Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini (* around 1429 in Venice ; † February 23, 1507 ibid) was a Venetian painter and medalist .
Life
Gentile Bellini, Jacopo's eldest son , appeared for the first time independently as the painter of a Madonna painted in his father's style and dated 1460. The year before, he and his brother had assisted the father in building an altar in Padua . In July 1466, the Scuola (brotherhood) of San Marco commissioned him as an independent artist to decorate the doors of their organ. These paintings still exist in a blackened state. They depict four larger than life saints, designed with the austere simplicity that characterizes the Paduan school of Francesco Squarcione or Andrea Mantegna . In December of the same year Bellini was obliged to carry out two themes of the Exodus for the great hall of the same company, which he is said to have succeeded in at least as well as his father's work in the same place. These paintings are lost.
The life and work of Bellini over the next eight years of his life is unclear. He seems to have grown steadily in the esteem of his fellow citizens, because in 1474 he was commissioned by the Senate to restore, renew and, where necessary, replace a number of paintings by an earlier generation of artists, as they were affected by the moisture on the walls of the Grand Council room in the Doge's Palace had been damaged.
Continuing his work, Bellini took a series of independent images in the same room with motifs from Venetian history, but apparently only completed one depicting the delivery of the consecrated candle to the Doge by the Pope.
His work was interrupted by an appointment to the Ottoman Empire . The Sultan Mehmed II had sent a benevolent embassy to Venice , which invited the Doge to visit Constantinople and at the same time requested the assignment of an outstanding painter to work at the court. The Senate rejected the first part of the proposal, but complied with the second. Gentile Bellini was chosen for the job with two assistants, while his brother Giovanni was to continue work on the Grand Council room for him. Bellini worked to the full satisfaction of the Sultan and returned about a year later with elegant clothes, a gold chain and a pension. The traditional fruits of his activity in Constantinople consist of a large painting (on display in the Louvre (?)) Depicting the reception of an ambassador in the city; a now damaged portrait of the sultan himself; an exquisite watercolor portrait of a scribe; also two drawings of Turkish models (now in the British Museum (?)). Some early copies of similar drawings have survived. Perhaps such copies were made for Bellini's Umbrian contemporary Pinturicchio , who borrowed figures from them for his decorative frescoes in the Appartamento Borgia in Rome .
A place had been left in the Doge's Palace where Gentile could continue to work alongside his brother. Soon after 1480 he began his part in a large series of frescoes illustrating Venice's role in the dispute between the papacy and Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa . Since the climate of Venice had so often proven to be harmful to the murals, these works were not done directly on the wall, but on canvas, probably in oil. These works were praised by contemporary and later Venetian critics, but were completely destroyed in a fire in 1577. The new paintings in the Doge's Palace are by Tintoretto .
Their character can, to some extent, be judged by a number of related historical works by Bellini, including three written between 1490 and 1500 for the Scuola of San Giovanni Evangelista (now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia ). They depict events that have to do with a famous relic owned by the Scuola, an alleged fragment of the Holy Cross. All of them have been badly damaged and repainted, but they still give an idea of the painter's achievement and style. This is characterized above all by the ability to group and position crowds and to portray the individual figures with great accuracy.
The artist's last major work is La predica di S. Marco ad Alessandria , commissioned by the Scuola of San Marco in March 1505. In his will he ordered that it should be finished by his brother Giovanni.
Works (selection)
- Miracolo della croce caduta nel canale di San Lorenzo. (1500) (Miracle of the Cross on the Bridge of San Lorenzo) - Gallerie dell'Accademia , Venice
- La trasfigurazione di Cristo. (1453–1455) (Transfiguration of Christ) - Museo Correr , Venice
- Ritratto del doge Giovanni Mocenigo. (1478–79 or 1480–85) (Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo) - Museo Correr, Venice
- Cristo morto sorretto da due angeli. (1453–1455) (The dead Christ held by two angels) - Museo Correr, Venice
- Madonna col Bambino. (Madonna Frizzoni; Madonna and Child) - Museo Correr, Venice
- La predica di S. Marco ad Alessandria d'Egitto. ( The Sermon of St. Mark in Alexandria ) - Pinacoteca di Brera , Milan
- Mehmed II - National Gallery , London
- Ritratto di Caterina Cornaro. (Portrait of Catherine Cornaro ), Queen of Cyprus - Museum of Fine Arts , Budapest
- Procession in piazza San Marco. (1496) (Procession in St. Mark's Square) - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
literature
- Jürg Meyer zur Capellen : Gentile Bellini . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 3-515-04086-2 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Gentile Bellini in the catalog of the German National Library
- Gentile Bellini at artcyclopedia.com (engl.)
- Biography at Treccani.it Enciclopedia Italiana
- Exhibition Gentile Bellini and the East from December 14, 2005 to March 26, 2006 at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
- Gentile Bellini at The National Gallery, London (engl.)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bellini, Gentile |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Venetian painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1429 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Venice |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 23, 1507 |
| Place of death | Venice |