Madonna and Child. Artist: Giovanni Bellini (Italian, Venice, active by 1459-died 1516 Venice). Dimensions: 35 x 28 in. (88.9 x 71.1 cm). Date: late 1480s.Separated from our everyday world by a parapet, the figures nonetheless engage the viewer with their gazes. A cloth of honor has been pulled aside to reveal a distant landscape, where we witness the transition from dormant to verdant nature--a metaphor, like the dawn sky, for death and rebirth. The asymmetrical composition looks ahead to the work of Titian. When Albrecht Dürer visited Venice, he declared Bellini the best painter. The fine Venetian frame is of the period. Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.