Page 138 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

136  VENICE AREA B Y AREA

Exploring the Accademia’s Collection

Spanning five centuries, the fascinating collection of paintings
in the Accademia provides a complete spectrum of the
Venetian school, from the medieval Byzantine period through
the Renaissance to the Baroque and Rococo (see pp30–31).
Upstairs, the order is more or less chronological, while the
downstairs rooms are arranged thematically.

and Rome. The Bellini family –
Byzantine and Jacopo, the father, and his two
International Gothic
sons Gentile and Giovanni –
Room 1 shows the influence played a dominant role in the Portrait of a Gentleman (c.1525) by Lorenzo
of Byzantine art on the early early Venetian Renaissance. Lotto (detail)
Venetian painters. Paolo Central to Venetian art in the
Veneziano, the true founder of 15th century was the Sacra was the enigmatic Lorenzo
the Venetian school, displays a Conversazione, where the Lotto, best known for portraits
blend of both Western and Madonna is portrayed in a conveying moods of psycho-
Eastern influences in his unified composition with saints. logical unrest. His melancholic
sumptuous Coronation of Giovanni Bellini’s altarpiece Portrait of a Gentleman (c.1525)
the Virgin (1325). The linear for San Giobbe (c.1487) in in Room 7 is a superb example.
rhythms are quite Room 2 is one of the finest More in the Venetian tradition,
unmistakably Gothic, yet examples. Giovanni, the Palma il Vecchio’s sumptuously
the overall effect and the younger Bellini, was coloured Sacra Conversazione in
glowing gold background profoundly influenced Room 8, painted around the
are distinctly Byzantine. by the controlled same time, shows the
In the same room, rational style and unmistakable influence of
Coronation of the mastery of the early work of Titian.
Virgin (1448) by perspective in
Michele the works of his High Renaissance
Giambono shows brother-in-law,
the influence of Andrea Mantegna, Occupying an entire wall of
International Gothic Coronation of the Virgin (c.1448) whose work Room 10, the monumental Feast
style, which was by Michele Giambono St George (c.1460) in the House of Levi by Paolo
brought to Venice is in Room 23. Veronese (1573) was originally
by Gentile da Fabriano To Mantegna’s rationality and commissioned as The Last
and Pisanello. This particular harsh realism Giovanni added Supper. However, the hedonistic
style was characterized by humanity. This is seen in his detail in the painting, such as the
delicate naturalistic detail, Madonna paintings (Rooms 4 drunkard and the dwarfs, was not
as typified by the birds and and 23), which are masterpieces well received and Veronese found
animals in the foreground of warmth and harmony. himself before the Inquisition.
of Giambono’s painting. Outstanding examples are Ordered to eliminate the profane
The Virgin and Child between content of the picture, he simply
St Catherine and St Mary changed the title.
Early Renaissance Magdalene (c.1490) in Room 4; Jacopo Tintoretto made his
The Renaissance came late to and Virgin and Child with John reputation with The Miracle of the
Venice, but by the second the Baptist and a Saint (c.1505) Slave (1548), which is also in
quarter of the 15th century it had in Room 4. Room 10. The painting shows his
transformed the city into an art Out on a limb from the main mastery of the dramatic effects
centre rivalling those of Florence 16th-century Venetian tradition of light and movement. This was

Paolo Veronese’s Feast in the House of Levi (detail) (1573)

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