BELLINI, Giovanni
(b. ca. 1426, Venezia, d. 1516, Venezia)

Madonna and Child

c. 1510
Oil on wood, 50 x 41 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

The same softness of colour and the same gentleness in the group of the "Madonna and Child" return in the signed canvas of the Galleria Borghese in Rome, chronologically very close to the Brera painting. Yet another variation on a theme that was among the dearest to the painter, this is probably its last fully autograph version, although some critics consider it the work of the workshop. On the contrary, the expanded forms, the curvilinear widening of the volumes and the chromatic intensity are all elements that unequivocally point to the last phase of Bellini's career, as is the more relaxed connection between mother and child, where the Madonna does not hold the child closely to her in an attitude of yearning affection, but proffers it quietly to the adoration of the spectator.