We must confess that religious paintings are not our favourite subject, and we've tended to regard Spanish Catholic art as being, well, just a little too religious to cope with. So we approached the Francisco de Zurbarán exhibition at the National Gallery in London with a certain amount of trepidation. A degree of contrition is due.... Yes, there were monks, altarpieces and lots of saints, but we were blown away by Zurbarán's ability to depict textures and fabrics and to convey an intensity of feeling. It's an absolutely excellent exhibition, full of truly beautiful paintings. Such religious art was intended to bring the faithful closer to God, to bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth, in an age when many could not read. Zurbarán was a master at it. Let's start with a saint: Just take a look at the fabrics, trimmings and gems in this picture. And the garments are even more striking when you are stood in front of this nearly life-size figure. This is Casild...
It's a great story. Two brothers-in-law, with two competing visions of art: one from Venice's greatest family of painters, the other the son of a carpenter. In their early years they found inspiration in each other's work; while Andrea Mantegna's is full of invention, theatre and painterly tricks, Giovanni Bellini's is less intricate but more emotionally charged. For decades afterwards, they worked apart, in different cities; then Giovanni was called on to complete Andrea's final commission, one he was unable to finish before he died.
As you make your way through Mantegna and Bellini at London's National Gallery, you find yourself weighing up the respective merits of these early Renaissance painters. Mantegna perhaps shades it in the first few rooms, but Bellini puts in a strong finish.
This is, it has to be said, quite an intense exhibition, not one in which you can drift through easy-on-the-eye landscapes, wonder at the realism of still lives or admire the portrayals of elegantly dressed rich ladies. We're talking devotional Christian art and attempts to recreate the spirit of ancient Rome. It can be quite intellectually challenging. The best of it is stunning.
It was Giovanni who was born into the Venetian painting family; we see works by his father Jacopo right at the start of this exhibition. Mantegna, who came from near Padua, married Jacopo's daughter Nicolosia. Early on it can be hard to distinguish drawings by Mantegna and Bellini, but the differences are quite marked in their paintings.
Mantegna's version of the Agony in the Garden is packed. In front of the praying Jesus, the artist shows off his skill with foreshortened sleeping Apostles, while some rabbits hop around on the road on which Judas approaches with soldiers to arrest Christ. In the background, Jerusalem is full of Roman-style buildings. Bellini's version is sparser and more atmospheric, the landscape more real.
Two approaches to The Crucifixion provide another example. Mantegna goes for full perspective effect, the three crosses placed as if on a theatre stage. There's the cropped soldier in the foreground, not to mention the even more cropped head just to its right; a horse from behind, and the cameo of the soldiers playing at dice on a shield in the centre-right. A road snakes up the hill to a city past an unlikely rocky outcrop. Enough detail for you?
By contrast, Bellini's Crucifixion is pared back to the basics. Christ's suffering is isolated, with just two other figures -- Mary and John the Baptist -- in the scene.
Bellini's religious work seems to pack a greater emotional punch than Mantegna's. The Lamentation over the Dead Christ from the Uffizi in Florence looks like a drawing but is actually painted in a soft monochrome.
While Bellini remained in Venice, Mantegna was appointed court artist to the Gonzagas in Mantua, and it was there that he painted his nine Triumphs of Caesar, reflecting his interest in recreating the splendours of classical antiquity. The pictures were among a huge trove Britain's Charles II acquired from the Dukes of Mantua in the 17th century and featured in the Royal Academy's show about Charles's collection earlier this year. Three of them are again on display here, demonstrating Mantegna's ability to fill the canvas in show-stopping fashion. These Elephants may not be anatomically correct, but they're mightily impressive.
But it turns out that, as time went on, Bellini could do show-stopping too. The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr tells the story of a Dominican friar and inquisitor ambushed on the road to Milan by hitmen hired by local heretics. The violence of the narrative in the foreground is echoed by the actions of the woodcutters behind, providing a landscape that's part of the story, not just a scenic background.
It's in the final room, devoted to portraits and paintings for private devotion, that you feel Bellini finally has the edge on Mantegna, at least on canvas, both in his luminous depictions of the Virgin and Child, as well as in wonderful likenesses, such as this one of the Doge Leonardo Loredan in his robes of state.
There's another intriguing portrait alongside: Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St Dominic, holding a book and a lily against a green curtained backdrop. If you didn't know better, you'd swear it was a Pre-Raphaelite paying homage to one of the giants of the early Renaissance....
Giovanni Bellini, The Crucifixion, about 1465, Musée du Louvre, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Michel Urtado
Giovanni Bellini, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, about 1490, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. © Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino
Andrea Mantegna, The Triumphs of Caesar V: The Elephants, mid-1480s-before 1506, Royal Collection Trust/HM The Queen. Photo: Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018
Giovanni Bellini, The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr, about 1505-7, National Gallery, London. © The National Gallery, London
Giovanni Bellini, Doge Leonardo Loredan, about 1501-2, National Gallery, London. © The National Gallery, London
As you make your way through Mantegna and Bellini at London's National Gallery, you find yourself weighing up the respective merits of these early Renaissance painters. Mantegna perhaps shades it in the first few rooms, but Bellini puts in a strong finish.
This is, it has to be said, quite an intense exhibition, not one in which you can drift through easy-on-the-eye landscapes, wonder at the realism of still lives or admire the portrayals of elegantly dressed rich ladies. We're talking devotional Christian art and attempts to recreate the spirit of ancient Rome. It can be quite intellectually challenging. The best of it is stunning.
It was Giovanni who was born into the Venetian painting family; we see works by his father Jacopo right at the start of this exhibition. Mantegna, who came from near Padua, married Jacopo's daughter Nicolosia. Early on it can be hard to distinguish drawings by Mantegna and Bellini, but the differences are quite marked in their paintings.
Mantegna's version of the Agony in the Garden is packed. In front of the praying Jesus, the artist shows off his skill with foreshortened sleeping Apostles, while some rabbits hop around on the road on which Judas approaches with soldiers to arrest Christ. In the background, Jerusalem is full of Roman-style buildings. Bellini's version is sparser and more atmospheric, the landscape more real.
Two approaches to The Crucifixion provide another example. Mantegna goes for full perspective effect, the three crosses placed as if on a theatre stage. There's the cropped soldier in the foreground, not to mention the even more cropped head just to its right; a horse from behind, and the cameo of the soldiers playing at dice on a shield in the centre-right. A road snakes up the hill to a city past an unlikely rocky outcrop. Enough detail for you?
Practicalities
Mantegna and Bellini continues at the National Gallery until January 27. It's open daily from 1000 to 1800, with lates on Fridays to 2100. Standard admission prices are £14 Monday to Friday and £16 at weekends, with £2 off if you book online here. The National Gallery is on the north side of Trafalgar Square, just a couple of minutes from Charing Cross or Leicester Square stations on the rail and Underground networks.Mantegna's masterpieces
Bellini may come out on top at the National Gallery, but for the best of Mantegna you really have to go to Mantua. You get a taste of them on the film showing during the exhibition, but they couldn't possibly bring them to London: the frescos in the Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale. The paintings show scenes celebrating the ruling Gonzaga family, but the crowning glory has to be the trompe l'oeil ceiling, apparently opening through a balustrade into a blue sky, with foreshortened putti frolicking on the edge. A must-see on an art tour of Italy.Images
Andrea Mantegna, The Crucifixion, 1456-9, Musée du Louvre, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Thierry Le MageGiovanni Bellini, The Crucifixion, about 1465, Musée du Louvre, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Michel Urtado
Giovanni Bellini, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, about 1490, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. © Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino
Andrea Mantegna, The Triumphs of Caesar V: The Elephants, mid-1480s-before 1506, Royal Collection Trust/HM The Queen. Photo: Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018
Giovanni Bellini, The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr, about 1505-7, National Gallery, London. © The National Gallery, London
Giovanni Bellini, Doge Leonardo Loredan, about 1501-2, National Gallery, London. © The National Gallery, London
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