Venice: Color and Light

Venice, a rich trading republic built on islands in a lagoon, had its own tradition of painting. Venetian painters took up oil paint early: Giovanni Bellini was using it by the later 1400s, and the Sicilian painter Antonello da Messina, who knew Netherlandish oil technique, worked in Venice in 1475 to 1476. By 1500 Venetians often painted on canvas, which suited the damp air better than fresco did, and they built pictures from color and light.

Looking closely: Doge Leonardo Loredan. The doge, elected ruler of Venice, appears behind a stone ledge like a portrait bust, against a deep blue background. His ceremonial robe is cloth of gold and silver damask, with big buttons like bells, and every thread seems to catch the light. His face is lit from the left: thin, wise, a little amused, the wrinkles and veins painted with soft glazes. A small paper label on the ledge gives Bellini's name in Latin. Bellini built the image layer by layer, so the colors glow from within.

Looking closely: Titian's man in blue. A young man turns to look at us over his shoulder, his elbow on a ledge, his huge quilted sleeve of shimmering blue filling the front of the picture. The silk is painted with loose, quick touches of light and dark rather than sharp lines: up close it is almost brushwork alone; from a few steps back it becomes satin. Titian (about 1488 to 1576) was Bellini's pupil and became the most sought-after painter in Europe. The sitter is uncertain; he was once called the poet Ariosto, and some think he is Titian himself.