Jane Glover on The Frari Triptych
’For four years in my early twenties, I lived in Venice for several months and I have returned there every year since. Among the city’s countless intoxicating treasures, this triptych in the Sacristy, tucked away from the blazing glories of the two great Titian masterpieces in the central nave, continues to stand out for me as a painting of total perfection and tranquillity.
‘The Madonna’s gaze is both serene and searching; on the right, St Benedict intriguingly turns to the viewer, rather than reverentially towards her; the two cherubs at her feet, one playing a lute, the other a recorder, balance the radiant trompe l’oeil apse above her. Henry James wrote: “Nothing in Venice is more perfect than this” and I wholeheartedly agree.’
Jane Glover is a conductor and music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. Her books include Mozart’s Women and Handel in London.
John McEwen on Bellini and the Sacristy of the Frari
The Sacristy of the Frari in Venice, this picture’s home, is where Pietro Pesaro and his wife, Franchescina Tron, are interred. The painting was commissioned by their sons, Nicholas, Mark and Benedict. The Virgin and Child are flanked by the saintly pairings of St Nicholas and St Peter, St Mark and St Benedict, patron saints of Pesaro and his sons.
On the left for the viewer, St Nicholas the miracle worker predominates; on the right, St Benedict is to the fore, wearing a monk’s habit as founder of the Benedictine Order. That St Mark is secondary seems curious, given his significance as the patron saint of Venice.
The inscription above the Virgin reads: ‘Secure gateway to Heaven, guide my mind, lead my life, may everything I do be entrusted to your care.’
Landscape glimpses between the framing pillars give a sense of the infinite. In his charming guidebook, Venice for Pleasure, the late J. G. Links draws ‘delighted’ attention to the angels below the Virgin.
The importance of the painting is indicated by the fact that Bellini signed it and included the date February 15, 1488, on the back. The sumptuous wooden frame was carved by Jacopo de Faenza.
Considered the supreme Venetian painter of Madonnas, Giovanni was the greatest of the Bellini dynasty of artists — his father was Jacopo, his brother Gentile. Andrea Mantegna was his brother-in-law and Titian and Giorgione were among his pupils. One of the Titian altarpieces in the Frari — as were many other works of art — was also commissioned by the Pesaros, a family of great distinction over several centuries.
-
How to disconnect from reality and feel like a new person in under 72 hoursOur round-up of the best British retreats that work wellness wonders in under 72 hours.
-
Evenley Wood Garden: 'I didn't know a daffodil from a daisy! But being middle-aged, ignorant and obstinate, I persisted'When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father’s flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn’t stopped her from making a great success of the garden. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
