This portrait is of a woman watching over a sleeping child. The child is naked but the woman is fully clothed. She has long, flowing sheet-like material drapped over her head and shoulders. Her hands are in front of her chest and are loosly touching. Her face seems to have a look of worry and fear for the child. It appears that while the baby sleeps, she watches over him and prays for him. In the background you see houses, roads and trees through an arched window. The sky is a soft, calming color that is almost the same shade as the woman's cloak. The baby is resting it's head on a dark brown pillow that catches the eye. "Madonna" has a peach color dress underneath and it is seems like it should represent how reserved she is. The lines have a verticle manner to them that have your attention mainly on the woman but with the contrasting color of the pillow it also draws your attention to the baby.
Bellini was considered to be the one who revolutionized Venetian paintings. He was the first to use oil paintings to create such color and detail that no one else could. Giovanni had a strong sense of christianity in most of his paintings. He was a very religious man. His color scheme changed over time. First it was sunrise colors with lots of gold and yellow in them, and then the colors tamed down to more calm and relaxing colors. The themes of them also changed. It started out as romantic paintings and then it shifted to the "Dead Christ" type of paintings. Many artists stick to the same topics but Giovanni was different. You don't change the world by being like everyone else.
Giovanni Bellini, who appeared continually to deny is own nature, whose talent was constantly increasing in scope and who worked on an infinite number of levels, has provided us with one of the most profound lessons of history and, at the same time, ethics: we see him as a sort of Proustian Elstir of Quattrocento painting.
Title: The Giovanni Bellini Exhibition
Author: Roberto Longhi
Source: The Burlington Magazine
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