Pietà

Giovanni Bellini's early Pietà, painted around 1455 and now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, shows the dead Christ supported in mourning. This early work reveals the strong influence of his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna in its sharp linear style and emotional intensity. The Pietà subject was central to Bellini's art—he returned to it repeatedly throughout his career, each version showing his evolving approach from Mantegnesque hardness to soft luminosity.

The early Pietà displays the sharp, linear style of Bellini's Paduan period, with crisp contours and angular drapery folds clearly influenced by Mantegna, before the artist developed his characteristic soft, atmospheric technique.