From 18 December 2023 to 7 April 2024 the Galleries of the Academy of Venice will exceptionally host the Madonna in adoration of the sleeping Child, an iconic work of Giovanni Bellini's early artistic maturity, property of the Luciano Sorlini Foundation of Calvagese della Riviera, in the province of Brescia.

The work will return to MarteS in 2026.

The work is known in the art world by multiple names. Roberto Longhi defined it as "Madonna in red" in 1946 in his Viaticum for five centuries of Venetian painting, underlining the chromaticism that distinguishes it . It was then called “Madonna Sorlini” after the Brescia entrepreneur and collector Luciano Sorlini acquired it in 2004. At the same time as the choice, the Luciano Sorlini Foundation was established, an institution designed to safeguard its extraordinary collection.

The original title is the Madonna in adoration of the sleeping Child , an iconic work by Giovanni Bellini (circa 1432/1433 - 1516), dating back to the author's first artistic maturity. Considering that Giovanni Bellini was born in Venice, his stay at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice before the restoration marks the return of the patriarch of Venetian Renaissance painting and refers to the favorite bond that Luciano Sorlini had with Venice .

The exhibition initiative, of exceptional importance, is made possible thanks to the agreements made between the Brescia Museum and the Venetian Galleries of which the loan constitutes the first step. The occasion allows the viewing of the work inside Room V on the first floor of the Galleries, adjacent to Room IV dedicated to the small-format works of Giovanni Bellini , and in particular to the interpretative evolution of the great founder on the theme of the "Madonna with the Child."