Giovanni Bellini was born in Venice in 1426. He was the son of Jacopo and brother of Gentile Bellini. Giovanni Bellini began as an assistant in his father's workshop. His first phase as an artist was strongly influenced by his formidable brother-in-law, the Paduan painter Andrea Mantegna, from whom he took a sculpturesque figure style.

In his paintings, figures, space, light, architecture, and sometimes landscape were balanced with seemingly effortless perfection to achieve a complex but harmonious image of serene grandeur. Bellini's historical importance is immense. In his 65-year evolution as an artist, he brought Venetian painting from provincial backwardness into the forefront of Renaissance and the mainstream of Western art.

He died in Venice in 1516.