PARIS.- This past March 3rd, for the first time in France, the Musée Jacquemart-André opened an exhibition to pay tribute to the work of the great master Giovanni Bellini (c. 1435-1516), father of the Venetian School to which his pupils Giorgione and Titian belonged. Giovanni Bellini paved the way to the art of colour and tones that came to be characteristic of the art of the sixteenth century in Venice.

Through some fifty works from public and private European collections - some of which are presented for the first time - this exhibition highlights the art of Giovanni Bellini and the artistic influences on his pictorial language. By comparing his works with those of his intellectual models, the first exhibition ever devoted to this theme in Europe will show how his artistic language has never ceased to renew itself while developing an undeniable originality. The exhibition will be organised chrono-thematically, with Bellini’s paintings as the common thread, and will be put in dialogue with the ‘models’ that inspired them.

Born into a family of artists, Giovanni Bellini frequented, with his brother Gentile, the studio of their father, Jacopo Bellini, a painter of Gothic training who soon mastered the principles of Florentine Renaissance art. The young artist immersed himself in the art alongside his father, brother and his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, whom his sister Nicolosia had just married. Classicism, sculptural forms, and a good command of Mantegna’s perspective had a great influence on the artist. His work became more monumental as a result of studying the works of Donatello, which were visible in Padua.

Bellini’s style took a different direction with the arrival in Venice of Antonello da Messina, who joined the Flemish taste for detail with the spatial constructions of the artists of central Italy. From Flemish art, Giovanni borrowed the technique of oil painting, bringing a new aesthetic inflection to his work. Byzantine art, and more particularly the Byzantine Madonnas, was another source of inspiration for his representations of Virgins with Child. He also developed themes that had been depicted by younger painters, such as topographical landscapes inspired by Cima da Conegliano. Bellini’s latter period was characterised by more vibrant but highly modern strokes. In a unique way, it was the innovations of his best pupils—in particular, Giorgione and Titian—that pushed the older Bellini to reinvent his style.

By presenting Bellini’s oeuvre and his artistic context, this exhibition will give visitors a better understanding of the way in which his pictorial language consisted of correspondences and an interplay of influences, which he skillfully synthesised through the mastery of colour and light.

The exhibition will benefit from exceptional loans from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, in addition to loans from the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the Museo Correr, the Gallerie dell’Accademia and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, the Petit Palais in Paris, and the Louvre Museum, as well as numerous loans from private collections of works some of which have never before been shown to the public.

THE CURATORS

Neville Rowley is a curator of fourteenth and fifteenth-century Italian painting and sculpture at the Gemäldegalerie and the Bode Museum in Berlin. Holding a doctorate in art history from the Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), he has worked and taught at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Villa Medici (Rome), the Ecole du Louvre (Paris), the Unicamp (Campinas), and Essec (Cergy). He has mainly published works on the art of the Quattrocento and has curated several exhibitions, including ‘Mantegna & Bellini’ (London and Berlin, 2018–19) and ‘Donatello. Inventeur de la Renaissance’ (Berlin, 2022–23).

Pierre Curie is a Chief Heritage Curator. A specialist in seventeenth-century Italian and Spanish painting, he also studied nineteenth-century French painting at the Musée du Petit Palais, where he began his career as a curator. Subsequently in charge of painting in the Inventaire Général, he co-wrote and compiled the work Vocabulaire Typologique et Technique de la Peinture et du Dessin (published in 2009). Appointed head of the painting section in the restoration department of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France in 2007, he has coordinated several major restorations of paintings in French national museums (Léonard de Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt, Poussin, etc.). Pierre Curie has been the curator of the Musée Jacquemart-André since January 2016 and co-curator of its exhibitions.

Scenography

Hubert le Gall is a French designer, artist, and contemporary art sculptor. He has created original scenographies for many exhibitions, and in particular for the Musée Jacquemart-André for the following exhibitions: ‘Inside Rembrandt’s World’ (2016), ‘From Zurbarán to Rothko. The Alicia Koplowitz Collection’ (2017), ‘The Hansens’ Secret Garden. The Ordrupgaard Collection’ (2017), ‘Mary Cassatt: an American Impressionist in Paris’ (2018), ‘Caravaggio’s Period in Rome: his Friends and Enemies’ (2018), ‘Hammershøi, the Great Master of Danish Painting’ (2019), ‘The Alana Collection’ (2019), ‘Turner: Paintings and Watercolours From the Tate’s Collections’ (2020), ‘Signac and Colour Harmonies’ (2021), ‘Botticelli: Artist and Designer’ (2021), ‘Gallen-Kallela’ (2022), and ‘Fuseli: the Realm of Dreams and the Fantastic’ (2022).

THE EXHIBITION ITINERARY

In Jacopo’s studio

Giovanni Bellini was born in Venice c.1435. He was the son of Jacopo Bellini (1400-1470), a distinguished painter at the time, who produced works in a popular style throughout Europe now known as ‘International Gothic’. Jacopo studied painting with Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1427), to whom he paid tribute by giving Gentile’s name to his legitimate son. Jacopo’s work was characterised by elongated figures, exaggerated perspective and proximity with nature. While his pieces make it impossible to guess his interest in developing a more realistic style of painting - a trend he developed in Florence as of the mid-1420s - his model books betray his fascination with realism, which had a profound influence on the early part of Giovanni’s career. Although he was born out of wedlock, Giovanni was brought up in his father’s house and trained with his elder brother Gentile (1429-1507) in Jacopo’s studio. Like his brother, Giovanni initially received a traditional education, closely copying his father’s works, and, up until the mid-1450s, it is difficult to distinguish with certainty its contribution to Bellini’s paintings. The young painter skilfully integrated into his work many contemporary artistic developments and a variety of different artistic languages in an extraordinarily creative manner. The first exhibition room presents pieces by the Bellini family, some of which were collaborative works.

THE EXHIBITION ITINERARY

The Paduan models

In 1453, the marriage of Nicolosia Bellini, Jacopo’s daughter, to Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), a prominent artist of the Quattrocento, was a major event for Giovanni, who had undoubtedly already seen the genius of his new brother-in-law. Unlike Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna was a natural born painter who had a well- established personal style, even in his first works. Several years older than Giovanni, his works focused on themes of classical antiquity, such as Roman sculpture and architecture, which provided his art with settings for his religious and mythological scenes. His style, famous for its daring shortcuts and clear perspective, inspired the young Giovanni. Mantegna brought to life classical antiquity, by following the footsteps of the Florentine sculptor Donatello (c. 1386-1466), who had spent a decade in Padua making monumental sculptures. Giovanni, who was well aware of Donatello’s resolutely modern approach, abandoned the technique patiently learned in Jacopo’s workshop and turned towards new models. Mantegna’s departure for Mantua in 1460, where he was appointed the official court painter of the House of Gonzaga, represented a stylistic shift and a new development in the work of Giovanni, who gradually developed his own personal style. Saint Justina, presented in this room, was a manifesto of a real pictorial shift: while drawing inspiration from Donatello and Mantegna, Bellini succeeded in transforming his painting, by bathing his pictures in intense light. He developed his own style and found his public, specialising in the production of paintings of the Virgin and Child commissioned by private patrons, replicating his compositions in order to derive maximum benefit from them.

Byzantine reminiscences

For centuries, Venice was initially a Byzantium colony and then a leading trading partner of the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Thanks to its strategic location, its economic prosperity, and its links with the Orient, Venice became one of the most affluent and cosmopolitan cities in the Christian world. In 1453, when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire, thousands of refugees flocked to Venice, bringing with them many Greek manuscripts, icons and relics. Venice’s ancient lagoon culture, regenerated by this influx of refugees, returned to the fore in the models chosen by the Venetian artists. Bellini sometimes used a gold background or Oriental techniques, while integrating them into the artistic developments, of which he was a leading proponent.

Between North and South

It is not surprising that paintings considered the most modern in style found their way to the lagoon city - the centre of European world trade - during the fifteenth century. This was particularly true for those painted in Flanders using a new technique of oil painting, enabling artists to imitate what they saw with an unprecedented level of realism and detail. Bellini learnt of the existence of Flemish panels by Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) and Hans Memling (1430-1494). He was fascinated by oil painting technique, which made it possible to represent landscapes in both a realistic and poetic manner, and render in an unprecedented way the transparencies of skin tones and drapery. Bellini drew inspiration from such works, without being able to meet their authors or fully understanding their methods and techniques.

Antonello da Messina: Bellini’s alter ego

In 1475, the arrival in Venice of Antonello da Messina (1430-1479), a Sicilian painter who was also profoundly influenced by the art of the North, considerably influenced Bellini’s work. Unlike the latter, Antonello travelled widely to develop his own visual culture. The encounter led to a fruitful mutual exchange of ideas and techniques: Antonello integrated many of Bellini’s ideas into his work, and Bellini not only considered the Sicilian painter as a model, but also as a veritable alter ego. He continued to focus on oil painting. The linearity of his works was replaced by a bolder use of colour and an evocation of atmosphere, recreating the effect of natural light. Bellini also imitated his colleague’s portraits, in which the sitters looked out towards the viewer, before opting for more distant representations. The links with Antonello might have taken Bellini to other heights, but Antonello left Venice in 1476 and died three years later.

Pathos

Breaking with previous representations of the suffering Christ, Bellini developed the devotional images he had painted by changing to a more restricted view, in the same way he did with his portraits in the 1480s and 1490s, his most artistically prolific period as a painter of autonomous portraits. The theological influence of Flemish art opened the way in Venice to a different, more intimate, and more sentimental link to holy images, which therefore had to be faithful representations. Bellini’s art partakes of the spirit of the Devotio Moderna, which aroused the empathy of the viewer with the sacred figures represented. Christ was no longer portrayed as a distant figure, but appeared to be a veritable interlocutor. In this type of image, Bellini also implemented the ideas of his brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, who, with his Ecce Homo (Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, c. 1500), inaugurated the representation of the suffering Christ in close-up.

Landscapes: between dream and reality

Giovanni Bellini’s work demonstrates a strong preference for landscape painting: the backgrounds in his Madonna and Crucifixion paintings are conceived as mental spaces through which the viewer is invited to travel. This preference is rooted in both Flemish influences and those of his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna.. Over time, Bellini’s landscapes became more topographical, particularly under the influence of a younger artist, Cima da Conegliano (1459-1517). His presence in Venice is attested to in 1486, and the artist renewed this theme through a meticulous rendering of details and a daring use of bright colours. Cima’s art both imitated the master’s work and was a source of inspiration for him. Bellini adopted the credo that the meticulous representation of the backgrounds was no longer restricted to create a decorative view, but was now an integral part of the work of art. Some of Bellini’s paintings at that time feature recognisable edifices and provide invaluable insight into the painter’s travels, which are almost never mentioned in the contemporary accounts outside of Venice (he reportedly refused to paint a view of Paris, as he had never been to the city).

At the turn of the sixteenth century, the old painter witnessed, in his own workshop, the emergence of young talented artists, who, echoing Leonardo da Vinci’s sfumato technique, began to bathe their landscapes in a hazy, vibrant atmosphere. Giorgione (1477-1510) and Titian (c. 1488-1576) revolutionised the art of painting, by abandoning the clarity of outlines and focusing on the expressive freedom of the paint and the power of colour. Giorgione’s style, further developed by Titian, was the last model that Bellini, an eternal student, endeavoured to integrate into his own pictorial language.

Twilight of the Gods

One of Bellini’s last paintings, Mocking of Noah represents the patriarch who saved humanity from the flood. He is not triumphant, but nude, drunk, asleep, and mocked by one of his sons. It is Giovanni Bellini’s pictorial testament considered by Roberto Longhi to be the inaugural work of modern painting. For three centuries, the Venetian school followed the old master’s path: the painter who continuously assimilated and integrated other painters’ styles into his work became an essential model for many Venetian artists, starting with his pupil and spiritual heir, Vittore Belliniano (active between 1507 and 1529).

The face of Vittore’s Christ presented in the exhibition is so similar to Noah’s in the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon that one might suppose that the painting was begun by Bellini, and then completed by his pupil after his death.

KEY DATES

Circa 1435: Giovanni is born in Venice. He is the illegitimate son of the painter Jacopo Bellini, who is married to Anna Rinversi, with whom he has four other children: Gentile, Nicolosia, Niccolò, and Leonello. Giovanni is raised in his father’s house, located near the Basilica of St Mark.

Circa 1445-1453: Giovanni Bellini becomes an apprentice in his father’s studio.

1453: Giovanni’s sister, Nicolosia Bellini, marries the painter Andrea Mantegna. The likely date of the decoration of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, some of which is executed by Gentile and Giovanni under the supervision of Jacopo.

1462-1464: He paints four altarpieces for the Venetian church of Santa Maria della Carità, with the help of other painters, including his brother Gentile. During this period, the Madonna paintings, the scenes depicting the Passion of Christ, and the altarpieces he executes make him the most prominent painter in Venice, and is therefore responsible for commissions for the Doge’s Palace.

1463: The Republic of Venice declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

Circa 1465: Giovanni Bellini marries Ginevra Bocheta. The couple soon have their only child, Alvise.

1471: Death of Anna Rinversi, the wife of Jacopo, who has recently died. Gentile inherits Jacopo’s model books; Giovanni is not mentioned in Anna’s will.

Circa 1490: Death of his wife, Ginevra.

1492: Bellini works on the decoration of the council chamber of the Palazzo Ducale. Replacing his brother, he decorates the Scuola Grande di San Marco.

1499: Death of his son Alvise.

1506: Bellini trains many pupils and his influence on art throughout Europe is considerable. Sojourning in Venice, the Nuremberg painter Albrecht Dürer thus states that Giovanni Bellini ‘is very old yet still the best at painting’.
Death of Andrea Mantegna in Mantua. Giovanni completes his last commission, a cycle of grisaille paintings for the Palazzo Cornaro in Venice.

1507: Death of Gentile Bellini. Giovanni completes Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria for the Scuola Grande di San Marco, which had been left unfinished by his brother. He inherits one of his father’s two sketchbooks of drawings.

1508: Giorgione and Titian, trained by Giovanni, complete the fresco decoration of the façade of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal.

1515: Bellini executes one of his last works: Mocking of Noah (the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon; probable date).

1516: Bellini dies in Venice on 29 November. The painter is buried in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo. His work the Martyrdom of Saint Mark for the Scuola Grande di San Marco is completed by one of his pupils, Vittore Belliniano, in 1526.

ALONGSIDE THE EXHIBITION

PRIVATE MADONNAS

Giovanni Bellini became a painter of Madonnas, whereas his elder brother Gentile received public commissions, particularly those for the Palazzo Ducale. Almost all of his Virgin and Child paintings were intended to be hung in the intimacy of a bedroom. Many of them have now entered museum collections, but some of them are still in private hands and for that reason remain inaccessible. Three of these Madonnas (from private collections), will be presented in the exhibition. A fourth Madonna by Giorgione will also be added. They will be a revelation, not only for the general public, but also for the specialists of the artist.

THE JACQUEMART-ANDRÉ COUPLE AND THE ART OF FIFTEENTH-CENTURY VENICE

The Jacquemart-André couple was interested in Venetian art, particularly Edouard André, who began compiling his Venetian collection in 1864. It began with the acquisition of a large gouache by Guardi, and then two extraordinary veduta paintings by Canaletto, and later two fresco ensembles by Tiepolo. His wife, Nélie Jacquemart, had a predilection for Venetian Renaissance art. She acquired, in particular, large ensembles, such as the coffered ceiling, after which the museum’s ‘Venetian’ room is named. Set up during Nélie’s lifetime, it presents fifteenth-century Renaissance Italian and, in particular, Venetian paintings. At the time, few collectors were interested in this school, as most of them preferred Florentine art. There is a remarkable selection of works, including paintings by Andrea Mantegna, alongside a Virgin and Child by Giovanni Bellini. It is not known where or when the work was purchased, and therefore under which attribution. Furthermore, their interest in Venetian art was not restricted to painting. Indeed, the private mansion is ornamented with capitals, stone urns, copings and doors with Istrian stone frames, which embellish the museum with Venetian touches. The most conspicuous of which is the Venetian-Dalmatian lion of Saint Mark that watches over room 12 in the museum.