Jacopo Bellini

Jacopo Bellini (c.1400-1470), Venetian painter, was one of the Bellini family of painters; his sons were Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. Jacopo was one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting in Venice and northern Italy.

Jacopo had been a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano's. He ran a workshop in Venice right up until his death. Many of his greatest works, including the enormous Crucifiction in the cathedral of Verona, have disappeared. Few of his paintings still exist, but his surviving sketch-books (one in the British Museum and one in the Louvre) show an interest in landscape and elaborate architectual design and are his most important legacy. His surviving works show how he accommodated linear perspective to the decorative patterns and rich colors of Venetian painting school.

Bibliography

• C. Eisler, The genius of Jacopo Bellini: the complete paintings and drawings (London, The British Museum Press, 1989)