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# One of the strongest impressions of this year: the series of Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/odno-iz-silneishikh-vpechatlenii-etogo-goda-seriia-madonn-dzhovanni-bellini-v-galereiakh-akademii-v-venetsii/
- Published: 2026-07-12T12:37:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:25:39.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Museums, Observations, People

One of the strongest impressions of this year: the series of Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Bellini painted this subject more than eighty times in the course of his life, so there is no better material for watching his mastery develop.

The Madonnas are on permanent display, so you can see for yourself how far the early Bellini is under the spell of Andrea Mantegna, who was, incidentally, his brother-in-law. It shows in the type of the figures, in the garlands above the Virgin's head, and in the crisp, almost sculptural contour. The first, the earliest, is closer to the Hodegetria type and the Byzantine manner, and is the most Mantegnesque of all.

The second, with the red-winged cherubim, belongs to the type of the 1480s. Over the years Bellini became acquainted with Netherlandish painting and with Antonello da Messina, and moved from tempera to oil; the figure of the Mother of God loses its contour and seems to dissolve at the edges into light. One can see that the body of the Child is picked out by light, not by outline.

The third Madonna acquires Mannerist features of the face, and the painting here is far richer and brighter, with a dramatic sky and evening light, mountains, a tower.

The summit of his development is held to be the “Madonna of the Little Trees” of 1487, where behind the Virgin there appears a green curtain, framed by two slender trees and patches of landscape with distant peaks.

Bellini's late Madonnas are not outlined by any line at all, but seem to be shaped by nuances of colour, as though they had been painted by his pupils, Giorgione and Titian. It is enthralling to watch how the pose changes, along with the position of the hands, the direction of the Virgin's gaze and her attentiveness to Christ.

I should like, one day, to see a dedicated exhibition of Bellini's Madonnas: not like a few years ago, when the Accademia showed his “Trivulzio Madonna” beside a “Madonna” by his son Jacopo, but a full retrospective. I think it would be a great event.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_20951@12-07-2026_15-37-22.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_20952@12-07-2026_15-37-22.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_20953@12-07-2026_15-37-22.jpg)