Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion

Book excerpt: Giovanni Bellini was the leading artist of the early Renaissance in Venice and the master of what was probably the largest workshop of any painter in Italy. Many of the works that are today associated with Bellini are half-length images of the Virgin and Child, a type of painting that became the mainstay of his workshop's production, where they were created and replicated in great numbers to meet the needs of private devotion. The local market was large and its demands were varied in terms of both style and quality, and the Bellini workshop accommodated these demands through standardized methods of production. The essays included in this book examine the practice of workshop replication both to understand the specific working methods of Bellini's shop and to situate artistic practice within the broader context of the demand for particular kinds of images. Ronda Kasl is curator of painting and sculpture before 1800 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Other contributors include Keith Christiansen, Antonietta Gallone, Andrea Golden, Cinzia Maria Mancuso, and David Miller.