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Marco Basaiti

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Portrait of a young man

Marco Basaiti (c. 1470-1530) was a renaissance painter who worked mainly in Venice and was a contemporary of Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano. He has been referred to by several names including Marco Baxaiti, Marcus Basitus, and Marcus Baxiti. Originally Vasari believed there were two artist from Venice at the time, one name Marco Basarini and Marco Basaiti but later information reveals that these were in fact the same painter. Not much is known about Marco Basaiti's personal life. There is little documentation on Marco Basaiti besides his painting signatures and when he was recorded on a guild ledger as a painter of figures. Most of what is known about Marco Basaiti comes from examining the paintings attributed to him. 

His works consisted of mainly portraits and were often focused on religious themes. In fact there is no known painting attributed to Marco Basaiti with a mythological theme. Strongly influenced by the quattrocento style, Basaiti was at the cross roads of two different time periods and often struggled to keep up stylistically with the times.

Personal life and Training

Marco Basaiti's birth is estimated to be around 1470 but has been debated by scholars. Basaiti's lineage is not clear as Vasari refers to him at a Venetian painter with Greek parents while Ridolfi states that Basaiti was born in Friuli, a small town near venice, with Albanian parents. In either case this explains the variety of names Basaiti is known by because the Greek and Albanian communities, along with many other foreigner communities, for the most part kept to themselves and do not often appear on Venetian records. Not much is actually known about Basaiti's life, except what little scholars can learn about the artist through his art.

Currently there is evidence that Basaiti trained with Bartolomeo Vivarini and then later transitioned to working with his nephew Alvise Vivarini. Early on Basaiti's pieces were thought to reflect Bartolomeo's style and composition. However once Bartolomeo died in the late 1590s, it is thought that Basaiti began working with Alvise Vivarini, Bartolomeo's nephew. This fact is supported by the fact that when Alvise died in 1505, Basaiti was commissioned to do the alter piece entitled St. Ambrose Enthroned with Saints that Alvise had left uncompleted. Typically only major assistants working in the studio would have been asked to do this type of work. Additionally stylistically Basaiti's work seems to be influenced by both Vivarinis further implying the link between Basaiti and these two masters.

However, Basaiti, as many artists from that time, were influenced by a variety of great artists during that lived during this era. For example, Basaiti began to incorporate more extensive landscapes into his backgrounds which takes queues stylistically from Giovanni Bellini. In fact, some of Bellini’s older works were misattributed to Basaiti for a long period of time. Another likely influence for Basaiti’s more complex backgrounds are Netherlandish painters. Specifically, it has been noted that after Albrecht Durer’s stay in Venice, Basaiti’s style shifted somewhat towards more complex and dramatic landscapes with a less of an emphasis on the figures in the painting. This type of style can be clearly seen in the Lamentation over the Dead Christ and St. Jerome in the Wilderness. Additionally, the painting of St. Jerome in the Wilderness is thought to be a copy of a painting created by Cima da Conegliano which presents yet one more important artistic influence in Marco Basaiti’s life.  For the most part Basaiti focused on religious themes rarely delving into mythological or historical topics. Despite this his style seems fairly contemporary with complex composition and correct proportions.

Early Period (1495-1510)

More than half of Basaiti's known works come from this first period in his painting career. This time period comes right after his training and is marked by a constantly changing style as Basaiti experiments with his art to find his own personal style. Stylistically there are strong influences from his two proposed mentors in the composition of his paintings, with Bartolomew specifically influencing his figure design.

Early on his style consisted of brightly colored scenes and cool skin tones with very basic designs for the background which matches the style of his masters. However as time went on his landscapes seemed to take on a more warm and organic form. This is most likely due to some influence Giovanni Bellini exerted over Basaiti. Additionally this change to more expressive landscapes coincided with Albrecht Durer's stay in Venice from 1505-1506. In fact some scholars suggest that the landscape style Basaiti adopted is more influenced by Netherlandish paintings than Bellini.

Middle Period (1510-1520)

Alter piece from both Alvise Vivarini and Marco Basaiti

By this time Basaiti's work began to reach a more mature style and this period represents the most cohesive time stylistically for his paintings as his early pieces seemed disjoined likely due to experimentation early on in his career. . This period represented the most prosperous time for Basaiti and included several large commissions such as the alterpiece at Sant'Andrea della Certosa, the Calling of the Apostles. This piece in particular marked the beginning of his mature period and is considered by Vasari and future critiques to be one of his best pieces. Instead of a portrait which up until now had been his main artistic endeavors, the calling of the Apostles is a narrative painting which requires more complex composition. In fact, the painting features a much more detailed and expansive landscape that was lacking in his earlier works. Additionally the figures within a narrative setting must be place in a more careful fashion in order to bring the painting to life. Although Basaiti tried to compose narrative paintings later on, none were as successful as this first one.

Continuing his emphasis on the use of landscapes in paintings, backgrounds became more integrated into the overall painting and the influence of Bellini and possibly Netherlandish painters is still apparent. As Basaiti developed his technique more, he began to use softer lighting and blend the components more fluidly into his works.

Basaiti was trained in the quattrocento style which he worked on perfecting during this time but unfortunately this style was declining in popularity. Despite this new style emerging during his later years he attempts to incorporate some of the new techniques being popularized during this time. This transition can be particularly seen in his later works.

Late Period ( 1520- 1530)

This was Basaiti last period and no paintings have been dated after 1530. Basaiti appears on a ledger for a painters guild in 1530 and then there is no known mention of him after this ledger and he is presumed to have died in the early years of that decade. According to current estimations this would have made him 60 around the time of his death. In this last decade of his painting career, his composition became slightly more developed and more in tune with the contemporary style but remained heavily influenced by the quattrocento style. During this time he mainly focused on portraits as the delicate interplay between figures in narrative scenes were much more difficult for him. In fact, portraits were the one area where he was able to adapt the most stylistic with the changing times. Additionally during this shift back to portraits landscapes started to decline in importance in his paintings.

Some of called Basaiti one of the last great masters of the early renaissance. However, despite his best efforts, his work is generally considered to be one step behind the trends of the Venetian painting at that time.

Artwork

There are approximately 30 known pieces currently attributed Basaiti.

Date attributed	Painting	Location currently	Type
1495-1500	Portrait of a Young Man	National gallery London	Oil on panel
1496-1505	The Virgin and Child	National gallery London	Oil on panel
1500	Madonna with Child	Gartenpalais Liechtenstein in Vienna	Oil on panel
1500	Portrait of a Gentleman	Philadelphia Museum of Art	Oil on panel
1500-1501	Virgin and Child with saint James the great	Philadelphia Museum of Art	Oil on panel
1500-1505	Portrait of Doge Agostino Barbarigo	Szépmüvészeti Múzeum- Budapest	Oil on panel
1500-1510	Portrait of a Man in a Cap	Museo Correr- Venice	Tempura on panel
1501-1502	Madonna and Child with a Donor	Museo Correr-Venice	Tempera on panel
1503	Altarpiece of Saint Ambrose	Frari Basilica	Oil on panel
1505	Portrait of a Young Man	Private collection	Oil on panel
1508	The Deposition	Alte Pinakothek- Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen	Oil on panel
1508	Virgin and child with Saints	Fitzwilliam Museum- University of cambridge	Tempera on panel
1510	The call of the Sons of Zebedee	Galleria dell Accademia- Venice	Oil on Panel
1510	Madonna and Child	Georgia museum of art- Athens Georgia	Oil on panel
1510-1516	Christ praying in the Garden	Galleria dell Accademia- Venice	Oil on panel
1515	Christ with Apostles in the Garden	Kunsthistorisches Museum	Oil on panel
1518-1519	Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Liberallis	Muzeum Palacu Krola Jana III w Wilanowie- warsaw	Oil on panel
1520	Madonna Adoring the Child	National Gallery of Art- Washington	Oil on panel
1520	The Resurrection of Christ	Accademia Carrara di Bell Arti Bergamo	Oil on canvas
1527	The lamentation	The State hermitage Museum- St peterburg	Oil on canvas
No date given on website	Head of the Virgin	Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaelogy-University of Oxford	Oil on panel
No date	Saint peter enthroned with four Saints	San pietro di castello	Oil on canvas
No date	Saint Sebastian	Santa Maria della Salute- Venice	Oil on canvas

Table is in order of date and those with a range of dates were ordered based on their earliest estimated date. Also those with no determined dates were listed last.

Edits and advice

Edits: Maybe create a chronological sequence of events throughout his life. I see you have good information just figure out a put in all out into writing and have it make sense. May need some deeper information on some topics and possibly do a little more research. Look through those sources you have written down and extract some more information our of those. Basically just find valuable information that is deeper than surface level stuff.

Good Vasari sources since he is apparently the most reliable. Seems like you struggled to find a good amount of information about his life, but i would suggest try fitting the information you into some sort of chronological sequence, since that will make it a little easier to follow. Also when you're giving information try to give approximate dates if you can find them. From your information it sounds like you don't have much information specific on commissioners and projects he's done.. maybe try to find and include somethings like that. Seems like you found a good amount of information pertaining to his style and influences which is good. Good information on the analysis of his style and changes to his style. Overall a solid start that will be could use a little more details (if you can find any) and possibly try to place the information in chronological order (in my opinion).

Marco Basati

Current text:

Marco Basaiti (c. 1470 – 1530) was a Venetian painter and a rival of Giovanni Bellini. His best known works are Christ Praying in the Garden (1516) and the Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew.

Biography

Marco Basaiti was born in 1470, in either Venice or Friuli. His family was of either of Albanianor possibly Greek origin, as Vasari reported.

He began to paint actively from 1496 to 1520 and is generally believed to have learned to paint in the workshops of Alvise Vivarini. Basaiti resided for a long while at Venice, where there are many of his works, and he is quoted as a rival of Giovanni Bellini and that he surpassed him in some points. He worked primarily with religious themes, but he also did portraits. Contrary to the trends of the time, he used very bright colours in rendering his religious subjects.

The artist is known for his compositions and combining the grounds with figures. The 1999 restoration and conservation of the Basaiti's oevre in the Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów in Warsaw revealed bright colours and an effigy of artist's sponsor, Alvise di Franceschi, as Saint Liberalis.