Giovanni Bellini

The Italian painter, Giovanni Bellini (or Gian Bellini), was born between 1430 and 1435 in Venice, where he also died in 1516.

Giovanni was born into an artistic family. His father Jacopo was a student of Gentile da Fabriano, one of the leading painters of the early 15^th century. Giovanni had one brother, Gentile, who is ranked as one of the leading painters of Venice. He also had at least one sister, Nicolosia, who married Andrea Mantegna in 1453. Giovanni’s early paintings were influenced a lot by Mantegna, such as Crucifixion and The Blood of the Redeemer. His later works were mainly influenced by Antonello da Messina. The paintings for the hall of the Great council in Venice were considered his greatest works, but they were destroyed by fire in 1577. Nevertheless, a large number of altarpieces and other works have survived. The altarpiece of the Madonna for the Church of San Giobbe, today in the Venice Academy, is one of his more mature works that has survived.

Giovanni is mainly remembered as a religious painter because he painted among other things many Madonna and child pictures. On top of that he was also one of the greatest landscape painters. He introduced the Florentine Renaissance style to Venice and many of the leading painters of Venice, such as Titian, were trained in his studio.

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