Giovanni Bellini was known for his different approach in colours. He was noticed when he had painted over the altar in “the little church of San Zaccaria in Venice” in 1505 on his old age. It wasn’t that his colours were bright and vibrant, but had a mellowness and richness that impressed the viewer before even looking at what it the picture represented. Such as with the San Zaccaria alterpiece, where as the colours aren’t bright, but they still feel like they are full of a sort of glory. Bellini was able to breathe life into his paintings with simple symmetry and keep their original grace and dignity. Giovanni Bellini was able to make use of colour schemes to unify his pictures. Such as in the piece, called “St. Jerome in the Desert”. He used an earthy colour for most of the piece, including the background in which he used a darker, mellow green for the rolling hills, the sky is simple and a light and pale blue and doesn’t interfere with the foreground and enhances everything else in the painting. He used a clean white for St. Jerome’s white clothes to make him pop from the rest of the painting, using the same pure white for the pages of the bible to make him look even more saintly. Giovanni Bellini was able to make use of colour schemes to unify his pictures. In “Madona del Prato” he was able to use a triangle to create symmetry between the sections of the painting. The way he positioned the virgin Mary into a triangle puts her in a stable shape. Her colours are not too bright but brighter than the background, causing the eye to shift towards her, as well as how Jesus in her lap is the same colour as the building in the background yet has a brighter look to him combined with Mary’s deep blues and cooler tones.
San Zaccaria Alterpiece, 1505
https://medium.com/@chrisjones_32882/how-to-read-paintings-bellinis-san-zaccaria-altarpiece-b54acac7ea03
St. Jerome in the Desert, 1505
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jerome_in_the_Desert_(Bellini,_Birmingham)
Madona del Prato, 1505
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giovanni-bellini-madonna-of-the-meadow
Transfiguration of Christ, c.1480 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Christ_(Bellini)
Pietà, c.1505
https://pinacotecabrera.org/en/collezione-online/opere/pieta-giovanni-bellini/
Gombrich, Ernst Hans Josef. The Story of Art. Phaidon, 2018.