Gentile Bellini

Gentile Bellini came from Venice's reigning painting dynasty, and by the early 1470s he'd eclipsed his younger brother Giovanni in reputation and appointment. In 1474 he became the Doges' official portrait artist, while his massive multi-figure canvases for Venice's Scuole Grandi - the powerful confraternities at the heart of patrician life - cemented his status. Then in 1479 the Venetian government sent him to Constantinople: Sultan Mehmed II had asked for a painter, and Gentile was the one they shipped east. He returned a year later with sketches, impressions, and a portrait of the Sultan that spread across Europe in copies and prints. After that, the East became his subject, and he helped invent the Orientalist thread that would run through European painting for centuries. He died in February 1507, still celebrated - though time would eventually hand his brother the longer memory.