The sunny splendour of Venetian painting reached its zenith in the
_bottega_ of the Bellini. Gentile, who was sent to Constantinople with
the authority of the Republic in 1479, painted portraits, ceremonial,
religious, and historical pictures, many of which are on a large scale,
while Giovanni was for many years the greatest teacher and the most
influential painter in Venetian territory. Giovanni executed a large
number of panels and canvases which in the period of his maturity
exhibit a profound sense of dignity, beauty, religious feeling, and
rich deep colour. Most of those which are signed in a _cartellino_
“IOANNES BELLINUS” (in capitals and, of course, in pigment of the
period) are authentic works from his own hand. The majority of those
which bear what to the unpractised eye might be taken for his personal
signature, but are only signed in uncials (“_Ioannes Bellinus_”), must
be regarded as mere studio productions. In the sixteenth century no
one was misled by these alternative methods of personal signature and
studio-mark. Although the Louvre authorities catalogue two pictures
under the name of Gentile and three under that of Giovanni, none of
them is from the hand of either of these brothers.
Bartolommeo Vivarini of Murano (fl. 1450-1499) was the pupil of
Giovanni d’Allemagna, who worked in Venice, and Antonio Vivarini. He
painted a large panel of _St. John of Capistrano_ (No. 1607), which is
signed and dated