Bellini

Venetian family of artists, founders of the Venetian School in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400-1470/71) worked in Venice, Padua, Verona, and Ferrara. Gentile Bellini (c. 1429-1507) was probably the elder son of Jacopo and was trained by him. Although now overshadowed by his brother, he was no less famous in his own day. Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516) contributed more than any other painter of his time to the creation of the great Venetian School.

Gentile's great ability in portraiture is shown by the Man with a Pair of Dividers about 1500 (National Gallery, London), though the superb St Dominic about 1515 (National Gallery), long attributed to him, is now assigned to Giovanni.

The numerous works attributed to Giovanni, and coming from the workshop where he employed many assistants, show wide variations of style. A sculptural firmness derived from his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, appears in the impressive early work The Agony in the Garden (National Gallery). Antonello da Messina, who visited Venice 1475-76, contributed no doubt to the richness of colour and the development of his oil technique (as seen in the portrait of The Doge Leonardo Loredan, about 1500, National Gallery). One of the great Renaissance compositions is the altarpiece of San Giobbe 1479 (Venice, Accademia), and in its soft fullness of modelling the Madonna degli Alberetti (Accademia) links Bellini with his pupils Giorgione and Titian.

Jacopo's few surviving paintings are executed in a simple and austere style. He is principally known by the designs for compositions comprising figures, landscape, and architectural perspectives, in his sketchbooks, of which his sons made use, now in the British Museum, London, and the Louvre, Paris.

His son Gentile was made count palatine by the emperor Frederick III 1469, and was chosen 1479 to go to Constantinople to paint portraits for Sultan Muhammad II (whose much repainted portrait is in the National Gallery, London). In Venice, Gentile painted a series of history pictures for the Doge's Palace 1474, which were later destroyed, but extant compositions are his paintings of Venetian ceremonies and pageants, in which he gives a fascinating view of the city; for example, Procession in the Piazza S Marco (Accademia, Venice). A beautiful drawing of a janissary from his Turkish voyage is in the British Museum. His St Mark Preaching at Alexandria (Brera, Milan) was left to be finished by his brother.

Giovanni worked to an advanced age on paintings for public buildings and churches in Venice and other cities, including numerous versions of the Madonna and Child. Altarpieces for S Pietro Martire, Murano, the church of the Frari, and the church of S Zaccaria are notable, as also is a late mythological composition The Feast of the Gods 1514 (Washington), in which Titian may have had a hand.