Giovanni Bellini in the context of Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (/ˈdjʊərər/ DURE-ər, German: [ˈalbʁɛçt ˈdyːʁɐ]; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528), sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.

Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings, his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolours and books. The woodcuts series are stylistically more Gothic than the rest of his work, but revolutionised the potential of that medium, while his extraordinary handling of the burin expanded especially the tonal range of his engravings.

A doge (/doʊdʒ/ DOHJ, Italian: [ˈdɔːdʒe]; plural dogi or doges; see below) was an elected lord and head of state in several Italian city-states, notably Venice and Genoa, during the medieval and Renaissance periods. Such states were referred to as crowned republics. Doges wore a special hat, the Corno ducale and usually ruled life-long.

The office of the doge in English is termed a dogeship.

A political family (also referred to as a political dynasty) is a family in which multiple members are involved in politics, particularly electoral politics. Members may be related by blood or marriage; often several generations or multiple siblings may be involved.

A royal family or dynasty in a monarchy is generally not considered a "political family," although later descendants of a royal family have played political roles in a republic (such as the Arslan family of Lebanon). A family dictatorship is a form of hereditary dictatorship that operates much like an absolute monarchy, yet occurs in a nominally non-monarchic state.

Venetian painting was a major force in Italian Renaissance painting and beyond. Beginning with the work of Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516) and his brother Gentile Bellini (c. 1429–1507) and their workshops, the major artists of the Venetian school included Giorgione (c. 1477–1510), Titian (c. 1489–1576), Tintoretto (1518–1594), Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) and Jacopo Bassano (1510–1592) and his sons. Considered to give primacy to colour over line, the tradition of the Venetian school contrasted with the Mannerism prevalent in the rest of Italy. The Venetian style exerted great influence upon the subsequent development of Western painting.

By chance, the main phases of Venetian painting fit rather neatly into the centuries. The glories of the 16th century were followed by a great fall-off in the 17th, but an unexpected revival in the 18th, when Venetian painters enjoyed great success around Europe, as Baroque painting turned to Rococo. This had ended completely by the extinction of the Republic of Venice in 1797 and since then, though much painted by others, Venice has not had a continuing style or tradition of its own.

The Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan (Italian: Ritratto del doge Leonardo Loredan) is a painting by Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, dating from c. 1501–02. It portrays Leonardo Loredan, the Doge of Venice from 1501 to 1521, in his ceremonial garments with the corno ducale worn over a linen cap, and is signed IOANNES BELLINVS on a cartellino ("small paper"). It is on display in the National Gallery in London.

Doge Leonardo Loredan with Four Sons, also Portrait of the Loredan Family (Italian: Ritratto della famiglia Loredano), is a large tempera-on-poplar painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini depicting the noble Loredan family of Venice, namely Leonardo Loredan, Doge of Venice and his four sons, Lorenzo, Girolamo, Alvise, and Bernardo. It was painted in 1507 and is now on display at the Gemäldegalerie, part of the Berlin State Museums.

Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400 – c. 1470) was one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting in Venice and northern Italy. His sons Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law Andrea Mantegna, were also famous painters.

Few of Bellini's paintings still exist, but his surviving sketch-books (one in the British Museum and one in the Louvre) show an interest in landscape and elaborate architectural design and are his most important legacy. His surviving works show how he accommodated linear perspective to the decorative patterns and rich colours of Venetian painting.

Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was a Venetian painter of the school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and, at least in the early part of his career, was more highly regarded than his younger brother Giovanni Bellini - a reversal of the situation today. From 1474, he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice. In addition to his portraits, he painted a number of very large works with multitudes of figures, especially for the Scuole Grandi of Venice, wealthy confraternities that were very important in Venetian patrician social life.

In 1479, he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II requested an artist; he returned the next year. Thereafter, a number of his subjects were set in the East, and he is one of the founders of the Orientalist tradition in European painting. His portrait of the Sultan was also copied in paintings and prints and became known all over Europe.

Girolamo Mocetto (c. 1470 in Murano – after 1531 in Venice, Active 1490 – 1530) was an Italian Renaissance painter, engraver, and stained glass designer. He was heavily influenced by Domenico Morone, Giovanni Bellini, Bartolomeo Montagna, Cima da Conegliano, and especially Andrea Mantegna. He is most important as an engraver, and his engravings of the compositions of others are his most successful prints.

Carlo Crivelli (c. 1430 – c. 1495) was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione, and Mantegna. He left the Veneto by 1458 and spent most of the remainder of his career in the March of Ancona, where he developed a distinctive personal style that contrasts with that of his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Bellini.