JACOPO, GIOVANNI, and GENTILE BELLINI
Painters of Venice
(circa 1400-1464; 1428-1516; 1426-1507)

Name: David Ligare
Date: 2002-12-27
Comments: I believe Caterina Cornaro to be one of the great unsung (though not entirely) influences on western culture. When she was deposed from Cyprus and exiled to Asolo in the Veneto she continued to have influence by creating one of the great cultural courts in Europe. Pietro Bembo's "Gli Asolani" suggests the greatness of this gathering, but the possibility of her influence on what is sometimes called the "poetic" or the "pastoral" landscape is largely unexplored and deeply tantalyzing.

I am not an art historian but my explorations into the origins of these landscape forms leads me to believe that Giorgione may have been a guest in her court and carried that influence on to Titian and Giovanni Bellini. They in turn influenced a whole succession of artists with hints of Theocritus and Virgil and all that the rich pastoral form implies.