LORENZO VENEZIANO (active 1356-1372 in Venice) The Lion Polyptych 1357-59 Tempera on panel, 258 x 432 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice While the second half of the fourteenth century saw artists like Guariento, Giusto de' Menabuoi, Altichiero and Tommaso da Modena working in Padua and Treviso and bringing Gothic painting to its finest flowering in the Veneto, in Venice itself there were very few who showed any signs of being influenced by the lively scene on the mainland. The greatest of those who did was Lorenzo Veneziano who, like Paolo, overcame the contradictions between the wes
LORENZO VENEZIANO (active 1356-1372 in Venice) The Lion Polyptych 1357-59 Tempera on panel, 258 x 432 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice While the second half of the fourteenth century saw artists like Guariento, Giusto de' Menabuoi, Altichiero and Tommaso da Modena working in Padua and Treviso and bringing Gothic painting to its finest flowering in the Veneto, in Venice itself there were very few who showed any signs of being influenced by the lively scene on the mainland. The greatest of those who did was Lorenzo Veneziano who, like Paolo, overcame the contradictions between the western and eastern worlds by trusting to the ineffable sensuousness of colour, the fundamental and most moving component of Venetian painting. But Lorenzo, much more than Paolo, inclined towards Gothic culture for his means of expression. Clear evidence of this tendency is seen in the great polyptych in the collection of the Galleries of the Academy in Venice. The panels were completed in 1359 for the Venetian church of S. Anthony Abbot, commissioned by Domenico Lion who had held temporary membership of the Venetian Senate in 1356 and 1357. In the Annunciation of the central panel traditional iconography is set aside and the airy, three-quarter length figure of the Virgin is moved from the centre to leave more space for the angel in the act of making his annunciation. In the foreshortened image above the Virgin's head the Eternal Father seems almost to be launching the dove forwards. The subtle play of physical poses and spiritual attitudes achieves a life-like quality never before seen in Venice, and in the figures of the saints in the side panels too the rhythms are sinuous and relaxed. The colour, not attempting to obey the coded decorativism of Veneto-Byzantine tradition, takes on a lively pmbre and a refined range of shadings: blues, reds and greens paling into pearl-grey and light-pink reflections, fading into ure luminosity. Examples of this formal refinement, where alr
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Photo credit: © Carlo Bollo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: artwork, paint, painter, painting, paintings
