The Madonna and Child known as ‘The
Dudley Madonna’ was painted around 1508
by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516), one of the
most celebrated of Italian artists. This book
charts the painting’s recent provenance and
reception and revisits the context in which
it was created. It retraces its critical history
from Dudley’s nineteenth-century London
until today, and reassesses an autograph
work by Bellini that during the twentieth
century was almost completely overlooked.
The years 1505–10 were crucial in Giovanni
Bellini’s career, and this book examines
anew the part he played in the Venetian
High Renaissance, noting his response to
the upcoming generation (above all Titian)
and new ideas coming from central Italy
– from Raphael and in particular from the
visiting Florentine Fra Bartolomeo.