Examining Giovanni Bellini. An Art 'More Human and More Divine'

This book presents a collection of fifteen essays on the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, one of the most innovative and influential artists of the Italian Renaissance. Long renowned for his embrace of oil technique, astute mastery of perspective, and development of landscape painting, Bellini has been admired across the ages as well for the profoundly human and deeply reverent character of his works. Aspects of Bellini's world, his oeuvre, and his legacy are examined here through a diversity of approaches, many interdisciplinary and supported by the bibliographies of theoretical writings and of specialized fields rarely or not previously brought to bear on the pictures discussed. Topics represented include the study of medicine and healing plants, plant and animal symbolism, portraiture, liturgy, antique sources, material culture and market practices, textual analysis, and collecting and reception.