The 'Presentation at the Temple' is one of Giovanni Bellini’s (Venice, ca. 1438/40 - 1516) masterpieces. Painted in about 1470, it represents a private form of devotion: these kinds of subjects are often found in family chapels, bedrooms and studies. The figures stand out against a dark background. The intensity of their gaze, Mary’s gesture of holding baby Jesus as if to protect him, the way he is swaddled as if he is already in the sepulchre, the parapet that alludes to a sarcophagus: all these elements foretell death and the Calvary. Its resounding modernity makes it a symbol of the Renaissance.