WHAT PIERO SAW (A)

What Piero della Francesca saw in Florence in 1439-1441


Piero della Francesca begins his artistic career at age 17 in Borgo San Sepolcro, his birthplace. From 1432 to 1438 he is apprenticed to a painter there. At age 24 he takes a Junior Year Abroad, facetiously and futuristically speaking, and goes off to Florence to study the art of the Great Masters he has probably heard much about in Borgo. From age 24 to 26, 1439-1441, he has a job with Domenico Veneziano in Florence, painting frescoes for the now-lost church of Sant’Egidio. During that formative period in his artistic career he not only absorbs all the lessons about light

 

Domenico Veneziano, 1445, St. Lucy Altarpiece, orig. for Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, Florence. (Uffizi)

Piero, Sheba Kneeling, Legend of the True Cross,San Francesco Arezzo, 1452-66.

that Domenico has to teach him, but he also views and is influenced by most of the major artists either living in the city or recently passed out of it. I will devote several blogs to the discussion of Piero's Florentine training and inspiration. For this entry, 
A) Who are the artists he would have encountered in Florence?
For the subsequent entries,B,C,D, and E - Where does their influence show up in his painting?

A) LIVING ARTISTS in Florence in 1439-1441

Who, besides Veneziano, was in Florence and still working in 1439?

Leon Battista Alberti, the architect, was back in the city after having been in exile until 1428. He had written his treatise on Painting in 1435 in Latin, reprinted it in Italian in 1436, and was writing his treatises on Architecture and Sculpture. Of the men Alberti mentions in his dedication to Della Pittura, 4 of 5 were still alive and working in the city:

Brunelleschi (1377-1446)  had just finished the Dome of the Florence Cathedral three years before, in 1436, 
and was working on the lantern for the Dome. He had completed all but the facade of the church of San Lorenzo (1421-1440), and his church of Santo Spirito was in construction. 
 

Available for public viewing in 1439-1441 were also the arches and columns of Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degl’Innocenti begun in 1419.

Donatello (1386-1466)  was in the city from 1439-1441. His Sts. Mark and George, 1411 and 1417 respectively, were visible in outside niches on Orsanmichele,

and inside the Baptistery (open to baptized Christians) was his tomb (1419-1420) of Pope John the XXIII, the Antipope. His marble David of 1408 and his prophet figures for the Campanile could have been seen. His 1430 bronze David was probably in the private courtyard of the Medici Palace, but Piero must have known these.

 

The Cantoria he sculpts for the Cathedral would be finished in the year Piero arrives.

Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1482) was alive and working in Florence.

His 7-year opus of the Cantoria for the Cathedral had just been completed in 1438, one year before Piero comes to the city.

The reliefs Luca produces for the sacristy doors of the Cathedral were not constructed until 1445-46, but it is possible that Piero saw preparatory drawings or early molds for these during the time he spent in Florence. The subject of one of those is the Resurrection, a subject treated later by Piero (1455-65).

Ghiberti (1378-1455), had installed his public bronze panels for the North Door of the Baptistery between 1403 and 1425 and had begun the second set for the East Door in 1425. By 1439 he would have been halfway through the project that was finished in 1452. Since the Solomon and Sheba panel was the last to be completed, it is unlikely that Piero saw it between 1439 and 1441.                                   

RECENTLY DECEASED ARTIST in Florence mentioned by Alberti

Masaccio leaves Florence in 1428 and dies in the same year in Rome, but his Brancacci Chapel frescoes in Santa Maria del Carmine (1424-27) remain in Florence as his visual legacy, and certainly Piero would have seen them. Masaccio is the only artist Alberti mentions who is no longer working in the city in 1439.

ARTISTS in FLORENCE IN 1439-1441 not mentioned by ALBERTI:

Fra Angelico had begun his work for the monastery of San Marco

by 1438 and his Annunciation would have been visible at the top of the staircase entrance to the cells, but would Piero have visited a monk living there and been able to view that image? 

The altarpiece for the main church of San Marco, completed in 1445 by Angelico, might have been a work in progress, but would Piero have seen that? 

Fra Filippo Lippi was working on the Annunciation for the church of San Lorenzo in 1440; Piero could have viewed it before he left in 1441.

The Pollaiuolo Brothers were alive and well and working during that period; their most important project for the church of San Miniato al Monte, the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, was not begun until 1460 and finished in 1466, so it is unlikely the drawings for that were available as early as 1441. Piero may have known of the Pollaiuolos’ Hercules in paint and bronze,

since Piero later chooses to produce a self-portrait as Hercules in his own home (now in the Gardner Museum in Boston), but his image is so different from those of the Pollaiuoli that one wonders if he heard about the subject but never saw their renditions. Piero had

his own reasons for painting himself as Hercules besides. His mother’s birthplace was Monterchi (Monte Ercole, the mount of Hercules). He may have made the painting in acknowledgement of this family connection; the link with the Pollaiuoli is harder to prove.

Uccello’s Cathedral fresco of 1436 was visible; the condottiero Giovanni Acuto’s image might have had an influence on Piero’s images of fighting men later. 

Uccello’s private commissions for the Salimbeni family on the subject  of the Battle of San Romano may have been seen by Piero but they were not begun until 1435 and not finished until 1460; certainly preparatory drawings might have been available from Uccello’s workshop.

       In the next entries (B,C, D, E) I will zero in on particular artists' works and show their reflection in Piero's paintings. These images would not have been the only influences on him, perhaps, and the influences may have walked a two-way street (Piero may have had an effect on the Florentine artists who saw his Sant' Egidio frescoes), but when we explore the Florentine oeuvre of the period, we can find definite visual links. I will set out a few examples by masters of sculpture, painting, and architecture from which Piero has chosen to imitate motifs.

ADVICE for 1st-time visitors to ITALY

ITALY for first-time visitors

 ITALY IS AN AESTHETIC CULTURE, not an efficiency culture as ours is. What difference does that make, you will ask?

1) DRESS and COLOR: It means Italians are not interested in whether something works fast and well, as we are; they are interested in whether something is beautiful. The reason for living for an Italian is to make life beautiful. Consequently, Italians value the way people are dressed in public much more highly than we do; their expression “fare la bella figura” (to make the beautiful figure) is used to describe the way one presents oneself on the street, and sloppiness or casual dress is frowned upon. Americans should be aware that they can even offend Italians if they wear bright colors and tennis shoes in town or at tourist spots (darker colors are thought to be more serious, as life is, and tennis shoes are considered appropriate only on the tennis court.) Decorum is especially important in churches: you can be kept out of Italian churches if you wear sleeveless blouses or short skirts; shoulders and knees must be covered.
What seems to us a superficial concern, appearance, is how they make their living. It is also why people flock to Italy to be nourished by the beauty created there. Italian design imbues all aspects of life: the way shop windows are set up, the way meats and deli foods are displayed, the way people dress up to go out in public, the way the coffee bar man swirls the milk of the cappuccino. It can manifest itself even in the color clothing people wear: usually one color is “in” for the year and Italians usually know which it is and make sure that they conform to the wearing of that color; foreigners who are unaware of that will be easily spotted as foreigners. (*You can figure out the color by noting which color appears most often in the window displays; one year I remember it was black and every woman wore a black dress on the street; one year it was purple, another beige.)
WORKING HOURS and the– PASSEGGIATA – An aesthetic culture means that shops are not always open during the hours posted; it’s more important for the shop owner to be out making the “bella figura” than to honor the hours on the sign. It also means that if you expect to look quickly through a shop for ten minutes, the shop owner will want to show you the best wares and those should be appreciated for their aesthetic value, which takes time, not possible in an efficiency browse.
You should expect that if you ask for a gift to be wrapped in a shop, even just to take out into the street, that time and attention will be required to admire the aesthetic way in which the gift is tidily packaged by the salesperson. Even if you buy wrapping paper, it will be wrapped for carrying in public! The shop owner will not understand if you are anxious to get away; s/he is not concerned with efficiency but with whether his/her or your own sense of the aesthetic life has been satisfied; that’s why Italians are always late to appointments; it’s more important to be seen in full dress for as long as it takes to be appreciated than it is to be on time somewhere. If you want to see Italians displaying their aesthetics, take a walk around 4 in the afternoon when they are out for their “passeggiata.” (the family stroll through town.) You will see people dressed up, laughing and talking as they walk slowly just enjoying the relaxing time between the siesta(2-3) and when they go back to work (4-7), (Italian time 5-8) . So the period 4-6 each day regarded as wasted in American Puritanical eyes is essential for the beauty of life for an Italian.
Even going to the post office or the bank can take hours because the point is not to get through quickly with stamps and packages mailed; the point is to watch the aesthetic way in which the teller counts out the money or the pleasing way in which the post office man pounds his dating stamp or lays out the beautiful stamps on the counter. If you go in expecting efficiency, you will only be frustrated. (Hours of operation are usually 8-12 and 4-7, but some museums and offices are only open 8-12.)
2) PUBLIC vs. PRIVATE LIFE - You should never carry anything, groceries, shoes for repair, cleaning, anything, in the street without putting it/them into a bag. Things need covering in public because an Italian never wants to offend the eyes of the other people in the street, or to be offended himself. So you will rarely see an Italian eating as they are walking out in public; even gelato usually gets eaten indoors. The chance that someone might be publicly offended by unwrapped shoes, unwrapped food, or even unwrapped gift-wrap is a sensitivity developed over many years in their aesthetic culture. They regard life as an aesthetic endeavor and if they err in the carrying out of that premise, they think it almost as immoral as we might a social crime. Many of our students used to get vicious looks for eating hamburgers on the run, an act of betrayal.
Consequently, the experience of Italy can be enhanced if you go into the society without American expectations and just enjoy the aesthetic experiences as they roll by you: the shoes and belts of the passersby, the display windows of shops (especially in Florence), the proper way a waiter serves the “fish soup”, “zuppa di pesce” or pasta, the way people have planted window boxes whose flowers cascade down the walls, the various greens in the scenery: silver-green of olive tree leaves, the dark green of the cypresses, the yellow-green of the vineyard leaves, the beautifully made leather and silver and mosaic inlays, not to mention all the artwork in the shops and museums and the food presented at table.
In Rome have a granita di caffe near the Pantheon at the Tazza d’Oro; in Florence have a pastry and caffe macchiato at the bar Gilli in piazza della Repubblica, a hot chocolate at Rivoire’s in Piazza Signoria, in Venice have a “zuppa di pesce” at the Taverna di San Trovaso near the Accademia Museum; have a Bellini drink at the Caffe Florian in Piazza San Marco. Take in the art of beauty that Italians know how to create. “Beauty is nourishment,” I always told my students. No better place to get nourished than Italy.
3 CITIES:
ROME: Walking in Rome, except around the Pantheon, is like trying to walk in L.A.-excruciating because the place is huge; take an American Express tour bus ride for major sights; otherwise take a cab. Public buses and the metro are rife with gypsies and pickpockets.
ART: Must-sees: – SISTINE CEILING and St. Peter’s
                                   FORUM and COLOSSEUM
                                   PANTHEON
From Pantheon walk to the nearby church of San Luigi dei Francesi (for Caravaggio’s paintings of the life of St. Matthew) and then on to Piazza Navona; or at night, walk from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain or Spanish Steps. If you want ancient art, walk from Pantheon to Capitoline museums housing bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius and Boy Pulling Thorn out of his foot  (Spinario). Otherwise take a bus tour.
If you have time: Galleria Borghese(tickets ahead) for Bernini’s statues of 1)David and 2) Apollo and Daphne (check out Daphne’s feet turning into tree roots).
For Baroque architecture a must-see is San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane by Borromini. Take a cab- Borghese and San Carlo both too far to walk. Or see Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Theresa in Santa Maria della Vittoria, also by cab.
FOOD:
Good pizza on Via Arenula (no sign, two blocks or so from river on left)
Good restaurants in the Campo dei Fiori
Good restaurant for the Roman specialty of Carciofi alla Giudea (Judean artichokes) – OTTAVIA
Good restaurant in the Trastevere area: DA MEO PATACCA (singing waiters and shows and outdoor tables)
Good outdoor restaurant called VECCHIA ROMA in Piazza Campitelli (between the Capitoline Hill and the river)
Good restaurant near Piazza Navona: DA EUSTACHIO
3 Scalini in Piazza Navona has great chocolate truffle ice cream
Tazza d’oro near Pantheon for granita di caffe
FLORENCE:
ART: 4 must-sees: MICHELANGELO’S REAL DAVID in the Accademia Museum
                                   (book tickets online ahead of time)
                             BOTTICELLI’S PRIMAVERA and BIRTH OF VENUS (both in the same room in the Uffizi Galleria (Uffizi museum), also best visited with tickets ordered ahead)
                             View from PIAZZALE MICHELANGELO-10-minute cab-best view of city and river.
If you have time: Baptistery interior, Duomo (interior – see the wood inlay sacristy behind altar on left or climb to top of dome for the view – c.463 steps)
Opera del Duomo (museum behind Duomo that holds one of Michelangelo’s Pietas (he did 4) and the bronze doors of the Baptistery by Ghiberti)
Medici Chapel (behind San Lorenzo) for Michelangelo’s statues of Night and Day
Medici Palace Chapel for Gozzoli’s fresco of the Procession of the Magi
Museum of San Marco for Fra Angelico’s cell paintings
Museum of Chiesa del Carmine for Masaccio's frescoes
FOOD: Breakfast – Caffe Patrizio Cosi, Borgo degli Albizi– 7 a.m. onward
             Lunch – 1:00 – (more like a dinner – can be 3 courses) – BORDINO’s over the river and up the hill left one block beyond Ponte Vecchio
             Dinner – 7 or 8 – AQUA AL DUE – Tastes of 5 different pastas for first course – you might not want a second course; Il LATINI, Via dei Palchetti, 6r(red)-Tuscan food and lots of it.
FANCY RESTAURANTS in FLORENCE:  ENOTECA PINCHIORRI, Via Ghibellina, 87
                                                               or OTTORINO, Via della Oche, 12
VENICE:
ART: 2 must-sees – EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR OF SAN MARCO exterior and interior of San Marco church – Mosaics line façade and interior walls. Visit the Pala d’Oro (10th century to 1342) behind the main altar – extra payment but worth it –thousands of jewels. Climb stairs in narthex to see the Hellenistic gilded bronze HORSES that originally stood where the copies stand now on the façade; façade walk there has good views.
 If there’s time: Church of San Zaccaria – way behind San Marco – second altarpiece on left of nave – by Giovanni Bellini (1505) – a contemplative masterpiece with St. Peter,with keys, St. Catherine with her wheel, the Madonna and Child with lute player, St. Lucy with a palm frond, symbol of martyrdom, and San Zaccaria (the father of John the Baptist, Saint Zaccharias, who is buried across from the painting.)
Palazzo Ducale with the Bridge of Sighs and prisons from which Casanova escaped
Accademia Galleria – paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Carpaccio (15 minute walk from San Marco-follow signs)
Church of the Frari masterpieces by Donatello, Bellini, and Titian.
Palladio's church of San Giorgio Maggiore (visible from Palazzo Ducale, must take boat ride across canal).
FOOD: DA RAFFAELE - on canal – take a gondola ride afterwards and pay for an accordion player and singer to accompany) La Madonna (for seafood risotto) Fenice (elegant -near the famous theater) And, of course, Taverna di San Trovaso, near Accademia Gallery, for the fish soup “zuppa di pesci”(might not be served in summer)
ISLAND: Murano to see glass-blowing factory; good outdoor restaurant in main piazza;
fabulous Giovanni Bellini painting in the church of San Pietro Martire there, but church rarely open

Be careful not to get Stendahl’s disease - presents as dizziness from seeing too much art – hospital cases reported every year in Italy, seriously!

QUICK ITALIAN PRONUNCIATION COURSE:
No word “to spell” in Italian because once you know the rules you can pronounce any Italian word :

All VOWELS are PRONOUNCED (no silent vowels as in English and French)
USUALLY the ACCENT is on the PENULTIMATE SYLLABLE

C or G followed by I or E is soft –
C or G followed by A,O, or U is hard –
Carciofi (artichokes) has first hard C hard as in CAR then a soft C as in CHOKE so “artichokes” is pronounced in Italian: Carciofi=CAR-CHO-FEE (Accent on the cho)
Godi (you enjoy) – Go-DEE, Giotto (Joh-toh)
CENTO DOLLARI (one hundred dollars) = CHAYNTO DOLL-AR-EE (accents on CHAYN and DOLL)

I is always pronounced EE
E is always pronounced long A as in the first letter of the alphabet, AY
A is always pronounced short A as in AH
Double consonants are always given emphasis – PIZZA - Peezzah

CHI or CHE is always a hard “K” sound,
Key or Kay respectively for these two words that mean “Who” or “What” in English., so the word for church, CHIESA, is pronounced “Key-AY-ZAH” with accent on the AY, but cathedral, CATTEDRALE, is pronounced CAH-TAY-DRAH-LAY (accent on the drah).

Phrases you will use most:
PER FAVORE (Please) ; PEAR– FA-VOR-AY (Accent on vor)
GRAZIE (Thank you): GRAH/ZEE-AY accent irregular- on GRAH
PREGO (You’re Welcome or to urge someone to go ahead of you in line)PRAY-GO (accent on PRAY)
SCUSI – (Excuse me) : Scoozee (accent on scoo)
QUANTO COSTA(how much does it cost?) – Quahnto – costah?

Every region in Italy has a different dialect; in Florence, for instance, they
aspirate every C to an H sound, so Coca Cola becomes “Hoha hola”, but leave regionalisms for your next trip. Italians are always happy if you try to say anything in their language.

BELLINI's SAN ZACCARIA - is it JEROME or ZACHARIAS?

BELLINI'S SAN ZACCARIA - Jerome or Zacharias?

Up to now most scholars have described the altarpiece which Giovanni Bellini painted in 1505 for the convent church of San Zaccaria in Venice as an image of the Madonna and Child with saints Peter, Catherine, Lucy, and Jerome.

St. Peter is easy to identify on the far left because he carries keys as well as a book. Catherine, too, holds the palm of martyrdom in her right hand and touches the wheel of her martyrdom with her left.

Lucy is occasionally mistaken in the descriptions for Mary Magdalene, but the martyr's palm in her left hand rules out Mary Magdalene. And although both Lucy and Magdalene often hold oil lamps, the oil in this lamp has traces of the eyes which, according to legend, Lucy had gouged out to demonstrate her devotion to virginity and the Virgin and to dissuade her boyfriend who admired them. The Virgin later restored her eyesight, so the nearly blond girl with eyes looking down at her previous eyes, is Lucia, (light), St. Lucy.

That leaves the far right male figure clad in a red mantle with white underlining, who looks down at an open book he is holding with both hands; the hands seem to have gloves on them and the undergarment sleeves are embroidered. The only identification for this figure that I have seen in print is Saint Jerome, but I don't believe it is Jerome.
         It is understandable why St. Jerome first comes to mind when looking at this male saint. Jerome is depicted usually in three different ways in Renaissance images.
1.  Jerome as Cardinal: Often he is dressed in a red cardinal's cape and his red cardinal hat is prominently displayed somewhere near him, as in this Ognissanti fresco in Florence of St. Jerome in his Study by Ghirlandaio of 1480, where the tassels of the hat dangle from the shelf above him:

 

or this Antonello da Messina example in the London National Gallery (1460) where the cardinal hat lies on the bench behind him:

 

2.  Jerome as Church Father: Sometimes Jerome is painted with cardinal hat on and holding a church model. He is a model for the church as he is considered a church father. Two examples of this type of Jerome in Venice are:

Vivarini's altarpiece of the 1440's for the Santa Sabina chapel in the same church where Bellini painted, San Zaccaria:

or Bellini's father, Iacopo Bellini's altarpiece of 1460-64 for the Carita in Venice where Jerome stands on left holding church.

3. Jerome as ascetic monk:The third type of Jerome is that of the ascetic monk living in the desert, sometimes with his lion:

Three examples of this type by Bellini himself, from the Uffizi, S. Crisostomo, Venice, and Ashmolean respectively: 
 
Uffizi                             

                                                                                              S. Crisostomo, 1513                                                       Ashmolean
                                                                   

But the red-clad saint in Bellini's San Zaccaria altarpiece has no red cardinal hat, no church model, is not dressed as an ascetic monk, and certainly has no lion. He is none of the usual types associated with Jerome. So is this Saint Jerome at all?  And if not, then, who is he?

          To answer that question we must look at the setting for Bellini's 1505 altarpiece, the church of San Zaccaria. The name of the church is derived from the major relic contained within it, the body of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.

Because of the holy relation of John and Jesus, Zacharias is made a saint in Venice, San Zaccaria in Italian.  The nuns of the convent received the body of St. Zacharias from the Byzantine Emperor Leo V in the 9th century and the new Renaissance church (1490-1504) designed by Gambello and then Mauro Codussi was built to house the relic.

The top of the facade of the church has a statue of John the Baptist, but the statue over the central doorway is a replica of a statue by Alessandro Vittoria of John's father, Saint Zacharias. (The original statue was damaged from being outside and is now being restored):

So the church is dedicated to Zacharias on the outside; and inside, the decoration also pays attention to him.  The first thing one encounters when entering the church is the baptismal font. The statue in the middle of that fountain is another statue of Zacharias of 1543 by Alessandro Vittoria (photo by Giovanni dall'Orto):
 
The Vittoria statues inside and out are later than Bellini's altarpiece, but they give us some idea of how Zacharias was conceived by Renaissance artists:  here he is a New Testament prophet, priest of the temple, dressed in long flowing robes which are draped over his head, and in his left hand he holds a book, presumably anachronistically, the Bible, or perhaps, as we shall see later, the book in which he writes his son's name.
              The next thing one notices in the nave of the church is the wall decoration on either side of the nave.The mural decoration for the nave was divided between the Virgin, whose stories are told on the left nave walls and Saint Zacharias and his son, John the Baptist, both of whose stories are told on the right walls of the nave.

Then one becomes aware of two protrusions from the side walls of the nave, both in the second chapel; on the right, the tomb of Zacharias:

 And just opposite it, Bellini's altarpiece, in the second chapel on the left:

Bellini would have known that his wall painting was meant to fit into the stories of the Virgin, hence his altarpiece was a sacra conversazione, a sacred conversation of the Virgin and Child with saints in the same space. But he must have also been conscious of the position of his altar with respect to the tomb of Zacharias, the name saint of the church itself. Since he includes Peter in deference to the patron, whose name was Peter (Pietro Cappello), why should he not place the name saint of the church in the place of honor closest to the main altar, the saint whose relic was housed just opposite, namely Saint Zacharias? And what better way to honor the name saint of the church buried just opposite than with a painted image of him facing his tomb? 

          What about Zacharias makes him appropriate to be placed within the sacred space of the Madonna and Child Enthroned?  Zacharias' story is told in Luke 1, 5-25 and then gets expanded in the life of the Virgin in the Golden Legend. Zacharias is the father of John the Baptist and was himself assistant priest in the temple. He is married to Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, and he helps to officiate at the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple.(See David Rosand on Titian's Presentation in the Temple of 1534.) He also figures in the fresco cycles about his son's life because his son's birth was considered a miracle.  Zacharias and Elizabeth were both old people and had wanted to have children but were barren. He offers incense in the temple one day, whereupon an angel appears and tells him he will have a child. As a sign of God's power in the birth, the angel says Zacharias will be struck mute for some time so that everyone will understand that he has been visited by God and that the birth is miraculous.  John is born and people assume the baby will be called Zacharias after his father. Elizabeth says that he will be called John and people question her decision and go to ask Zacharias, who still can't talk. The moment he writes down his son's name, John, he regains speech. God's intervention in his life is marked by his being struck mute.
          In order to confirm that Bellini's red-clad saint is Zacharias, we need to look at colored images of Zacharias before Bellini's. Between 1485-90 Ghirlandaio paints the story of Zacharias in his fresco cycle about the life of John the Baptist for Giovanni Tornabuoni in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The first image of the cycle is of Zacharias, in red robe with white underlining, being visited by the angel Gabriel at the temple altar:

Ghirlandaio's idea of Zacharias as priest includes an undergarment that is embroidered and his mantle has a hood. Zacharias is a white-haired, white-bearded man with white mustache. Zacharias is painted again in the same cycle when he decides to write down his son's name:

Again he is a white-bearded old man with red cloak seated in the center of the group (his undergarment is green, the only difference from the image in Bellini):

               In the Zaccaria altarpiece, the male figure in red on the right faces frontally, has a long white beard and wears a red cloak in much the same way he does in the earlier Florentine fresco. Bellini has made nearly all of the figures in this altarpiece look 

down, not at each other, not at the Madonna and not at the viewer.  The Madonna and Child look down as well.

Even the bas-relief of God the father over the throne does not look out, is silent as stone.

The only person who could be thought to be looking out is the musician who glances toward the entrance to the church. But the musician perhaps has stopped playing, is listening,

so the effect is an atmosphere of silence and contemplation. It is the silence that Bellini wishes to infuse in his painting to remind the viewer of God's stopping the voice of Zacharias, God's turning Zacharias mute. Zacharias looks down with mouth closed. He holds his book without speaking; he is mute. He contemplates the word of God in the book that is so precious he wears gloves so as not to defile it. The gloves muffle the sound of the hands on the book. God's will silenced Zacharias' life and the power of that silence is present in the world of this altarpiece. The sacred conversation here is a sacred place of no conversation. No sound and no movement. The four saints are caught in the silent power of God's plan in their lives. The figures force the viewer to stillness, too, in front of the altarpiece; they force the viewers to think silently about the mystery of God in their own lives. Behind Zacharias to the right are two trees, one barren and one in leaf, that echo in visual clues the change in Zacharias' body from one that was barren to one that conceived life. 

The red-cloaked priest of the temple here is Zacharias, in the temple of San Zaccaria, where his body lies directly across from his painted image. Bellini understood that Zacharias was a relative of Mary; his wife was Mary's cousin, and both his wife and Mary conceived children miraculously. Zacharias' own belief in the power of God in his own life is conveyed through his still contemplation of the word of God in the book he is holding. He has known Mary as a small child and now he stands with her in a space where she holds her own small child on her lap. He knows his own child, John the Baptist, is the prophet who will tell the world of Christ before Christ is revealed. As a priest of the temple, his job is to interpret the word of God, and in this image, he is deeply engrossed in the book of that word. The same angel who visits Mary, Gabriel, visits Zacharias, to tell him of God's power. Gabriel says to Zacharias,"And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believed not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season." Zacharias in Bellini's work believes the words now because he has already had a son five months before Mary's in the altarpiece. He contemplates the space and time of his own life laid out between Bellini's painting and the tomb across from it, a lifetime in which the power of silence and prayer has given him hope, and the wisdom to remain quiet in the face of miracles.   

            Should we need further confirmation that this man is Zacharias, we need only look at an earlier painted image of Zacharias in the same church.  In 1442 Andrea del Castagno paints the ceiling of the nun's Chapel of San Tarasio, further along and to the right of the nave in the church of San Zaccaria: the very far right figure in his ceiling fresco appears opposite St. John the Baptist who is on the far left; the furthest right saint there is a figure clad in red robe with white underlining who stands on the ceiling along with God the father and the four Evangelists.The red hood wraps over the top of his head. He is the name saint of the church, John's father, Zacharias:

 

If Bellini had any doubts about how to depict Zacharias in his altarpiece, he had only to walk down the church hall.

Castagno's image has been forgotten over the centuries, but Bellini's still brings in the noisy crowds, and suddenly, before the beauty of Bellini's art, they are struck mute.

But wait, what is that hovering over Bellini's altar?      Is it an incense burner?     

         

(For more on the church see Gary M. Radke's illuminating article “Nuns and Their Art: The Case of San Zaccaria in Renaissance Venice.” Renaissance Quarterly 54 (2001 ): 430-59.)