Pesaro Altarpiece (Bellini)

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Pesaro Altarpiece
ArtistGiovanni Bellini
Yearc. 1471–1483
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensions262 cm × 240 cm (103 in × 94 in)
LocationCivic Museum of Palazzo Mosca, Pesaro

The Pesaro Altarpiece (Italian: Pala di Pesaro) is an oil-on-panel painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Bellini, dated to some time between 1471 and 1483. It is considered one of Bellini's first mature works, though there are doubts on its dating and on who commissioned it. The work's technique is not only an early use of oils but also of blue smalt, a by-product of the glass industry. It had already been used in the Low Countries in Bouts' 1455 The Entombment, but this marked smalt's first use in Italian art, twenty years before Leonardo da Vinci used it in Ludovico il Moro's apartments in Milan in 1492. Bellini also uses the more traditional lapis lazuli and azurite for other blues in the work.[1]

It was originally located in San Francesco church in Pesaro in Marche, when that church was suppressed under the French occupation in 1797. The altarpiece was initially moved to the city council and after various issues it was entrusted to the city's art museum, where it still hangs.[2]

Dating

No documents survive to date the altarpiece definitively. Oils only became popular in

Staatliche Museen
, Berlin).

The work shows a number of forts, such as the one held by

Rocca di Gradara
, captured from Pesaro by Rimini in 1463, which would make the altarpiece a celebration of the capture itself or of an anniversary of it.

More recent studies by Battisti and Castelli have suggested the 1480s, linking the work's iconology to political events such as Camilla d'Aragona's regency from 1483 onwards or religious disputes of the period, such as those between the Franciscans and Dominicans. Another theory links the work to the marriage celebrations between Costanzo I Sforza and Camilla d'Aragona in 1474.

Components

Coronation of the Virgin

Coronation of the Virgin

The main central panel shows the

seraphim to its left and right. The floor is set with marble inlays, which emphasise the perspective and balance of the composition. Bellini combines lessons drawn from his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna with clear light and a synthesis between architecture, figures and landscape drawn from Piero della Francesca and the oil technique of Antonello da Messina
, both of whose work he may have seen on a possible trip to the Marche, his mother's homeland.

Pilasters

The cornice is held up by two pilasters, each 61 cm by 25 cm and each with a single deep perspective. The left hand one shows the saints

Andrew
. Many of these saints were promoted by the Franciscans around this time.

Predella

Saint Terence

Below the work is a

Franciscan order, George was linked to the Sforza court as a 'holy knight' and saint Terence (shown as a Roman soldier) was Pesaro's patron saint. Placing St George and St Terence in the prime positions at far left and far right, usually used for coats of arms, probably underlined the Sforza family's military and civic power. Behind St Terence is an ancient Roman bust above an inscription praising Augustus
and comparing him favourably with the Duke.

Pieta

Pietà

The work was previously topped by a 106 cm by 84 cm

Pieta, which breaks away from previous treatments of the theme, not showing Christ's body frontally but resting on the edge of the tomb. A servant holds Christ up from behind, whilst Nicodemus hands a jar of ointment to a kneeling Mary Magdalene
, who holds Christ's hand.

The pieta was separated from the main painting in 1797 and taken to

Pinacoteca Vaticana, where it still hangs. This Pieta was attributed to several other artists, from Bartolomeo Montagna to Giovanni Buonconsiglio, before it was finally attributed to Andrea Mantegna
. Writing in 1913, Frizzoni recognised it as the upper part of the Pesaro Altarpiece, which was then topped instead by a painting of St. Jerome. This is now the consensus view, though Ileana Chiappini argues the two works have different focal points and so were created separately and only joined together later.

Frame

This refers to Venetian funerary monuments of the same era, such as doge

San Zeno Altarpiece. Bellini further developed his use of the frame as an integral part of the painting in later works such as the San Giobbe Altarpiece and the Frari Triptych.[3]

References