Polyptych of Saint Vincent Ferrer by Giovanni Bellini, 1470s
Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo (San Zanipolo)
Campo S.S. Giovanni e Paolo
Venice, September 2012
“Keith Christiansen labelled it perverse to attribute this crucial work of the Venetian Renaissance to anyone other than Giovanni Bellini, with the exception of the predella, for which Bellini had perhaps supplied the design. For Christiansen, the polyptych of St Vincent Ferrer represented the sum of BeIlini's strivings towards artistic maturity during the 1460s, under the influenee of Mantegna. He demonstrated a new mastery in the two enormous figures of Christopher and Sebastian in particular, and in the heads, turned upwards and illuminated from below, he took up the challenge represented by Mantegna's depiction of Assumption of the Virgin in the Ovetari chapel in Padua. St Vincent Ferrer, who stands on a bank of clouds and is surrounded by cheruhs, now black through oxidization, is Bellini's first contribution to the rendering of a saint in glory.” (Oskar Bätschmann, Giovanni Bellini)
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