Giovanni Bellini
c. 1430–1516 · Renaissance & Mannerism
Biography
Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516) was the leading Venetian painter of his time and teacher of Giorgione and Titian. His warm light and harmony between figures and landscape shaped the Venetian school.
From the artist’s life
Born around 1430, Giovanni Bellini came from a famous Venetian family of painters. His father, the painter Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400–1470), who likewise painted the Virgin and Child (pictured), had two talented sons, Giovanni and Gentile Bellini (c. 1429–1507), whom he employed in his large workshop. In 1453 Jacopo Bellini’s daughter Nicolosia married the painter Andrea Mantegna, from Isola di Carturo near Padua. Giovanni Bellini’s early works were significantly influenced by his brother-in-law’s manner of painting and choice of subjects, although Bellini later developed his own softer, more atmospheric style.
From the page of The Feast of the Gods
