Madonna and Child 1490

Giovanni Bellini’s *Madonna and Child*, was painted using oil on panel. Consider the materials Bellini employed, and how these affect our perception. Oil paint provided a vehicle for the kind of lifelike detail that Bellini was celebrated for. It’s a slow, layered process, requiring patience and skill, and often involving studio assistants. The deep blue of Mary’s robe, made with precious ultramarine pigment, would have been particularly prized. Derived from lapis lazuli, this material was difficult to grind and mix. Its use was often carefully controlled by contracts between patrons and painters, a real display of wealth. Think of the panel itself too, likely prepared by hand with gesso, and sanded to a smooth, receptive surface. What we see is not just a representation, but an accumulation of skilled labor and material value. It speaks to the economy of artistic production in Renaissance Venice, where craft and fine art distinctions were only beginning to take shape.