According to Albrecht Dürer, who stood in awe of this grand old man, this focal point for all the artists circulating in Venice in the second half of the 15th century, Giovanni Bellini was "the best painter of all". Bellini was already very old at the time, but he still perfectly embodied the glorious tradition of Venetian humanism from its first timid beginnings to the fullness of its splendor. The Scuderie del Quirinale is proud to be able to devote a monographic exhibition to Giovanni Bellini - the first such exhibition since the one held in Venice in 1949 - hosting over 60 paintings that account for some three-fourths of his entire known and certain output of sacred and profane subjects.
Giovanni Bellini ( Venice 1435 ca. - 1516) was the son of Jacopo Bellini, a famous painter, the brother of Gentile, who was to become a famous painter in his turn, and the brother-in-law of Andrea Mantegna, who needs no introduction. Thus he was born into a family of artists and into an extremely active workship; and what's more, in a city, Venice, in which Antonello da Messina, Giorgione, Titian, Leonardo (briefly) and all the other greatest artists of the day were at home. He has always enjoyed the critics' favor, and sure enough, "Messer Zuan Bellin" (or "Giambellino" as he was known -- "everyone's master") is responsible for numerous masterpieces that can still strike a deep chord in us even today, thanks to his grasp of the spirit of the times and of the significance of the tremendous cultural upheavals then taking place, thanks to the moving poetry of his figures and landscapes, and thanks to his ever fresh powers of creativity.
A calm artist imbued with a deeply religious spirit, Giovanni Bellini painted tirelessly for the whole of his life, portraying figures deeply immersed in the space around them -- a space so intimately "Venetian", with its soft light, with the sober realism of the figures bathed in that light, and with the artist's taste for minute detail, including the meticulous botanical detail that allows us to identify every single blade of grass. This Venetian artist began his career using tempera, but over the years he developed such skill in the use of oil painting that he managed to directly "model" the forms of his figures in their built or natural environment, providing us with the first Italian example of the modern use of a technique imported from Flanders. By the end of his career he was even working the paint surface directly with his fingers, creating the unusually soft palette that was to pave the way for Giorgione and Titian.
The Scuderie del Quirinale exhibition will be hosting not only Bellini's famous Madonnas, or his numerous sacred and profane pictures, all chosen genre by genre for their representative quality, but for the first time it will be hosting also such splendid altarpieces as the Baptism of Christ, commissioned for church of Santa Corona in Vicenza, and the extraordinary Pesaro Altarpiece, here reunited with its cymatium, or crowning upper piece, now owned by Vatican Museum. All the loans were made possible thanks to the cooperation of the world's leading musems, of Italy's own fine arts superintendencies and of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as thanks to the invaluable collaboration offered by the city of Venice.
The exhibition, curated by Mauro Lucco and Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, goes hand in hand with a campaign of meticulous scientific investigation which has revealed all of the preparatory work that went into Giovanni Bellini's paintings.
The catalogue, published by Silvana Editoriale and edited by Mauro Lucco and Giovanni C. F. Villa with the cooperation of the most authoritative international experts alive today, is based on a totally new exploration of the archives, offering the visitor an agile, up-to-date and complete monography of the artist.