Jacopo Bellini

Jacopo Bellini was one of the founders of Renaissance painting in Venice and the father of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. His Madonnas combine gold and decorative pattern with new ideas of perspective and space.

Born in Venice, he trained with Gentile da Fabriano and worked in Florence, Ferrara and Padua. He opened a workshop in Venice in 1424 and ran it for the rest of his life. His sketchbooks, now in the British Museum and the Louvre, are full of architectural studies and landscapes. Andrea Mantegna was his son-in-law.

His Madonna and Child is in the Uffizi and another in the Accademia in Venice. Look at the soft faces of his Madonnas and the gold decoration around them.