Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings - Volume I.djvu/174

 *lazzo Ducale, reserving, however, a right to accept private commissions. When at the height of his fame he had among his pupils Giorgione and Titian, who were to perfect the rich system of colouring of which he must be regarded as the true founder. Ruskin says of Bellini that he is the only artist who united, in equal and magnificent measure, justness of drawing, nobleness of colouring, and perfect manliness of treatment, with the purest religious feeling. Among Giovanni's best works are: Transfiguration, Naples Museum; Circumcision, Castle Howard, England; Madonna (1487), Madonna between SS. Paul and George, and the Madonna of the Admiralty Court, Venice Academy; Madonna with Saints and Angels (1488), Sacristy of the Frari, Venice; Madonna and Doge Barberigo (1488), S. Pietro Martire, Murano; Baptism of Christ (1501), S. Corona, Vicenza; Madonna with Saints (1505), S. Zaccaria, Venice; Madonna with Saints, Louvre. Early in the century Albert Dürer visited Venice, and a question afterward arose whether he was influenced by Bellini or Bellini by him; but it is doubtful if even Dürer could teach the Venetians any secrets of colour. Both he and Dürer had great respect for each other's talents, and were firm friends. Giovanni's pictures in the Sala del Gran Consiglio were burned in the fire of 1577. While engaged upon them he painted but few other pictures; but there are a Madonna (1510) by him in the Brera, and a SS. Christopher, Augustin, and Jerome (1513), in S. Giovanni Crisostomo, Venice, the latter of which bears the impress of his assistant, Basaiti. In 1514 he began the Bacchanal, Alnwick Castle, England; and in 1515 he painted the Venus, Vienna Museum. His Portrait of the Doge Loredano, St. Peter Martyr, Christ's Agony in the Garden, Landscape with Martyrdom of St. Peter, Madonna and Adoration of the Magi, are in the National Gallery, London.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 139; Ch. Blanc, École vénitienne; Seguier, 15; Dohme, 2iii.; Vasari, ed. Mil., iii. 149, 175; Ruskin, Stones of Venice; Meyer, Künst. Lex., iii. 400; Lübke, Gesch. ital. Mal., i. 523.

BELLINI, JACOPO, born in Venice about 1400, died about 1464. Venetian school; pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, whom he accompanied in 1422 to Florence, where he was known as Jacopo di Venetia. On account of a personal encounter with a young Florentine he took service on the galleys of the state. Criminal charges were preferred against him in his absence, and on his return from sea he was imprisoned for contempt of court shown in non-appearance at the trial. He was released in 1425 after doing penance and paying a fine, and five years after was in Venice, as is proved by an autograph note in his sketch-book, now in the British Museum. He is afterward found in Verona, and later at Padua, where he established a studio, in which his sons Gentile and Giovanni worked, and where his daughter Nicolosia married Andrea Mantegna. Jacopo was a draughtsman of quick hand and clear perception, and though his knowledge of anatomy was not profound, he gave fair proportions to his heads. He held a middle course between the conventionalism of his predecessors and the naturalism or classicism of the rising schools; indeed, he worthily began what his son Giovanni and Titian perfected. He can scarcely be judged as a colourist, for only two greatly injured panel pictures of his early time remain: a half length of the Virgin and Child in the collection of the Counts Tadini at Lovere, and another of the same subject in the Venice Academy. A Crucified Saviour on canvas in the Museo Civico, Verona, is a good illustration of his style. His Crucifixion on the wall in the Cathedral of Verona, painted in 1436, was destroyed in 1759, but is preserved in a copy in the Casa Albrizzi, Venice.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 100; Vasari, ed. Mil., iii. 149, 175; Meyer, Künst. Lex., iii. 336.