Photographer Robert Polidori, known for his images of architecture and human habitats, created a series of images of the Getty Center shortly before the opening of the multipurpose complex in 1997. As the Center celebrates its twentieth anniversary, this exhibition features behind-the-scenes views of the building and galleries as objects from J. Paul Getty’s painting, sculpture, and decorative arts collections were being installed in the Museum for the first time.
Giovanni Bellini’s evocative landscapes are as much the protagonists of his paintings as are the religious subjects that dominated 15th-century Italian art. One of the most influential painters of the Renaissance, he worked in and around Venice, and while his landscapes are highly metaphorical, they also accurately reflect the region’s topography and natural light. Created for sophisticated patrons, Bellini’s works present characters and symbols from familiar sacred stories, set in a dimension of reality and lived experience to a degree unprecedented in the history of Italian painting.