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Gentile Bellini
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Gentile Bellini | |
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Gentile Bellini, Self-portrait, 1496. Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 5170) | |
Born | c. 1429
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Died | 23 February 1507
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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
Contents
- 1Biography
- 2Paintings
- 3Bellini and the East
- 4Retirement years and legacy
- 5Selected works
- 6Notes
- 7References
- 8See also
- 9External links
Biography[edit]
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. Gentile's and Giovanni's exact birth date is uncertain and scholars have debated who is the older brother.[3] He was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano, who was known for his Gothic style.[4] 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. His renowned painting skills caused the Venetian senate to send him to Istanbul, when the Sultan requested a portraitist shortly after a peace treaty was established between the Venetians and the Turks in 1479.[5] When his father Jacopo Bellini died, Gentile was given his two albums. Gentile gave one album to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and entrusted the other album to his brother Giovanni in his will.[4] Gentile died in 1501 and was given a great burial by his brother Giovanni in San Giovanni e Paolo.[6]
Paintings[edit]
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).[2]
Much of Gentile Bellini's surviving work consists of very large paintings for public buildings, including those for the
Unfortunately, most of Gentile's works have been destroyed in fires or by other means.[6]
Bellini and the East[edit]
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. In 1479, he was chosen by the government of Venice to work for Sultan Mehmed II in Istanbul. 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[edit]
In September 1479 Gentile was sent by the Venetian Senate to the new
Gentile Bellini spent a total of one year and four months working for the Ottoman Court.[5] Subsequently, an Oriental flavor 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.
According to Carlo Ridolfi (who was born 87 years after Bellini's death) in his 1648 history of the Venetian painters:[2]
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.
Upon his return, Gentile was welcomed by his brother Giovanni and the whole city for satisfying the Ottoman Ruler. The Doge and the Signoria received him well and decreed him 200 crowns a year for the rest of his life.[6]
Greece[edit]
Queen
Gentile responded to other aspects of the East, including the Byzantine Greek Empire, as well as Venice's other trading partners in North
Date of Birth Debate
Gentile and Giovanni Bellini's exact birthdays are unknown, so experts have speculated who was the older brother and why. Some say that Giovanni is the older brother because the Venetian senate sent Gentile to Istanbul. After all, Giovanni was too old. However, in the will of Anna Bellini, Giovanni and Gentile's mother, only Gentile was mentioned and was given the drawing books of their father, Jacopo Bellini. Since only Gentile was mentioned in the will, that would indicate that Gentile was the older brother. Another argument for Gentile being older is that Giovanni was listed third, after Gentile and their father, on a lost altarpiece for the Gattamelata Chapel.
These examples call into question who was older, but also questions if Giovanni Bellini was born out of the marriage between Anna and Jacopo. If Giovanni was older, experts question why Gentile would receive the drawing books instead of Giovanni and why Giovanni was not mentioned in his mother's will. [1]
Retirement years and legacy[edit]
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.
He was interred in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo
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.
Selected works[edit]
- Madonna Enthroned with Child (1475–1485) - National Gallery, London
- Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1478–1485) - Museo Correr, Venice
- 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, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gentile Bellini. |
Notes[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b Hartt, 397-398
- ^
- ^
- ^ tr:Resim:Sarayi Album 10a.jpg
- ^ Jump up to:a b c
- ^
- ^
- ^ [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.
- ^
References[edit]
- Hartt, Frederick. (1987). History of Italian Renaissance art : painting, sculpture, architecture (New rev. ed ed.). London: Thames and Hudson. OCLC18324982.
- The Oxford dictionary of art and artists. Chilvers, Ian. (Fourth edition ed.). Oxford. OCLC269433597.
- Brown, Patricia Fortini, 1936- (1997). Art and life in Renaissance Venice. New York: Prentice Hall. OCLC35961450.
- Lives of Giovanni Bellini. Isabella d'Este, consort of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, 1474-1539,, Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574,, Boschini, Marco, 1605-1681,, Gasparotto, Davide,, Dabell, Frank,, J. Paul Getty Museum,. Los Angeles. OCLC1006907152.
- Sizonenko, Tatiana (2013). Artists as Agents : : Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation between Venice and Constantinople---The Case of Gentile Bellini, 1479-1481(Thesis). UC San Diego.
- Gibbons, Felton (1963). "New Evidence for the Birth Dates of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini". The Art Bulletin. 45 (1): 54–58. ISSN0004-3079.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
- Gentile Bellini in "A World History of Art"
- Gentile Bellini and the East exhibition
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Authority control |
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- 1420s births
- 1507 deaths
- 15th-century Venetian people
- 16th-century Venetian people
- 15th-century Italian painters
- 16th-century Italian painters
- Italian male painters
- Italian medallists
- Italian Renaissance painters
- German orientalists
- Orientalist painters
- Quattrocento painters
- Venetian painters
- Sibling artists
- ^ ISSN 0004-3079.
- ^ )
- )
- ^ )
- ^ a b Sizonenko, Tatiana (2013). Artists as Agents : : Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation between Venice and Constantinople---The Case of Gentile Bellini, 1479-1481 (Thesis). UC San Diego.
- ^ OCLC 1006907152.)
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