Art Knowledge News
Historic Bellini Exhibit at National Gallery |
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| Monday, 06 March 2006 14:56 |
 London- Bellini and the East explores the impact of the East on the work of the 15th-century Venetian painter, Gentile Bellini(active about 1460, died 1507). The exhibition focuses on this highly significant period in the millennium-long interaction between three cultures: Venetian, Byzantine and Turkish, as well as three religions – Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox and Islam. During his lifetime Gentile Bellini was Venice’s most prestigious painter. Between 1479-81, as a diplomatic favour, the Venetian Senate sent him to work for the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. Bellini and the East brings together for the first time all the works thought to have been made by Gentile when in Turkey. In 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, capital of the Greek Byzantine Empire.
 However Venetian trade with the Turks and the other Islamic civilisations of the Mediterranean continued almost unabated. This thriving exchange is represented in the exhibition by the Reception of the Venetian Ambassadors in Damascus, 1513-16 (Paris, Musée du Louvre), by a close follower of Gentile Bellini. The extent of cross-Mediterranean trade is also demonstrated by the accurate depictions of particular objects in paintings by the Bellini brothers, including the Anatolian prayer-mat in Gentile’s Virgin and Child Enthroned, and the Doge’s damask mantle in Giovanni Bellini’s portrait of Doge Loredan. Gentile was one of several European artists who produced images of Mehmed II, praising him as a Western Prince. His portrait The Sultan Mehmed II (London, National Gallery) will be shown with medals of the Sultan by Gentile and other artists (London, British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum; Oxford, Ashmolean Museum). The intricately patterned and gilded Seated Scribe (Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) shows a Turkish man, probably an Imperial page, seated on the floor writing or drawing. While the style of the drawing is wholly Venetian, the colouring and gilding are influenced by Islamic techniques. The painting will be displayed with a group of drawings depicting men and women whom Gentile saw in Istanbul (London, British Museum; Paris, Musée du Louvre; Frankfurt, Städel), reassembled for the first time since the 16th century. " Bellini and the East " also looks at Gentile Bellini’s interest in the Greek world. Many former Greek territories became Venetian colonies, including Cyprus, ruled by the Venetian Queen, Caterina Cornaro - the subject of one of Gentile’s most famous portraits (Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum). Just as the Greeks and Venetians interacted, so did their styles of painting. Gentile’s painting Cardinal Bessarion and the Bessarion Reliquary, recently acquired by the National Gallery, represents Cardinal Bessarion’s Greek Reliquary Cross in a naturalistic ‘Venetian’ style, while works such as his Madonna and Child (Oxford, Ashmolean), will show how Venetian artists combined this approach with the ‘iconic’ Greek style, fifty years before El Greco. The exhibition is organised by the National Gallery, London and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Exhibition 12 April to 25 June, 2006. Visit: The National GalleryClick on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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