Geschichte der Venezianischen Malerei, Band II

The manuscript submitted to the FWF forms the second part of a planned series of four, dealing with the History of Venetian painting from the beginning up to the 18th and 19th centuries - a project which till now has not been envisaged by German art history. As far as I know, a similar undertaking has not been realized by the Italians either. The two volumes Pittura nel Veneto (1989/1990) cover most of the imporant facts (biographies of the artists, dates, etc.) and give a survey of the present state of research. Little attention has been paid, however, to aspects of artistic concern, e.g. structure, coloration, development, especially with regard to style, iconography, and hermeneutics. In rare cases issues of this kind are hinted at, but the layout of the publication makes it difficult for the reader to follow the argument. All the art historical monographies of Italian provenance have one thing in common: an astonishing lack of careful formal analysis. In my opinion, this method alone paves the way for a genuine understanding of painting as such, in this case the specific character and the development of the Venetian tradition, so aptly characterised by the term "ornamental" as used by Theodor Hetzer. It is my endeavour to supply this want hinted at by way of description, based on a perceptual, structural analysis. This second part of The History of Venetian Painting deals with the period from the middle of the 15th century up to the 1520ies. The artists discussed, many of which were prolific until the end of the period, adhered to a stylistic tradition of the Quattrocento, not considering the young Lorenzo Lotto or the old Giovanni Bellini who took part in the new development from the beginning of the Cinquecento. The main protagonist in the present study ist Giovanni Bellini, the painter of innumerable alterpieces and devotional pictures, who was also an excellent portrait painter, and so was his brother Gentile. Many artists were engaged in the prosperous workshop of Giovanni Bellini, proliferating his specific style and themes all over the Veneto. Among his collaborators we find Cima da Conegliano who became one of the foremost artists of the region, especially with regard to the further development of the Sacra conversazione. The conterpart of Bellini, Alvise Vivarini, representing the conservative tradition of Venetian painting, also exerted some influence upon Cima. Among the many artists fostered in Giovannis bottega I have to mention Marco Basaiti, the young Lorenzo Lotto (before his departure to the Marche), Giovanni Buonconsiglio, Boccaccio Boccaccino, and the clan of the Santacroces. They all stuck to the stylish tradition of the Quattrocento well up in the 16th century. One chapter is devoted to Gentile Bellini who executed a sumptuous set of historical paintings for the Ducal Palace, all of which were desstroyed, however, by the great fire in 1577. As the official painter of the Republic, Gentile was also entrusted with a number of portraits of the doges, and for some years even took service at the court of the sultan Mehmet II. in Costantinople. The chapter on Gentile Bellini serves as a link to Vittorio Carpaccio, the second central figure addressed here. Carpaccio was engaged by five scuole in Venice, executing a great number of vivid paintings referring to the lives and legends of the saints in quest. Thus he proved to be the most gifted artist as far as the type of historical representation is concerned, a true master of narration. As for the method adapted here, I put focus on the investigative formal analysis in most of the paintings selected, with special regard to Gestalt theory. Apart from aspects of structure, colour, light, and pictorial time, iconography was dealt with as well. The main attention, however, was put to colour, the dicussion of which, strange enough, has been more or less neglected in the literature dealing with Venetian painting. All these aspects lead to new insights of a hermeneutic kind. They address aspects of quality in art and help to entangle unsolved questions of dating. The investigation of the genesis of style and of iconographical problems transcends the Venetian borders and includes artefacts of other regions by way of comparison. At the same time questions arise the other way around, as to which extent Venetian artist became subject to influences from the outside (Mantegna, Antonello da Messina), and how the process of appropriation took place - still one of the most interesting questions in the history of art. The concern of my undertaking, here presented in the submitted manuscript, was born out of the pretension to initiate an engaged and critical discussion on Venetian painting during the period at stake, especially due to the deficiencies in the present state of research. Of course, many arguments of the art historians sustain my own brought forward here, but as many statements of the colleagues should rather be subject to revision.