Lives of Giovanni Bellini

Scion of an artistic dynasty, Giovanni Bellini is arguably the greatest Venetian painter of the early Renaissance. His astonishing naturalism revolutionised altarpiece painting and is still a source of wonder, as any visit to Frari in Venice will confirm.
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was a painter, architect and intimate of the Medici. His lasting monument is the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, published in 1550 and enlarged in 1568 ; Carlo Ridolfi (1594-1658) worked as a painter in Venice but is best known for his Maraviglie dell´arte, which attempted to do for Venetian art what Vasari had achieved for Tuscan art ; Isabella d´Este (1474-1539) was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance, a major cultural and political figure ; Davide Gasparotto is curator at the Getty Museum. He is a leading figure in the field of Renaissance through eighteenth century Italian painting and sculpture. He is the author of Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice.