The artist great enough to lead painting into its next phase,
and in doing so, greatly influence the course of Western painting since, was Giovanni Bellini. He belonged to a family of
artists, composed of his father Jacopo (c.1400~70/71) and his
brother Gentile (c.1429~1507). The two brothers were taught
by their father (who had been a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano)
in accordance with the artistic tradition in Venice, in which skills were passed down through generations. The two generations of Bellinis became the most influential group of artists in northern Italy; and just as the early Renaissance is bound up with 15th
-century Florentine culture, the Bellinis were responsible for the distinctly Venetian heritage of the High Renaissance of the late 15th to early 16th centuries.
|
