# Portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St Dominic [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BELLINI, Giovanni]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 63 x 50 cm ## Commentary In 1515 Bellini signed and dated the portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino. The old prelate appears here as St Dominic, solemnly clothed in a black robe. The unusual flowered curtaining and the customary three-quarter pose do not diminish the physiognomical impact of his face, which is actually accentuated by the meagre colour and by the far-away leftward gaze. In this painting Bellini gave St Dominic the specific features of an actual person, thereby blurring the boundaries between portrait and saintly image. The subject can be characterised either as Fra Teodoro in the guise of St Dominic or as St Dominic with the features of Fra Teodoro. This portrait is Giovanni Bellini's "farewell" of the genre, this last known portrait was painted more than four decades after the <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/b/bellini/giovanni/1470-79/069portr.html'\)" href="/html/b/bellini/giovanni/1470-79/069portr.html">portrait of Jörg Fugger.</a> The evolution of Venetian portraiture in the intervening period - from rather static, bust-length pictures to figures shown almost half-length and with more dynamic poses and including the subject's hands - can thus be traced in the work of this single artist. ## Related artworks - [Agony in the Garden \(detail\)]() - [Agony in the Garden]() - [Angel Announcing \(detail\)]() - [Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate]() - [Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate]() - [Baptism of Christ]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece]() - [Blessing Christ]() - [Bust of a Man]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()