Artist 50: Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was born c. 1430 in Venice. An Italian Renaissance artist, he used oil paints which created a different look from most other Renaissance painters, setting him aside from them because of the colors and smoothness he was able to achieve. What I like about him, and mostly a specific painting done by him, "Pieta," shown here, is that his figures aren't also "pretty." The Virgin Mary in this piece looks rather manly, not beautiful like most artists depict her. None of these figures are "beautiful." However, this painting is beautiful. How can this be? Well, because of the true emotion you can feel from this. The Virgin is not beautiful, but you feel her pain. She just lost her only son before her eyes and it is real pain. Bellini makes it obvious that ugly can be beautiful, and that you don't need to worry about idealizing your figures. Paint them as they are because the truth is always better than an idealized lie, and the viewer can always sense the difference. In another sense, be true to myself when I paint my art, is what I also take from Bellini and his piece, "Pieta," as well as his other works.