Bellini’s mirror of mercy

The two images above are by the hand of the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini. On the left is detail from his small panel painting St Jerome in the Wilderness now housed at the Barber Institute, Birmingham. On the right is detail from a folio that forms part of the Albi Strabo manuscript gifted in 1459 to René d’Anjou by the Venetian nobleman Jacopo Antonio Marcello. “Good King René” is shown seated on his throne receiving his gift from the kneeling Marcello.

The Jerome painting is dated about 1460, close to the time Marcello despatched his gift to René in 1459. However the folio from the Albi Strabo makes intentional comparisons to Bellini’s St Jerome panel and therefore suggests an earlier date than 1460 for its completion.

More on this and the connection between the two paintings at this link – Albi Strabo – on my website. Scroll to the section “A Golden Mirror”.