Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan

The Doge of Venice faces us in his robes of state - the horned ducal cap and a cope of silver-and-gold brocade that Bellini renders thread by gleaming thread - against a pure blue ground. The aged face is grave and composed, almost translucent in the Venetian light, authority and humanity held in balance. Bellini, by now old himself and the patriarch of Venetian painting, brings oil to its full glow, the buttons and damask catching the light like a still life. It reinvents the official portrait: not a profile struck on a coin but a living presence, met face to face.