Lecture 19: High Renaissance Painting in Venice

High Renaissance Painting in Venice .............................................

Lecture 19

When the oil medium was introduced into Venetian art, Venetian

painting magni¿ ed it. It was enabled to achieve the highest level of

brilliance and saturation of color, to which it had always aspired.

Venetian art was steeped in the reÀ ective gleam of countless Byzantine

mosaics for hundreds of years.

I

n this lecture, we continue to explore Venetian painting with Giovanni

Bellini, then proceed to his great pupils, Giorgione and Titian. First, we

will look at a portrait by Bellini and one of his great altarpieces in the

Church of San Zaccaria. Next, we will study only one of Giorgione’s works,

which has been in the Louvre for centuries. Finally, we will look at Titian in

greater detail, including two altarpieces and a sensual portrayal of an ancient

myth, Bacchus and Ariadne.

When the oil medium was introduced into Venetian art, it was magni¿ ed

by Venetian painters, enabling it to reach the highest level of brilliance and

saturation of color. Steeped in the reÀ ected gleam of countless Byzantine

mosaics, Venetian artists quickly understood the expressive potential of

oil painting, and from the late 16th century through the mid-18th century,

they explored and re¿ ned the range of color and its decorative and

expressive possibilities.

Our ¿ rst example shows Bellini’s painting Doge Leonardo Loredan

(c. 1501). The painting is signed in Latin on the cartello, the small piece

of paper illusionistically depicted on the parapet. The doge (“duke”) was

head of the Venetian state, elected for life from the aristocracy by his peers,

although his powers were severely restricted by the Council of Ten and a

constitutional charter. This portrait was probably painted upon the accession

of Loredan as doge. He served for 20 years during one of the most dangerous

periods for the survival of the Venetian Republic. The Papal States, the

Holy Roman Empire, the French, and other powerful enemies were arrayed

against Venice, but the republic closed ranks around Doge Loredan and held

off the combined enemies, partly through luck and partly through courageous