Jacopo
Bellini at Artprice. To look at auction records, find Jacopo
Bellini's
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Jacopo
Bellini was the founder of a Venetian dynasty of artists. He was active
in Venice as early as 1424; a document dating from the previous, in
which
he is mentioned as assistant to the Umbrian Gentile
da Fabriano, refers to him as Jacopo Veneto.
In 1441, Jacopo went to Ferrara, where he was victorious in a painting
competition with Pisanello. In honor of his teacher, or so, at any
rate,
Vasari maintains, he gave his eldest son, born in 1429, the name of Gentile;
in the following year his second son, Giovanni,
was born, his legitimacy is in some doubt. Some historians think him to
be the son of Jacopo's mistress and not his wife, though there is no
direct
evidence, and the guess is based only in the fact that Jacopo’s widow,
Anna Rinversi, in her last will, dated November 1471, did not mention
Giovanni
as one of her heirs. In 1453, Jacopo married off his daughter,
Nicolosia,
to the painter Andrea Mantegna,
who was at that time working in Padua.
Too few pictures by Jacopo Bellini have survived for us to see them as
a representation of his work. He largely followed the model of the
leading
Gothic masters, or, still more, the Byzantine tradition in Venice. His
Madonnas: Madonna of the Cherubim,
Madonna
and Child look like Byzantine icons.
As very few oil paintings by Jacopo are known, all the more importance,
then, is attached to two of his sketch-books one in the British Museum,
the other in the Louvre with about 230 drawings. Carefully guarded by
his
sons as a collection of patterns, these drawings can be appreciated as
works of art in their own right. They show also that Jacopo took great
interest and concentrated his attention on perspective.
Jacopo’s work was very popular at the time.
