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Giovanni Bellini: Birth, Parentage, and Independence*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Abstract
A number of longstanding questions have surrounded the early life of the fifteenth-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516), generally believed to have been the son of Jacopo Bellini (ca. 1400–70/71) and the younger brother of Gentile Bellini (1429/35–1507). The artist’s year of birth and the legitimacy of his birth have been the subjects of debate for well over a century. By reevaluating Bellini-related legal documents under the relevant fifteenth-century Venetian civil laws, this article makes a case that Giovanni Bellini was not Jacopo Bellini’s son, but rather his half-brother, and that they were both sons of Nicolò Bellini; that Giovanni was therefore Gentile Bellini’s uncle rather than his brother; and that he was born legitimate between the late summer of 1424 and 13 September 1428, several years earlier than the birth year of ca. 1435 (or later) favored by many contemporary Bellini specialists. The ramifications of situating Bellini’s birth year in the mid- to late 1420s are then considered.
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- Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2013
Footnotes
This research was supported by an Institutional Fellowship and a Travel Fellowship from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and an Edward A. Dickson History of Art Fellowship from the University of California, Los Angeles. I am deeply grateful to Tom Worthen and to Jenifer Maze, Reinhold Mueller, Joanna Woods-Marsden, and the anonymous RQ readers for their comments on earlier versions of this article. I warmly thank Catarina Schmidt Arcangeli, Victoria Avery, Irene Bierman-McKinney, Louise Bourdua, Molly Bourne, Lorenzo Calvelli, Stanley Chojnacki, Melissa Conn, James Grubb, Deborah Howard, Holly Hurlburt, Frederick Ilchman, Gabriele Matino, Judd Maze, Peta Motture, Steven Nelson, Debra Pincus, Alessandra Schiavon, Geoffrey Symcox, and Amy Worthen for their advice. I also thank Keith Christiansen and Peter Humfrey for their suggestions and generosity. Unless otherwise noted, dates are not in more veneto (m.v.). The Venetian year began 1 March: thus, a Venetian document dated 6 February 1428 (e.g., the first will of Jacopo Bellini's wife, Anna) corresponds to 6 February 1429 on our calendar. All translations are the author's except where otherwise noted. Transcriptions were made with the help of Chiara Scarpa, whom I thank.
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