Gentile Bellini received his training in the workshop of his father, Jacopo Bellini, one that he headed together with his brother Giovanni after Jacopo's death. His earliest work assured by an inscription is the canvas 'St Lorenzo Giustiniani' (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice), dated 1465. In the following year, he painted two paintings for the Scuola di San Marco, which were destroyed in the fire of 1485. Following that commission, he was considered one of the city's most important artists. In 1474 he worked in the Salone del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge's Palace, but those pictures were also destroyed. At the behest of the Republic of Venice, Gentile sojourned at the court of Mehmed II in Constantinople from 1479 to 1481, where among other works he produced a portrait of the sultan (now London, National Gallery). Of great importance are his large-format 'Procession in Piazza San Marco' and 'Miracle of the True Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo', which he painted for the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista between 1496 and 1500. In them he combined ceremonial processions with impressive Venetian city views.
