Amazement, Reality, Enigma. Pietro Bellotti and the Painting of 17th Century in Venice

From September 19, 2025, to January 18, 2026 

The Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia is pleased to announce the exhibition Amazement, Reality, Enigma. Pietro and the Painting of 17th Century in Venice, which will take place from September 19 2025 to January 18 2026. Curated by Francesco Ceretti, Michele Nicolaci e Filippo Piazza, the exhibition introduces the general public to the Brescian painter Pietro Bellotti (1625–1700), who spent most of his career in Venice. Though still relatively unknown, Bellotti’s work is undeniably fascinating, the exhibition aims to position him within the extraordinary artistic context of seventeenth-century Venetian painting.

Pietro Bellotti, The Parcae Lachesis, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Image Scala, Firenze/bpk, Bildagentur fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin

“Amazement" and "Reality" are key concepts that define Bellotti's work and emerge in two significant paintings attributed to him, recently acquired by the Gallerie dell’Accademia. These include the so-called Self-Portrait as an Allegory of Amazement, a kind of eccentric official presentation of the painter within the Venetian artistic scene, and Commoners in a landscape, a prototype of "pittura di realtà" and a masterpiece of genre scene, which serves as a bridge to the renowned works of the Milanese artist Giacomo Ceruti from the early eighteenth century.

Pietro Bellotti, Self-portrait as an Allegory of Amazement, Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia. Courtesy of Matteo Panciera for the Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia

From this particular intersection—at times revealing interpretative puzzles—arises the opportunity to embark on a new journey through Baroque Venetian painting. This is made possible by exceptional loans from prestigious international and Italian museums, including the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Gallerie degli Uffizi Galleries in Florence, and the Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

These loans not only help trace Bellotti’s artistic path but also enable significant comparisons with some of the most prominent figures of the time who were active in or connected to Venice, such as Ribera, Giordano, Langetti, and Cagnacci. The exhibition highlights a distinct group of artists who, in various ways, engaged in dialogue with Bellotti’s extraordinary inventions as well as with the contemporary Lombard scene, represented in the exhibition by painters like Monsù Bernardo and the so-called Master of the Blue Jeans.

Fortuneteller, Collezione Koelliker. Courtesy BKV Fine Art

"This is," emphasizes Giulio Manieri Elia, Director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, "an ambitious exhibition—the first that a venetian museum has dedicated to seventeenth-century Venetian painting since the major show of 1959. It is a work of study and research, but also a fundamental effort to enhance the value of the works in our collections, following the rediscovery of the seventeenth-century Venetian painting that began with the reorganization of the ground-floor spaces of the Gallerie dell'Accademia and continued with two conferences in the following years."

The exhibition, supported by a high-profile scientific committee—including Linda Borean, Francesco Frangi, Fabrizio Magani, Giulio Manieri Elia, and Alessandro Morandotti—will be accompanied by a catalog edited by Francesco Ceretti, Michele Nicolaci, and Filippo Piazza, featuring essays by renowned Italian scholars.

The exhibition is promoted and organized by the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.

Biographical Note

Born in the Lake Garda region and student of Girolamo Forabosco, Pietro Bellotti was active in Venice from the 1640s and enjoyed considerable success. He was highly regarded by some of the most authoritative voices of his time, including the celebrated art critic Marco Boschini, with whom he developed a close friendship.

In Venice, Bellotti built an extensive network of connections with distinguished figures such as Giacomo Correr, patron of the Accademia Delfica, the Spanish ambassador Antonio Sebastián de Toledo Molina y Salazar, the Medici art advisor Paolo Del Sera and the Austrian envoy Humprecht Jan Černín. Despite this, his refined body of work—almost entirely tied to private commissions—has left few documentary traces, presenting significant chronological and challenges of attribution that continue to puzzle art historians.

Furthermore, complicating the reconstruction of his career, the fact that, while Venice remained the central hub of his life, Bellotti was also active in Lombardy (between Spanish-ruled Milan and Gonzaga-ruled Mantua), in Bavaria, in Rome under Pope Alexander VIII, and almost certainly in Medici-era Florence.

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