Bellini, Giovanni c.1430-1516
Venetian painter

One of a family of painters, he became the greatest Venetian artist of his time and was instrumental in making Venice an artistic centre to rival Florence. His father Jacopo Bellini (c.1400-70) had studied under Gentile da Fabriano and painted a wide range of subjects, of which a few Madonnas in Italy and drawings in the Louvre, Paris, and the British Museum, London, remain, showing Jacopo's interest in architectural and landscape setting. Giovanni's style progressed from the sharp and stylized manner inherited from his father to the more sensuous, painterly one for which he is famous. His sense of design was learned from the severe classical style of his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna and his fluid, oil technique from Antonello da Messina. His art is essentially calm and contemplative; one of his chief contributions to Italian art was his successful integration of figures with landscape background. Another is his naturalistic treatment of light. Almost all his pictures are religious and he remains best known for a long series of Madonnas to which he brought a humanistic sensibility. All the most talented younger painters of his day, including Titian, came to his studio and through them his innovations were perpetuated. His own style continued to develop to the end, and his later work is influenced by the youthful genius Giorgione. Giovanni's brother Gentile (c.1429-1507) worked in Jacopo's studio and was chosen to paint the portrait of Sultan Muhammad II in Constantinople (Istanbul). This portrait, together with his Adoration of the Kings, is in the National Gallery, London.

Bibliography: Giles Robertson, Giovanni Bellini (1968)