BELLINI, be]-le'ne. A celebrated family of Venetian painters of the Renaissance. JACOPO (C.I400-e.64 ). the founder of the family, was a pupil of Gentile Ila Fabbriano, whom in 1423 25 he accompanied to Florence. He was active as a painter at Verona, at Padua, where Man tegna married his daughter. and at Venice. Two admirable sketchbooks, one from his early period in the British Museum, and another of the later period in the Louvre, show him as an eager student of the antique and of perspective, anat omy, and physiognomy. llis principal works, among them a fresco of the Crucifixion in the Cathedral of Verona, have perished; but there are canvases of the same subject by him in the Verona Gallery and in the Museo Correr, Venice. Among his other works are Madonnas at and in the Venetian Academy and an "Annunciation" in Sant' Alessandro, Venice.
The early works of his two sons show a. marked influence of the Paduan school. GENTILE (e.142.S-1507), the elder, most resembled his father in technique and in conception. Of the events of his life, we know that in 1464 he was com missioned to decorate the organ-shutters of Saint Nark's, which still survive; in 1465 to paint a full-length portrait of the Patriarch Lorenzo Giustiniani, now in the Academy; and that in 1469 lie was made a count palatine of the Empire. He was in 1474 commissioned to re
store the decorations of Gentile da Ealibriano in the Ducal Palace. In response to the request of the Sultan that the Venetian Government send him their best painter, be went in 1479 to Constantinople. Artistic mementos of this journey are still to be seen in his portrait of :Mohammed 11. in the Layard Collection, Venice, and in the oriental types and costumes which he thenceforth delighted to introduce into his pictures. After his return to Venice, he labored for thirty years on the great historic decorations of the Ducal Palace, which were destroyed by fire in 1577. His chief surviving works are three large 1101' in the Vene tian Academy, representing the miracles wrought by a relic of the True Cross. His last work was the "Preaching of Saint ,Nlark" (Brera. Atilan), completed a ft er his death by his brother I :lova nni. He excelled especially in portraiture, as is attested by his "Caterina Cornaro"( Pesth), "A Mathema tieian" (London), and two heads in the Louvre. To a fine feeling for line Gentile united har monious coloring, and lie was especially strong in composition. He was a keen realist, and for his day the open-air effects of his pageant pic tures are very remarkable.