Gentile Bellini

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Portrait of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus by Gentile Bellini, at the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest.
Portrait of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus by Gentile Bellini, at the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest.

Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – February 23, 1507) was an Italian painter.

Born in Venice, the son of the painter Jacopo Bellini, he was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano. From 1474 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice.

Much of Gentile Bellini's surviving work consists of very large paintings for public buildings, including those for the Scuola Grande di San Marco (1470s), painted in conjunction with his brother, the even better known Giovanni Bellini. The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista hired Bellini amongst other artists to paint a narrative cycle. Bellini painted three oil on canvas paintings. The most beautiful, the Procession of the True Cross in Piazza San Marco (now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice) was painted in 1496. Bellini depicts a man witnessing a miracle in the Piazza; this painting gained the Scuola huge prestige.

In 1478 he was chosen by the government of Venice to go to Istanbul and finish a portrait of Sultan Mehmed II (now in the National Gallery, London, but largely overpainted). It has been noticed that the portrait is like one of the figures in a painting by Marco Palmezzano, Jesus among the Doctors in the Temple (Brisighella, near Forlì and Ravenna). So the dating and authorship of the portrait by Bellini have been placed in question.

Subsequently an Oriental flavour appears in several of his paintings, including the portrait of a Turkish artist and St. Mark Preaching at Alexandria (Brera, Milan). The last was completed by his brother, Giovanni Bellini.

A portrait by Gentile Bellini and workshop of the much-loved Venetian Beato Lorenzo Giustiniani is at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan. In his last years he was the first master of Titian.

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[edit] Selected works

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[edit] Introduction

Gentile Bellini was an Italian painter that lived from 1429 to February 23, 1507. He spent most of his life as a conveyor of cultures between Venice, his hometown, and the East during the Renaissance.

[edit] Biography

Gentile is always seen in the shadow of his father Jacopo Bellini, a Venetian pioneer in the use of oil paint as an artistic medium, his acclaimed brother Giovanni Bellini, and his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna. He was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano.[1] Gentile was taught painting in the workshop of his father. He had no shortage of commissions; his talent as a portaitist revealed itself at an early age. Gentile career was spectacular.

[edit] Gentile Bellini and the East

Venice was, at that time, a very important point in which cultures and trade bordered on the eastern Mediterranean Sea and provided gateways to Asia, Africa, and beyond. In his lifetime, Gentile was the most prestigious painter in Venice. Therefore in 1479, he was sent by the Venetian Senate to work for Sultan Mehmed II in Constantinople. However Gentile also responded to other aspects of the East, including the Byzantine Greek Empire.[2]

[edit] Constantinople

Gentile was sent to the Ottoman capital as part of the peace settlement between Venice and the Turks. His role was not only as a visiting painter in an exotic locale, but also as a cultural ambassador for Venice. This was important to Mehmed II, as he was particularly interested in the art and culture of Italy, and he attempted on several occasions to have himself portrayed by Italian artists. He finally reached his goal with Gentile. The famous portrait of Sultan Mehmed resulted as a great honor and it is now conserved in the National Gallery in London[3].

[edit] Greece

Gentile responded to other aspects of the East, including the Byzantine Greek Empire, as well as Venice’s other trading partners in North Africa and Levant. Venice had a long-established relationship with the Eastern Mediterranean. Saint Mark, Venice’s patron, was from the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and Venice’s cultural and spiritual centre – the basilica of San Marco – was built in his honor (and as his mausoleum) in the Greek Byzantine style. Greek Byzantine world upon Venetian art and culture after 1453 had a continuing impact. It was here that a Gentile painted the portrait of Caterina Cornaro. This is counted as the second known portrait including the queen, which is now in the collection of the Szepmuveszeti Museum in Budapest[4].

[edit] Paintings

[edit] Venice

Gentile earliest signed work is The Blessed Lorenzo Giustinian (1445), one of the oldest surviving oil paintings in Venice, (now at the Accademia Museum). Much of Gentile Bellini’s surviving work consists of very large paintings for public buildings, including those for the Scuola Grande di San Marco (1470s), painted in conjunction with his brother, Giovanni Bellini. He was also, with Lazzaro Bastiani, Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Mansueti and Benedetto Rusconi, one of the five artists of the 10-painting narrative cycle known as The Miracles of the Relic of the Cross, commissioned for the School of St. John the Evangelist to celebrate the relic of the Holy Cross which it had received in 1369. Gentile's contributions are The Procession in St. Mark’s Square, which dates from 1496, and The Recovery of the Relic of the True Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo, which dates from c.1500. From 1474 he was also the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice[5].

[edit] Retirement Years and His Death

Unfortunately, his most important paintings, the monumental canvases in the Doge’s Palace in Venice, were destroyed by fire in 1577. Only a few of his other works remain, namely the large narrative paintings The Procession in Piazza San Marco and The Preaching of Saint Mark in Alexandria, produced in his final years. Little remains of Gentile’s art from the 1470s and 1480s, except for the works made in Constantinople. Moreover, many workshop paintings and drawings have been assigned to Gentile Bellini. This has had the unfortunate consequence of confirming his reputation as an awkward artist, especially in comparison with his beloved brother Giovanni. In his last year he was the first master of Titian. He passed away having been shot by a jealous, adulterous wife in 1507.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Italian Culture and History
  2. ^ absolutearts.com - Contemporary Art - Artist Portfolios - Art News
  3. ^ absolutearts.com - Contemporary Art - Artist Portfolios - Art News
  4. ^ absolutearts.com - Contemporary Art - Artist Portfolios - Art News
  5. ^ http://www.encarta.msn.com

[edit] External links

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