Giovanni Bellini

Variant namesauktoriserad namnform: Giovanni Bellini

DatesBiographical dates: c. 1427 - 1516 Dead: dead 1516 Born: born c. 1427

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BiographyBiography: Vasari, in his Vite, recognized Giovanni Bellini as one of the great artists of his generation. With his warm and luminous use of saturated colour, Bellini helped to bring Venetian art into the Renaissance. He was probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian artists. His father Iacopo headed a successful workshop, where Giovanni and his brother Gentile were first trained. The linear style of Bellini’s brother-in-law, Andrea Mategna, was an early influence. This is apparent in some of Bellini’s first independent works, like the Madonna Davis (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and the Agony in the Garden (National Gallery, London). With great adaptability, his style underwent important changes throughout his career, though his strong personality was always evident. When the oil painting technique was introduced into Venice by Antonello da Messina in about 1475, Bellini soon switched from tempera painting to the new medium and his manner became softer and more luminous. He produced religious works, often small-scale panels for private devotion. Highly influential were his half-length madonnas. The Pesaro Coronation from c. 1473 (Museo Civico, Pesaro) is an example of his devotional art, distinguished by great sensitivity and calm dignity. At the end of his life, Bellini NMDrh 481 Fig. 1, NMH 402/1863 62 63 also painted subjects based on classical literature, like the Feast of the Gods from 1514 (National Gallery of Art, Washington), commissioned by the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso I d’Este.

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