to produce a sensation of stuffiness and fatigue; whereas the combination of a few figures with ample open spaces gives one a sense of exhilaration and repose. It is in the degree to which an artist stimulates our imagination through our physical experiences that he seizes and holds our interest. When Perugino left Perugia to complete his education in Florence he was a fellow pupil of Leonardo da Vinci in the sculptor’s bottegha. If he gained from the master something of the calm of sculpture, he certainly gained nothing of its force. It is as the painter of sentiment that he excelled, though this beautiful quality is confined mainly to his earlier works. For with popularity he became avaricious, turning out repetitions of his favourite themes until they became more and more affected in sentiment.
107. Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1420–1497, Italian, Scenes of the Life of Saint Joachim, c. 1490. Sinopia. Cappella della Visitazione, Castelfiorentino (Florence). Early Renaissance.
108. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Pallas Athena, c. 1490–1500. Pen and ink on paper, 18.9 × 8.7 cm. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. Early Renaissance.
109. Giovanni Bellini, c. 1430–1516, Italian, Standing Saint, date unknown. Pen, black pencil, brown wash and white lead on paper, 41 × 20 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
GIOVANNI BELLINI
(Venice, c. 1430–1516)
Giovanni Bellini was the son of Jacopo Bellini, a Venetian painter who was settled in Padua when Giovanni and his elder brother, Gentile, were in their period of studentship. Here, they came under the influence of Mantegna, who was also bound to them by ties of relationship, since he married their sister. To his brother-in-law, Bellini owed much of his knowledge of classical architecture and perspective, and his broad and sculptural treatment of draperies. Sculpture and the love of the antique played a large part in Giovanni’s early impressions, and left their mark in the stately dignity of his later style. This developed slowly during his long life. Bellini died of old age, indeed in his eighty-eighth year, and was buried near his brother, Gentile, in the Church of Ss. Giovanni e Paulo. Outside, under the spacious vault of heaven, stands the Bartolommeo Colleoni, Verrocchio’s monumental statue, which had been among the elevating influences of Bellini’s life and art. After filling the whole of the north of Italy with his influence, he prepared the way for the giant colourists of the Venetian School, Giorgione, Titian, and Veronese.
110. Giovanni Bellini, c. 1430–1516, Italian, Head of a Man with a Turban, c. 1490–1500. Pen, brown wash, white lead and black pencil on paper, 22.6 × 18.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
111. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 1439–1501, Italian, A Fortified City, date unknown. Pen and ink on paper. Chigi Saracini collection, Siena. Early Renaissance.
112. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 1439–1501, Italian, A Fortified City, date unknown. Pen and ink on paper. Chigi Saracini collection, Siena. Early Renaissance.
113. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Profile of a Child, c. 1495–1500. Red chalk on paper, 10 × 10 cm. Royal Collection Trust, London. High Renaissance.
114. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 1439–1501, Italian, Design for a Wall Monument, c. 1490. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, blue gouache on vellum, 18.4 × 18.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
115. Jean Perréal, c. 1455–1530, French, Portrait of Philippe de la Platière (1465–1499), 1495. Silverpoint on paper. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Early Renaissance.
116. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Hercules and Antaeus, c. 1490–1500. Pen and ink on paper, 24.6 × 18.4 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
117. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Judith, 1491. Pen, ink, brown wash and white lead on paper, 39 × 25.8 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
118. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Copy of a Figure from “The Death of the Virgin”, c. 1492. Metalpoint, pen and ink, brown and grey watercolour and white lead on paper, 32.3 × 10.4 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
119. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Caricature of a Man with Bushy Hair (detail), c. 1495. Pen and brown ink, 6.6 × 5.4 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. High Renaissance.
120. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, A Man Tricked by Gypsies, c. 1493. Pen and ink on paper, 26 × 20.6 cm. Royal Collection Trust, London. High Renaissance.
121. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Study of an Apostle, 1493–1495. Silverpoint, pen and brown ink on blue prepared paper, 14.6 × 11.3 cm. Albertina, Vienna. High Renaissance.
122. Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528, German, Study of Christ Child, 1495. Pen and black ink on paper, 17.2 × 21.5 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Northern Renaissance.
123. Vittore Carpaccio, 1460/1466?-1525/1526, Italian, Study for The Dream of Saint Ursula, c. 1495. Pen, ink and highlights on paper, 10.2 × 11 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
VITTORE CARPACCIO
(Venice, 1460/1466?-1525/1526)
Carpaccio was a Venetian painter strongly influenced by Gentile Bellini. The distinguishing characteristics of his work are his taste for fantasy and anecdote and his eye for minutely observed crowd details. After completing the cycles of scenes from the lives of St Ursula, St George and St Jerome, his career declined and he remained forgotten until the 19th century. He is now seen as one of the outstanding Venetian painters of his generation.
124. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Nativity, c. 1495. Black pencil, pen and ink, white lead, brown wash on paper, 16 × 25.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
125. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, c. 1499–1500. Charcoal heightened with white on paper on canvas, 141.5 × 104.6 cm. National Gallery, London. High Renaissance.
126. Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci), c. 1450–1523, Italian, Christ Rescuing St. Bernard from the Cross, 1493–1496. Sinopia. Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
127. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Saint Jerome, c. 1495. Silverpoint, white lead and black pencil on paper, 24.6 × 12.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.