Jacopo Bellini, born in Venice, had been a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano.

In 1411–1412, he was in Foligno, where with Gentile he had worked at the Palazzo Trinci frescoes.

In 1423, Bellini was in Florence, where he knew the new works by Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masolino da Panicale and Masaccio.

In 1424, he had opened a workshop in Venice, which he is to run until his death in 1470.

Many of his greatest works, including the enormous Crucifixion in the cathedral of Verona (1436), have disappeared.

From about 1430 is the panel with Madonna and Child, in the Accademia Carrara, once attributed to Gentile da Fabriano.

In 1441, at Ferrara, where he was at the service of Leonello d'Este together with Leon Battista Alberti, he executed a portrait of that Marquess, now lost.

To this period belongs the Madonna dell'Umiltà (Virgin of Humility, adored by a prince of the House of Este, 1440), probably commissioned by one of the brothers of Leonello.