Bellini's Mother of God with infant Christ in Dobrota

Abstract

In the parochial church of Saint Matthew in Dobrota, there is a preserved painting by Giovanni Bellini and his workshop, The Mother of God with the Infant Christ. In the iconographic sense it is customary: a bust of Mary with the little Christ in her arms, a parapet in the foreground, green drapery and a landscape in the background. The motif of the parapet indicates the separation of the holy figures from the earthly world. However, this border is not strong: the emotional closeness between the Mother and the Child is transferred into the everyday world of mortals. The parapet is also an association with the Holy Altar. It expresses the Eucharistie, sacramental role of Christ and the Mother of God. The idea about the Mother as the tabernacle of God is underscored by the motif of the curtain. The landscape in the background makes the painting especially valuable. The softness and transparency that characterize it point to a possibility that Bellini created this painting at the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century, at the time when he was under the influence of the Arcadian circle from Asolo. The landscape on the painting is passage moralize, because all the elements - the tower, the garden, the spring, goats, swans - are clearly symbols of the Mother of God. This altar painting, purchased by an unknown native of the Boka Kotorska Bay, and brought back to his birthplace, proves that the spirit of the renaissance also touched the southeastern coast of the Adriatic.