cannot decide. Considering that Holland and England excel France and Germany in colour, we should hardly say that climate can have much effect; perhaps we may rather attribute it to the more sensuous and unascetic character of the three schools. In each of them a vicinity to the sea is discernible, but this applies to nearly all the continental schools. Before Bellini, the Venetian artists in their seaward-looking studios excelled in colour, architectural perspective, the arrangement of drapery, richness of detail, open-air effects, and the higher branches of portraiture. A certain dignified naïvete and good sense distinguished Bellini's works. He humanized his religious pictures with singing boys, dancing cherubs, glittering thrones, and dewy flowers; at first a little dry and hard, he soon learned from his pupil Giorgione to be bolder, rounder, and warmer. With a little more dash and softness, and a little more imagination, he would have been one of the first of painters. He was, however, too little the poet, and too much the mechanic. His saints have an easy, unstrained dignity about them; his men are all noble and meant to govern. He is never strained, mean, or vulgar. He knew how to invest a face with moral grandeur. His early pictures are dry and hard, his later pictures dark and black, but his best works have a clear jewel depth of brightness, an internal gem-like fire, such as warms a summer twilight. The shadows are intense and yet transparent, like the Adriatic waves where they lie out of the sun under the palace bridges. Compared with Perugino, Mantegna, and Ghirlandajo, Bellini may be called the real founder of the Titian school; but still, if Perugino had not trained Raphael, and Ghirlandajo Buonarotti, where would art have been? His portrait of the "Doge Loredano," who baffled the league of Cambrai, in the National Gallery, is a masterpiece of spirited care. His best existing works are "A Madonna and Child," at the academy, Venice; "A Madonna and Saint," at St. John, Venice; "A Madonna, Saint, and Virgin with a violin," at St. Zaccaria; "A Christ at Emmaus," at St. Salvatore (his finest work); Venetian Senators and Dragoman introduced; "Altar-Piece at St. John," Crisostomo; "A St. Jerome studying," in the Manfrini Gallery; "Five Allegories (ships and genii)," at the academy; "A Bacchus, with Titian landscape," a Life work, at Rome; "A Coronation of the Virgin," at St. Francisco, Vesano; "A Transfiguration," at Naples; "A Baptism of Christ," at Vicenza; "A Virgin and Child," at the Berlin Museum; and "A large Altar-Piece," at St. S. Maria de Frari, at Venice. There are also specimens of this master at Genoa, Turin, Milan, Parma, Florence, and Brescia. Gentile's great work—St. Mark at Alexandria, with the camelopard—introduced among other evidences of his Turkish journey, is in the Brera, Milan. It is interesting even to know that John had black hair, and Gentile red. His miracles of the cross (a local legend), are in the Venice academy. A later Bellini of Bologna was a follower of Albano. There was also a Bellin Bellini of Venice, and another an imitator of Baroccio.—W. T.
BELLINI, Laurence, an Italian physician and anatomist, born at Florence in 1643. Under the patronage of the grand Duke Ferdinand II., he was enabled to go to the university of Pisa, when his studies were so successful that, at the age of twenty-two, he was made professor of philosophy and theoretical medicine. His discoveries as an anatomist have made him most famous. The grand duke attended his lectures, and a large number of distinguished pupils speedily disseminated his principles through Italy and other European countries. He is also remembered as a poet and successful cultivator of letters. At the age of fifty he resigned his chair and returned to Florence, where he enjoyed a pension from the grand duke, and engaged in the practice of medicine. He died in 1703. His works are—"Exercitatio Anatomica de structura et usu renum," 1662; "Gustûs Organum Novissime Deprehensum," 1665; "Gratiarum Actio ad Etruriæ Principem," 1670; "De Urinis, do Pulsibus, de Missione Sanguinis, de Febribus, de Morbis Capitis et Pectoris," 1683; "Consideratio nova de natura et modo Respirationis." His complete works appeared at Venice between 1708 and 1747.—J. B.
BELLINI, Vincenzo, a musician, was born at Catania in Sicily; the date of his birth has been variously stated, but a copy of his baptismal register proves it to be November 3. 1801; he died at Puteaux, near Paris, September 23, 1835. The disposition for his art he evinced at a very tender age, received its first training from his grandfather, Vincenzo Bellini, an accomplished pupil of Jomelli, in the Conservatorio della Pieta. In 1819 his talent was brought under the notice of the Duke de Noja, president of the musical college at Naples, through whose interest he was admitted as a free student in that institution. Here he was placed in the composition class of Tritta, whose severe contrapuntal course was, however, extremely distasteful to him, and he earnestly desired to be removed to the class of Zingarelli, whose system of instruction he found more attractive; the rules of the college, which would not allow of a change of masters, prevented the fulfilment of his wish, until the ill health of Tritta compelled this respected teacher to resign his office. Under his first master he wrote several orchestral pieces, besides a mass and many smaller compositions for the church, which were performed in the ecclesiastical establishments throughout the city in which the students of the college formed the choir. Zingarelli, to give him melodious fluency, set him to write solfeggios, of which he produced about two hundred; this practice materially modified the style of his sacred compositions, which he continued to write for the sake of the experience he gained from hearing them executed. A cantata, called "Imene," was also a fruit of this period, as likewise some unimportant instrumental pieces which were published. His first opera, "Adelson e Salvini," was in 1825 privately performed in the small theatre of the college of St. Sebastian, entirely by the students, when Signer Marras, the talented professor now settled in London, was chosen from the boys of the preparatory school to sustain the soprano part. This work was never brought before the world, but several themes from it are incorporated in the "Straniera" and the "Montecchi e Capuletti." In 1825, while still a student, he was, through the recommendation of his patron, the Duke de Noja, allowed to write for the Teatro S. Carlo the opera of "Bianca e Gernando," which was produced with Mad. Lalande, and Sigs. Rubini, Berrettoni, and Lablache, in the principal characters; it met, however, with indifferent success. He was now involved in a love affair with a young lady, whose father, a judge, contemning his profession, forbade his suit; and in the mortification thus induced he left the city. He proceeded direct to Milan, where in 1827, with singular favour to so young an artist, he was engaged to compose an opera for the Scala; this was "Il Pirata," which was supported by Mad. Comelli, Sigs. Rubini and Cartagenova; and though coldly received on the first representation, had a success upon its repetition, which immediately carried it into every lyrical theatre in Europe, and it was produced in London in April 1830. Acknowledged now as one of the popular composers of the day, he wrote in 1828 for the same theatre, "La Straniera," the characters in which were sustained by Mesdames Lalande and Ungher, and Sigs. Reina and Tamburini.
His next work, "Zaira," was written for Parma; but though supported by Mad. Ungher and Sigs. David and Lablache, was unsuccessful. He was more fortunate with "I Montecchi ed i Capuletti," given at Venice with Mesd. Caradori Allen, and Giuditta Grisi, and Sigs. Bonifigli and Porto. The subject of this was the same as the Romeo e Giulietta of Zingarelli, which he accepted with considerable diffidence out of respect to his old master, and the name was changed to evade the appearance of competition with him. A success surpassing even that of his "Pirata," attended "La Sonnambula," which was first performed at the Carcano theatre in Milan with Mesd. Pasta and Taccani, and Sigs. Rubini and Marini. The subject of this opera, already familiar on the stage as a ballet and as a speaking drama, was especially sympathetic with the genius of Bellini; and the general character of his music is at once more spontaneous, more varied, and more dramatic in this than in any of his other works. The established popularity of the composer and of his story, combined to predispose all audiences in its favour, but the irresistible charm of its melodies, at once penetrated where the interest of the action was unwitnessed, and where even the name of Bellini had never reached. This was followed by "Norma," the text of which by Romani is ranked as a classic among Italian poetry; it was produced at the Scala in Ionian with Mesd. Pasta and Giulietta Grisi, and Sigs. Donzelli and Marini. Like the "Pirata," it was unsuccessful on the first night, but received with enthusiasm on its repetition. Universal as is the esteem in which this opera is held, and eminently effective as are many passages in it, the grand tragic character of the subject is little in accordance with the tenderly-flowing style of the composer, the consequence of which is an air of
