Fortune

Giovanni Bellini's Fortune of around 1490, one of a series of allegorical figures painted for a Venetian patron, depicts the goddess Fortuna with her characteristic attribute of the wheel or sphere on which she stands, turning the fates of men. The allegory reflects the Humanist engagement with classical mythology that was transforming Venetian intellectual culture in the late fifteenth century, and Bellini's treatment demonstrates his ability to move between sacred and secular subject matter while maintaining the formal quality that made him Venetia's supreme painter.

The allegorical figure is painted with the same careful technique Bellini applied to his religious works, the symbolic attributes rendered with clarity while the figure itself maintains the serene, contemplative quality of his devotional Madonnas.