Bellini imagines Saint Mark preaching in a collage of different times and places: ancient Alexandria, 16th-century Venice, and the Ottoman Empire.
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
Additional resources
This painting at the Brera Pinacoteca
Caroline Campbell, et al., Bellini and the East (London: National Gallery Company, 2005).
David Carrier, “A Renaissance Fantasy Image of the Islamic World: Gentile and Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria,'” Source: Notes in the History of Art, volume 28, number 1 (2008), pp. 16–19.
Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:
