Gentile Bellini

Gentile Bellini is a Venetian Renaissance painter, official portraitist of the Serenissima and visual chronicler of Venetian ceremonial life whose work documents the splendor of Venice in the 15th century. Son of Jacopo Bellini and brother of Giovanni, he inherits a prestigious family tradition that he develops in a narrative and documentary direction. His vast cycles of historical canvases for the Doge's Palace and the Scuola Grande di San Marco create a new genre of contemporary history painting, where religious processions and state ceremonies become worthy artistic subjects. Cultural ambassador of Venice to Constantinople with Mehmet II, he paints the Ottoman sultan and brings back Eastern influences that enrich Venetian art with exotic motifs and decorative refinement. His meticulous realism, his attention to costumes and architecture, and his ability to orchestrate vast peopled compositions testify to an art serving collective memory and Venetian civic grandeur.