DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0190
186
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
is now in the Academy at Milan, and is engraved
in Eosini’s ‘ Storia della Pittura.’ A portrait of
Mohammed IL, painted by Gentile Bellini, is said
to be in England. All the early engravings of the
grim Turkish conqueror which now exist are from
the portraits painted by Bellini. He died in 1501,
at the age of eighty.
A much more memorable artist in all respects
was his brother Gian Bellini. His works are
divided into two classes—those which he painted
before he adopted the process of oil-painting, and
those executed afterwards. The first have great
.sweetness and elegance and purity of expression,
with, however, a certain timidity and dryness of
manner; in the latter we have a foretaste of the
rich Venetian colouring, without any diminution
of the grave simple dignity and melancholy sweet-
ness of expression which distinguished his earlier
works. Between his sixty-fifth and his eightieth year
he painted those pictures which are considered
as his chefs-d’oeuvre, and which are now preserved
in the churches at Venice and in the Gallery of the
Academy of Arts in that city.
It has been said that Gian Bellini introduced
himself disguised into the room of Antonella da
.Messina when he was painting at Venice, and stole
from him the newly discovered secret of mixing the
colours with oils instead of water. It is a consola-
tion to think that this story does not rest on any
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
is now in the Academy at Milan, and is engraved
in Eosini’s ‘ Storia della Pittura.’ A portrait of
Mohammed IL, painted by Gentile Bellini, is said
to be in England. All the early engravings of the
grim Turkish conqueror which now exist are from
the portraits painted by Bellini. He died in 1501,
at the age of eighty.
A much more memorable artist in all respects
was his brother Gian Bellini. His works are
divided into two classes—those which he painted
before he adopted the process of oil-painting, and
those executed afterwards. The first have great
.sweetness and elegance and purity of expression,
with, however, a certain timidity and dryness of
manner; in the latter we have a foretaste of the
rich Venetian colouring, without any diminution
of the grave simple dignity and melancholy sweet-
ness of expression which distinguished his earlier
works. Between his sixty-fifth and his eightieth year
he painted those pictures which are considered
as his chefs-d’oeuvre, and which are now preserved
in the churches at Venice and in the Gallery of the
Academy of Arts in that city.
It has been said that Gian Bellini introduced
himself disguised into the room of Antonella da
.Messina when he was painting at Venice, and stole
from him the newly discovered secret of mixing the
colours with oils instead of water. It is a consola-
tion to think that this story does not rest on any