15th & 16th Centuries
Bellini, Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto

I’ll guide the Gallery Talks group through the National Gallery’s exceptional collection of Venetian Renaissance paintings on display in the newly refurbished Room 29 as well as in Room 9.

During the Renaissance period, Venice experienced a golden age of painting, transformed by a generation of artists who ran large workshops and redefined the possibilities of the application of oil paint, with access to the best quality imported pigments. Characteristics of Venetian painting include the nuanced depiction of natural light and atmosphere, emphasis on sensuous textures and deeply saturated colours, often with dynamic compositions.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Republic of Venice was one of the wealthiest, most powerful and culturally diverse city states in Europe, trading by sea with the Middle East and Asia, as well as Northern Europe.

From Bellini and Mantegna to Giorgione and Tintoretto, the development of painting and creative activity in the cosmopolitan culture of 'La Serenissima' was astonishing. Titian, the most sought-after painter in Europe, had an international clientele of dukes and monarchs and excelled at producing large-scale mythological paintings and exquisitely sensitive, characterful portraits. Artists further benefitted from generous commissions for religious, public and private works of art from a wide variety of learned Venetian patrons.