Tour: Venetian Painting in the Early Renaissance

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Overview

In the mid-1400s, Venice was the most powerful city in Italy, made rich by nearly a thousand years of commerce, mostly in goods from the East. Its navy ruled the Mediterranean as if it were a Venetian lake. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, the city's fortunes had begun to change. Venice lost both territory and trade after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Later, Portuguese naval exploration around the tip of Africa drew still more traffic away from Venetian-controlled overland routes. Increasingly the city's future lay with the West. Despite the renown of its ambassadors and spies, however, Venice's position weakened. (continue)

Captions

1.
1	Antonello da Messina, Madonna and Child, c. 1475
2	Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child, c. 1480/1485
3	Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Young Man in Red, c. 1480
4	Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading, 1505
5	Vittore Carpaccio, The Flight into Egypt, c. 1515
6	Benedetto Diana, The Presentation and Marriage of the Virgin, and the Annunciation, 1520/1525
2.
7	Cima da Conegliano, Saint Helena, c. 1495