Giovanni Bellini, 'The Blood of the Redeemer', about 1465

The Blood of the Redeemer

Giovanni Bellini

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Christ is shown resurrected after dying at the Crucifixion, his triumph over death reinforced by the way he cradles the Cross on which he was crucified. His body is weak and pale – we can see his ribcage, and his cheekbones stick out of his gaunt face. The focus of the image is the wound in Christ’s side, which he presses, releasing blood into the chalice held by the angel below. During a Christian Mass, such a chalice would contain wine.

Given its shape, size and subject, it is likely that the painting decorated the inside of a cupboard known as a tabernacle, which stored the host – the bread eaten at Mass. The putty-coloured patches were once blue clouds painted with cherubim and seraphim (red and blue winged angelic beings without bodies). They have been scratched out but we don't know when or why.

In-depth

Christ is shown resurrected after dying at the Crucifixion, his triumph over death reinforced by the way he cradles the Cross on which he was crucified. His body is weak and pale – we can see his ribcage, and his cheekbones stick out of his gaunt face. The wound in Christ’s side is the focus of the image; he presses it, releasing blood into the chalice held by the angel below.

It is intended to bring to mind the chalice that holds the wine of the ritual of the Eucharist (which Catholics believe transforms into Christ’s blood). By drinking the wine, Christians believe they will attain eternal life; Christ’s triumph was to achieve eternal life through his suffering. The issue of the sanctity of Christ’s blood was controversial at the time that Bellini made this picture. The Dominicans believed that Christ’s blood was divine but the Franciscans believed that it was Christ’s death, rather than his blood, that had saved humanity. It seems likely, then, that the picture was painted for a Dominican community.

Given its shape, size and subject, it seems probable that the painting decorated the inside of a cupboard known as a tabernacle, which stored the host of the Eucharist – the bread eaten at Mass. In the background of the picture a priest in a blue robe – the kind worn by some Venetian priests – is followed by a young boy in black, perhaps an acolyte. The priest carries a white cloth, perhaps the cloth used to protect the wine of the Eucharist, an appropriate reference considering the picture’s likely location. And this location might explain the painting’s good condition, apart from the area around Christ’s legs. The putty-coloured patches were once blue clouds painted with cherubim and seraphim (red and blue winged angelic beings without bodies) – they have been scratched out but we don't know when or why.

Low stone walls decorated with carvings separate Christ from the landscape. The one on the left shows a pagan sacrifice: the figure in the toga seems to be pouring water on an altar where a fire is burning and where there’s an inscription referring to an ancient rite – the worship of the manes, ancestor gods. In the other carving, two of the three figures seem to be deep in conversation, an incense burner between them. The seated figure has a long staff called a caduceus, which was traditionally carried by the pagan messenger god, Mercury. One of his roles was to accompany the dead to Hades, the underworld. The theme, again, is death. Bellini seems to be contrasting pagan rituals with the Christian rite of the Eucharist, showing how Christianity surpassed pagan religions. The priest and the acolyte in the valley behind reinforce this message. They walk away from the desolate ruins of antiquity and towards the brighter, more orderly town, where the church is the central.

Infrared reflectography revealed the underdrawing, the design that Bellini made on the panel before he began to paint. With the point of a fine brush he made simple lines, but there is considerably more detail in the angel’s drapery, where he used short, closely packed brushstrokes to show the areas of shadow in the folds. Bellini’s earliest works, like this one, are painted in tempera on wooden panels, though he used both tempera and oil in his career. His technique was incredibly precise, particularly when painting details. Usually in tempera paintings we can see individual brushstrokes, but Bellini’s were so delicate that they are imperceptible. This is no surprise – he painted miniatures at the very beginning of his career.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Blood of the Redeemer
Artist: Giovanni Bellini
Artist dates: about 1435 - 1516
Date made: about 1465
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 47.6 × 35.2 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1887
Inventory number: NG1233
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Charles Fairfax Murray
Frame: 15th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

An unidentified seal on the back. Robert Prioleau Roupell Sale, 25 June, 1887 (lot 63), bought by Murray; purchased from Charles Fairfax Murray, Clarke Fund, 1887.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Giovanni Bellini

Scuderie del Quirinale

30 September 2008 - 11 January 2009
2018

Mantegna and Bellini

The National Gallery (London)

1 October 2018 - 27 January 2019
2018

Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance

Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

1 March 2019 - 30 June 2019

Bibliography

1854

G. Milanesi, Documenti per la storia dell'arte senese, 3 vols, Siena 1854
1898

J.P. Richter, Lectures on the National Gallery, London 1898
1900

R. Fry, Giovanni Bellini, 2nd edn, London 1900
1901

A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
1907

L. Venturi, Le origini della pittura veneziana 1300-1500, Venice 1907
1909

G. Frizzoni, 'Il libro di disegni di Jacopo Bellini al Louvre', Rassegna d'arte, IX, 1909, pp. 55-60
1912

R. Fry, '"The Redeemer" by Giovanni Bellini', The Burlington Magazine, XXI/109, 1912, pp. 10-5
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1927

E. Panofsky, '"Imago pietatis": Ein Beitrag zur Typengeschichte des "Schmerzenmanns" und der "Maria Mediatrix"', in P.O. Kristeller (ed.), Festschrift für M. J. Friedländer, Leipzig 1927, pp. 261-308
1930

G. Gronau, Giovanni Bellini, Stuttgart 1930
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1935

L. Düssler, Giovanni Bellini, Frankfurt 1935
1937

C. Gamba, Giovanni Bellini, Milan 1937
1939

F. Saxl, 'Pagan Sacrifice in the Italian Renaissance', Journal of the Warburg Institute, II/4, 1939, pp. 346-67
1943

V. Moschini (ed.), Disegni di Jacopo Bellini, Bergamo 1943
1949

L. Düssler, Giovanni Bellini, Vienna 1949
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1951

R. Marini, La poetica de Giovanni Bellini, Trieste 1951
1957

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Venetian School, 2 vols, London 1957
1960

G. Robertson, 'The Earlier Work of Giovanni Bellini', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXIII/1-2, 1960
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1962

F. Heinemann, Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, 3 vols, Venice 1962
1963

S. Bottari, Tutta la pittura di Giovanni Bellini, Milan 1963
1963

M. Horster, 'Mantua sanguis pretiosus', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, XXV, 1963, pp. 151-80
1968

G. Robertson, Giovanni Bellini, Oxford 1968
1974

J. Wilde, Venetian Art from Bellini to Titian, Oxford 1974
1978

A. Braham, M. Wyld and J. Plesters, 'Bellini's "The Blood of the Redeemer"', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, II, 1978, pp. 11-24
1980

T.M. Thomas, Classical Reliefs and Statues in Later Quattrocento Religious Paintings, Ann Arbor 1980
1981

S. Coltellacci, I. Reho and M. Lattanzi, 'Problemi di iconologia nelle immagini sacre: Venezia c.1490-1510', in M. Calvesi et al., Giorgione e la cultura veneta tra '400 e '500; mito, allegoria, analisi iconologica, Rome 1981, pp. 97-112
1984

T.M. Thomas, 'The Pagan Reliefs in Giovanni Bellini's "Blood of the Redeemer"', Studies in Iconography, X, 1984, pp. 67-78
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1989

R. Goffen, Giovanni Bellini, New Haven 1989
1989

M. Lucco, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Quattrocento, 2 vols, Milan 1989
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1992

A. Tempestini, Giovanni Bellini. Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1992
1993

F. Ames-Lewis, Mantegna and 15th Century Court Culture, London 1993
1994

P. Rosenberg, Hommage à Michel Laclotte: Études sur la peinture du Moyen âge et de la Renaissance, Paris 1994
1994

A. Tempestini, 'L'approccio alla civiltà classica in Cima da Conegliano e Giovanni Bellini', Venezia cinquecento, IV/7, 1994, pp. 35-60
1999

P. Hills, Venetian Colour: Marble, Mosaic, Painting and Glass, 1250-1550, London 1999
2000

G. Finaldi, The Image of Christ, London 2000
2000

A. Tempestini, Giovanni Bellini, Maestri (Electa editrice) 14, Milan 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2003

O. Pächt, Venetian Painting in the 15th Century: Jacopo, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna, eds M. Vyoral-Tschapka and M. Pächt, London 2003
2007

F. Saracino, Cristo a Venezia: Pittura e cristologia nel Rinascimento, Genoa 2007
2007

D. Estivill, 'Corpo e Sangue di Cristo: Iconografia del sacrificio eucaristico', Arte Cristiana, XCV/843, 2007, pp. 465-72
2007

A. Wright, '"Sculptural Values": Reading Fictive Relief in Late Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century Italy', in D. Cooper and M. Leinos (eds), Depth of Field: Relief Sculpture in Renaissance Italy, Oxford 2007, pp. 223-49
2008

O. Bätschmann, Giovanni Bellini, London 2008
2008

M. Lucco and G.C.F. Villa, Giovanni Bellini, (exh. cat. Scuderie del Quirinale, 30 September 2008 - 11 January 2009), Milan 2008

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

More works by Giovanni Bellini

(Showing 6 of 14 works)

A Dominican, with the Attributes of Saint Peter Martyr

Giovanni Bellini

In 1252 Saint Peter Martyr, a Dominican friar from Verona, was assassinated in an ambush by a group of heretics. This picture was once thought to be a ‘portrait’ of the saint: we can see the hilt of a dagger which has been plunged into his heart, and a cleaver lodged in his head.X-ray imagery sho...

Not on display

Doge Leonardo Loredan

Giovanni Bellini

Leonardo Loredan knows that he is being looked at, but he does not return our gaze. He is the doge, the ruler of the Venetian Republic; elected in 1501, he ruled until his death in 1521.He wears white silk damask robes woven with gold and silver metal thread, clothing reserved for the most splend...

Not on display

Madonna of the Meadow

Giovanni Bellini

The Virgin Mary adores the Christ Child sleeping on her lap. Giovanni Bellini was one of the first Italian painters to use natural settings to enhance the meaning of his pictures. Here, the still Virgin contrasts with the landscape, where the varying shapes of the clouds, from thin and wispy to f...

Not on display

Portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino as Saint Dominic

Giovanni Bellini

Not on display

Saint Jerome reading in a Landscape

Giovanni Bellini

An elderly man, barefoot and with an impressive grey beard, is perched on a rock, engrossed in a book. This is Saint Jerome, translator of the Bible into Latin. His only companion is an endearing lion which lies peaceably in the corner – he had tamed it by removing a thorn from its paw.Bellini pa...

Not on display

The Agony in the Garden

Giovanni Bellini

Christ’s disciple Judas – visible just beyond the river, leading a group of soldiers to Christ – has betrayed him. Aware of his imminent arrest and death, Christ prays; a cherub appears and presents him with a chalice. The chalice refers to the words of his prayer: ‘My Father, if it be possible,...

Not on display

The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr

Giovanni Bellini

This scene tells the story of the murder of Saint Peter Martyr, a friar of the Dominican Order who was killed by members of the Cathars, a heretical sect whose teachings he had spoken against publicly. The saint is shown on the left – he has collapsed to his knees, an axe lodged in his skull. His...

Not on display

The Dead Christ supported by Two Angels

Giovanni Bellini

This type of image of Christ after his death – close up, showing his naked torso – originated in Byzantium (the Eastern Christian empire) but was very popular in Italy from about the thirteenth century. It was supposed to promote meditation upon Christ’s suffering and death.Christ is supported by...

Not on display

The Virgin and Child

Giovanni Bellini

During the 1470s and 1480s Bellini produced a series of small-scale images of the Virgin and Child, destined for the homes of his Venetian patrons who used them as aids to private prayer.The naked Christ lies on a marble parapet, probably intended to recall his dead body in the tomb – a reminder...

Not on display

The Virgin and Child

Giovanni Bellini

Small-scale images of the Virgin and Child made for private worship were a speciality of Bellini’s. This picture was thought to be by the artist’s assistants, but recent technical analysis showed that it was made by Bellini. The holy figures are separated from a landscape by a cloth of honour, an...

Not on display

The Adoration of the Kings

Workshop of Giovanni Bellini

In order to meet the huge demand for his paintings, Giovanni Bellini had a large workshop of assistants who produced works in his style, under his supervision – like this one, which shows the Three Kings worshipping the infant Christ. According to the Gospel of Matthew they followed a star – we c...

Not on display

The Circumcision

Workshop of Giovanni Bellini

According to the Gospel of Luke, Christ was circumcised, like all Jewish baby boys, when he was eight days old (Luke 2: 21). He is shown naked, sitting on a cushion upon a table or altar, clenching his little fists as a priest performs the ritual. His mother, the Virgin Mary, gently props him up;...

Not on display

The Virgin and Child

Workshop of Giovanni Bellini

Demand for Bellini’s small-scale images of the Virgin and Child was so high that he had a large workshop of assistants who worked under his supervision, producing paintings in his style.Here Christ is dressed in a white tunic, a gold cloth draped around his chubby body, and is propped up against...

Not on display

The Virgin and Child

Workshop of Giovanni Bellini

Small-scale images of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child made for private worship were one of Bellini’s specialities, and there was intense demand for them. Bellini had a large workshop of assistants who worked under his supervision, producing paintings in his style. This is one of those works, whi...

Not on display

You've viewed 6 of 14 works

Giovanni Bellini, 'The Blood of the Redeemer', about 1465

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Giovanni Bellini