About this artwork
Bellini painted this Madonna and Child in the late 1480s, in Venice, where he was the most respected painter of his generation. He was about 55 years old, running a large workshop, and producing the devotional images of the Virgin and Child that would define Venetian painting for the next century. This is one of several versions of the subject that he painted throughout his career, and it shows the innovations that made him the bridge between Early Renaissance Florence and High Renaissance Venice.
The Virgin Mary holds the Christ Child on her knee, both figures filling the foreground of the canvas. Mary wears a red robe and a blue mantle, her head tilted slightly to the left, her eyes looking down at the child. The child stands on her left knee, his body turned toward the viewer, his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing. Behind them, a green curtain hangs at the left, and a landscape is visible at the right: a hill with a castle, a river, and a distant mountain under a pale blue sky.
Bellini was the son of Jacopo Bellini and the brother of Gentile Bellini, both painters. He grew up in his father's workshop, where he learned the tempera technique of Early Renaissance Florence. In the 1470s, he encountered oil painting through his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna and through the work of Antonello da Messina, who had brought the oil technique from Flanders to Venice. Bellini adopted oil painting and transformed it, using translucent layers of color to build forms with a warmth and depth that tempera could not achieve. His late Madonnas, including this one, are the paintings that made Venetian color famous.
By the 1480s, Bellini was the official painter to the Venetian Republic and the most sought-after artist in the city. His workshop produced altarpieces, devotional panels, and portraits for churches and private collectors. His pupils included Titian and Giorgione, who would take Venetian painting in new directions in the early 16th century. But Bellini himself continued painting into his 80s, producing work of increasing softness and warmth until his death in 1516.
Oil on canvas, transferred from panel, 88 by 71 centimeters. Bellini built the flesh tones in thin layers of warm pink and cream, with the shadows modeled in translucent browns. The blue of the Virgin's mantle is painted in layers of ultramarine over a dark underpainting, which gives it a depth that reproduces poorly in photographs. The landscape at the right is painted in the same translucent technique, with the distant mountain dissolving into atmospheric haze.
The vertical format and warm palette make this print work well in a bedroom, hallway, or traditional living room. The reds, blues, and soft greens pair with warm white walls, natural wood, and traditional furniture. The 11x14 or 16x20 framed version is a good size for most walls. The painting has a tender, devotional quality that suits rooms with a quiet mood.
The painting is part of the Havemeyer Collection, bequeathed to the Met in 1929. Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer collected Bellini at a time when most American museums were focused on Impressionism, and her bequest gave the Met one of the finest collections of Venetian Renaissance painting in the United States.
This is a public domain artwork (CC0), scanned from the original at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.
