Venetian painting 1200-1500

A small portable altar with a gold background opens the section dedicated to Venetian painters from the XIII to XVI centuries. The model is of a widely diffused typology in a period of pilgrimage which, just as in the works of Paolo Veneziano, favours an iconography which references the theme of the journey and the thaumaturgic funtion of the Saints.

The pure brilliant colours, laid down with refined technical skill, attest Byzantine influence in the aesthetic of this painter who is taken to be the founder of the school from lagoon. The theme of colour will remain a constant in Venetian Renaissance as can be seen in the other works on display and, in particular, in the works of Cima da Conegliano the artist to whom the noble patrons of the arts in Parma at the beginning of the ‘500 turned to decorate their votive chapels and enrich their art collections. His two luminous and refined altar were created at the beginning of the century for the Church of the Annunziata and for the Cathedral.

The small ‘tondi’, or round paintings, showing the mythological fables of the sleeping Endymion and the Judgement of Midas, possibly created for a bridal chest or for a musical instrument, come from the Dalla Rosa-Prati collection. From the Sanvitale collection, another noble family which sold many works to the Gallery during the XIX century, comes the altar painting by Domenico Tintoretto with the dead Christ supported by three angels, St Dominic and the portrait of the donor. Here the organisation of space and the stylistic characteristics are common to Venetian painters of the time.