Mantegna and Bellini offer an exquisite game of spot the difference, says Daisy Dunn
Mary clings to her tightly swaddled son in Mantegna’s Presentation of Christ in the Temple (c1454). As Simeon reaches out to receive him, she seems reluctant to let him go. There is little of the temple architecture in the painting. It is all about the figures, who glow ochre against the darkness, their flesh and fabrics illuminated by candlelight. But who is emerging from the background? Only the artist and his wife.
