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.
Paintings by Giovanni Bellini
The Feast of the Gods (1529)
The Feast of the Gods (Italian: Il festino degli dei) is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, with substantial additions in stages to the left and center landscape by Dosso Dossi and Titian. It is one of the few mythological pictures by the Venetian artist. Completed in 1514, it was his last major work. It is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., which calls it "one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the United States".
The painting is the first major depiction of the subject of the "Feast of the Gods" in Renaissance art, which was to remain in currency until the end of Northern Mannerism over a century later. It has several similarities to another, much less sophisticated, treatment painted by the Florentine artist Bartolomeo di Giovanni in the 1490s, now in the Louvre.
Madonna del Prato (Bellini) (1500)
Madonna del Prato (Madonna of the Meadow) is a 1505 painting of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child by the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, now in the National Gallery in London. Originally painted as oil and egg tempera on wood, it was transferred to canvas in 1949, with damage in places.
It presents a medieval iconography of the Virgin of humility seated before a full and shining rural panorama, with both the devotional aspect and the landscape aspect given equal prominence. Full of small details of everyday life, this landscape contributes to the intimate and familiar tone of the two figures. The raven in the tree possibly symbolises death. The figures' poses invite meditation on Jesus's death and passion, recalling Pietà compositions with the dead adult Jesus in his mother's lap.
Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria (1500)
Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance artists Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, dated to 1504–1507 and held in the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan.
The work is a huge canvas (telero) destined for the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice. It is 26 m2 in surface, and has rich narrative and iconographic features. The cycle of paintings with stories of the life of Saint Mark was completed around 60 years later by Giorgione and Tintoretto, and is today housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Accademia in Venice.
San Zaccaria Altarpiece (1505)
The San Zaccaria Altarpiece (also called Madonna Enthroned with Child and Saints) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, executed in 1505 and located in the church of San Zaccaria, Venice.
The patron of the altarpiece is unknown. It is Bellini's first work in which the influence of Giorgione is undeniable, starting the last phase in the artist's career, a tonalist one. The Altarpiece has stayed in site (in situ) in the church since it was completed in 1505. The work was mentioned in 1648 by writer and painter Carlo Ridolfi as a large panel commissioned in memory of Venetian politician and diplomat Pietro Cappello; he described it as "one of the most beautiful and delicate by the artist".
Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan (1500)
The Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan (Italian: Ritratto del doge Leonardo Loredan) is a painting by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from c. 1501–02. It portrays Leonardo Loredan, the Doge of Venice from 1501 to 1521, in his ceremonial garments with the corno ducale worn over a linen cap, and is signed IOANNES BELLINVS on a cartellino ("small paper"). It is on display in the National Gallery in London.
This formal portrait depicts Leonardo Loredan in his official state robes as Doge of Venice, with its ornate buttons. The distinctively shaped hat is derived from the hood of a doublet. As with other traditional portraits of the Doge, the composition resembles a Roman sculpted portrait bust. The painting is signed IOANNES BELLINVS – the Latin form of Giovanni Bellini – on a cartellino attached to a parapet at the base of the composition.
Agony in the Garden (Bellini) (1459)
The Agony in the Garden is an early painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, who created it ca.1459–1465. It is a tempera painting on panel and is now in the National Gallery, London.
This work portrays the Agony in the Garden with Christ kneeling on the Mount of Olives in prayer, with his disciples Peter, James and John sleeping near to him. In the background, Judas leads the Roman soldiers to capture Christ.
San Giobbe Altarpiece (1487)
The San Giobbe Altarpiece (Italian: Pala di San Giobbe) is a c. 1487 altarpiece in oils on panel by the Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini. Inspired by a plague outbreak in 1485, this sacra conversazione painting is unique in that it was designed in situ with the surrounding architecture of the church (a first for Bellini), and was one of the largest sacra conversazione paintings at the time. Although it was originally located in the Church of San Giobbe, Venice, it is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice after having been stolen by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Just prior to 1478, Giovanni Bellini was commissioned to paint the altarpiece by an unknown individual from the Scuola di San Giobbe, to be placed opposite the Martini Chapel of the soon-to-be consecrated Church of San Giobbe. The friars and sisters of the San Giobbe Hospice had founded the Scuola di San Giobbe and replaced an old oratory dedicated to Job with a new church dedicated to both St. Job and St. Bernardino. This was strongly suggested by the confraternity's patron, the doge Cristoforo Moro. This altarpiece marks the first time Bellini used the concept of creating an illusionary space to house a sacra conversazione that appears as though it is an extension of the church architecture itself, and honored St. Job with the position closest to the Christ child. The painting was designed in situ to incorporate the architecture of the Church of San Giobbe; the arches inside the painting match in perspective and design the marble arches of the church framing the painting. Because the Church of San Giobbe did not have two chapels, only the Martini Chapel and an empty space opposite the chapel, the altarpiece was painted in order to create a space that would illusionistically balance the church with "two" chapels on either side. Hence the piece's size and detailed visual description of the perspective in fictive space was intended to serve as a second chapel, and the perspective, along with the similar framing within the painting and surrounding the painting, would give that proper illusion.
Naked Young Woman in Front of a Mirror (1515)
Naked Young Woman in Front of a Mirror is a painting in oil on poplar panel by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini. Dating to 1515, it was one of his last works, showing him responding to the tonalism introduced by Giorgione. It was acquired by James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton in 1638 and remained with his family until 1659, when it was acquired in Brussels by Leopold William of Austria. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Saint Francis in Ecstasy (Bellini) (1480)
Saint Francis in Ecstasy (or Saint Francis in the Desert) is a painting by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, started in 1475 and completed around 1480. Bellini depicted the religious figure of Saint Francis of Assisi in a landscape. In 1852, the painting was listed on June 19 at Christie's. It was part of the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures exhibition. In 1915, Henry Clay Frick bought the painting for $170,000, and it remains in the Frick Collection, in New York City.
The painting portrays Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint of the early 13th century, in an Italian landscape, stepping out in the sun from his cave, his figure anchoring the creamy celadon and golden-green landscape. The oil painting by Bellini has a length of approximately four feet with a width of around four and a half feet, depicting a natural, but dramatic scene. This painting includes one of the largest and most extensive Renaissance landscapes.
Alzano Madonna (1486)
The Madonna with Child, or Alzano Madonna, sometimes known as Madonna of the Pear, is an oil-on-panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, executed around 1485.
The work has been in Bergamo since as early as the 16th century, where it likely arrived as part of the dowry of Lucrezia Agliardi, who had been abbess in the monastery of Alzano Lombardo, whence the name.
Contarini Madonna (1475)
The Contarini Madonna (Italian: Madonna Contarini) is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from c. 1475–1480 now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.
The painting shows the Madonna holding Jesus who stands on a parapet in the foreground. Below is a cartouche with the artist's signature, IOANNES BELLINVS. The blessing Child has similar features to that in the San Giobbe Altarpiece, dating to the same decade or a few years later. His icon-like staring appearance recalls the Byzantine painting, which was one of the roots of the Venetian painting school.
Presentation at the Temple (Bellini) (1469)
The Presentation at the Temple is a painting of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple by the Venetian master Giovanni Bellini, dating to c. 1460. It is housed in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, in Venice, Italy.
The dating of the work is uncertain, though it is usually considered to be subsequent to the Presentation at the Temple by Andrea Mantegna (Berlin, c. 1455), from which Bellini took a very similar placement of the figures.