Lehman Madonna

The Lehman Madonna by Giovanni Bellini, painted around 1470 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Lehman Collection), represents the artist's middle period when he was transitioning from the hard Paduan manner to the softer, atmospheric style that would define his mature work. The half-length Madonna and Child format was Bellini's most frequently painted subject, and he elevated the type from conventional devotional image to profound meditation on maternal love and divine sacrifice.

Bellini's technique shows the transition from tempera to oil, with the figure still retaining firm Mantegnesque contours but with warmer, more blended flesh tones that anticipate his later atmospheric innovations.