Cristo benedicente

When Giovanni Bellini painted this blessing Christ in the early 1460s, he was still working in the shadow of his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, whose hard, sculptural manner had married into the family. You can feel that influence in the sharp folds of the robe and the crisp modelling, as if the figure were cut from stone. Bellini was a young Venetian only beginning to find the softer light and warmth that would later define painting in his city for half a century. Christ raises two fingers in blessing and holds a small banner of the Resurrection, the marks of the nails still visible in his raised hand.