Style Imitating Art: Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist by Giovanni Bellini

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Marsha chose this week’s art inspiration in an effort to pick something much different from many of our previous art inspirations. It is definitely very different due to its religiosity but I think sometimes we all need a little church!

The Artwork

Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist by Giovanni Bellini

About the Artist: Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter born in 1430 and raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, one of the founders of Renaissance style painting in Venice. Giovanni had a slightly older brother, Gentile, who was also a talented artist. In fact, during their lifetime, Gentile was much more highly regarded for his art than Giovanni. The reverse is true today with Giovanni being recognized as the most notable of the Bellini family of Venetian artists.

It was formerly believed that Jacopo was Giovanni’s father but art historian David Wallace Maze has questioned the familial generational relationship between the two. He believes that Jacopo was actually Giovanni’s much older half-brother and that Gentile was his nephew not his brother. In 1459, Giovanni left his parents’ home upon marrying Ginevra Bocheta. The couple later had one son, Alvise.

Giovanni’s early career was spent working closely with his “brother-nephew” Gentile. All of his works dating to this time were done using the egg tempera method of painting. These earliest works featured softer contours, a broader approach to forms and drapery, and are often linked stylistically to the work of his brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna. In 1470, Giovanni received his first commission to work with his brother and other artists in the Scuola Grande di San Marco.

During a career that lasted over six decades, Giovanni created many religious works for public display; however, most of his great public works have been lost over time. After 1480, his focus shifted to his conservator duties for the paintings in the great hall of Doge’s Palace. His job as conservator was a lucrative one as he was responsible for renewing and repairing the artistic works of his predecessors as well as painting a number of new subjects for the palace. He created six or seven new works for the palace and all were universally admired until their complete destruction in a 1577 fire.

During the last decade of Giovanni’s life, he was overwhelmed with more commissions than he could complete, often struggling to deliver completed works that had already been paid for. When his brother died in 1507, Giovanni completed the painting, Preaching of St. Mark, that Gentile had left unfinished. In 1513, Giovanni’s position as the sole master in charge of the paintings held in the Hall of the Great Council was threatened by a former pupil which undoubtedly annoyed the elder artist. A year later, he was commissioned to paint The Feast of the Gods for Alfonso I d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio. Giovanni Bellini died on November 29, 1516, at the age of 86. He is buried in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, Italy.

Giovanni Bellini is credited with revolutionizing Venetian painting by shifting it to a more colorful and sensual style. He was able to create rich, deep tints of color and detailed shading through his use of clear, slow-drying oil paints. Bellini’s artistic influence carried into the 20th century culinary world when Italian chef Giuseppe Cipriani created the Bellini cocktail sometime in the 1930s or 1940s. The unique pink color of the drink caused by the combination of Prosecco and peach nectar reminded Cipriani of a Giovanni Bellini painting and so he named the drink in honor of the Renaissance painter.

About the Artwork: Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a tempera and oil painting on a poplar panel that was completed by Giovanni Bellini between 1490 and 1500. The painting measures 30.0 in × 23.0 in (76.2 cm × 58.4 cm) and was acquired by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2003 where it is currently on display.

The painting depicts Mother Mary holding an infant St. John the Baptist while an unidentified child stands at her knees. At first I thought the infant was Jesus and the unidentified child was John the Baptist until I read the title more closely. Some iterations of the title omit “the Infant” as a qualifier that precedes “Saint John the Baptist”. Since the unknown child is more of a toddler than an infant, one can only assume that the infant being held by Mary is, in fact, John the Baptist. It is believed that John’s mother Elizabeth was Mary’s first or second cousin, making John and Jesus either second or third cousins.

This painting is a later work of Bellini’s and you can see the shift to richer, deeper tints of color as well as more detailed shading as he implemented both egg tempera and oil paints. The color palette features bold saturated hues with detailed shading prominently displayed on Mary’s garb in particular. The colorful floating cherub heads that dominate the background add a touch of whimsy, odd as it may be for a religious work of this sort.

About My Outfit

There were a lot of elements in this painting to inspire an outfit. I began with Mary’s outfit which features a red dress of some sort layered beneath a dark blue and purple robe or cloak and accessorized with a white scarf as her head covering. So I wore a red dress of some sort layered beneath a thrifted ruana in dark blue with a stripy pattern in light purple and white. I did not wear a scarf or veil on my head as Mary usually does, but I did drape an ivory sash/scarf around my neck that my own mother, whose name was also Mary, made for me many years ago.

But I did still want a head covering since Mary is almost always depicted with her head covered. So I brought out a recently purchased straw sun hat that has a floral pattern in pink and green, perfect to represent the pink and green floating cherub heads. I wore ivory earrings that resemble the fleurs-de-lis which seem to adorn the top of the columns that frame the painting.

Because there is a lot of gold in the frame, I wore a brown belt with a gold embossed design and a really old pair of gold sequined ballet flats. The shoes are horribly uncomfortable but they are just too darn pretty and unique for me to get rid of them. The only color from the painting that I did not incorporate into my outfit is the yellow of the floating cherub heads so I took some photos in front of a yellow door that I spotted in a local cemetery.

I went to the cemetery for photos in the hopes that I would find a statue of Mary somewhere. I did find a few massive memorials that featured prominent carvings of the Madonna but they were all too large and too tall to capture a photo with both of us in it! Instead, I opted for some other religious iconography that we spotted as we drove around the cemetery grounds.

I do really like how this outfit came together although I never would have thought to pair this red dress with this blue and purple ruana. But they really work well together which is why I love these style challenges so much. I was able to create an entirely new and unique combination from the pieces in my wardrobe, giving more versatility to each item than I had previously realized. Sometimes, we just need a little inspiration to think outside the box!

I also created a second outfit inspired by this artwork. Actually, the second outfit was my first styling for this challenge but then I created the second look which I liked better. But I figured I’d share the first outfit with you as well. I am wearing a newly thrifted red floral dress under a newly thrifted long blue floral vest. The colors in the floral prints capture all the various colors in the painting. I wore the same gold shoes and a gold cross necklace.

Which outfit do you think represents the artwork better?

I hope you all enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this painting. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, August 27 16, 2025.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee