Drunkenness of Noah

Giovanni Bellini was in his 80s when he painted this, probably around 1515, a year or so before he died as the grand old patriarch of Venetian painting. It is the only scene from the Old Testament he is known to have made. The story comes from Genesis: after the flood, Noah plants the first vineyard, drinks his own wine, and falls asleep naked. Two of his sons look away and reach to cover him with a red cloth, while the third, Ham, laughs at the sight. Bellini paints the old man's slack body with great tenderness rather than mockery, the grapes still bunched at his side. For centuries the picture was handed around to other names, among them Giorgione, Titian and Lotto, before scholars settled it back on Bellini himself.