"San Zaccaria Altarpiece"

Bellini was an Italian painter who, in his work, reflected the increasing interest of the Venetian artistic milieu in the stylistic innovations and concerns of the Renaissance.

Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus in the center are depicted with four Christian saints – St. Peter the Apostle and St. Catherine of Alexandria at the left, and St. Gerome and St. Lucy at the right - and an angel playing a violin at the foot of the altar.

While for the first 20 years of Giovanni’s career he limited his subject matter mainly to traditional religious subjects (Madonnas, Pietàs, and Crucifixions), toward the end of the century it began to be greatly enriched not so much by the wider choice of subjects as by the development of the mise-en-scène, the physical setting of the picture. He became one of the greatest of landscape painters. His study of outdoor light was such that one can deduce not only the season depicted but almost the hour of the day.