Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1429 |
Died | 23 February 1507 |
Resting place | Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo |
Known for | Painter, noted for portraits and paintings of Middle Eastern scenes |
Notable work | Sultan Mehmed II and others |
Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the
In 1479 he was sent to
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 Andrea Mantegna. He was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano.[2] 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; his talent as a portraitist revealed itself at an early age.
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,[3] (for example, see image of the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo at right).
Much of Gentile Bellini's surviving work consists of very large paintings for public buildings, including those for the
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 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.
Istanbul
In September 1479 Gentile was sent by the Venetian Senate to the new
Subsequently, an Oriental flavour appears in several of his paintings, including the portrait of a Turkish artist and St. Mark Preaching at Alexandria (above). The last was completed by his brother, Giovanni Bellini.[7]
According to Carlo Ridolfi (who was born 87 years after Bellini's death) in his 1648 history of the Venetian painters:
Bellini made a painting of the head of John the Baptist on a charger, the saint being revered by the Turks as a prophet. When the picture was brought before the Sultan, he praised the skill exhibited there, but drew Gentile's attention nonetheless to an error, which was that the neck stretched out too far from the head, and as it appeared to him that Gentile appeared unconvinced, to enable him to see the natural effect, he had a slave brought to him and had his head chopped off, demonstrating to him how, once separated from the chest, the neck contracted. Gentile, fearful at such barbarities, immediately tried in every way to be released from his contract in case one day he himself should be the victim of such a joke.
This anecdote is likely apocryphal, as a similar story had been told by Seneca of Parrhasius, as well as of Michelangelo via a dubious source.[8]
Greece
Gentile responded to other aspects of the East, including the Byzantine Greek Empire,
Retirement years and legacy
Bellini's most important paintings, the monumental canvases in the
Titian could not bear to follow the dry and labored manner of Gentile... Because of this, leaving this awkward Gentile, Titian attached himself to Giovanni Bellini: but his style did not entirely please him either, and he sought out Giorgione.[9]
He was interred in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo, a traditional burial place of the doges.
In recent years, Gentile has once again generated interest, especially in a recent spate of scholarly publications and exhibitions on the subject of cross-cultural exchange between Europe and the Levant.[10]
Selected works
- Madonna Enthroned with Child (1475–1485) - National Gallery, London
- Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1478–1485) - Museo Correr, Venice[11]
- 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)
- St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria (1504–1507) - Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
- Man with a Pair of Dividers
- St. Dominic
- Mehmet the Conqueror
- Portrait of Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest
- The Annunciation[12], Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain.
Notes
- ^ a b Hartt, 397-398
- ^ "Italian Culture and History". Boglewood.com. Retrieved 2013-09-17.
- ^ MSN Encarta : Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Atlas, and Homework. Archived from the original on 2009-10-31.
- ^ tr:Resim:Sarayi Album 10a.jpg
- ^ a b c "Contemporary Art - Artist Portfolios - Art News". absolutearts.com. Retrieved 2013-09-17.
- ^ "The Sultan Mehmet II". Nationalgallery.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-08-26. Retrieved 2013-09-17.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ [1]Babinger, Franz. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press
- ^ Dolce, quoted in Alan Chong, "Gentile Bellini in Istanbul: Myths and Misunderstandings," in Bellini and the East (London: National Gallery Company, 2005), p. 106.
- ^ See also Venice and the Islamic World (New York: Metropolitan Museum, 2007).
- William Beckford is in the Frick Collection, New York.
- ^ "The Annunciation". Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
References
- ISBN 0500235104