Cima da Conegliano

Cima da Conegliano (1459–1517) was a painter of the Venetian school, born in the hill town of Conegliano north of Venice and buried there at the end of his life. He worked in Conegliano, Vicenza and Venice itself, arriving in the capital at the moment Giovanni Bellini was redefining what a Venetian altarpiece could be. His subject was almost exclusively religious painting, and his manner is among the most recognisable of the period: still, luminous figures set against the pale hills and clear light of the Veneto, with landscape given the same care as the sacred narrative in front of it. Where Bellini's saints inhabit an architecture of gold and shadow, Cima's stand in open country under a real sky. He is the most represented painter in this collection. The nine works here — among them Christ Crowned with Thorns, David and Jonathan and several Madonnas with attendant saints — span the devotional range he spent his career on.