Gentile Bellini: Painter of Peace

Description/Abstract/Artist Statement

Gentile and Giovanni Bellini’s Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria is representative of the artists’ final works, which were intended to demonstrate the mastery of Venetian style in the Scuola Grande di San Marco. Following Gentile’s visit to Constantinople, the Scuola Grande di San Marco commissioned him to paint Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria to be displayed in the Albergo, the meeting space of the Scuola. Scholarship on this painting largely focuses on the architectural and narrative elements. Letha Ch’ien, for instance, focuses on Venice’s legendary origins and explores the meanings of the visual art practices developed in Venice, providing information on the Scuola and the commission of historical narrative paintings that depict the cycle of Saint Mark. Historians have largely neglected to consider this painting within the context of Venice’s mythic identity and the function of the painting in Scuola Grande di San Marco. This paper argues that in Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini developed a wide range of strategies for creating a historical statement of Venice’s past in order to make the past something to which their contemporary Venetians might identify--thereby reinforcing peace in their city’s religious, political, and social worlds.

Presenting Author Name/s

Rianna Chaney

Faculty Advisor/Mentor

Anne Muraoka

Faculty Advisor/Mentor Department

Art Department

College Affiliation

College of Arts & Letters

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Disciplines

Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture | Fine Arts

Session Title

Art History 3: New Interpretations & Connections

Location

Learning Commons @Perry Library, Room 1306

Start Date

3-25-2023 12:00 PM

End Date

3-25-2023 1:00 PM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Mar 25th, 12:00 PM Mar 25th, 1:00 PM

Gentile Bellini: Painter of Peace

Learning Commons @Perry Library, Room 1306

Gentile and Giovanni Bellini’s Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria is representative of the artists’ final works, which were intended to demonstrate the mastery of Venetian style in the Scuola Grande di San Marco. Following Gentile’s visit to Constantinople, the Scuola Grande di San Marco commissioned him to paint Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria to be displayed in the Albergo, the meeting space of the Scuola. Scholarship on this painting largely focuses on the architectural and narrative elements. Letha Ch’ien, for instance, focuses on Venice’s legendary origins and explores the meanings of the visual art practices developed in Venice, providing information on the Scuola and the commission of historical narrative paintings that depict the cycle of Saint Mark. Historians have largely neglected to consider this painting within the context of Venice’s mythic identity and the function of the painting in Scuola Grande di San Marco. This paper argues that in Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini developed a wide range of strategies for creating a historical statement of Venice’s past in order to make the past something to which their contemporary Venetians might identify--thereby reinforcing peace in their city’s religious, political, and social worlds.