International Conference. Giovanni Bellini:“… il migliore nella pittura”

Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
plus Oct, 2728 2016

Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child with Saint John and a Saint, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia


With a career spanning fifty years dedicated to innovating Venetian painting – from the initial expressions of Humanist culture to the “maniera moderna” – and to training the many new generations of artists, Giovanni Bellini (1427-1516) was acknowledged as being “the best in painting” by Albrecht Dürer at the beginning of the 16th century. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini is now holding a major international conference on the greatest Venetian master of his age as part of the principal events organised to celebrate the fifth centenary of his death. Due to be staged on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore on the 27 and 28 October 2016, the conference has attracted experts from various countries. They are called on to explore the main aspects of Bellini’s work and some points of his artistic career requiring further study and attention. The first session will feature philological studies and stylistic and iconographic interpretations of key masterpieces, such as the Sacred Allegory in the Uffizi and Saint Ursula, plus Bellini’s relations with the leading German artist Dürer. The afternoon session will be entirely devoted to reconsidering the fundamental role played by Bellini in the advent of the modern altarpiece. The morning session on the second day will focus on his heritage by considering some of his followers who trained closely with the master and spread his teachings in the new century. The papers in the last afternoon session will address the issues of collecting and the reception of his works during the 19th-century revival of interest. Invited by an advisory committee made up of leading international experts, some renowned senior scholars and young researchers specialised in the study of the Bellini and the art of his time will make the conference a fascinating forum for the latest developments in the field, which should also appeal to a wider audience.

 Download the Conference program