Fortitude Gm-00033801

Giovanni Bellini (Italian, about 1431/1436–1516) A young woman with long, curly hair wrestles open the jaws of a lion. The play of light and shadow across her belted dress emphasizes the rounded curves of her body, while Giovanni Bellini's simple yet powerful portrayal of her wrestling grip emphasized his skill with contrasts. He drew the woman's delicate curls with circular strokes, subtly different from the looser, curving lines of the lion's mane. Bellini displayed a confident and assured touch unusual for such a small-scale work.

The woman represents Fortitude, one of the four Cardinal Virtues, a symbol of endurance and strength in mythology. She is more usually shown as a warrior, wearing a helmet and holding a shield, spear, or sword. Scholars do not know the purpose of this drawing, but because of its small size, it was likely made for a miniature or manuscript illumination.

Our Cards are all printed on 100% cotton tree-free archival paper. All Cards include a recycled kraft envelope in a protective sleeve individually hand wrapped for you. Each card is printed one at a time and hand bound here in Lugano, Switzerland. We ship all over the world via SwissPost. Please allow 5-9 business days for us to make them and 5-7 business days for transit. Art Prints are printed on heavy matte finish German art paper using the finest Canon archival inks. Frame is black natural with a white mattboard and Acrylite glazing.

Wall Murals are printed on 42" matte finish, self-adhesive Kodak PhotoText fabric panels that combine and mount easily on a non textured wall surface. We can custom make to any size, just ask.

Stretched Canvas is stretched by hand over 1.5" thick pine bars and printed on cotton poly matte finish canvas. Each canvas is hand coated with Hahnemuhle UV/Archive coating, these are Swiss quality best in industry canvases.

All our images are digitized from the original negative, printed and assembled in Switzerland to museum standards by our master printer.

All of our products are popular and custom made by hand to order, please allow 2-4 weeks to make them and 1-2 weeks for shipment anywhere in the world.

Questions? Please email service@archivea.com

Artwork in this collection is from The J. Paul Getty Museum. Reproduction rights are reserved by the copyright owner and used under license by Archivea GmbH.