BELLINI, Giovanni
(b. ca. 1426, Venezia, d. 1516, Venezia)

Portrait of Jörg Fugger

1474
Oil on panel, 26 x 20 cm
Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena

Jörg Fugger, the heir of a wealthy German banking family in Augsburg, is depicted in the portrait at age 21. This is the earliest known portrait by Giovanni Bellini, and probably one of the first paintings by an Italian artist executed in oil rather than tempera.