Favourite Works From Mutations 2025 Art Exhibition

This year, the theme of the contemporary art exhibition Mutazioni (Mutations) was "The Signs".

Mutazioni is an annual art event in our town, Schio (VI) in the north-east of Italy. It is usually organised around the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. 

Since this year's theme was a bit abstract, the exhibits were very different. A distinguishing feature of this years' exhibition was a series of exhibits from different countries of Africa from the personal collection of artist and art-collector Bruno Sandonà.

As always, there was a lot to see and admire in the exhibition. In this post, I want to present some of my favourite art-works from the Mutazioni 2025.

The picture on the left is from an installation created by a group of artists from a cooperative working with marginalised persons and disabled persons called Coop Libra that I had liked very much.

A few exhibits seemed familiar to me, they were similar to those presented in earlier editions of Mutazioni exhibitions. So I have excluded them from this list.

Let me start with a hand-painted dress. You can click on the images for a bigger view. 

Hand-Painted Silk by Daria Tasca and Annamaria Iodice

Daria Tasca from Treviso is known for her art combined with woven materials. This time, she was joined by Annamaria Iodice, a sculptor, painter, designer and performer from Naples.

The two artists took a piece of silk woven in early 1950s, hand-painted it and created a two-piece dress out of it, wrapped around a framework of iron, copper and aluminium. It was inspired by the digital prints of an art-work called "The Earthquake" by Slavia Janeslieva and Teona Milieva.

Last year, in the Mutazioni 2024 exhibition, Daria had joined with a ceramic artist Vania Sartori to create a somewhat similar artwork focusing on ceramics, while this year the focus was on painting. I think that works like this are important to remind ourselves that art may not only be in the exhibits but even be worn by persons.

Ceramic Dresses of Lorenzo Gnesotto

There was another artist in the exhibition focusing on wearables. He had used ceramics for creating "dresses", though his interpretation of this idea was completely different. 

Lorenzo is from Bassano del Grappa. His artworks included 3 quirky ceramic "dresses" made from Terracotta bound by elastic fibres. Through the use of different kinds of clays for making the terracotta pieces, it gave them different colours and designs.

More than dresses, they seemed like body-decorations. They also remind me of the metal nets and armours used by medieval soldiers to protect their bodies.

Origami Sculptures and Sound-Installations by Silvia Tedesco

This artwork was by Silvia from Vicenza and it included three round bases on which origami sculptures covered with resins were placed. At the same time, each sculpture was associated with a specific soundscape. In fact, she describes her art as "Talking Artwork".

One of the sculptures, called "the Soul Dance" had dragonfly-shaped origami, another called "Dream and Bubble Soap" had soap bubbles and the third one called "Carpe-Diem" had the Japanese Kohako-Koi fishes. Click on the image for a bigger view.

Monotype Incision Prints by Manuela Simoncelli

Manuela was born in Australia and has her workshop in Mussolente (VI). For the past few years, she has been experimenting with incisions. Apart from her work as an artist, she is also a Jazz singer.

 She had three monotype prints in the exhibition, they were titled Rhythm 1-2-3. One had the silhouette of a woman reading a book, second with a girl and third, a woman with a mobile phone. She first makes the incisions using soft-wax and dry-point and then uses toner transfer for creating unique monotypes.

Abstract Art by Stefania Righi

Stefania is from Vicenza and she had three paintings in the exhibition. Her art tends towards abstract, using mixed material techniques by using materials like stucco and cementite along the oil and acrylic colours to create textured art-works.

I loved her art. For example, the painted shown above, felt like looking at a Zen garden with its soft colours, and hidden forms and shapes that seemed to come out of and disappear in the fog.

Art Works by Bruno Sandonà

Bruno Sandonà from Pastina is both an artist as well as, an art-collector. In the Mutations 2025 exhibition, there were 3 of his artworks. It also had a whole section dedicated to his collection of the art-objects from Africa.

From his art works, I have chosen one of his paintings for this post (left). It had a raw energy and seemed to be inspired by his collection of African art.

I also liked his ceramic-leg sculpture in the exhibition.  

There was a big collection of art objects from different parts of Africa, especially from the countries of West Africa.

About his art-works collection from Africa, in the images below you can see a sculpture that has a kind of ritual container placed on the legs of the two persons. It is from the Dogon people in Mali.

Abstract Paintings by Davide Piazza

Davide Piazza is the president since 2003 of the well-known art-circle La Soffitta located in Vicenza. Apart from being a well-known artist, he is known as a teacher, as he conducts courses of oil painting.

In the exhibition, there were three of his artworks, all three were in shades of blue and yellow. They reminded me of lakes and sand-dunes, with undefined borders, and seemed to transmit serenity and joy.

Hyper-Realism of Giovanni Meneguzzo

Giovanni Meneguzzo, who presented 3 paintings in this exhibition is originally from Malo and now lives in Olmi di Treviso. Malo had 2 other artists from the Meneguzzo family (Giobatta and Corrado) but I am not sure if Giovanni is related to them.

His three paintings in the exhibition, were in hyper-realism style. One had the autumn leaves, another had a discarded cardboard box  used for a gift and the third had left over stuff along with with an old demijohn wine-bottle. I liked all three of them.

Giovanni started as a teacher in an art school. His passion has been to collect left-over stuff such as old leaves, clay, bottles, etc. and create his artworks based on them or by using them in his art.

Absence-Essence Installation by Francesco Risola

The installation had a tree-stump surrounded by dry and cracked earth, on which shadows of a moving tree-leaves were being projected. Thus, the essence or the echo of the tree that had been there in the past was being evoked in the installation by the projection of the shadows of the tree.

The artist seemed to focus his art to share his emotions about thoughtless and meaningless destruction of the nature.

I liked this installation and its idea of projecting the moving shadows of a tree on the tree-stump & cracked dry earth. I felt that it expressed very well the impermanence of life.

Sara Zilio's Flowing Matter

Sara Zilio is an artist from Schio. She had only one artwork in the exhibition, an acrylic painting that seemed like different colours flowing on a liquid surface, sometimes blurring and sometimes separate, tending towards each other like the extended fingers of man touching the divine in Michaelangelo's fresco in the Sistine chapel.

A friend who was visiting the exhibition with me, didn't like it, he said that it reminded him of snakes. So as you can see, choosing favourite artworks is very subjective and his choice of favourites would have been very different from mine. 

Flavio Pelligrini's Abstract Art

Pellegrini's work in the exhibition was one of the most unusual one for me in this exhibition. Pelligrini likes to work with wood, but not by creating usual wood sculptures. Instead, he uses his passion for information technology (IT) to create very unusual abstract art with the wood.

For example, you can click on it and enlarge the above image of Pellegrini's work to look at how he has created it by mixing together wood and IT. I felt that looking at it can be a transcendental experience, guiding our minds towards a meditation on infinity. 

To Conclude: Metamorphosis by Coop Libra

Let me conclude this post with another installation, which I liked very much.

It was a group work made by different persons from a cooperative based in Romano d'Ezzelino that works with marginalised and disabled persons. They had created it under the guidance of art-therapist Valentina Grotto.  

The installation had a mannequin in the centre, who represented the Butterfly-Goddess that is transforming from the Pupa to the Butterfly, and was covered by plastic bags. The central figure was surrounded by a spiral made from individual art-works on paper and clothes. 

Apart from the idea underlying this installation, I felt that visually it created a stunning impact.

If you liked looking at my favourite works from this years Mutazioni exhibition, perhaps you would like to check similar posts about previous editions of Mutazioni - 2021-22 edition and the 2024 edition 

*** 

Art and Dance: Two Passions of Lucio Mantese

As a child, Lucio Mantese had 2 passions - art and dance. Born in a humble family, where his father ran a Meat-shop in Schio, he went started working when he was fifteen. Yet, with his grit and determination, he has been able to create a life for himself, both as a successful artist and a dancer.

I am always trying to write about the creative persons, especially artists living in Schio and Alto-Vicentino, and it was a long time that I wanted to write about Lucio. He has an art gallery in the city and 2-3 years ago, I had told him that I wanted to interview him.

Recently (October 2025), there was an exhibition of five artists in the historical Toaldi Capra palazzo in Schio's city centre. Lucio was one of them. This gave me finally an opportunity to talk to him. This post tells his story in his own words. Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

Sunil: Lucio, you don't live in Schio any more, instead you live in Cogollo del Cengio. What happened, how did this decision of moving out came about?

Lucio: As a boy, I always wanted a home surrounded by greenery. I heard about this land in mountain in Cogollo del Cengio, which was surrounded by the forest and there I found the terrain to realise my dream. At that time, I didn't have enough money to buy it, so I had to take a bank loan, which I paid slowly. It is my dream home.

Sunil: Tell me about your interest for art.

Lucio: Already in the primary school, my teachers used to bring me the pictures of their children, asking me to make their portraits. This helped me to avoid mathematics, which I used to find very difficult. It was a God-given gift. When people ask me where did I learn painting, I tell them ask Pavarotti where did he learn to sing like that. It is a talent, a gift which I had.

Sunil: You didn't study art?

Lucio: I followed the great artists. For example, I learned from important painters who would make still life or landscapes. I could visit their art-studios, see them at work and learn from them. The person who first taught me art was Cesare Valle, though I am mostly self-taught. I did study for a couple of years at the Academia in Venice.

Another thing which helped me to learn art was an art-gallery owner who used to bring me renaissance period art for making their copies. I did this work for about 15 years and that was a big learning period for me, because to have the art-works of renaissance artists, to study them, to see how they had created and to recreate that. I was about 30 years old at that time when I started doing these copies of the famous art works.

Sunil: But the famous artists are so diverse, each with his own way of designing and using colours, how did you learn how to copy such different styles?

Lucio: I can copy only renaissance period art. This style requires that I first make a background like with water-colours, so that the art work does not start on a white canvas, but on another background such as grey. Then I let it dry. I work in layers and after each layer, I have to let it dry. This way of covering with layers of veils is important for renaissance period art.

For example, the blue cloaks that are part of the renaissance paintings by famous artists - I first paint it in black and white, and then with transparent veils of ultramarine or another shade of blue, I would cover it. The parts underneath which are dark remain dark and the parts which were white, they show the colours, but this gives a light to the colours.

Sunil: These specific techniques, how did you learn them?

Lucio: Now there are YouTube channels where you can learn everything, but I had the books of the famous artists in which they explained their way of working.

Sunil: Do you try to recreate such works with old pigments which were used in that period?

Lucio: No, I use the normal colours available in the market. Raffaello used beautiful pigments which continue to be beautiful even 500 years later. The modern colours, they started to be used by artists like Van Gogh, but his famous blues are becoming black. So we don't know what will happen to them.

Sunil: Among the renaissance period artists that you have duplicated, who do you like most?

Lucio: I love the works of Caravaggio. At the time he was painting, he was criticised because his figures looked real, they did not respect the artistic canons of that period. For example, look at the Madonna in this work, she looks like a poor pilgrim woman (points to a copy of a Caravaggio painting he has made). This is similar to our modern sensibility while many other renaissance figures in the paintings they are idealised, they look like the pictures of the saints.

Sunil: Tell me about this self-portrait, with the mountains and the river behind you.

Lucio: This is a recent work, I have painted myself sitting in my garden. It shows our mountains - Colletto di Velo, Summano and Pasubio. The one you call 'river', in reality there is a road passing there, I replaced it with a mountain path. I keep on making self-portraits and when I don't like it any more, I make a new one. I like this one because I think that it shows intensity.

Sunil: Apart from making copies, what other kind of paintings you like to make?

Lucio: I like the local landscapes of Veneto, I like to show them as dream-like landscapes. However, 90% of my work is making portraits commissioned by the people. They bring me the photographs. For example, a man brought me the picture of his wife when she was young and they had gone to some tropical country for their honeymoon. So when I made her portrait, I added more beauty to her and added a tropical background to it. He cried when he saw it, said that I had given him a wonderful memory of his wife.

Sunil: It is beautiful. How much time you need to make something like this?

Lucio: I am quick. Drying needs time, if it is a sunny day or I use a heater, it reduces that time. If we don't count that I can do it in a week.

Sunil: Do you paint everyday?

Lucio: From 9 in the morning, as long as there is sunlight, I am very disciplined. When I am working for too long, then I take a break by going to work in my garden. I look after the garden of our home.

Sunil: Apart from art, you are also passionate about dance, tell me about it.

Lucio: When I was twenty, there was a couple with whom I was very friendly, they loved dancing. Going out with them, I also started dancing, and I joined a dancing school. After the first lesson, I decided that I loved it and I wanted to do it for living. I saw the light, I said that I want to teach dancing. I studied dance in Padua, from one of the greats of dancing, a world champion and to learn from him I used to go to him from midnight till one in the night. Then became a professional and later opened my own dancing school.

I stopped the meat shop of my family that we had, even if my father was very upset about it, because that was the family activity - my father, brothers, grandfather had all worked there. Ten years later, he told me that he was wrong and that I had taken the right decision.

Sunil: Do you still have that dance school?

Lucio: Even though now I am old, but my dance school continues to work that to my son Daniele, who is twenty-six years old. He is national level dancer in Italy for standard dance and Latin dances. I took him to learn dance when he was six. Initially he was not very keen but I told him, when you grow up then you can decide if you want to continue it or not. When he became 18, he said that he wanted to continue it, he was already considered an A-level dancer. Eighteen is too late to start learning dancing, you need to start earlier. Thanks to him and his partner, our dancing school has found a new vitality.

Sunil: Thanks Lucio for giving me your time.  

You can check and contact him through Lucio's Facebook and Instagram pages, there you can also see pictures of his dance school and his son Daniele.

*** 

An Artist and His Grand-Daughter

Recently, we had an unusual art exhibition in Schio (click on the pictures for a bigger view).

It presented the works of a hidden artist, someone who had a passion for art, even while he worked in a wool factory and as a house-painter, white-washing the homes. And it was organised by his grand-daughter Alice who had promised her grandfather Romano Benazzi that one day she will organise an art exhibition for him.

The exhibition was called, Nonno Raccontami Un Quadro (Grandpa, tell me a picture).

Romano Benazzi's Life-Story

Romano was born in a village near Ferrara (Italy) in 1941. During the second World War, his father died while fighting in Ukraine. Raised by a single mother, he started working in the fields at a young age. When he was sixteeen, under a Government programme, he came to spend some days with a family in Pieve Belvicino, a few kilometres north of Schio in north-east part of Italy.

A couple of years later, he came back to Pieve in the same programme, but this time a guest of another set of families. Both these experiences created in him strong links of family and friendship, and he fell in love with the beauty of this mountainous area.

He found work with a local firm engaged in painting houses. It was also the period when he started sketching with pencil and charcoal. He fell in love with a local girl, and thus found his wife Gina, who worked in a bar in Pieve. He also took on a second work, at the Lanerossi wool mills of Pieve, while they came to live in Magre area of Schio. They had two children, Guido and Daniela.

Over the years he continued with his passion for art, experimenting with different art mediums including oil paints. After his retirement, he devoted himself completely to his art, in spite of developing Parkinson disease (a disease which causes tremors in hands and difficulties in movements).

Romano lives in a house of elderly persons and even if Parkinson disease limits his manual capabilities, in fact sometimes he doesn't like the results of his efforts, but he still continues to be an artist. The image below has one of his recent sketches with charcoal, where frustrated by his lack of control over his hand movements and unhappy with the result, he covered it with charcoal.

Conclusions

In these pictures you can see some of his works. I was deeply touched by the idea of his grand-daughter Alice, daughter of his son Guido, to honour her grand-father's works and to organise this exhibition in collaboration with the Municipality of Schio.

Though Romano Benazzi remains an unknown painter, his works remain confined to the homes of his family and friends, it is important that they were celebrated by his family and community.

 

*** 

Sareo 2025 Street Art Festival

Schio's annual street art festival "Sareo" was held in the last week of June 2025. During this festival, the artists living in and around Schio are invited to put up their recent works for display in Via Pasubio in the city centre.

The old name of Via Pasubio was Via Sareo, which explains the name of this festival, which goes back to almost fifty years - it was suspended during the Covid years. The image below shows a view of the street with the art works. (You can click on any of the images below for a bigger view)

I want to share some of the art-works from this year's festival, that I liked. Our response to creative works including art, poetry, books, is very subjective. Thus, I am sure that some of the works that I liked, may not seem special to you and you would have chosen completely different works.

I am very fond of water-colour landscapes but this year, I didn't find any such landscape which I found outstanding. However, I also like abstract compositions and there were a few this year, which I liked.

These artists-artworks are not in any particular order.

Winner of Sareo 2024 - Giannino Scorzato: A jury of artists chooses the best artist, winner of Sareo festivals. Last year's winner was Giannino Scorzato from Valdagno. This year,  a solo exhibition of his works was held at the Toaldi-Capra palazzo as a part of Sareo festival.

A self-taught artist, Scorzato is also a mountaineer. He had started with oil paintings, but now he expresses himself mainly in beautiful and amazingly detailed pencil sketches. You can see one of his works from this exhibition in the image below, a portrait of a young girl.

I thought that this landscape by Teresa Vallese captured very well the special light, the landscape and the sea of Mykonos island, with its white houses, with its predominent blue and white colours in a simple way.

I liked the next painting because of its palette of pale colours, the diaphanous-delicate look and the way the flowers and abstract designs foreground the female figure. It is by Antonia Bortoloso from Schio, who is known for her feminine portraits and figures. There were two of her works in this edition of Sareo and I liked both of them. 

The next work has Australian aboriginal masks in pointillism style by Raffaella Rigadello - it reminded me of Andy Warhol's pop-art posters because of their colours and graphics. A handwritten note fixed near the artwork, probably written by the artist, pointed about the subjugation of Aboriginal people in Australia by the European settlers.

Mari Baldisserotto's water-colour of a beautiful girl with blue eyes made me think of the photograph of the Afghan girl by Steve McCurry which was used as cover-pic for National Geographic in 1985. I liked its colour composition and the girl's expression.

I like the way Giuseppe (Beppe) Fochesato uses shafts of light in his interiors. He had a few works in the festival and the one I have chosen has an old portico, probably from an old church with a door at the end. I love its colours and atmosphere.

The next is a water-colour by Egidio Carotta and it has a flower-pot fixed to the wall next to a gate. The painting gets its charm from the contrast in the colours of the bricks of the house, where red bricks are used to create a visual impact and give a shape to the painting.

I also liked the delicate flowers in the water-colour painting by Emanuela Minà from Schio. It had beautiful colours and composition. She also had another water-colour painting in the exhibition, but I liked this one more. 

The painting of a black galleon ship against an abstract background dominated by green colour, made me think of the film Pirates of the Caribbean and captain Jack Sparrow. I liked its dream like abstract effect. It is by Fabiola Carmelini.

Let me conclude by 3 works which I liked most in this year's Sareo. The first is an abstract composition by Luigi Bernardi. I would have preferred its lower part to be less definite and with paler colours, but still I found it intriguing.

The second is titled "Boy with a neckless" and is by Lorenzo Zanello. I liked its colours and the guy's expression. Every time I looked at it, it made me smile. It also reminds me of a guy I knew.

My favourite piece of art this year was this abstract work by Claudio dal Prà from Chiuppano. I am not able to explain why I liked it but I loved its complex colours, hidden figures and its composition. I like art which pulls me in and I can spend a long time trying to understand why I like it.

Conclusions

I think that it is very difficult for an artist to create a completely distinctive style, so that as soon as you see it you can say that it is by that artist. This also means that when you see works that use that style, you can say that this artist is inspired by that one.

However, developing a distinct style can also become a prison - then people expect you to keep on repeating that style forever. In that sense, creating a style of abstract art is much better because it can give you more freedom as an artist.

Regarding the artists whose works I have presented in this post, I was surprised that only a few of them have a social media presence. I feel that many of them, especially those who have not sacrificed years of life in the pursuit of art and have done other works while keeping art as a passion for the weekends or retirement, feel shy of calling themselves as artists and talking about their art.

***** 

János Géczi - Artist in Schio

János Géczi, the well-known Hungarian writer, poet and artist was in Schio in the beginning of March 2025. Some of his works created during his stay in the city are expected to be a part of Schio's DiCarta Paper-Art Biennale planned for 2026-27.

During his stay in Schio, János was accompanied by his friend and garden-architect, Zsolt Ambrus, who also acted as his translator.

I had an opportunity to meet János on 12th March, and to talk to him about his work. This post is based on that meeting.

Artists in Schio

Though Schio (VI) is a tiny town in the Alpine foothills in the north-east of Italy, it has a vibrant cultural and artistic life. The city has a rich calendar of artistic events including the DiCarta Papermade Biennale organised by the Commune of Schio. These events often bring to the city important artists and opportunities for interacting with them.

The next Papermade Biennale in Schio is being planned for 2026-27 and will be curated by Valeria Bertesina and Roberto Nassi.

János Géczi and His Creative Evolution

János was born on 5 May 1954 in a small town called Monostorpályi in Northern part of Hungary. His family members were mostly peasants and manual workers. He went to a local primary school, which had big classes with around 45 children.

He started writing poetry in the middle school. There, he had a good teacher who thought that he had potential and encouraged him to go to the grammar school for secondary education.

He was able to win a scholarship for the grammar school in Debrecen, where he studied biology. He understood very early that life-sciences and literature (prose and poetry), are two different ways to look at and understand the world and its reality. Thus, all his life he has followed both, the scientific and the literary-artistic paths. While in the school, he also started to explore the writings of important Hungarian writers like Péter Melius Juhász, Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, Fazekas and Diószegi.

After the grammar school, most of his classmates went on to study medicine while Janos went for 5 years to a biology institute, known for its research work. Today, apart from being a university professor and researcher, he is a well-known writer, poet, editor and artist.

During his university years, he became interested in sociological issues around the marginalisation of different groups of people and started to write about it. This was during 1970s when Hungary was under a communist rule - his writings were not appreciated by the authorities and he was told to stop.

For all his life, János has continued to observe and understand the world through those two different lenses, creativity and science, expressing himself through essays, poems and visual poems, fiction, décollage and has won different awards.

You can read English translations of two of his poems (link opens in a new window).

János & His Reflection Diary in 2025

János explained that for whole of 2025 he is participating in a writing exercise in collaboration with a Hungarian newspaper. Every month, a creative person (a poet or a writer or an artist) poses a question to him and every day of that month, he writes a kind of daily diary, reflecting on that question. His diary is published in the newspaper and its website, and after completing a year, it will come out as a book.

I thought that it was an incredible prompt for stimulating creative juices, but it also requires a very strong discipline. Even while his stay in Schio, he continues to write his reflections every day. 

János Géczi as an Artist in Schio

As an artist, János is known for his Décollage work. "Dècollage" is created by tearing-off or removing a piece or a part of a paper or canvas. In that sense, it is opposite of a "Collage", in which we bring together different pieces to create an art.

He works with old public-posters in cities. Those posters are usually pasted one on the top of another, till they become too many and then someone tears all of them off, cleans the space and puts up new posters.

János goes around to collect different layers of posters and then removes parts of each layer so that bits and pieces of the underneath layers can be seen. This mimics what happens in real-life as sometimes posters can tear off and show older posters below, creating shapes, juxtapositions of words, pictures, colours and shapes, as a kind of memento-mori about passage of time and the role of memories.

During his stay in Schio, János has collected many old posters from the public spaces in the city. He said that he liked the pale pinks and and blues that he finds at the back of these posters and his décollage works created in Schio, focus mainly on the different layers seen from the back of the posters.

The room where he was working, had rolled sheets of old posters he had collected from the city, some of them wet because it had been raining in Schio. It also had big containers of glue, which he used to create additional layers of the posters. Once the layers are placed, then he can tear-off some of them, creating the shapes and colours of his artistic geographies.

Compared to some of his works which showed the more vibrant colours and words from the front of the posters, I personally loved his more abstract creations made from the back of the posters, with their pale colours.

Roberto Nassi has asked Janos to also write a poem linked with his artwork for the Biennale, so that both his artistic and literary dimensions are presented together.

In the End

For me, meeting János and Zsolt was also an opportunity to reconnect with Valeria Bertesina, who has been curating the DiCarta Paper-Art Biennials in Schio.

János is of my age and I was trying to imagine his years of growing up in Hungary when it was a part of Soviet influence and to compare them with my growing up in India.

In a way, I find a reflection of my life in his, as like him, I also have my professional doctor-researcher life and a creative life. I was sorry that I could not speak and understand Hungarian, because it would have been much more interesting and enriching to talk and exchange notes about our similarities and differences.

Staying in a small town like Schio, and meeting and talking to interesting creative persons like János, is a wonderful combination, and I feel very lucky to have such opportunities.

*****

Renaissance Art & Giovanni Bellini

The renaissance period introduced the ideas of three-dimensional depth, realism, perspective, colour-tones and light in paintings, based on new understandings from different sciences such as anatomy, physics, mathematics, geology and natural sciences occurring in that period.

This post focuses on the evolution of a renaissance period artist through 11 paintings on the theme of "Madonna and child Jesus". The artist is Giovanni Bellini and all the paintings are from the Accademia museum in Venice.

The image below is that of a telero (huge painting covering an entire wall) started by Giovanni Bellini in 1515-16, left incomplete due to his death. (Click on the images for a bigger view)

The Bellini Bottega in Venice

In that period, the artists worked in Bottega or workshops, where the master artist had many apprentice and helpers. Jacopo Bellini, Giovanni's father, was a renowned Venetian artist in Venice. One of Jacopo's famous works is a tall mosaic inside St Marks basilica in Venice, known as "Mosaic of Visitation".

Giovanni Bellini, also called Giambellino, was born around 1930-35. He is considered as one of the great masters of early Venetian renaissance art. Giovanni had learned the art from his brother and father, was also influenced by his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, as well as other artists. Giovanni played an important role in developing the ideas of "tonality" in art, ensuring an overall tone for the painting and a smooth passage of tones in different parts of the painting.

Before presenting his art-works, let me briefly introduce the Accademia museum of Venice, where you can admire the originals of all the paintings presented in this post.

Accademia Museum

This museum hosts some of the masterpieces of renaissance period art by maestros like Tiziano (Titan), Tintoretto, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Hans Memling & Hieronymus Bosch. It is situated close to the Accademia bridge (orginally called Ponte della Carità, inaugurated in 1854). If you like renaissance art, do not miss visiting this museum during your visit to Venice.

The building hosting the Accademia museum today, was once a convent and a church (Santa Maria della Carità church).  Under Napoleon's rule in late 18th century, the religious persons from the church and the nearby convent were sent away. In 1807, the old Accademia museum was shifted in those buildings.

Giovanni Bellini's "Madonna and the Child" Series of Paintings

Bellini made a series of paintings of Madonna with the child Jesus. Let me now show you 10 paintings from that series present in the Accademia museum, so that you can appreciate his evolution as a painter.

There is an 11th painting at the end of this post, from his series on the theme of Pietà.

1. From 1448

I am not sure how old was Giovanni when this painting was made and how much did he actually contribute to it. The madonna of this painting does not look very young. Baby Jesus, sitting on a parapet, is holding an apple in his left hand and two fingers raised showing his dual (human and divine) nature. Madonna is expressionless while the child has a knowing expression, much wiser than his age.

2. From 1455

This painting was done when Giovanni was about 20 years old. It is simpler with fewer colours compared to the first one. The baby wearing a black dress, looks younger but still has a knowing expression while he holds his mother's chin with his hand.

3. From 1470

When this painting was done, Giovanni was 35 years old and clearly it is a more mature work, even if it not an oil painting on canvas like the others. Madonna seems to be lit by the light, with a blue sky behind her. Her face has a serenity while looking down at her sleeping son, lying nude, his hand hanging down, almost like a glimpse of the future awaiting them. There is a sense of three-dimensionality, proportions and perspective in this work.

4. From 1475 

Giovanni made this when he was forty. He has light coming in from upper right side, lighting up Madonna's serene and young face, while the light on the baby is more diffused. The baby has a more innocent face, and he makes the sign of his dual nature with this right hand, while his left hand grips his mother's thumb. 

5. From 1480

By now, Giovanni was 45 years old and clearly more skilled as a painter. The whole canvas seems lit by light with bright colours. The background has a light blue sky, fluffy clouds and the Euganei hills near Padua. The baby has a knowing and petulant look, as he holds his right hand in the two-fingers sign while his left hand discreetly seeks his mother's touch.

6. From 1485-90

Now Giovanni has crossed fifty years, he is recognised as a maestro. Perhaps, this means that now he can experiment and try new colours and ideas. The most distinctive change in the painting is the use of bright red colours in Madonna's gown and the heads and wings of the six cherubs on the clouds floating above. The baby seems to be wearing a modern looking night-shirt. The baby also has a more child like expression and seems to be talking to his mother.

7. From 1485-90

This is also from the same period. In this, the two have a green screen behind, the surface of the parapet is painted green, and in the background on the two sides there are two trees. The baby is nude, has a more child like expression and his left hand holds his mother's fingers. Once again the whole canvas seems to be lit by light.

8. From 1488 (With St Catherine and Magdalene)

This is a more complex work. Compared to the two women saints on the two sides, dressed in rich clothes and wearing jewellery, Madonna looks similar to the other paintings above. The baby seems lost in ecstasy. While the background is dark, the 4 figures seem lit by an external light, creating a few shadows. It seems to have clear Flemish or Dutch influences.

9. From 1490 (With St Paul and St George)

Like one above, this one also has two figures standing on both sides of the mother and child. However, this painting has much more in common with his other works - light blue sky with clouds, a red screen behind them, all the persons lit by a light coming from the left with a hint of shadows in the right side of the canvas.

10. From 1503 (With St John Baptist and a Woman)

This painting was done when Giovanni was 68 years old and it is even more complex, with a detailed urban background with the Vicentino mountains behind them - the houses have a distinct look, may be it shows the city of Bassano. Sheep are grazing on the grassy hills (click on the picture to see a bigger version for the sheep). It is bathed in light with shades of liliacs, pinks, green and light blues. Madonna has a soft and innocent expression. The skin tones of Madonna and the woman on the right seem to have the red tones associated with Titan.

11. From 1505 - Pietà with Madonna and the Dying Jesus

The last painting is from the Pietà series, and is from 1505, when Giovanni was 70 years old. The white-haired Madonna's face is etched with lines of sorrow. A dramatic touch is given by the broken tree on the left of the canvas. The background is in the shade of orange-yellow seems to show Padua with Euganei hills and Vicentino mountains behind. Once again, the whole canvas seems to be lit all over with a diffused light and few shadows. (You can click on all the images for a bigger view.)

Things I Noticed in the Paintings

I think that as Giovanni grew older and more skilled, his works assumed more renaissance characteristics - they seem more three-dimensional, more realistic, while the proportions and perspectives improve.

In most of his paintings, the Madonna has an innocent or an aloof look, she does not seem to be looking at you. I also noticed that in many paintings, her little finger seems to be bent or crooked in the middle - it does not seem very natural. Try bending your finger like that and you will see what I mean.

On the other hand, the baby Jesus has a more knowing look, creating a kind of dissonance because his facial expressions are more adult-like. At the same time, the child's proportions do not always look right. For example in painting number 10 above, the child seems to be too long. Child's ecstasy, with his eyes turning up, in image 8 also made me feel a little anxious.

I love the light and vivid colours that seem to illuminate many of his works. They lack the light and shadow effects (chiaroscuro), which would become a dominant part of later renaissance art.

I also love the tender affection between the mother and the baby, expressed in the way the boy holds his mother's thumb or touches her hand. 

To Conclude

To look at the different paintings of Giovanni Bellini in a chronological manner gives us an idea of his evolution as an artist. At the same time, it gives us an idea of how the renaissance ideas of art were evolving.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and his Monalisa was painted in early 1500s. Michelangelo was born in 1475 and his frescoes of Universal Judgement in Vatican were painted around 1540. Thus, the art of Giovanni Bellini needs to be seen in the context of all the other artists, as they exchanged ideas, knowledge and techniques. 

All the paintings presented in this post are from Accademia museum in Venice. To feel their full impact, you need to look at them in the museum. For example, the sensation of light when you look at painting number 10 above is absolutely incredible. When I saw it, I was transfixed.

BTW, the Telero shown in the first image above was commissioned to Giovanni Bellini in 1515, when he had turned eighty. He was unable to finish it, as he died in 1516. It was completed many years later by another artist, Vittore Belliniano. 

I have been to the Accademia museum a few times, and every time I go there I discover new works which I had not noticed earlier!

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