San Giobbe Altarpiece
Encyclopedia
The San Giobbe Altarpiece (Italian: Pala di San Giobbe) is a c. 1487 oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

 by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini
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...

, now in the Accademia
Accademia
The Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th century art in Venice, northern Italy. Situated on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro, it gives its name to one of the three bridges across the canal, the Ponte dell'Accademia, and to the boat landing station for the...

 Gallery in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

.

History

This altarpiece is one of the masterworks of Bellini's mature period, and was painted for the second left altar of the church of San Giobbe
San Giobbe
The Church of St Job is a Roman Catholic church in Venice, northern Italy, dedicated to Saint Job. It is located in the Cannaregio, overlooking the campo of the same name, known as Sant'Agiopo in Venetian, on the left bank of the Cannaregio canal at Ponte dei Tre Archi...

 in Venice. It was inspired by the San Cassiano Altarpiece
San Cassiano Altarpiece
The San Cassiano Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, dating to 1475-1476. Commissioned for the church of San Cassiano in Venice, it is now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna...

 by Antonello da Messina (1475-1476), and absorbed and furthee developed that works innovations. The work is among Bellini's most famous, a claim made as early as De Urbe Sito, a description of Venice by Marco Antonio Sabellico (1487-1491).
The dating of the work is disputed, ranging from the early 1480s to no later than 1500. Jacopo Sansovino
Jacopo Sansovino
Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino was an Italian sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity...

 wrote in 1581 that the work for San Giobbe was Bellini's first using oil painting, which would imply an earlier date, nearer to Antonello's altarpiece.

Description

The work is an example of Holy Conversation: Mary sits on a tall marble throne, holding the Child; at her feet are three musician angels, while at the side are, in symmetrical positions, six saints. They are, one the left, Sts. Francis, John the Baptist and Job; on the right, Sts. Dominic, Sebastian and Louis of Toulouse
Louis of Toulouse
Saint Louis of Toulouse was a cadet of the royal French house of Anjou who was made a Catholic bishop. The California mission, city and county of San Luis Obispo, California, are named after him....

. The figures of the saints were imitated in numerous paintings that followed; in particular, the St. Francis of Giorgione
Giorgione
Giorgione was a Venetian painter of the High Renaissance in Venice, whose career was cut off by his death at a little over thirty. Giorgione is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are acknowledged for certain to be his work...

's Castelfranco Madonna
Castelfranco Madonna
The Madonna and Child Between St. Francis and St. Nicasius, also known as Castelfranco Madonna, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giorgione executed around 1503...

is nearly identical to Bellini's one in this work. The child's feature are very similar to those in the Contarini Madonna
Contarini Madonna
The Contarini Madonna is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from c. 1475-1480 now in the Accademia Gallery in Venice.-Description:...

, also housed in the Accademia Gallery.

The upper part features a perspective coffered ceiling, flanked with pillars which are copies of the real ones at the original altar. Behind the Madonna is a dark niche. In the latter's half-dome is a gilt mosaic decoration in the Venetian style.
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