The Presentation at the Temple is painting by the Italian Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 artist Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...

. Dating to c. 1455, it is housed in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum in Berlin, Germany. It holds one of the world's leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. It is located on Kulturforum west of Potsdamer Platz. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas...

, Germany.

History

The date of the painting is unknown, but it belongs to the painter's youth in Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

. Date ranges from 1453, when Mantegna married Nicolosia Bellini, daughter of painter Giovanni

Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it...

, and 1460 when he left for Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

. Bellini's Presentation at the Temple

Presentation at the Temple (Bellini)

The Presentation at the Temple is a painting of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple by the Italian master Giovanni Bellini, dating to c. 1460. It is housed in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, in Venice, Italy.-History:...

, explicitly inspired by Mantegna's, dates to around the latter year.

Description

The scene is set within a marble frame. The cushion on which the Child lies stands on it and partially juts out.

The Virgin Mary, in the foreground, is holding the Child while a bearded priest is near her. At the center, in penumbra, is Joseph with an aureola

Aureola

An aureola or aureole is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure...

. Also in the background, at the sides, two spectators without aureola have been identified as possibly Mantenga's self-portrait and a portrait of his wife.

Sources

• La Grande Storia dell'Arte - Il Quattrocento, Il Sole 24 Ore
  Il Sole 24 Ore
  Il Sole 24 Ore is an Italian national daily business newspaper owned by Confindustria, the Italian employers' federation.It was founded on 1965-11-09 as a merger between Il Sole, founded in 1865, and 24 Ore, founded in 1946. The headquarters are in Milan...
  
  , 2005
• Kleiner, Frank S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 13th Edition, 2008
• Manca, Joseph. Andrea Mantegna and the Italian Renaissance, 2006