Jacopo Bellini La Vierge d humilite adoree par un prince de la maison d Estee 1440

Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400 – c. 1470) was one of the founders of the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought a ...

of painting in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

and northern Italy. His sons

Gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...

and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

, were also famous painters. Few of Bellini's paintings still exist, but his surviving sketch-books (one in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and one in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

) 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 Venetian painting was a major force in Italian Renaissance painting and beyond. Beginning with the work of Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516) and his brother Gentile Bellini (c. 1429–1507) and their workshops, the major artists of the Venetian ...

Biography

Born in

, Jacopo had probably been a pupil of

Gentile da Fabriano Gentile da Fabriano ( – 1427) was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic painter style. He worked in various places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany. His best-known works are his ''Adoration of the Magi ...

, who was then in Venice. In 1411–1412 he was in Foligno, where with Gentile he worked at the

Palazzo Trinci The Trinci Palace is a patrician residence in the center of Foligno, central Italy. It houses an archaeological museum, the city's picture gallery, a multimedia museum of Tournaments and Jousts and the Civic Museum. History Palazzo Trinci was t ...

frescoes. In 1423 Bellini was in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, where he knew the new works by

Brunelleschi Filippo Brunelleschi ( , , also known as Pippo; 1377 – 15 April 1446), considered to be a founding father of Renaissance architecture, was an Italian architect, designer, and sculptor, and is now recognized to be the first modern engineer, p ...

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance s ...

Masolino da Panicale , death_date = ''c.'' 1447 , death_place = Florence , nationality = Italian , field = Painting, fresco , training = , movement = Italian Renaissance , works = frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel , patrons ...

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 The Accademia Carrara, (), officially Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, in Lombardy in northern Italy. The art gallery was established in about 1780 by , a Bergamasco col ...

, once attributed to Gentile da Fabriano. In 1441, at Ferrara, where he was at the service of

Leonello d'Este Leonello d'Este (also spelled Lionello; 21 September 1407 – 1 October 1450) was Marquess of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio Emilia from 1441 to 1450. Despite the presence of legitimate children, Leonello was favoured by his father as his successor ...

together with

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

, he executed a portrait of that Marquess, now lost. Of this period survives the ''Madonna dell'Umiltà'', probably commissioned by one of the brothers of Leonello. The influence from

towards more modern, early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

themes is visible in the ''Madonna with Child'' (dated 1448) in the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

: 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 The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...

. Later he sojourned in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, where he trained a young

in perspective and classicist themes and where, in 1460, he finished a portrait of

Erasmo Gattamelata Erasmo Stefano of Narni (1370 – 16 January 1443), better known by his nickname of Gattamelata (meaning "Honeyed Cat"), was an Italian ''condottiero'' of the Renaissance. He was born in Narni, and served a number of Italian city-states: he be ...

, 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 Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

remain. Giovanni Fontana showed Bellini a treatise on perspective.

Selected works

File:Jacopo bellini, madonna col bambino, uffizi.jpg, ''

Madonna and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent i ...

'' (1450), tempera on wood, 111 x 62 cm,

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

File:Accademia - Madonna col Bambino benedicente e cherubin - Jacopo Bellini.jpg, ''Madonna and Child Blessing'' (c.1455), tempera on wood, 94 x 66 cm,

File:Madonna and Child LACMA M.85.223.jpg, ''Madonna With Child'' (c. 1465), oil on panel, 69.2 x 46.9 cm,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

References

Sources

*C. Eisler, ''The genius of Jacopo Bellini: the complete paintings and drawings'' (London, The British Museum Press, 1989) *

External links

''Italian Paintings, Venetian School''
a collection catalog containing information about Bellini and his works (see index; plate 9). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellini, Jacopo Italian Renaissance painters Quattrocento painters Painters from Venice 1396 births 1470 deaths Italian male painters 15th-century Venetian people 15th-century Italian painters