Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Bernardino of Siena
Jacopo Bellini·1459
Historical Context
Jacopo Bellini's Saints Anthony Abbot and Bernardino of Siena from 1459 is one of the few surviving signed and dated works by the patriarch of the Bellini dynasty, whose notebooks of architectural and compositional drawings profoundly influenced his sons Gentile and Giovanni. Jacopo worked in a transitional moment between late Gothic and early Renaissance, and this panel shows him absorbing the new approach to spatial construction and figure modeling while maintaining decorative qualities from his International Gothic training under Gentile da Fabriano. The pairing of the desert father Anthony with the fifteenth-century Franciscan reformer Bernardino spans a millennium of Christian sanctity, their combination appropriate for an altarpiece serving a devotional community that venerated both ancient asceticism and contemporary spiritual renewal. The painting is important evidence for understanding the stylistic foundation from which the Bellini family's revolutionary achievement developed.
Technical Analysis
The tempera on poplar panel shows Jacopo's refined technique, with precise gold tooling in the saints' haloes and vestments. The figures' monumental presence and the careful rendering of their attributes demonstrate the transition from International Gothic elegance to Renaissance solidity.
Provenance
Possibly Gattamelata chapel, Basilica del Santo, Padua.[1] private collection, The Netherlands;[2] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 8 April 1981, no. 124, as by C. Crivelli). (Piero Corsini, New York);[3] private collection, New York, by 1984;[4] (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London and New York); sold 1989 to private collection;[5] gift (partial and promised) 1990 to NGA;gift completed 2018. [1] This was the first chapel to the right entering the church, dismantled in 1651 when it was transformed into the chapel of the Sacrament (see Marcantonio Michiel, _Notizia d'opere di disegno_, 2nd rev. ed., ed. Gustavo Frizzoni, Bologna, 1884: 7-8). This earlier provenance is hypothetical; for a complete discussion see the NGA systematic catalogue entry by Miklòs Boskovits in Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al., _Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art_, Washington, D.C., 2003: 89-94. [2] See Peter Humfrey, _Gothic to Renaissance. European Painting 1300-1600_, exh. cat., Colnaghi, London and New York, 1988: 26. [3] See Colin Eisler, "'Saints Anthony Abbot and Bernardino of Siena' Designed by Jacopo and Painted by Gentile Bellini," _Arte Veneta_ XXXIX (1985): 40, n. 6. [4] According to a letter of 22 June 1984 from the collector to Miklòs Boskovits (copy in NGA curatorial files). [5] Nicholas H.J. Hall, ed., _Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi in New York_, New York, 1992: 37.
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