Giovanni Bellini

Giambellino

Venetian, c. 1430/1435 - 1516

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15th- and 16th-century Italian Renaissance painter

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Six women, eight men, two satyrs, and one child gather in pairs and trios in a loose row that spans the width of this nearly square painting. They are set within a landscape with craggy rocks, cliffs, and trees. Most of the people face us, and the men, women, and child have pale skin. The two satyrs have men’s torsos and furry goat’s legs, and they have darker, olive complexions. Most of the men wear voluminous, knee-length togas wrapped in short robes in shades of white, topaz blue, grass green, coral orange, or rose pink. Most of the women wear long, dress-like garments in tones of shell pink, apricot orange, or lapis blue over white sleeves. For all but one woman, their garments have fallen off one shoulder to reveal a round, firm breast. Several objects are strewn on the rocky, dirt ground in front of the group, including a wide, wooden bucket with a piece of paper affixed to its front to our right, a glass goblet, a pitchfork, a large blue and white ceramic dish filled with grapes and small yellow fruits, and an overturned cup near the center. Cliff-like, craggy rocks rise steeply behind the group to our left, filling much of the sky opposite a tall grove of leafy, dark green trees to our right. A few puffy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky. The slip of paper on the barrel has been inscribed, “joannes bellinus venetus p MDXIIII.”
Giovanni Bellini, Titian, The Feast of the Gods, 1514/1529, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.1

The Feast of the Gods

Giovanni Bellini, Titian · 1514/1529 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.1

Men and women line up to either side of a man seated on a throne in this long, horizontal painting. The people are painted in shades of white and gray so they resemble marble statues against a background streaked with rust red and gray, resembling marble. About a third of the way into the composition from the left, the throne is atop a three-stepped platform. A cleanshaven man sits on the throne facing our right in profile. He has short, curly hair and wears a toga under a breastplate. He lifts one hand, the forefinger slightly extended, and his lips are parted. The side of the throne we see is in the shape of a creature with a person’s face, chest and front legs of a lion, tail of a serpent, and wings. A greyhound-like dog sits on the first of the three steps. Some of the dozen men lined up to the left of the throne wear armor and hold lances or daggers. One man stands with one hand across his chest and the other across his groin. Another man stands with his back to us, one ankle crossed in front of the other. Sixteen men and women and three horses stand in a line to the right of the throne. Two women are near the front of the line. The one closest to the throne holds an urn. A man just behind her holds a larger urn propped up on one shoulder. The other men wear armor or togas. One man is half again as tall as anyone else. A rectangular plaque just to the right of the throne appears to be carved with the words, “TVRPIVS IMPER VENERE Q AR MIS VINCI.”
Giovanni Bellini, An Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio, after 1506, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.7

An Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio

Giovanni Bellini · after 1506 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.2.7

A bearded and balding man with deeply tanned skin, dressed only in a strip of robin’s egg-blue fabric around his shoulders and hips, sits reading a book on a rock at the entrance to a craggy cave, in front of a landscape in this vertical painting. In the lower right corner of the composition, the man, Saint Jerome, faces our left in profile, his head bowed toward the open book propped on the rock near the knee farther from us. His hair and beard are parchment white, and he has a prominent brow ridge, a long, hooked nose, and sunken cheeks. His arms and legs are sinewy and his torso is muscled. The blue cloth is knotted over his left shoulder and wraps around his hips. A lion lies next to Saint Jerome in lower right corner, his face toward us with his mouth open. There is a rectangular pool lined with blocky, cream-white stones at Saint Jerome’s feet, to our left. The cave behind him, to our right, has a jagged, narrow, vertical entrance, and there are rocky outcroppings above and to our left, over the pool. A stone arch spans the top edge of the painting, enclosing the scene below. Other animals appear around Saint Jerome, including a lizard near the pool; a squirrel on the grassy top of the cave entrance; and a black bird in the barren branches of a tree growing from the rocks above the cave. On the far side of the pool, two rabbits, white and brown, touch noses on a grass-topped, low, rocky wall. There is a hill with two dark green bushes beyond that. In the distance, a cluster of tan-colored, stone buildings, some in ruins, spread down a hillside to the water’s edge. Across the water to our right, deep in the distance, white buildings line the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up this painting. A few puffs of white clouds float along the waterline against a vivd, azure-blue sky above.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading, 1505, oil on linden panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.217

Saint Jerome Reading

Giovanni Bellini · 1505 · oil on linden panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.217

A young, pale-skinned boy wearing a brilliant blue toga sits on a rock and holds a gold pitcher in a landscape in this vertical painting. The boy’s body faces us, and he leans onto his right hand, to our left, so his body and head tip in that direction. He wears a leafy crown over long blond curls. He looks slightly up with wide-set, light brown eyes. He has round, rosy cheeks, and his pink lips are parted. He holds the gold pitcher up in his left hand, to our right. One foot rests on a rock and the other stretches long, to our right. A thin tree grows diagonally up and to our right from behind the outstretched foot, and another tree grows a short distance beyond. Behind the boy, green hills roll back to the horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition. Mountains, which are blue in the hazy distance, line the horizon under a sky streaked with ivory white above the peaks and topaz blue above.
Giovanni Bellini, The Infant Bacchus, probably 1505/1510, oil on panel transferred to panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.5

The Infant Bacchus

Giovanni Bellini · probably 1505/1510 · oil on panel transferred to panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.5

Shown from the shoulders up, a clean-shaven, pale-skinned man with shoulder-length brown hair and dressed in black fills this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and his shoulders extend off both sides of the composition. He looks off to our left with brown eyes under thin brows. He has a long, slightly bumped nose and the hint of a five-o-clock shadow around his pale pink lips, which are closed. His brimless black cap nearly touches the top edge of the composition. His wavy hair is cut into bangs across his forehead and is feathered down each side of his face to meet the longer hair at the back. He has a high-necked, ink-black garment lined with white across his neck. Two bands of white clouds span the azure-blue sky behind him. A stone ledge in front of the man, across the bottom of composition, is painted to look like it had been carved with the artist’s name: “IOANNES BELLINVS.” Two numbers are painted in the lower corners, with “98” to the left and “44” to the right.
Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, c. 1500, oil on panel transferred to panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.254

Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1500 · oil on panel transferred to panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.254

Giovanni Bellini, Andrea Mantegna, Jupiter and Ganymede Above an Extensive Landscape, 1490s, pen and brown ink on laid paper, the two figures (only) incised (laid on late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century mount), Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1996.11.1

Jupiter and Ganymede Above an Extensive Landscape

Giovanni Bellini, Andrea Mantegna · 1490s · pen and brown ink on laid paper, the two figures (only) incised (laid on late eighteenth/early nineteenth-century mount) ·  Accession ID  1996.11.1

The head and shoulders of a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man fills this vertical portrait painting. The man’s shoulders are angled to our left, and he looks off in that direction with light green eyes. He has a straight nose, a long philtrum over pale pink lips, a cleft chin, and the suggestion of a five o’clock shadow. He has brown hair and bangs under a brimless, square-crowned cap. His hair curls under along the bottom to create a diagonal sweep from his bangs, over his ears, and to the back of his shoulders. The edge of a white undergarment is visible above the high neck of his black coat, which is pleated vertically down the front. The man is shown behind a ledge painted to look like red, brown, and black marble and the background is clear blue sky. The artist signed the front center of the ledge, “Joannes.bellinus.”
Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1490, oil on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.182

Portrait of a Young Man

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1490 · oil on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.182

Shown from the waist up behind a stone ledge, a young woman nestles a nude baby against her chest in this vertical painting. Both have pale skin with a slight, rosy blush on their cheeks, and both have halos painted as delicate gold rings around their heads. The woman’s shoulders are angled to our left, and she looks down at the baby in that direction with hooded eyes. She has a slender face, a long, straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her pale pink lips are closed. The neckline and the cuffs of her garnet-red, gold-edged gown peek out from beneath a dark, spruce-blue mantle that covers her head and wraps around her body. She rests the baby along the stone ledge and holds him in the crook of her right elbow, to our left. In her other hand, she holds a small object, perhaps an apple. The baby also touches the fruit as he lies back along her arm. He has curly, ash-blond hair, a petite nose, and chubby cheeks. He looks up at the woman or beyond her with parted, downturned lips. The pair are warmly lit from the upper left and set against a fern and olive-green landscape. Near the left edge of the painting, a church and steeple are silhouetted along the horizon, which comes just under halfway up the composition. In the sky above, a clear, pale blue horizon gives way first to puffy, cream-white clouds and then swirling clouds in tones of pine green and slate gray along the top of the picture. An inscription appears on the lower center of the ledge, “IDEM Z.B.”
Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child in a Landscape, c. 1480/1485, oil on panel, Ralph and Mary Booth Collection, 1946.19.1

Madonna and Child in a Landscape

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1480/1485 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1946.19.1

Shown from the chest up, a clean-shaven young man with pale, peachy skin looks off to our left against a cloudy sky in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he gazes in that direction with dark eyes under thick, arched brows. He has a long nose, smooth cheeks, and a hint of a five-o-clock shadow around his closed, peach-colored lips. Chestnut-brown hair is covered by a black headdress with two long tails. One end drapes over the front of his right shoulder, farther from us, and the other end hangs down his back. He wears a brick-red garment that falls in vertical pleats from a high collar. A white undergarment peeks out from the top of the neckline, and the collar is fastened with a small clasp at the throat. Behind him, tan-colored clouds float across a blue sky.
Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Young Man in Red, c. 1480, oil and tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.29

Portrait of a Young Man in Red

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1480 · oil and tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.29

Shown from the waist up, a young woman holds a baby up against her chest in this vertical painting. They both face us and have pale skin. The woman holds the baby against the right side of her chest, to our left, and she tips her slender, oval face toward him. She looks out at us with hazel eyes under thin, arched brows. She has a long nose, smooth cheeks, and a pale pink, bow mouth. The neckline and the cuffs of her garnet-red gown peek out from beneath a dark, spruce-blue, gold-edged mantle that covers her head and wraps around her body. One forearm rests along a surface marbled in red, brown, and tan. With her other hand, she supports the chest of the baby, who wears a long, white robe. The sleeves and hemline are pushed up to reveal his pudgy arms and the leg we can see. The infant has wavy, reddish-brown hair, delicate features, and large, green eyes under faint brows. His head also tilts to our left, and he gazes off in that direction. His exposed left leg, on our right, dangles over the woman’s arm, his toe nearly brushing the tabletop. His other leg is tucked within the folds of her robe. The long fingers of her free hand curl around the child’s hidden leg. The pair are warmly lit from the upper left and set against a dark, earth-brown background.
Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child, c. 1480/1485, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.352

Madonna and Child

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1480/1485 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.352

Bibliography

1989

  • Goffen, Rona. Giovanni Bellini. New Haven and London, 1989.

1992

  • Tempestini, Anchise. Giovanni Bellini. Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1992. French ed. Paris, 1992.

1996

  • Humfrey, Peter. "Giovanni Bellini." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 3:657-669.

1997

  • Tempestini, Anchise. Giovanni Bellini. Milan, 1997. English ed. trans. by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren and Jay Hyams. New York, 1999.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 51.