真蒂莱·贝利尼

Gentile Bellini (Venetian: Zentil Belin ; c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was a Venetian painter of the school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and, at least in the early part of his career, was more highly regarded than his younger brother Giovanni Bellini - a reversal of the situation today. From 1474, he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice. In addition to his portraits, he painted a number of very large works with multitudes of figures, especially for the Scuole Grandi of Venice, wealthy confraternities that were very important in Venetian patrician social life.

In 1479, he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II requested an artist; he returned the next year. Thereafter, a number of his subjects were set in the East, and he is one of the founders of the Orientalist tradition in European painting. His portrait of the Sultan was also copied in paintings and prints and became known all over Europe.

Biography

Gentile was born into the leading family of painters in Venice. His father Jacopo Bellini was a Venetian pioneer in the use of oil paint as an artistic medium; his brother was Giovanni Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano. Gentile was taught painting in the workshop of his father. Although today Gentile is often seen in the shadow of his more famous family members, in his own time he was considered among the greatest living painters in Venice and had no shortage of commissions;……

Paintings

Gentile's earliest signed work is The Blessed Lorenzo Giustinian (1445), one of the oldest surviving oil paintings in Venice (now at the Accademia Museum). During the 1450s, Bellini worked on a commission for the Scuola Grande di San Marco and painted in conjunction with his brother, Giovanni Bellini. From 1454 he was also the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice, (for example, see image of the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo at right).

Bellini and the East

Venice was, at that time, a very important point where cultures and trade bordered on the eastern Mediterranean Sea and provided gateways to Asia and Africa. As noted, in his lifetime, Gentile was the most prestigious painter in Venice. Therefore, in 1479, he was chosen by the government of Venice to work for Sultan Mehmed II in Constantinople. However, in addition to his work at the Ottoman Court, Gentile's work also responded to other aspects of the East, including the Byzantine Empire.

Constantinople

In September 1479, Gentile was sent by the Venetian Senate to the new Ottoman capital Constantinople as part of the peace settlement between Venice and the Turks.……

Retirement years and legacy

Bellini's 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 (above left) and The Preaching of Saint Mark in Alexandria (above right), 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.……

Selected works

Madonna Enthroned with Child (1475–1485) - National Gallery, London

Portrait of the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1478–1485) - Museo Correr, Venice

Portrait of Mehmet II (1480) - National Gallery, London

Procession in St. Mark's Square (1496) - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Miracle of the True Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo (1500) - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Miracle of the Reliquary of the Cross (1500)

Portrait of Catherine Cornaro (c. 1500) - Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest

St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria (1504–1507) - Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

• Man with a Pair of Dividers
• St. Dominic