Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, but now that familial generational relationship is questioned. An older brother, Gentile Bellini was more highly regarded than Giovanni during his lifetime, but the reverse is true today. His brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna.
Presumed self-portrait, c. 1500, Musei Capitolini (Rome)
St. Jerome in the Desert, c. 1455; Tempera on panel; Barber Institute, Birmingham
Christ Blessing, 1500; Tempera, oil, and gold on panel, Kimbell Art Museum, Texas
Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist, c. 1480; oil; Indianapolis Museum of Art
Venetian painting was a major force in Italian Renaissance painting and beyond. Beginning with the work of Giovanni Bellini and his brother Gentile Bellini and their workshops, the major artists of the Venetian school included Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto (1518–1594), Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) and Jacopo Bassano (1510–1592) and his sons. Considered to give primacy to colour over line, the tradition of the Venetian school contrasted with the Mannerism prevalent in the rest of Italy. The Venetian style exerted great influence upon the subsequent development of Western painting.
Titian, Salome with the Head of John the Baptist c. 1515; this religious work also functions as an idealized portrait of a beauty, a Venetian genre developed by Titian, supposedly often using Venetian courtesans as models.
Canaletto, The Entrance to the Grand Canal, c. 1730, a typical veduta
Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece, 1505, a late work, San Zaccaria, Venice
Paolo Veneziano, polyptych altarpiece with Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1350
