A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF
genius of Titian. Bellini's many remaining worlds
enable us to trace very clearly his remarkably
equable and steady growth through all the phases
of 15th-century art. Up till 1460 lie cultivated
with Mautegna a rigid and searching delineation of
form. After 1460 his style becomes increasingly
suave, and the intense pathos of his first manner
gives place to a calmer and more gracious senti-
ment. By the end of the eighties this growth
culminates in the first germs of a new style in
which atmospheric envelopment and rich harmonies
of colour become the chief aims. In a sense, there-
fore, Bellini himself discovered the style of the
early 16th century, which was carried to per-
fection by Giorgione, Besides the works men-
tioned above, we may note the following :
Bergamo. Berlin. Brera. Loudon. Milan. Locliis GaUery. JlorelU GalUry, Rimini. Venice. Turin. Madonna. Two Madonnas. Dead Clirist. Madonna and Pieti. Jfr. Mond. Dead Christ. „ Madonna. Ifat. Gall. Madonna. Portrait of Doge Loredano. Madonna. Madonna. Madonna. God the Father {from a lost altar-piece). Pieta. Pieta (repainted ^ modified). Madonna. Academy. M.Sidonun. (similar to the one at Turin). „ Madonna with Choir of Angels. St. Francesco delta Madonna and Four Saints. .j 1507. Madonna. H. E. F. Signor Crispi. „ Si(/nor Frizzoiii. Newport, U.S.A. Mr. Davis. Pesaro. Ducal Palace Sta. Maria del Orto. Vu/na.
BELLINI, Jacopo, was the son of Nicolo Bellini, a tinsmith living in Venice. Of the date of his birth we have no certain evidence, but from the fact that he became assistant to Gentile da Fabriano we may place it with probability in the early years of the 15th century. After he had acquired the rudiments of his art, probably under native Venetian artists, he became an enthusiastic follower of the new principles introduced by Pisanello and Gentile da Fabriano when these artists were invited to Venice to decorate the Ducal Palace. He followed Gentile to Florence, where in 1423 he got into trouble for defending his master's workshop against one Bernardo di ser Silvestri, whose attack was probably instigated by the jealousy of the native Florentine artists. To avoid complications he left Florence for a year, but on his return found that judgment had gone against him by default. He, however, compounded for the fine with his adversary, and after a public penance performed in 1425 he was quit. He seems to have returned to Venice, where, in 1429, we find him settled in the Continio di S. Geniiniano. In that year his wife Anna being with child made her will. From this it would appear that it was her first child, who was preseritly born, and whom we may identify with Gentile, named after bis godfather Gentile da Fabriano. In 1436 Jacopo completed a fresco of the crucifixion in the chapel of St. Niccol6 in the cathedral at Verona. 'This great work, which appears to have exercised a wide influence on the course of Venetian art, was destroyed in the 18th century, and is only ac- cessible through an engraving by Paolo Calliari. In the dated inscription he declared pupil of Gentile da Fabriano. In 1437 he joined the " School " or Mutual Benefit Society of St. John the Evangelist, for which he executed many important works, including a life of the Virgin and Christ ; some of the subjects illustrated in this series are interesting as showing already in Jacopo's work the Venetian tendency to treat historical scenes in a genre spirit — thus the third picture of the series is described as ' the Virgin as a girl preparing sacerdotal vestments.' There can be no doubt that these large decorative paintings, every one of which has perished, were painted upon canvas in the usual Venetian manner, and not in fresco as was customary on the mainland. About 1440, as we learn from a sonnet by an otherwise unknown poet, Ulysses, he was on a visit at Ferrara, where he painted in competition with Pisanello a portrait of the young Lionel d'Este. In this con- test, according to the verdict of Niccolo d'Este, Jacopo carried the palm. In 1452 we find him working for the " school " of St. Mary of Charity, and in the following year his own "school" gave him a subvention for the dowry of his daughter Nicholosia on her marriage with Andrea Mantegna. The entries cited hitherto show that the Bellini family were settled in Venice, and not as has been supposed at Padua. Nevertheless we must con- clude that they kept up a close intercourse with the Paduan school. Squarcinne, the Paduan master, certainly undertook commissions in Venice, while conversely we have records of an altar-piece finished in 1459 by Jacopo aided by his two sons, which was set up in the chapel of the Sacrament in the Santo at Palua. In 1466 he undertook another series of decorative painting, this time for the scliool of St. Mark's. The last record of a commission is dated 1470, and it was cancelled, owing probably to his death shortly after that date. Considering the high reputation Jacopo Bellini enjoyed and the amount of liis work of which we have documentary evidence, it is surprising and disappointing to tiiid how little has survived. A damaged and repainted Madonna and Child in the Academy at Venice, a similar composition in the Tadini collection at Lovere, and a Crucifixion in the Gallery at Verona are the only indubitable works. An Annunciation at St. Alessandro in Brescia and another in private hands in England, together with a small panel of Christ in Limbo in the Gallery at Padua, are probably due to his hand. We are, however, able to study his genius more fully in two sketch books, one in the British Museum with drawings executed in pencil, and the other a later work containing pen drawings in the Louvre. In these sketches, which cover a large range of subjects, and display extraordinary fertility and freedom of invention, we can trace the wide- reaching influence which Jacopo exercised through his sons on the whole development of Venetian art, while even his son-in-law Mantegna is seen to have borrowed many motives therefrom. Jacopo's contact with Florentine art, and notably with Paolo Uccello, who worked in Venetia in the twenties and again in the forties of the 15th century, led him to attempt a more scientific con- struction of the picture space than he had origin- ally learnt; while the influence of classical art is clearly seen in his treatment of the figure. Nevertheless he remained essentially a mediieval draughtsman, fluent and harmonious in his line,, but wanting in any feeling for logical and natural* himself a istic construction.
R. E. P.
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