The brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini are among the most highly-regarded artists of Renaissance Venice. They painted Doges portraits, grand altarpieces, private devotional works, scenes of public ceremony and miracle, personal portraits, and depictions of foreign dignitaries – a panoply of paintings covering all aspects of Venetian life and of the self-image this mythical city consciously presented to the world. Through their art we will explore their visions of the public arena, the religious traditions, and the personalities and locations of political and civil life in this complex city-state, as it enjoyed its ‘golden age’ in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and as it continued to promote the ‘Myth of Venice’, even as its power began to decline.