Were you looking for a list of places where you can sip the mixture of sweet white peach puree and crisp prosecco? Keep reading. I am going to start with a different Venetian Bellini.
Also, please keep in mind as you read. This is not an exhaustive list and I am not an art historian.1
“Charles is very keen on painting,” said Sebastian.
“Yes?” I noticed a hint of deep boredom which I knew so well in my own father. “Yes? Any particular Venetian painter?”
“Bellini,” I answered rather wildly.
“Yes? Which?”
“I’m afraid I didn’t know there were two of them.”
“Three to be precise. You will find that in the great ages, painting was very much a family business.”
Brideshead Revisited
Giovanni Bellini was just one of the talented members in a talented Venetian family. His father? brother? cousin? Jacopo is regarded as one of the founders of Venetian Renaissance painting. Gentile Bellini was the little brother. The brother in law was Andrea Mantegna. Giovanni was the most prolific and well known. He spent his entire life in Venice.
How lucky we are that some 500 years later so many of Bellini’s works are still inside the Venetian churches and in spaces he originally designed them for. Most churches in Venice are open from morning 8-ish until 12:30/1 and open again after 3 for a few more hours. Smaller church opening hours can be capricious.
San Zaccaria. The San Zaccaria Altarpiece shows us the Madonna and child surrounded by the saints; Peter, Jerome, Catherine of Alexandria and Lucy. It was painted in 1505. Bellini chose the left side in the church because of how the outside light fell, but this might not be not the exact spot where the piece was originally. If you look at the top of the painting you will notice a piece missing. This is because Napoleon had the painting cut from its frame and brought to France in 1787. See if you can spot the suspended ostrich egg. It is free to enter the church but you must pay to go downstairs to see the sunken crypt and the restoration works on the (not Bellini) polyptychs.
San Francesco della Vigna There is a small chapel in the left arm of the transept of the church. Sometimes the gate is closed and you will have to peer through the bars. If you are lucky you can go down a few steps and see the Madonna and Child with Four Saints and Donor.
San Giovanni Crisostomo: This church is in one of my least favorite areas of Venice. The calle is narrow and it is often very very crowded, but look past the Burger King and a Captain Candy for the faded soft pink facade. Inside to the right of the alter there is the painting, Saints Christopher, Jerome and Louis of Toulouse. Painted in 1513 this is one of Bellini’s last paintings. If you are a relic hunter like me there is a finger from the patron saint of fabric dyers, saint Onuphrius in here.
Take a break from glass shopping when you are on Murano and stop at the Chiesa Arcipretale di San Pietro Martire to see the Barbarigo Altarpiece and Madonna in Gloria con Otto Santi. I am a big fan of the many glass chandeliers here.
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