Martinengo Pietà

The Martinengo Pietà

Artist	Giovanni Bellini
Year	circa 1505
Medium	oil on panel
Dimensions	65 cm × 90 cm (26 in × 35 in)
Location	Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

The Martinengo Pietà is an oil painting on panel of c. 1505 by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, 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 in Venice.

History and description

One of Bellini's last works, it still shows him adapting to innovations by Titian and Giorgione and incorporating elements of the Vesperbild, the German variant on the pietà. Albrecht Dürer 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.

A lawn encloses the figures, suggesting the Marian symbol of the hortus conclusus. Behind it is a desert with a symbolic fig tree, as well as buildings based on the structures in Vicenza (the duomo, the Torre, the Basilica Palladiana), Ravenna (the bell tower of Sant'Apollinare) and Cividale (its Ponte del Diavolo, a bridge over the Natisone).^[1]

Detail

References

^ Olivari, Mariolina (2007), "Giovanni Bellini", Pittori del Rinascimento, by AA.VV. (in Italian), Florence: Scala, ISBN 978-8881170999

v t e Giovanni Bellini
List of works
Paintings	St. Jerome in the Desert (Birmingham) Madonna and Child (Pavia) Transfiguration (Venice) Pietà (Bergamo) Crucifixion Pietà (Milan) Agony in the Garden Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels Presentation at the Temple Christ Blessing (Paris) Frizzoni Madonna Madonna and Child Blessing The Blood of the Redeemer Madonna and Child (Milan, 1460–1465) Greek Madonna Nativity Triptych Saint Vincent Ferrer Altarpiece San Lorenzo Triptych San Sebastiano Triptych Triptych of the Madonna The Head of St John the Baptist Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels (Berlin) Dead Christ Supported by Angels (Rimini) The Dead Christ Supported by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist Lehman Madonna Pesaro Altarpiece Portrait of Georg Fugger Lochis Madonna Madonna and Child (Verona) Enthroned Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child Madonna and Child (Venice, 1475) Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child St. Francis in Ecstasy Contarini Madonna Resurrection of Christ Portrait of a Humanist Transfiguration of Christ (Naples) Willys Madonna St. Jerome in the Desert (Florence) Saint Jerome Reading in a Landscape Alzano Madonna Madonna of the Red Cherubim Madonna and Child (New York, late 1480s) San Giobbe Altarpiece Madonna and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Sebastian Madonna of the Small Trees Barbarigo Altarpiece Frari Triptych Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Ursula Portrait of a Young Man in Red Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist Portrait of a Young Man (Paris) Holy Allegory Portrait of a Young Senator Allegories Portrait of a Condottiero Annunciation Christ Blessing (Fort Worth) Circumcision of Christ* Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Florence) Portrait of a Young Man (Washington) Self-Portrait Portrait of a Young Man (Liverpool) Baptism of Christ Head of the Redeemer Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and a Female Saint Martinengo Pietà Portrait of a Young Man (Royal Collection) St. Jerome in the Desert (Washington) San Zaccaria Altarpiece Madonna del Prato Portrait of the Loredan Family The Infant Bacchus Sacred Conversation (Madrid) St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr Madonna and Child with Four Saints and Donor The Continence of Scipio Madonna and Child (Detroit) Madonna and Child (Rome) Madonna and Child (Milan, 1510) Virgin in Glory with Saints Saints Christopher, Jerome and Louis of Toulouse The Feast of the Gods Drunkenness of Noah Naked Young Woman in Front of a Mirror Portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino as Saint Dominic Deposition
Other	Martyrdom of Saint Maurice and his Comrades (illuminated manuscript; attributed)
Related	San Zaccaria, Venice (1995 photograph) Venetian Renaissance
Family	Jacopo Bellini (father) Gentile Bellini (brother) Andrea Mantegna (brother-in-law)
* Workshop