Giovanni Bellini

"[Bellini's] expression of certain emotions is as poignant as any in the whole range of art, but it is never ecstatic or excessive; with him sorrow is never desperate, compassion never effeminate, nor does the tenderest affection ever verge on sentimentality."

"The affectionate relationship maintained by the brothers was so legendary that even Vasari received reports of it. In his Vite, Vasari wrote that after the death of his brother Gentile, whom he had always loved with great tenderness, Giovanni remained behind as his ‘widow’, so to speak, a metaphor suggestive of both sadness and isolation. Gentile named Giovanni as his heir, bequeathing to him their father’s book of drawings, which had remained in Venice, and entrusting him with the completion of his painting of St Mark Preaching in Alexandria (for the Scuola Grande di San Marco."