Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

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splendour with solemnity; they have the manful energy of
Mantegna without his harshness, and the richness of Gior¬
gione without his luxury. Succeeding pictures show an
increase of this richness, and a character more nearly tender.
An altar piece, painted for the church of San Zaccaria, seems
to indicate a transition, and that the venerable master is
acquiring all the softer splendour and keeping pace with
Giorgione and Titian, the young pupils of the school. Nay,
at the very close of his career, Bellini left the old devo¬
tional cycle in which he had produced works so moving
and august, and painted for Alphonso of Ferrara a myth¬
ology in the most gorgeous manner of the ripe Venetian
school. This is the Feast of the Gods, now at Alnwick
Castle, a picture to which Titian set the finishing touches,
and to which the companion, by Titian himself, is now at
Madrid. Bellini died on the 29th of November 1516, full
of years and honours. We have seen that he was associated
with his brother in the decoration of the Great Hall of the
Council in 1479. In 1483 he was appointed Pittore del
Dominio, and exempted from the charges of his guild. All
the painters of the state at one time or another were
associated with him or passed through his school. Among
the most distinguished of his scholars and assistants who
will not need separate mention, we may name Marco
Basaiti and Vincenzo Catena, many of whose works pass
for their master’s. He was the honoured associate of
statesmen and men of letters. In 1506, when Albert
Durer visited Venice, where he was subject to some annoy¬
ances, he found the noble old man not only the most
courteous of the Venetian artists in his reception of a
stranger, but the best in his profession (“ der best im
gemell
Many pictures in various galleries pass as portraits of
one or other of the Bellini. But of those that are styled
likenesses of Giovanni, none can be proved authentic,
while the only certain portrait of Gentile is a medal by
Camelio. (Vasari, ed. Lemonnier, vol. v. pp. 1-28; San¬
sovino, Yen. descr., 125, seq. ; Bidolfi, i. 90-99 ; Crowe
and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North Italy, vol.
i. pp. 100-193.) (s. c.)
BELLINI, Lokenzo, physician and anatomist, was born
at Florence in 1643. After completing his studies in general
literature he went to Pisa, where, assisted by the generosity
of the grand duke Ferdinand II., he studied under two of
the most learned men of that age, Oliva and Borelli, the
former of whom instructed him in natural philosophy and
the latter in mechanics. He likewise studied medicine
under Redi, and mathematics under Marchetti. At the
early age of twenty he was chosen professor of philosophy
at Pisa, but did not long continue in this office; for he had
acquired such a reputation for skill in anatomy, that the
grand duke procured him a professorship in that science,
and was himself a frequent auditor at his lectures. After
a long residence in Pisa, he was invited to Florence and
appointed physician to the grand duke Cosmo. He was
also made senior consulting physician to Pope Clement XL
Bellini died in 1703, in the sixtieth year of his age. His
works were published in a collected form in 1708 (2 vols.
4to), and reprinted in 1732.
BELLINI, Vincenzo, one of the most celebrated
operatic composers of the modern Italian school, was born at
Catania in Sicily, November 3, 1802, He was descended
from a family of musicians, both his father and grandfather
having been composers of some reputation. After having
received his preparatory musical education at home, he
entered the conservatoire of Naples, where he studied sing¬
ing and composition under Tritto and Zingarelli. He soon
began to write pieces for various instruments, as well as a
cantata and several masses and other sacred compositions.
His first opera, Adelson e Savina, was performed in 1824 |
at a .small theatre of Naples ; his second dramatic work,
Bianca e Fernando, saw. the light two years later at the
San Carlo theatre of the same city, and made his name
known in Italy. His next work, II Pirata, was written
for the celebrated Scala theatre in Milan, to words by
Felice Romano, with whom Bellini formed a union of
friendship to be severed only by his death. The splendid
rendering of the music by Tamburini, Rubini, and other
great Italian singers, contributed greatly to the success of the
work, which at once established the European reputation of
its composer. Almost every year of the short remainder of
his life witnessed the production of a new operatic work,
each of which was received with rapture by the audiences of
France, Italy, Germany, and England, and some of which
retain their place on the stage up to the present day. We
mention the names and dates of four of Bellini’s operas
familiar to most lovers of modern Italian music, viz. :—I
Montecchi e Capuleti (1829), in which the part of Romeo
has been a favourite with all the great contraltos of the
last seventy years; La Sonnambula (1831); Norma, Bel¬
lini’s best and most popular creation (1832), and I Puri-
tani (1834), written for the Italian opera in Paris, and
to some extent under the influence of French music. In
1833 Bellini had left his country to accompany to England
the great singer Pasta, who had created the part of his
Sonnambula. In 1834 he accepted an invitation to write an
opera for the national Grand Opera in Paris. While he was
carefully studying the French language and the cadence
of French verse for the purpose, he was seized with a sudden
illness and died at his villa in Puteaux near Paris, September
21, 1835. This unexpected interruption of a career so
brilliant sheds, as it were, a gloom of sadness over the
whole of Bellini’s life, a sadness which, moreover, was
foreshadowed by the character of his works. His operatic
creations are throughout replete with a spirit of gentle
melancholy, frequently monotonous and almost always
undramatic, but at the same time irresistibly sweet, and
almost disarming the stern demands of higher criticism
which otherwise would be compelled to reprove the
absence of both dramatic vigour and musical depth. To
the feature just mentioned, combined with a rich flow of
cantilena, Bellini’s operas owe their popularity, and will
owe it as long as the audiences of our large theatres are
willing to tolerate outrages on rhyme and reason if sung
by a beautiful voice to a pleasing tune. In so far, how¬
ever, as the defects of Bellini’s style are characteristic
of the school to which he belongs, they fall to be con¬
sidered in a general treatment of the whole subject. See
Music.
BELLINZONA, or Bellenz, one of the three towns
which are the capital in turn of the Swiss canton of Tessin
or Ticino. It is built on two hills, one on each side of the
Ticino at the entrance of the Riviera valley, and is so situated
as completely to bar the passage by that route between
Italy and Germany. Its fortifications, which were of great
strength during the Middle Ages, have been partially re¬
stored. There are three castles, the Gastello Grande, Cor-
bario, and Di Mezzo, which belonged to the three cantons of
Uri, Unterwalden,and Schwyz respectively; the first of these
is now used as an armoury and prison. The abbey church
is a fine building of the 16th century, and contains some
paintings of value. The Augustinian convent is now used
as a Government house. The inundations of the river are
prevented from injuring the town by a large dyke, built by
the French in the reign of Francis I. A considerable
transit trade is carried on with Italy, and there is a famous
manufacture of acqua di cedro from the blossom and rind
of the orange. Bellinzona was in existence at least as
early as 1242, when it was conquered by Otto Visconti.
It was long an object of contest between the Swiss and the