Born into the most influential artistic family in Venice, he received his training in the studio of his father, Jacopo, along with his brother, Gentile, and through a long and fruitful career played a leading role in advancing the stylistic transformations of the Italian Renaissance. His workshop, one of the most important of the period, counted Giorgione and Titian among its pupils.

Contemporary descriptions of his life, however, are few. The first account, by Vasari, which also portrays the family artistic enterprise, was written decades after his death and offers but qualified praise. A century later Carlo Ridolfi, who sought to rectify Vasari's emphasis on Florentine painters, provides a fuller portrayal of Bellini in his 1648 work The Marvels of Art, or the Lives of the Famous Painters of Venice and Its State. These two narratives are complemented by the correspondence of Isabella d'Este, one of the leading art patrons of the Renaissance, and the prominent man of letters Pietro Bembo, which appear here in English for the first time.

An introduction by the scholar Davide Gasparotto provides an illuminating discussion of these texts and Bellini's vast oeuvre. The historical texts are enhanced by a generous selection of colour illustrations.