- Jacopo Bellini
Jacopo Bellini (c. 1396 - c. 1470) was an Italian painter. Jacopo was one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting in
Venice and northern Italy. His sons Gentile andGiovanni Bellini , and his son-in-lawAndrea Mantegna , were also famous painters.Biography
Born in
Venice , Jacopo had been a pupil ofGentile da Fabriano . In 1411-1412 he was inFoligno , where with Gentile he worked at thePalazzo Trinci frescoes. In 1423 Bellini was inFlorence , where he knew the new works byBrunelleschi ,Donatello andMasaccio .In 1424 he opened a workshop in Venice, which he ran right up until his death.
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 theAccademia Carrara , once attributed to Gentile da Fabriano. In 1441, atFerrara , where he was at the service ofLeonello d'Este together withLeon Battista Alberti , he executed a portrait of that Marquess, now lost. Of this period the "Madonna dell'Umiltà", probably commissioned by one of the brothers of Leonello.The influence from
Masolino da Panicale towards more modern, earlyRenaissance themes is visible in the "Madonna with Child" (dated 1448) in thePinacoteca 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 theGallerie dell'Accademia .Later he sojourned in
Padua , where he trained a youngAndrea Mantegna in perspective and classicist themes and where, in 1460, he finished a portrait ofErasmo Gattamelata , now lost. Of his late phase, a ruined "Crucifix" in the Museum of Verona and an "Annunciation" in Sant'Alessandro ofBrescia remain.Few of his paintings still exist, but his surviving sketch-books (one in the
British Museum and one in theLouvre ) 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 paintingBibliography
*C. Eisler, "The genius of Jacopo Bellini: the complete paintings and drawings" (London, The British Museum Press, 1989)
* [http://www.all-art.org/gothic_era/bellini1.html Jacopo Bellini in the "A World History of Art"]External links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.