Biography
Giovanni was the son of the painter Jacopo Bellini and younger brother of Gentile. By the beginning of the 1470s Giovanni Bellini was generally recognised as the city’s leading painter of altarpieces and of smaller devotional works. Official recognition of his pre-eminent position in all branches of Venetian painting came in 1479, when he was appointed to work alongside his brother Gentile on the history cycle in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace. Partly in response to the burden of work imposed by this appointment, Giovanni came to employ numerous assistants; and by about 1500 he stood at the head of what was probably the largest painter’s workshop in fifteenth-century Italy.
Glossary terms
Term used to denote painters from the Renaissance until 1800, or their works.
