Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516) was an Italian painter and the father of the Venetian Renaissance. He influenced transforming Venice from a minor artistic center to a capital of the Italian Renaissance. Bellini's six-decade-long career derived from his tendency to absorb advanced painting techniques. He was the first Italian artist to adopt the Flemish oil painting technique allowing in-depth shading. The American artist Bill Viola says Bellini was the inventor of the zoom technique.
