The Circumcision

Venice around 1500 lived on its trade with the Ottoman east, and this panel carries the evidence. The border of the priest's cloak is lettered in pseudo-Kufic, an imitation of Arabic script used for figures from the Holy Land. His striped headdress has flowers like those on Persian and Ottoman ceramics, and the woman in the yellow veil wears a cap set with rows of pearls, another eastern sign. Luke's Gospel says Jesus was circumcised on his eighth day. Here the Child, clenching his fists, sits on what looks like an altar, a reminder of the sacrifice to come. The picture was made in Giovanni Bellini's workshop, and the little label at the bottom, reading Ioannes Bellinus, is the studio putting his name on it. By 1727 it belonged to the Orléans collection in Paris, and it came to England with that collection in 1798.