‘Giovanni Bellini. Influences croisées’, at the Musée Jacquemart-André, is the first exhibition of the artist’s works to be held in France.

Giovanni Bellini, born c.1435, belonged to a family workshop of Venetian artists together with his father Jacopo and his older brother Gentile. His sister, Nicolosia, married Andrea Mantegna in 1453, so Giovanni’s young life was immersed in art and he had the opportunity to master all aspects of painting, sculptural forms and perspective. He also benefitted from the opportunity to study the works of the Florentine sculptor Donatello who spent a decade working in nearby Padova. After the arrival in 1475 of much-travelled Sicilian artist Antonella da Messina in Venice, Giovanni learned the techniques of oil painting, allowing him to move in a new direction.

Giovanni and his workshop became extremely influential both in Venice and further afield, so much so that when Albrecht Durer stayed in the city in 1506, he declared that Giovanni, although by then old, was the greatest painter of all time.

The exhibition presents his work in the context of these influences, with paintings by his family and contemporaries as well his students, in particular Giorgione.

Jan van Eyck and workshop ‘Crucufixion’ (c.1425)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Crucifixion’ (c.1459)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Dead Christ supported by two Angels’ (c.1479 – 75)

Antonella da Messina ‘Dead Christ supported by three Angels’ (1476)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Virgin and Child’ (1475 – 80)

Giorgione ‘Madonna and Child’ (c.1500)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and female saint’ (c.1500)

Andrea Mantegna ‘Ecce Home’ (c.1500)

Hans Memling ‘Christ Blessing’ (c.1480 – 90)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Christ Blessing’ (c.1505 – 10)

Giovanni Bellini ‘God the Father’ (c.1505 – 10)