Gentile Bellini (completed by Giovanni Bellini), Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria, 1504-07, oil on canvas, 347 x 770 cm (Brera Pinacoteca, Milan) speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Oh my gosh, the zoom in of the Temple of Serapis around 0:30! 😲 That is absolutely stunning! The gold trim looks precisely as I've seen it in actual cathedrals - it's amazing. I remember learning about St. Mark being snatched away from Egypt and brought to Venice... What a thing to see his legacy preserved there. I'm sure in other parts of the world too. If you honor God, he will honor you. Bonus for being another example of sacra conversazione. 🙃
i so absolutely love you guys . I wish I could help you make longer documentaries. So well presented. So much that we need you in our lives at this stage in our society!
and it's really something to experience it in person. you might think that a flat 2d picture would be essentially equivalent to be shown to the large high resolution screen in your living room, but no, it's really not comparable.
I saw this painting (online) for the first time just last week, I was immediately attracted by the architecture too. I love the curved buttresses on either side of the temple
The square are filled with people and no one notice the giraffe? Are they blasé or just not looking in that direction? And the palm tree, that must have died unfortunately?
@@EdT.-xt6yv - easy to include people then, when they have same nose as me, me myself, had easily been distracted by the giraffe, perhaps the cute dog also
The author of the excellent new book on that painting wrote an essay for us about it, smarthistory.org/gentile-bellini-portrait-of-sultan-mehmed-ii/ Here is her book: Elizabeth Rodini, Gentile Bellini’s Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II: Lives and Afterlives of an Iconic Image (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2020)
I think they might be Sufi/Dervishes from central Anatolia. As you might know, this sect is loved by some, but considered heretical by strict Sunnis and Shiites.
@@christianfrommuslim I interpreted these figures as representing women resident in the Muslim lands, as they would have appeared out in public at the time this painting was produced. No males in those polities, including Sufis and dervishes, would have been required to veil in public, while women at that point in time invariably had to do so.
Wait! How did it get to Milan? Did the con fraternity sell it for needed funds? Did Milan control Venice at some point and get it as a spoil of war? Did Napoleon make off with it at some point and it only got back to Milan as a return and not across the country?
Fabulous painting with its anachronistic mixture of cultures and times. --> If you studied the Quran and compared it to the Bible, or lived in a Muslim country, you too might strongly sympathize with the Scuola di San Marco's desire to see Muslims come to Christ.
Non cerchiamo di sottolineare tutto nei dipinti di cui discutiamo, anche se il cammello della Battriana, il dromedario e la giraffa sono meravigliosi da vedere qui.
