Madonna and Child, ca. 1485. Giovanni Bellini. Oil on canvas, transferred from wood panel. Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Giovanni Bellini was the greatest painter of the late 15th century in Venice, where oil paint first began to replace tempera as a favored medium for artists. With the richer more varied effects of oil combined with pigments, Bellini was able to convey a greater sense of naturalism and atmospheric unity and to take full advantage of light to express emotion. In this Madonna and Child, Bellini created a golden light that unites the looming figures of the Madonna and Child, thrust toward the spectator's space. The tower above the Child's head may refer to the 18th Psalm, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer… and my high tower," but the site has yet to be identified.
