Giovanni Bellini, 'Doge Leonardo Loredan', about 1501-2

Doge Leonardo Loredan

Giovanni Bellini

Not on display

About the work

Overview

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 splendid occasions, including the feasts of Candlemas and the Annunciation. The armless, half-length representation recalls classical marble busts of emperors. Often placed on plinths – recalled here by the parapet – these were adopted in the Renaissance period for sculpted portraits of the powerful and wealthy.

Bellini no doubt wanted to make this visual connection, but here he shows how he can surpass sculptural portraits through his mastery of oil paint. The subtle blending of colour in this slow-drying medium allowed him to create convincing tonal transitions when painting flesh. Oil paint also lends itself to slightly blurred contours; Loredan’s expression seems changeable, making him appear lifelike and immediate as well as distant and imposing.

In-depth

Leonardo Loredan knows that he is being looked at, but he does not return our gaze. To do so would be to treat the viewer as an equal – but Loredan is the doge, the ruler of the Venetian Republic, and so no one looking at this picture could have been equal to him. He was elected in 1501 and ruled until his death in 1521.

Loredan appears to be scrutinising something. The intensity of his gaze, which suggests his intelligence, is reinforced by the pale blue of his small, deep-set eyes. This sternness is balanced by the enigmatic expression of his mouth: the slightly deeper crease in the wrinkle to the right of his lips suggests that he is about to break into a wry, one-sided smile – a smirk, maybe. This is counterbalanced again by the light around his left eye, which gives his expression an open sincerity. It’s as though Giovanni Bellini is showing all of the doge’s potential moods and dispositions, his capacity for severity and judgement as well as a sharp wit and openness to the truth.

Previously, portraits of Venice’s doges had traditionally followed the normal conventions for portraits of rulers, showing them in strict profile. Bellini has used the more contemporary three-quarter view, popularised in the city by artists like Antonello da Messina from the 1470s onwards, to explore Loredan’s character. His brother Gentile used it too, in his portrait of Doge Agostino Barbarigo (now in a private collection), but it was Giovanni who – in this portrait – fully developed its potential for realism as well as psychological expression.

As in portraits by van Eyck and Antonello, Bellini created the illusion that the sitter is lit by a strong light source coming from the left. It allowed him to give shape to the face, and to create the impression of three-dimensionality, by painting any protrusions that catch the glare in lighter shades and the flatter areas in shadow. The effect was enhanced by Bellini’s absolute mastery of painting in oil by this stage in his career. This slow-drying medium enabled him to blend colours together, avoiding harsh transitions and making changes in tone – particularly the flesh tones – appear natural. Subtle shading enabled him to describe the skin’s texture convincingly; the skin of Loredan’s neck is soft and loose and he has very fine wrinkles around his eyes – details that record his age, seen as a crucial component of wisdom.

Loredan is shown in the white robes he would have worn on the most splendid occasions, and the contrast of white and gold against the blue background makes him appear even more striking and dazzling. The gentle curve of the horned corno ducale (dogal cap) sweeps upwards gracefully. Several widths of expensive white silk damask fabric, woven with gold and silver metal thread, were sewn together to make the mantle. The pomegranate design came from eastern Mediterranean textiles and was popular in Renaissance fabrics. Loredan himself introduced white dogal robes for the processions celebrating the feasts of Candlemas and the Annunciation. If you look closely, you‘ll see that the design is upside down; the back – the view most people would see in ceremonial processions – showed the design upright. This kind of detail indicates that Bellini was observing and recording what he saw accurately, rather than imagining it: he probably borrowed the mantle so that he could take his time to paint it.

The blue background was painted using plenty of ultramarine – one of the most costly pigments available – mixed with white. It gives the sense that, while he is separated from us by the marble parapet, the space the doge occupies is infinite. This sense of openness makes it easier to imagine that if it weren’t for the parapet we might actually be able to walk around Loredan, as though he were a sculpture – an effect almost certainly sought by Bellini. The concealed arms and half-length representation recall classical marble busts of emperors; often placed on plinths, recalled here by the parapet, these were adopted during the Renaissance for sculpted portraits of the powerful and wealthy. The deep folds of the mantle and the shadow cast by the ornamental buttons (called campanoni d‘oro, ’golden bells‘) give the impression of a stiff, solid form resembling carved stone. But the short strokes of thick paint Bellini used to achieve a slightly rough texture where the light catches the gilt thread woven through the silk remind us that this isn’t a cold stone sculpture after all.

Rather than inscribe his name onto the picture, or paint it as though it was carved into the marble of the parapet, Bellini has made it look like a casual afterthought: his signature appears on a piece of paper that looks as though it has just been unfolded and stuck onto the marble. This is an astonishing act of false modesty, as it shows off Bellini’s skill at painting a range of materials, reinforcing their different textures by painting the one on top of the other.

The council room of the doge’s palace – the seat of government and the dogal residence – was decorated with a frieze of portraits of successive doges, recording their appearance for posterity. From 1474 Gentile Bellini was responsible for these portraits, which were destroyed by fire only one hundred years later. This picture was not part of that series – it was probably painted as a private commission. A poem by Lydio Catti, published in Venice in 1502, mentions Giovanni Bellini as Loredan’s portraitist and proves this was made before 1502.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Doge Leonardo Loredan
Artist: Giovanni Bellini
Artist dates: about 1435 - 1516
Date made: about 1501-2
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 61.4 × 44.5 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1844
Inventory number: NG189
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: William Thomas Beckford
Frame: 16th-century Venetian Frame

Provenance

Two unidentified seals on the back. Acquired from the Grimani Palace, Venice, by the first Lord Cawdor, who died in 1821. Beckford Collection, Fonthill; sale catalogue of 16 October, 1822 (lot 65), but this sale was not held; not in the 1823 sale, but retained by Beckford, from whom purchased in 1844.

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

Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian

The National Gallery (London)

15 October 2008 - 18 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

1568

G. Vasari, Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori, 2nd edn, Florence 1568
1822

J. Rutter, A Description of Fonthill Abbey and Demesne, in the County of Wilts: Including A List of Its Paintings, Cabinets, and Other Curiosies, 2nd edn, Shaftesbury 1822
1822

J. Christie, Magnificent Effects at Fonthill Abbey, London, 8 October 1822 - 17 October 1822
1838

G.F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, trans. H. Lloyd, vol. 2, London 1838
1845

G. Foggo, A Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Critical Notes, London 1845
1847

R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1847
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1854

R.N. Wornum and C.L. Eastlake, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, with Biographical Notices of the Painters, London 1854
1867

A.A. Lavice, Revue des musées d'Angleterre, Paris 1867
1871

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, 2 vols, London 1871
1878

H. Blackburn, Illustrated Catalogue to the National Gallery: Foreign Schools, London 1878
1878

G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
1887

M.-F. Reiset, Une visite à la Galerie nationale de Londres, 2nd revised edn, Rapilly 1887
1888

E.T. Cook, A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery Including, by Special Permission, Notes Collected from the Works of Mr. Ruskin, London 1888
1900

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1901

A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
1927

G.F. Hill, A Corpus of Italian Medals of the Renaissance Before Cellini, 2 vols, London 1927
1937

A. de Mosto, I Dogi di Venezia, Venice 1937
1946

H. Gambier, The Doges of Venice: A Small History of the Republic of Venice, Venice 1946
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1957

B. Alexander (ed.), Life at Fonthill, 1807-1822, with Interludes in Paris and London from the Correspondence of William Beckford, London 1957
1961

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

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

S. Sinding-Larsen, 'Titian's Madonna di Ca'Pesaro and Its Historical Significance', Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, I, 1962, pp. 161-9
1972

N. Huse, Studien zu Giovanni Bellini, Berlin 1972
1978

D. Robertson, Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World, Princeton 1978
1982

G. Romanelli, 'Ritrattistica dogale: Ombre, immagini e volti', in G. Benzoni (ed.), I Dogi, Milan 1982
1984

F. Russell, 'The Cawdor Collection', Country Life, 1984, pp. 1746-80
1985

J. Meyer zur Capellen, Gentile Bellini, Stuttgart 1985
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1987

D. Ferrara, Il doge Leonardo Loredan: Politica culturale e commissioni artistiche, Phd Thesis, Rome University 1987
1988

S.M. Newton, The Dress of the Venetians, 1495-1525, Aldershot 1988
1989

R. Goffen, Giovanni Bellini, New Haven 1989
1990

L. Campbell, Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries, New Haven 1990
1990

J. Vinson (ed.), International Dictionary of Art and Artists, Chicago 1990
1990

R. Goffen, 'Piety and Politics in the Art of Giovanni Bellini', in C.M. Rosenberg (ed.), Art and Politics in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy, 1250-1500, London 1990, pp. 207-26
1991

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

D. Ferrara, 'Il Doge Leonardo Loredan e una veduta di Venezia', Osservatorio delle arti, VI, 1991, pp. 24-33
1991

D. Ferrara, 'Il ritratto del doge Leonardo Loredan: Strategie dell'abito tra politica e religione', Venezia cinquecento, I/2, 1991, pp. 89-108
1992

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

S. Simi, 'Considerazioni attorno a un busto di Leonardo Loredan', Antichità viva, XXXI, 1992, pp. 25-36
1994

E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
1994

F. Russell, 'Early Italian Pictures and Some English Collectors (documents for the History of Collecting)', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVI, 1994, pp. 85-90
1995

P. Humfrey, Painting in Renaissance Venice, New Haven 1995
1996

R.H. Smith, Concors Unanimis and Sixteenth-Century Images of the Doge of Venice, Ann Arbor 1996
1997

P. Fortini Brown, The Renaissance in Venice: A World Apart, London 1997
1997

N. Penny, Frames, London 1997
1997

G.M. Fara, 'Sul secondo soggiorno di Albrecht Dürer in Italia e sulla sua amicizia con Giovanni Bellini', Prospettiva, 1997, pp. 91-6
1997

D. Pincus, 'Mark Gets the Message: Mantegna and the Praedestinatio in Fifteenth-Century Venice', Artibus et historiae, XVIII/35, 1997, pp. 135-46
1999

B. Aikema and B.L. Brown, Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer and Titian, (exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, 5 September 1999 - 9 January 2000), Milano 1999
2000

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2001

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

L.F. Gersi, Il Rinascimento veneziano di Giovanni Bellini, Venice 2003
2004

M. Bailey (ed.), The Folio Society Book of the 100 Greatest Paintings, London 2004
2004

J. Dunkerton, 'Bellini's Technique', in P. Humfrey (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Giovanni Bellini, Cambridge 2004, pp. 195ff
2008

L. Syson et al., Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 15 October 2008 - 16 January 2009), London 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.

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