gentile bellini // biography (c. 1429-1507) / gallery / prints

GENTILE BELLINI

Known as: Italian early Venetian Renaissance artist

Born: c. 1429

Date of death: 1507

Gentile Bellini was Jacopo Bellini’s eldest son. He is mainly known today for his portrait paintings, the most famous being Sultan Mehmet II (1479) that hangs in the National Gallery, London. He was also famous in his own day, being made count palatine by Emperor Frederick III in 1469 and, ten years later, being sent by Republic of Venice to Constantinople to paint the aforementioned portrait of Sultan Mehmet II.

Aside from portrait paintings, he specialised in large-scale hstorical scenes which included The Procession in St. Mark’s Square (1496), and The Recovery of the Relic of the True Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo (c. 1500).

As important as his own work was that one of his pupils was Carpaccio.

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