Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

This image of the Madonna and Child is a variation of a popular composition in the oeuvre of Giovanni Bellini. Bellini, one of the most important artists in Renaissance Venice, was an early pioneer of oil painting in Italy, where tempera had long been the preferred medium. He took full advantage of the special properties of oil paint to achieve the soft luminosity and rich coloration that characterizes Venetian Renaissance painting. Bellini, perhaps influenced by the prominence of landscape in Flemish painting, also gave pastoral landscapes an important role in his religious paintings. The Eskenazi Museum of Art painting is believed to be a product of Bellini’s large workshop; some scholars have attributed it to Lattanzio da Rimini (fl. 1492–1524), one of Bellini’s most talented assistants.