Giovanni Bellini: A Pioneering Renaissance Artist

A later painting by Bellini featuring the advanced techniques of coloration and depth of High Renaissance Art. "Madonna And Child With Saints," circa 1510, by Giovanni Bellini and assistants. Tempera and oil on wood. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

While a photograph of Giovanni Bellini’s “Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan” may give the illusion of a photographed actor in costume rather than a painted portrait, the artwork displays exquisite but restrained beauty. The doge’s robe and face appear to have the realistic textures of silk and skin. The folds in the silk and creases in the face are true to life. Ironically, this portrait probably receives more unfair criticism than any other work of art.

The paradox is due to the fact that Bellini’s painting is perfectly suited to a comparison of his work with that of his student Titian. Titian later painted a portrait of one of Loredan’s successors, Doge Andrea Gritti. As common for portraits of the age, both depict the head and upper torso against a plain background. Bellini’s work was claimed to exemplify “bland conventionality” in comparison to Titian’s, whose skills were generally accepted to have surpassed his illustrious predecessors.

Bellini's beautiful yet "bland conventionality" of expression and composition in his portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan compared to Titian's fierce and emotive portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti. (L) Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, circa 1501–1502, by Giovanni Bellini. The National Gallery, London. . (R) Portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti, circa 1546–1550, by Titian. National Gallery of Art, Washington. (Public Domain)Public Domain

In reality, Bellini’s painting crowned a lifetime of innovation and was a milestone in the transition from the Early to the High Renaissance. It served as a foundational work for the great Venetian school and helped establish a medium that would dominate painting for centuries.

Mantegna’s Influence

Influenced by Andrea Mantegna, Bellini experimented with design techniques such as the straight edges of the rocks in the foreground and the crisp, sharp folds in the drapery. "The Agony in the Garden," circa 1458–1460, by Giovanni Bellini. Egg tempera on wood. The National Gallery, London. Public Domain

When Bellini was born circa 1430, Renaissance art and architecture was in its earliest stages. In 1401, Italian architect and sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) effectively initiated it by returning to classical Greek and Roman architectural aesthetics. Soon, his friend Donatello (circa 1386–1466) was sculpting with the aesthetic combination of classicism (conformity to ancient Greek and Roman theories of beauty) and naturalism (accurate depiction of the physical world) that came to define Renaissance art. Masaccio (1401–1428) brought that combination to painting in the mid-15th century.

Bellini’s formation as an artist occurred just as Renaissance painting was beginning to slowly progress. Painters were still fairly primitive at giving a two-dimensional surface (canvas, wall, or panel) the depth and illusion of three-dimensionality—despite advances resulting from Masaccio’s introduction of linear perspective. (Masaccio was credited for transforming the direction of Italian painting, advancing it out of the Gothic era into the Early Italian Renaissance.) Coloration was also a similar state, generally ranging from semi-realistic to wildly artificial.

To give a two-dimensional surface (canvas, wall, or panel) the depth and illusion of three-dimensionality was fairly primitive for painters—despite advances resulting from Masaccio’s introduction of linear perspective. (Masaccio was credited for transforming the direction of Italian painting, advancing it out of the Gothic era into the Early Italian Renaissance)

Early works by Bellini demonstrate both the advances and the shortcomings of the time. Compared to late medieval works such as Giotto’s “Lamentation” (circa 1304–1306), Bellini’s earlier painting “The Agony in the Garden” (circa 1458–1460) reveals remarkable growth. But coloration and the impressions of three-dimensionality and depth still remained underdeveloped. Fortunately for Bellini, one of the most important perfecters of the latter qualities was his brother-in-law—the great Andrea Mantegna.

“Lamentation” (The Mourning of Christ), between 1304 and 1306, by Giotto di Bondone. Fresco. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy. Public Domain

Mantegna’s guidance greatly aided Bellini’s development, though the two became inversions of each other. Mantegna rapidly developed technical skill and just as rapidly improved artistic techniques. Stylistically, he was a man of the transitional Early Renaissance. During that period, the basic elements of Renaissance art had been established and were being built upon, having not yet reached their mature development.

Transitioning to High Renaissance

Bellini was one of the first Italian painters to use natural settings to enhance the meaning of his pictures. "Madonna of the Meadow," circa 1500–1505, by Giovanni Bellini. Oil on synthetic panel, transferred from wood. The National Gallery, London. Public Domain

Unlike Mantegna, Bellini took longer to develop his skill. Yet after decades as an Early Renaissance painter, he became one of the first artists to transition to the High Renaissance aesthetics. His “Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan” was among the works that brought about and marked that transition.

Bellini also played a major role in initiating a transition to oil on canvas as the standard medium for painting. This had tremendous benefits. Italian painting had previously been dominated by fresco and tempera. Because a fresco is painted into a wet plaster wall and dries quickly, the scope for experimentation is limited. Changes require removing and repeating a significant section of the wall. Tempera holds less pigment than other forms of paint, making it harder to achieve realistic color.

Oil on canvas gives artists more time to work, allows for more experimentation and tweaking, facilitates finer detailing, and offers more desired colors. Bellini himself introduced the elegantly realistic coloration that would become the defining characteristic of the Venetian school of painting.

Titian’s genius certainly built on that foundation to create works that surpassed Bellini’s. But the degree of improvement from Bellini’s work to Titian’s was certainly more modest in comparison to the advancement evident between Bellini’s earlier and later works of art.

Setting the Foundation

Bellini’s mastery of oil paint and subtle blending of color resulted in convincing tonal transitions for the doge’s flesh. Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, circa 1501–1502, by Giovanni Bellini. Oil on poplar wood. The National Gallery, London. Public Domain

Bellini was among the first artists to paint fully realistic depictions of people. For the most part, he brought this mature naturalism only to portraits of people in formalized poses. Titian, however, brought that maturity to works depicting people as they would look when they would “stop for a picture.” On occasion, he even gave his work the impression of a paused video recording, a technique that was later perfected by Caravaggio.

More famous, however, was Titian’s emotional intensity, sense of drama, and insight into his subjects’ personalities. It was a real improvement in depicting emotionally charged events like those surrounding the crucifixion of Christ.

But Bellini’s critics tend to insist that all art be emotionally charged and dramatic, even when there is nothing inherently emotional or dramatic about the subject matter. These critics effectively deny that unemotional, nondramatic art can be more true to life in depicting certain subjects and contexts than emotional, dramatic representation would be—and just as visually beautiful. When painting in these contexts, Bellini could create works that rank among the greatest of all time and that capture personality subtly—such as through the notable but understated gentleness in the eyes of Doge Loredan.

Bellini was able to achieve such excellence because he was one of the most creative and innovative artists in history. He started out as a painter when the Renaissance was just beginning. His early works have the same relative primitiveness as those in which Masaccio laid the Renaissance’s first foundations. Over the next decades, with his best works comparable to those of Raphael’s, Bellini brought Renaissance painting nearly to its highest level of accomplishment.