| Abstrakt: |
Giovanni Bellini's signed ensemble of four small paintings, collectively known as the A//egories, in the Gallerie dell'Accademia of Venice has long counted among the most enigmatic works of his career. Usually dated c. 1485 to 1490, the group represents the artist's first extended foray into pure poetic and antiquarian subjects. The pictures likely formed part of a reste//o, or mirrored hanging rack for domestic use, belonging to the artist's follower, the painter Vincenzo Catena. Drawing on documentary evidence, early printed sources, and new study of the recently restored panels, this paper offers a fresh consideration of Bellini's paintings within the artistic milieu of late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento Venice. The study first considers the restello as a historical furniture type within the Venetian household, then explores technical and archival information regarding Bellini's panels, to arrive at an updated hypothesis for their placement within such an object. A more complete view of the pictures in situ yields new perceptions of their imagery. In contrast to traditional moralizing and allegorical interpretations, the essay explores how the works' composition, style, and subject matter relate to their early setting and to their varying contexts of appreciation: as elements of an object of magnificence and personal beautification within the domestic sphere, as minor decorative fields which encouraged artistic play and invention, and finally as parts of a collectible work of art involved in elite social and intellectual exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
