Renewal
One of the great advantages of living in London is that one can pop into the National Gallery to look at just one room, or even just one painting.
Room 63 is one that I keep on going back to. The paintings in this room are all connected with the city of Venice between 1450 and 1500. The painting by Giovanni Bellini entitled ‘Madonna of the Meadow’ has recently captured my imagination.
Bellini was one of earliest painters of the Renaissance who took an interest in the natural surroundings of his central characters. But not only that, he also manages to capture the three great Christian events: Christmas, the Passion and Easter in one blink of an eye and thus making a close connection between them.
The slightly oversized baby Jesus is ominously placed in Mary’s lap like the dead Christ that has been taken down from the cross. The blackbird in the tree symbolises the darkness of sin that Jesus has come to dispel. And yet the carefully observed landscape evokes hopefulness: spring is a time of renewal in nature and of Easter, the moment of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
Bernhard Schunemann
22 February 2026
