Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan

Giovanni Bellini's Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, painted around 1501 and now in the National Gallery, London, is perhaps the most famous portrait in Venetian painting. The doge's official robes of white and gold damask, rendered with extraordinary precision, and his calm, authoritative expression create the definitive image of the Venetian head of state. Loredan served as doge from 1501 to 1521 and led Venice through the crisis of the War of the League of Cambrai.

Bellini achieves extraordinary illusionistic effects in rendering the damask robe's pattern, the buttons, and the corno ducale, while the warm flesh tones and serene expression demonstrate his complete mastery of oil portraiture at the turn of the century.