Focus on this artwork and discuss the History and description.
One of Bellini's last works, it still shows him adapting to innovations by Titian and Giorgione and incorporating elements of the Vesperbild, the German variant on the pietà. Albrecht Dürer was in Venice at this time and the work's contorted hands and sharply defined drapery recall his work. It was the last pietà Bellini painted, around the same time as the San Zaccaria Altarpiece.
A lawn encloses the figures, suggesting the Marian symbol of the hortus conclusus. Behind it is a desert with a symbolic fig tree, as well as buildings based on the structures in Vicenza (the duomo, the Torre, the Basilica Palladiana), Ravenna (the bell tower of Sant'Apollinare) and Cividale (its Ponte del Diavolo, a bridge over the Natisone).
duomo Natisone San Zaccaria Altarpiece Vicenza Titian Basilica Palladiana Sant'Apollinare Ravenna Venice Cividale fig tree Giorgione pietà Albrecht Dürer hortus conclusus