Homage to Christ in the Temple

Around 1500, Bellini was the preferred painter for altar and devotional pictures in Venice. This half-length depiction with its stereometrical conception of the body recalls Bellini’s early period under the influence of his brother-in-law Mantegna. On the other hand, the soft light and the harmonies of colour that complement one another create artistic nuancing characteristic of the later Bellini and subsequently for the whole of Venetian painting. The picture was cropped to an oval in the 18th century.