The ''Martinengo Pietà'' is an oil painting on panel of by the Italian Renaissance master

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 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, ...

, signed on the rock to the left of the Virgin. It was previously in the collections of the Martinengo family and of Donà delle Rose and is now in the

Gallerie dell'Accademia The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

History and description

One of Bellini's last works, it still shows him adapting to innovations by

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

and

Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...

and incorporating elements of the ''Vesperbild'', the German variant on the

pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

was in Venice at this time and the work's contorted hands and sharply defined drapery recall his work. It was the last pietà Bellini painted, around the same time as the

San Zaccaria Altarpiece The ''San Zaccaria Altarpiece'' (also called ''Madonna Enthroned with Child and Saints'') is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, executed in 1505 and located in the church of San Zaccaria, Venice. Patron and date T ...

. A lawn encloses the figures, suggesting the Marian symbol of the

hortus conclusus ''Hortus conclusus'' is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". Both words in ''hortus conclusus'' refer linguistically to enclosure. It describes a type of garden that was enclosed as a practical concern, a major theme in the history ...

. Behind it is a desert with a symbolic

fig tree ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few spe ...

, as well as buildings based on the structures in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

(the

duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. The Duomo of Monza, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definitio ...

, the Torre, the

Basilica Palladiana The Basilica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The most notable feature of the edifice is the loggia, which shows one of the first examples of what have come to be known as the ...

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

(the bell tower of

Sant'Apollinare Sant'Apollinare (locally ''Santapunaro'' or ''Santapunare'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Frosinone in the Italy, Italian region Lazio, located about southeast of Rome and about southeast of Frosinone. Sant'Apollinare borde ...

) and

Cividale Cividale del Friuli (, locally ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity of Udine, part of the Northern Italy, North-Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The town lies above sea-level in th ...

(its Ponte del Diavolo, a bridge over the

Natisone The Natisone (; ; ) is a river in Slovenia and Italy. It flows for some time as a border river between Slovenia and Italy, continues in Slovenia and then crosses the border and continues in Eastern Friuli, in northeastern Italy. It is the main tri ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinengo Pietà 1505 paintings Paintings by Giovanni Bellini Paintings in the Gallerie dell'Accademia Paintings of the Pietà