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Lehman Madonna by Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini · 1470-01-01

A devotional painting that reads like a text you have to learn to decipher. The Lehman Madonna, painted by Giovanni Bellini around 1470, hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though as of 2018 it was not on public view. At first glance it is a tender Madonna and Child, but the real message is strung across the top of the panel.

Look at the garland of fruits hanging behind Mary's head. Every piece is a theological symbol. The orange-colored gourds at the center signify the Resurrection. The red fruit at the far right is either a cherry, standing for the Eucharist, or an apple, standing for the Fall of Man, the ambiguity is deliberate, holding redemption and original sin in a single object. On the left, the scholar Mirella Levi d'Ancona identified a balsam pear, a rare and specifically Marian symbol a casual viewer would never name.

Bellini made this early in his career, and you can see his brother-in-law Mantegna's influence in the sculptural folds of Mary's blue mantle and the gravity of her downcast eyes. But the pale, atmospheric landscape behind her already shows Bellini moving toward the luminous Venetian style that would define his mature work and influence Giorgione and Titian.

This garland is a sermon in tempera, painted for a viewer who knew how to read it. What other details do you think are hiding in plain sight?

Details

She looks down, heavy with sorrow.
She looks down, heavy with sorrow.
Every fruit in this garland is a theological cipher.
Every fruit in this garland is a theological cipher.
These orange gourds stand for the Resurrection.
These orange gourds stand for the Resurrection.
On the left: a balsam pear. An obscure Marian symbol.
On the left: a balsam pear. An obscure Marian symbol.
And this one holds redemption and sin in a single fruit.
And this one holds redemption and sin in a single fruit.
Transcript

A Madonna and Child. Quiet, familiar. She looks down, heavy with sorrow. But the real message hangs above her head. Every fruit in this garland is a theological cipher. These orange gourds stand for the Resurrection. On the left: a balsam pear. An obscure Marian symbol. And this one holds redemption and sin in a single fruit. A visual sermon, painted in tempera around 1470.