![Giovanni Bellini - The feast of the gods [1514 & additions 1529] - | by petrus.agricola](http://staging-jubilee.flickr.com/65535/52976321325_ee10f77336.jpg)
Giovanni Bellini - The feast of the gods [1514 & additions 1529] -
Giovanni Bellini -
The feast of the gods [1514 & additions 1529] -
Washington NGA Inv 1942.9.1
With this painting for the palace of Duke Alfonso I d'Este in Ferrara, the 84-year-old Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516) created his last masterpiece. It was one of the earliest large-format Venetian paintings with antique content and had a great impact, especially on Bellini's pupil Titian.
With unabashed narrative joy, Bellini places a colourful picnic party in a clearing in a poetic atmosphere between mythology and reality. The figures appear to be a court party dressed as gods, served by satyrs and nymphs made of splendid contemporary faience. Zeus (with red doublet & eagle beside him) and Apollo (sitting in front of the tree on the right & holding a Music instrument) drink copiously, Hermes (in front on the left with helmet & caduceus) observes relaxed, Poseidon (the trident lies in front of him on the right) and his Beauty prepare for love. What else happens is reported by the ancient poet Ovid in the "Fasti" (festival calendar). The fertility god Priopos tries to undress the sleeping nymph Lotis, but this is immediately thwarted by the donkey of Silenus with a warning bray - to the amusement of the others.
The landscape was added later by Dosso Dossi (right) and Titian (left).
Giovanni Bellini - The feast of the gods [1514 & additions 1529] -
Giovanni Bellini -
The feast of the gods [1514 & additions 1529] -
Washington NGA Inv 1942.9.1
With this painting for the palace of Duke Alfonso I d'Este in Ferrara, the 84-year-old Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516) created his last masterpiece. It was one of the earliest large-format Venetian paintings with antique content and had a great impact, especially on Bellini's pupil Titian.
With unabashed narrative joy, Bellini places a colourful picnic party in a clearing in a poetic atmosphere between mythology and reality. The figures appear to be a court party dressed as gods, served by satyrs and nymphs made of splendid contemporary faience. Zeus (with red doublet & eagle beside him) and Apollo (sitting in front of the tree on the right & holding a Music instrument) drink copiously, Hermes (in front on the left with helmet & caduceus) observes relaxed, Poseidon (the trident lies in front of him on the right) and his Beauty prepare for love. What else happens is reported by the ancient poet Ovid in the "Fasti" (festival calendar). The fertility god Priopos tries to undress the sleeping nymph Lotis, but this is immediately thwarted by the donkey of Silenus with a warning bray - to the amusement of the others.
The landscape was added later by Dosso Dossi (right) and Titian (left).