Gentile was the son of Jacopo Bellini, and probably his pupil, and the elder brother of Giovanni Bellini. The earliest signed work is of 1464; his principal pictures were painted for the Sala del Gran Consiglio of the Doge's Palace in Venice, destroyed in 1577. In 1479 he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government to work for Sultan Mehmet II, whose portrait appears here. He remained there until 1481.
Gentile was a competent and meticulous painter, and ran the Bellini family workshop, but he was overshadowed by his more gifted and innovative brother Giovanni.
Gentile Bellini
active about 1460; died 1507
Paintings by Gentile Bellini
The figure in black is the Greek archbishop John Bessarion. In 1453, after the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine (Eastern Christian) Empire, to the Islamic Ottoman Empire, Bessarion became a permanent resident in Venice. He joined the Scuola della Carità, a religious confratern...
As ruler of the expanding Islamic Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmet II was one of the most powerful men in the world when this portrait was painted. Fascinated by portraiture and European culture, he sent a request for a painter to the Venetian authorities in 1479. Gentile Bellini, having recently co...
On display elsewhere
This is one of only two surviving images of the Virgin and Child by Gentile Bellini. Its large size suggests that it was probably the central panel of a large polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece). It has been connected with the apparently now-lost altarpiece that we know Gentile made for the Scu...
Not on display
Probably by Gentile Bellini
This portrait is probably by Gentile Bellini, though we can‘t be sure. It’s unusual among his portraits – we don’t know the identity of the sitter and most of Gentile’s surviving portraits are of well-known figures. It was once thought to be the mathematician Girolamo Malatini because he holds a...
Not on display
After Gentile Bellini
The unusual horn-shaped cap and sumptuous silk robes identify this man as a doge, the elected ruler of Venice. We can‘t be sure who he is, but he has been identified in the past as Doge Niccolò Marcello, who was in power briefly from 1473 to 1474. A medal (Bode Museum, Berlin) inscribed with Marc...
Not on display