WELCOME FRIENDS, FAMILY & FACULTY!

This blog is an art history experiment for our Italian Renaissance travel course. We hope that you, our visitors, will not only take some time to read about what we are studying, but will ALSO feel free to make comments or ask us questions...especially after we see (most of) these things in person. As we travel, we will offer personal reflections on our experiences. After we fly out on the 17th, follow us as we visit Rome (May 18-20), Florence (20-24), and Venice (24-25). We return on Thursday, May 26...just in time for the holiday weekend.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Procession of the Relic of the True Cross, Gentile Bellini

A Family Business - Jacopo Bellini

  • Father of Gentile (oldest brother), Giovanni, and father-in-law of Andrea Mantegna
  • Studied under Gentile da Fabriano
  • Highly regarded by contemporary Northern Italian poets and writers
  • "Extraordinary compositional imagination"
    • Drawings bound into books which were probably intended to be used as workshop models
    • Books inherited by Gentile, consulted by Mantegna, Giovanni, and others
  • Incorporates Albertian perspective with Northern Italian interest in panoramic nature
Gentile Bellini's Procession of the Relic of the True Cross

  • Gentile painted for the same merchant, practical public that Ghirlandaio did in Florence, with the same patriotism applied to Venice 
  • Procession (1496) painted for the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista
    • Sculoa were sort of middle class brotherhoods that gathered for religious ceremonies, good works, and had a meeting hall - a club of sorts
  • Depicts the procession involving the relic in the possession of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista 
  • Shows 1444 Piazza San Marco on the Feast Day of San Mark
    • Contains contemporary portraits and representations of Venetian life
    • Basilica San Marco and Doge's Palace seen in the background, with great detail
-Abbie
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)