Die Verklärung Christi

Around 1455 the young Giovanni Bellini was working close to his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, the hardest, most exact draughtsman in northern Italy, and you can feel that pressure here. The figures on the low hill are sculptural, their robes folded like carved stone rather than cloth, the rock beneath them drawn with almost geological care. The soft Venetian light Bellini later became famous for has barely arrived, and the mood is cool and severe. For a long time the panel wasn't even credited to him. A faked set of initials in the corner, added later, had it passing as a Mantegna, and only careful study returned it to the younger painter.