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

Head of the Redeemer

1500-02
Oil on panel, 33 x 22 cm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This is a fragment of an altarpiece depicting the Transfiguration. Another fragment of the same work, in the same museum, shows a scroll which bears the writing "IOANNES BELLINUS ME PINXIT". Uniting light and shade, the head of Christ stretches upwards in ecstasy, conscious of his dual nature, human and divine, a symbol of the idealized message of the artist.