Og ...

as a large panel commissioned in memory of Venetian politician and diplomat Pietro Cappello; he described it as "one of the most beautiful and delicate by the artist". It is Bellini's first work in which the influence of

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic qualit ...

is undeniable, starting the last phase in the artist's career, a tonalist one

Description

The work is set in a large niche, depicting a

sacred conversation In art, a (; plural: ''sacre conversazioni''), meaning holy (or sacred) conversation, is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child (the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus) amidst a group of saints ...

within an established scheme: the Madonna and Child enthroned, a musician angel on a step and four saints placed symmetrically at the sides. They are St. Peter the Apostle, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Lucy and St. Jerome. While the general ensemble is not different from previous works, such as the

San Giobbe Altarpiece The ''San Giobbe Altarpiece'' (Italian: ''Pala di San Giobbe'') is a c. 1487 oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini. Inspired by a plague outbreak in 1485, this sacra conversazione painting is unique in that it was designed ...

(which shares the apse with mosaics, for example), Bellini introduced some novelties, such as the side openings with landscape, inspired by

Alvise Vivarini Alvise or Luigi Vivarini (1442/1453–1503/1505) was an Italian painter, the leading Venetian artist before Giovanni Bellini. Like Bellini, he was part of a dynasty of painters. His father was Antonio Vivarini and his uncle, with whom he may ha ...

Battutii Altarpiece, once in Belluno (now lost). The colors and light show the new adherence of Bellini to Giorgione's color and mood style. The egg above Mary's head is a symbol of the creation, perhaps a citation of

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...

's Brera Altarpiece. The

lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

below recalls

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order ...

San Zeno Altarpiece The ''San Zeno Altarpiece'' is a triptych by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna, from c. 1457–1460. It is located in the Basilica di San Zeno, the main church of Verona. The three predellas, stripped by the French in 1797 al ...

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:San Zaccaria Altarpiece 1505 paintings Paintings by Giovanni Bellini Paintings of the Madonna and Child Paintings of Jerome Paintings of Saint Lucy Paintings in Venice Books in art Musical instruments in art Altarpieces

History

Description

See also

References

Sources