Italian painter
Jacopo Bellini
(c. 1400 ? c. 1470) was one of the founders of the
Renaissance style
of painting in
Venice
and northern Italy. His sons
Gentile
and
Giovanni Bellini
, and his son-in-law
Andrea Mantegna
, were also famous painters.
[1]
Few of Bellini's paintings still exist, but his surviving sketch-books (one in the
British Museum
and one in the
Louvre
) show an interest in landscape and elaborate architectural design and are his most important legacy. His surviving works show how he accommodated linear perspective to the decorative patterns and rich colors of
Venetian painting
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born in
Venice
, Jacopo had probably been a pupil of
Gentile da Fabriano
, who was then in Venice. In 1411?1412 he was in
Foligno
, where with Gentile he worked at the
Palazzo Trinci
frescoes. In 1423 Bellini was in
Florence
, where he knew the new works by
Brunelleschi
,
Donatello
,
Masolino da Panicale
and
Masaccio
.
In 1424 he opened a workshop in Venice, which he ran right up until his death, and which trained his sons and other artists.
Many of his greatest works, including the enormous
Crucifixion
in the
cathedral of Verona
(1436), have disappeared. From c. 1430 is the panel with
Madonna and Child
, in the
Accademia Carrara
, once attributed to Gentile da Fabriano. In 1441, at
Ferrara
, where he was at the service of
Leonello d'Este
together with
Leon Battista Alberti
, he executed a portrait of that Marquess, now lost. Of this period survives the
Madonna dell'Umilta
, probably commissioned by one of the brothers of Leonello.
The influence from
Masolino da Panicale
towards more modern, early
Renaissance
themes is visible in the
Madonna with Child
(dated 1448) in the
Pinacoteca di Brera
: for the first time, perspective is present and the figure are more monumental. Later he contributed with works now lost to the Venetian churches of
San Giovanni Evangelista
(1452) and
St. Mark
(1466). From 1459 is a
Madonna with Blessing Child
in the
Gallerie dell'Accademia
.
Later he sojourned in
Padua
, where he trained a young
Andrea Mantegna
in perspective and classicist themes and where, in 1460, he finished a portrait of
Erasmo Gattamelata
, now lost. Of his late phase, a ruined
Crucifix
in the Museum of Verona and an
Annunciation
in the church of
Sant'Alessandro
of
Brescia
remain.
Giovanni Fontana
showed Bellini a treatise on perspective.
[3]
Selected works
[
edit
]
-
Madonna and Child
(1450), tempera on wood, 111 x 62 cm,
Uffizi
,
Florence
-
Madonna and Child Blessing
(c.1455), tempera on wood, 94 x 66 cm,
Gallerie dell'Accademia
,
Venice
-
Madonna With Child
(c. 1465), oil on panel, 69.2 x 46.9 cm,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- C. Eisler,
The genius of Jacopo Bellini: the complete paintings and drawings
(London, The British Museum Press, 1989)
- Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Bellini"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Paintings
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
Family
| |
---|
* Workshop
|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Academics
| |
---|
Artists
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|