Frari Triptych

The Frari Triptych, also known as the Pesaro Triptych, is an oil-on-panel work that Giovanni Bellini signed and dated 1488 on the Virgin's throne. A label on the back gives a more precise completion date, 15 February 1488, though the painting may have taken several years, so he probably began it around 1485. It hangs today in the basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.

The central image shows the Virgin and Child enthroned, flanked by two angel musicians. On the left stand Saint Nicholas of Bari and Saint Peter; on the right, Saint Mark, patron of Venice, and Saint Benedict. Dividing the panel into compartments looks somewhat old-fashioned, and the patron may have requested it, but Bellini turns it to his advantage by weaving the painted architecture into the frame, which he designed himself. In this way he extends the illusionism he had explored in the San Giobbe Altarpiece.

The Virgin wears a deep blue mantle and sits on a tall marble throne under golden light, within an apse in the Byzantine-Venetian manner. At the sides, narrow strips of landscape hint at a wide space stretching beyond the panel. The trompe-l'oeil apse carries a Latin inscription that may be rendered: "Certain gate of heaven, guide my mind, direct my life; may everything I do be entrusted to your care."

The work matters because it shows Bellini joining the traditional altarpiece format to a spatial and luminous approach that shaped later Venetian painting.

Painter

Giovanni Bellini

Date

1488

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

115 × 46 cm

Museum

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice

Genre

religious art

Depicts

angel, boy, Mark the Evangelist, Saint Peter, Mary, Benedict of Nursia, Saint Nicholas, woman

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