{"id":75313,"date":"2021-10-08T14:53:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T14:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalgallery.gr\/?post_type=dokimia&p=75313"},"modified":"2022-10-06T10:15:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T10:15:10","slug":"giovanni-bennini-andrea-mantegna","status":"publish","type":"dokimia","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalgallery.gr\/en\/art-topics\/giovanni-bennini-andrea-mantegna\/","title":{"rendered":"Giovanni Bennini & Andrea Mantegna"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Two Renaissance depictions of the Passion of Christ<\/div>\n
GIOVANNI BELLINI & ANDREA MANTEGNA<\/div>\n
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A salute to the suffering people of Italy, especially the citizens of Milan,
\nthe city that hosts these masterpieces,
\nhoused in the famous Pinacoteca di Brera.
\nMay Easter bring hope and salvation to all humanity.<\/p>\n

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Marina Lambraki Plaka
\nDirector<\/em><\/p>\n

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Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna<\/strong>
\nTwo Renaissance depictions of the Passion of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

I still cannot forget the powerful emotional impact it had on me when I first looked at the Dead Christ by Andrea Mantegna (about 1431\u20131506) in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Many years have passed, yet my feeling remains. Every time I find myself in this northern Italian city, I visit the Pinacoteca to pay homage to this gripping depiction of human suffering. Nor do I fail to stop before another, equally riveting, painting nearby, on the same theme: the Piet\u00e0 by Giovanni Bellini (about 1435\u20131516).<\/p>\n

Both artists and artworks are closely linked. Mantegna had joined the distinguished Venetian family of artists by his marriage to Giovanni Bellini\u2019s sister, Nicolosia. The two prominent artists shared their experiences and influenced each other. Mantegna\u2019s incisive drawing style, which brings his figures into sharp focus, as if they had been engraved in copper, for a while ensnared in its magic the tender Giovanni \u2013 the artist who went on to introduce the graceful, atmospheric style of the School of Venice, to become Giorgione and Titian\u2019s master.
\nRelated artists, kindred works. Both were executed in tempera, but Mantegna\u2019s Dead Christ was painted on canvas, not panel, a material fit for this, still Medieval, technique, to which Giovanni Bellini adheres more closely. The Venetian artist\u2019s Piet\u00e0 (c.1460) betrays his debt to Mantegna. Both paintings exhibit a razor-sharp accuracy and similar palette. Yet, this is where the similarities end.
\nDespite its pathos, the Piet\u00e0 by Giovanni Bellini is classical. The three holy figures \u2013 the dead Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Saint John \u2013 still possess a classical beauty, in spite of the pain that shakes them. The frontal arrangement of the figures and the marble parapet at the bottom create a shallow composition, in accordance with the classical rules. Christ\u2019s face is contorted in pain, the mouth half-open, the eyes sunken as he leans to rest on his mother\u2019s cheek, which is hollowed out by grief. Mary\u2019s strong hand presses Christ\u2019s lifeless hand on a body that seems to have been styled after ancient statues. The Saviour\u2019s left hand rests inertly on the marble sill, casting a shadow that makes it appear to be very close to the actual space. The wounds suffered during the crucifixion intensify the viewer\u2019s immersion in the Passion of Christ. The Latin inscription accompanying the artist\u2019s signature indicates his intention to elicit powerful emotions in the faithful: \u2018Every time these tear-swollen eyes will provoke sobs, perhaps it will be Giovanni Bellini\u2019s painting that is weeping.\u2019
\nMantegna\u2019s Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1483) does not share this classical sentiment. In this work, naturalism and scientific spirit, characteristic of artistic pursuits in the Quattrocento, are united in a composition of superb dramatic tension. The figure model is a mature male, utterly bereft of divinity \u2013 a labourer, one might say with anachronistic boldness, despite the halo around the heavy, square head. Christ\u2019s athletic body is laid out on a slab of red-veined marble \u2013 a reference, it has been noted, to the holy relic of the Stone of Unction, kept in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople until the city\u2019s fall to the Turks in 1453. This slab, \u2018ingrained with the Virgin\u2019s white tears,\u2019 was where the body of Christ was laid upon after being taken down from the cross to be embalmed by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. In Mantegna\u2019s painting, the myrrh container can be seen placed on the slab beside Christ\u2019s head. The marble slab had been transported to Constantinople during the reign of Manuel I Komnenos in the 12th century from Ephesus, where, according to tradition, it had been brought by Mary Magdalene. The image of the Stone of Unction has been identified by scholars in Byzantine representations, including the 12th-century gold-embroidered epitaphios in the St Marc\u2019s Museum in Venice.
\nThe beholder sees the recumbent body of Christ from a totally unexpected perspective, foregrounding the open wounds on the soles of his tortured feet, which protrude from the slab, extending out of the painting into the viewer\u2019s space. Covered in pale green-tinged white drapery, which resonates with the pallid hue of death, the body of Christ is depicted in steep foreshortening. At first glance, the painting seems to present an accurate perspective. Yet, rather than being presented at a smaller scale due to taking up a smaller portion of our field of view, the head and torso are enlarged to reflect their importance. The image is reminiscent of a reclining human figure seen from a distance through a telephoto lens. Still, the corrections made by the artist cannot be accounted for by geometric perspective. A true religion for Renaissance artists, perspective nevertheless never restricted them. On the contrary, from the moment Brunelleschi and Alberti discovered it, in the early Quattrocento (15th century), artists adapted it for their own creative purposes. In the Brera Dead Christ, Mantegna used perspective to achieve a bursting intensity in his depiction of the Passion. Portrayed in uncompromising realism in the far left, the three mourners \u2013 the Virgin, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene \u2013 accentuate the human aspects of the Passion of Christ.<\/p>\n

Marina Lambraki-Plaka
\nProfessor of Art History
\nDirector, National Gallery \u2013 Alexandros Soutsos Museum<\/p>\n

English translation: Dimitris Saltabassis<\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/section>\r\n\n\n

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Giovanni Bellini (ca 1435 – 1516) Piet\u00e0 ca 1460<\/h3>

tempera on panel, 86 \u00d7 107 cm<\/p>

Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan<\/p> <\/div>\r\n

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Andrea Mantegna (ca 1431 – 1506) Lamentation over the Dead Christ ca 1483<\/h3>

tempera on canvas, 68 \u00d7 81 cm<\/p>

Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan<\/p> <\/div>\r\n

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\r\n \r\n Download Image \r\n \r\n <\/svg>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/figure>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45494,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-75313","dokimia","type-dokimia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGiovanni Bennini & Andrea Mantegna - National Gallery<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n