| San Giobbe Altarpiece | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Giovanni Bellini |
| Year | c. 1487 |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 471 cm × 258 cm (185 in × 102 in) |
| Location | Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice |
The San Giobbe Altarpiece (Italian: Pala di San Giobbe) is a c. 1487 altarpiece in oils on panel by the Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini. Inspired by a plague outbreak in 1485, this sacra conversazione painting is unique in that it was designed in situ with the surrounding architecture of the church (a first for Bellini), and was one of the largest sacra conversazione paintings at the time. Although it was originally located in the Church of San Giobbe, Venice, it is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice after having been stolen by Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Transcription
(piano music) Man: We're in the Accademia in Venice and we're looking at a relatively early Giovanni Bellini. This is the San Giobbe Altarpiece. Woman: This was made for a church here in Venice dedicated to prayers for plague victims. One of five plague churches in Venice. Venice was a place that especially suffered from the plague. Man: So this is, we think, the very first Sacra Conversazione that is set within the architecture of a church painted in Venice. And one of the first examples anywhere in Italy. Woman: Sacra Conversazione is a group of saints from different time periods together in the same space with the Madonna and child. This was certainly a new trend in painting in the late fifteenth century. We see it in the work of Pierro della Francesca in his Brera Altarpiece and we also see it in the San Zeno altarpiece. We're invited to join the court of heaven, Mary and Christ surrounded by saints and angels. Man: And one of those saints is quite literally inviting us into the space. If you look on the extreme left you see Saint Francis. He is not only displaying his stigmata, that is the holes in his hands and his feet and his side that he received as a kind of honor because he lived his life so closely to Christ but he is actually beckoning us. If we can be as faithful as he, we could join this spiritual company. Woman: That invitation is there in the very construction of the painting. The painting had a rounded, an architectural frame, that had on either side plasters with capitals very much like the ones that we see in the painted space. Man: That's right this painting in it's original frame had married the architecture of the actual church with the architecture of the invented space. Woman: Bellini is also joining our space with the space of the Madonna and saints by creating this coffered barrel vault that extends into our space from which a canopy or baldacchino hangs so we really feel this joining of our own space in the space of the painting. Man: But the architectural references in this painting are not so much to the church of San Giobbe as to the most important church in Venice, that is the Basilica of Saint Mark. Woman: We can see that if we look up at the apse above and behind Mary and Christ. This is exactly what the inside of Saint Mark looks like with mystical golden light created by the mosaics. Man: You can also see references to San Marco in the beautiful [?] decorated marble that exists in back of the throne. After Venice had plundered Constantinople in 1204 during the fourth crusade they had brought back all of these treasures including this very decorative marble, which is all over the exterior of San Marco. And we see it replicated here in Bellini's painting. Let's go back to those saints for a moment though. In addition to Saint Francis you can see that there are two other saints on the left side. In the background Saint John the Baptist and then Job himself, who is offering prayers in the direction of Christ and the virgin Mary. Then on the other side we see Saint Dominick, in the foreground the nearly naked Saint Sebastian, and then in the back Saint Louis of Toulouse. Now remember this is just the beginning of what we will call the high Renaissance. Bellini is really interested in geometry here. You can see that the three saints on the left side create a kind of triangle with their heads pointing back into space with Saint John the Baptist's head as the furthest most point. On the right side we have another triangle of heads, so we have these inverted triangles. Woman: We also have a pyramid in the three angels at the bottom of the throne, and then Mary herself holding the Christ child, her body forms a pyramid. Something we see very often in high Renaissance art. We might recall, for example, Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks, where Mary and Christ and Saint John and an angel form a pyramid. Man: Geometry is bound to help with our understanding of the high Renaissance because it can help provide a sense of stability, of balance, and a sense of the eternal. Woman: So what Bellini is doing so different from earlier Sacra Conversaziones, if we could think for example of Domenico Veneziano's Saint Lucy altarpiece, there, there is a clear white light that permeates that space. But here Bellini has created a golden warm tonality and atmosphere that unifies the figures. Man: I think that also comes right out of Bellini's experience in San Marco. That architectural space has such a kind of rich internal atmosphere that is full of mystery, that is full of shadow. Bellini has brilliantly found a way of bringing that to the painted surface. Woman: In so many ways this painting is a continuation of something started by Masaccio of creating an illusion on the wall of real space but the naturalism of the Renaissance, its emphasis on real bodies and real space, is tempered I think by Bellini. That golden light, the meditative mood of the figures, this all gives us a sense of transcendence, of looking at something spiritual. Man: One of the things that I find most powerful about this painting is the rendering of the human bodies. You have two figures that are almost completely nude. And whose bodies are defined so beautifully by the subtle light and Sebastian really stands out in this regard. Woman: Look at his beautiful contropposto. Man: There is this attention to the beauty of the body, which is such an expression of the thinking of the Renaissance. (piano music)
History
Creation
Just prior to 1478, Giovanni Bellini was commissioned to paint the altarpiece by an unknown individual from the Scuola di San Giobbe, to be placed opposite the Martini Chapel of the soon-to-be consecrated Church of San Giobbe. The friars and sisters of the San Giobbe Hospice had founded the Scuola di San Giobbe and replaced an old oratory dedicated to Job with a new church dedicated to both St. Job and St. Bernardino. This was strongly suggested by the confraternity's patron, the doge Cristoforo Moro.[1] This altarpiece marks the first time Bellini used the concept of creating an illusionary space to house a sacra conversazione that appears as though it is an extension of the church architecture itself, and honored St. Job with the position closest to the Christ child. The painting was designed in situ to incorporate the architecture of the Church of San Giobbe; the arches inside the painting match in perspective and design the marble arches of the church framing the painting.[1] Because the Church of San Giobbe did not have two chapels, only the Martini Chapel and an empty space opposite the chapel, the altarpiece was painted in order to create a space that would illusionistically balance the church with “two” chapels on either side. Hence the piece's size and detailed visual description of the perspective in fictive space was intended to serve as a second chapel, and the perspective, along with the similar framing within the painting and surrounding the painting, would give that proper illusion.[2]
The actual patron of the painting is unknown, although it is assumed that the patron was a member of the Scuola di San Giobbe. This assumption is currently being debated, as the size and detail of this painting would warrant a large monetary compensation to Giovanni Bellini, which would be difficult for such a small church. One hypothesis is that Cristoforo Moro, who also patronized the church and influenced the rededication of the church to both St. Job and St. Bernardino, had commissioned the painting.[2]
The piece, although having no textual proof of exact completion date, was recorded as being complete in the newly consecrated Church of San Giobbe by 1493. The Venetian scholar Marcus Antonio wrote about the piece in its completed form in his “De Venetae Urbis Situ” (A written guide to Venice), and Venetian historian Marin Sanudo had included a comment about the piece’s beauty in a list of Venice’s holy sites, both written in 1493, marking that year the very latest possible date of completion.[2]
Although Giovanni Bellini's cursive signature has come into question and had often been used by imitators, this piece is widely accepted to be Bellini's. His signature is on a plaque just below the feet of the middle musician angel and is in an italic form, "Ioannes Bellinus", which was seldom used by imitators.[3]
Provenance
The altarpiece remained in the church of San Giobbe until 1814–1818,[4] until Napoleon Bonaparte, during his ransacking of Venice, stole this piece, along with many others. Eventually it was returned to its city of origin, but was given to the Galleria dell'Accademia in Venice, where it is displayed with the other altarpieces from the Church of San Giobbe.[5]
Composition
Figures
Featured in the center are the Madonna and Child, seated above several other religious figures. Below the central figures are three angels, each playing a musical instrument. The saints flanking the throne are each met with an opposite, both physically and historically. On the viewer’s far left (to the Madonna and Child’s right) is St. Francis, to the right of him is John the Baptist, and in the most notable position and titular figure of the altarpiece’s church, St. Job. Just right of the throne (to the Madonna and Child’s left) are St. Sebastian, St. Dominic and furthest to the right is Franciscan Bishop St. Louis of Toulouse.[1]
Job is bearded and wears only a loincloth, mirroring the youthful, long-haired, clean-shaven figure opposite him in St. Sebastian. St. Sebastian, also posed with only a loincloth, has two arrows in his body referencing his torture. However, he is not bloodied or in agony, but is quite clean and tranquil as he looks upon the Christ child. St. Dominic is posed with a religious text in his hands, and is clean-clothed, appearing to be a studious figure, even when placed in front of the Madonna and Child. As his opposite stands John the Baptist, an unkempt figure, not shaven, and staring at Christ. St. Louis shows the religious garb of his high position and represents the religiosity of the Church. St. Francis, who unlike the other characters, is not looking to the Christ child, but at the viewer, and is reaching out and welcoming the viewer into the scene.[6]
As a recourse for the Church of San Giobbe moving their old patron, Job, into a lower position, Bellini honored St. Job in this piece by placing him not only in the position closest to the Mother and Child, but also honored him by including references to the Cathedral of Saint Mark in Venice by way of the vaulted ceiling.[1]
Very few of Bellini’s works with the Madonna and Child include the full length of the saints flanking the throne. The San Giobbe Altarpiece shares this quality along with the Frari triptych, the Priuli triptych and the San Zaccaria Altarpiece.[2]
Setting
Above the Madonna and Child is a coffered vault ceiling, which is an architectural reference to the Saint Mark's Basilica. Bellini creates a fictive chapel within the Church of San Giobbe, while combining figures that were never meant to be together in one space. He also creates a fictive space in terms of architecture, with the plaster columns framing the piece and paralleling structures from the Saint Mark’s Cathedral. This technique of placing holy figures as such in a fictive space was new to Venetian art, a technique that will be commonly repeated by future Venetian artists.[1]
Common to the genre at the time, sacra conversazione paintings included some form of sky, or were placed within a structure that is somehow open to the outside world. Unlike all his other sacra conversazione paintings, the San Giobbe Altarpiece is unique in that it takes place in an interior space, due to the fact that it was meant to compensate for the Church of San Giobbe’s lack of a second chapel across from the Martini chapel.[2]
The upper part features a perspective coffered ceiling, flanked with pillars which are copies of the real ones at the original altar. Behind the Madonna is a dark niche. In the latter's half-dome is a gilt mosaic decoration in the Venetian style.
This altarpiece is an example of a pala altar, or a single-paneled altar, a technique first introduced to Venice by Bellini and heavily influenced by Antonello da Messina.[7][8]
Geometry
Triangles during the Renaissance were an important symbol of the Divine. Many artists in the late 15th century included triangular compositions in their pieces. This linked triangles with the divine, and was often a kind of map for the Holy Trinity. The asymmetry in this piece creates a contrast with the figures on opposing sides, and the triangles can be found with these various groupings.[9]
The figures are also opposite in symmetry across the vertical center line. The older St. Job stands opposite the youthful St. Sebastian, the wild John the Baptist is across from the tame and studious St. Dominic, and the exuberant attire of St. Louis opposes St. Frances’ plain robes.[6]
Symbols
Sacra Conversazione
The altarpiece is a sacra conversazione, a piece of art that combines holy figures from across time into one place, surrounding the Virgin and Christ child, often with angels nearby playing music. One difference between Bellini’s sacra conversazione and others is that it appears as though the figures are interacting with each other. The angels are gazing up at St. Job, St. Job is looking at the Virgin, St. Francis on the left is breaking the fourth wall of the painting and inviting the audience into the fictive scene. When compared to other sacra conversazione, examples being the San Marco Altarpiece, the Frari Triptych and the San Zaccaria Altarpiece, not only is the San Giobbe Altarpiece much larger and shows the full stature of all figures in the scene, but it also is contained in an interior space, which was very uncommon in Venetian pieces at the time, which oft included an open sky, or an airy feel to the background.[2]
Holy Reference
Several pieces in the painting point toward reinforcement of the Virgin Mother’s immaculate nature. Her hand in the position of the Annunciation and the Latin phrase above on the vaulted-ceiling reads “Ave Virginei Flos Intemerate Pudoris”, roughly translating to “Hail, undefiled flower of virgin modesty”.[10] St. Francis, inviting the viewer in, is also displaying his holiness by way of his Stigmata.[6]
The accuracy of the angel musicians at the feet of the Mother and Child is well-portrayed in proper string-instrument technique. One studies its right hand strumming the lute, the other two peering up at St. Job standing next to them, a link that has suggested ta link between St. Job and music. Even the lutes themselves are accurate in construction to lutes, matching the rose piece in the painting with those of real ornamentations at the time.[10]
Evocation of Saints
The plague of 1485 greatly influenced the painting by way of the inclusion of St. Sebastian and his opposite, St. Job. The arrow at St. Sebastian’s side symbolizes the plague, and his presence in the painting would be an invocation used in response to the plague that was hitting Venice at the time. St. Job symbolizes suffering through his plague-like illness, through which he relies on his faith to endure. Not only were both St. Sebastian and St. Job associated with suffering and pain, but the Scuola di San Giobbe was originally a hospice that was built in response to a plague, hence the representation of these saints and their faith to give hope to patients.[10]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Goffen, Rona (October 1985). "Bellini's Altarpieces, Inside and Out". Source: Notes in the History of Art. 5 (1): 23–28. doi:10.1086/sou.5.1.23202259. ISSN 0737-4453. S2CID 192969185.
- ^ a b c d e f Hoshi, Seiko (2008). ""A Quantitative Analysis of the Venetian Altarpieces -The Case of San Giobbe Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini"". CARLS Series of Advanced Study of Logic and Sensibility. 1: 349–362 – via KOARA.
- ^ Pincus, Debra (2008). ""Giovanni Bellini's Humanist Signature: Pietro Bembo, Aldus Manutius and Humanism in Early Sixteenth-Century Venice"". Atribus et Historiae. 29 (58): 89–119. JSTOR 40343651 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Rugolo, Ruggero (2013). Venise – Où trouver Bellini, Carpaccio, Titen, Tintoret, Véronèse (in French). Scala. p. 12. ISBN 9788881173891.
- ^ Boulton, Susie (2010). Venice and the Veneto. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated.
- ^ a b c Goffen, Rona (1986). ""Bellini, San Giobbe and Altar Egos"". Artibus et Historiae. 7 (14): 57–70. doi:10.2307/1483224. JSTOR 1483224 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Peter Humfrey et al, "Bellini Family," Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford university Press (2003), https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T007643
- ^ John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012), 322–326.
- ^ Zorach, Rebecca (2011). "The Passionate Triangle". University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-98939-6.
- ^ a b c Richardson, Joan Olivia (1979). "Hodegetria and Ventia Virgo: Giovanni Bellini's San Giobbe Altarpiece". University of British Columbia.
External links
Sources
- Olivari, Mariolina (2007). "Giovanni Bellini". Pittori del Rinascimento. Florence: Scala.
- Nepi Sciré, Giovanna & Valcanover, Francesco, Accademia Galleries of Venice, Electa, Milan, 1985, ISBN 88-435-1930-1
This page was last edited on 2 May 2024, at 01:25