Italian family of artists. The family, active mainly in Bergamo, was headed by Giovanni Belli di Ponteranica (c. 1482-c. 1530). In 1516 he made a lectern for S Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and in 1521 constructed a wooden model for its high altar (destr.): this was to have been executed by such artists as Andrea Riccio and Lorenzo Lotto but was unfinished by 1581. Giovanni is best remembered for his part in the elaborate wooden choir and presbytery of S Maria Maggiore, for which he was engaged as carpenter, clerk and intarsia maker. The enterprise was begun in 1522, under the project's master of works Gianfrancesco Capoferri di Lovere (c. 1497-1533/4), also an intarsia maker. A payment was made in 1530 to 'Master Giovanni or his sons' for work on this early stage of the choir and presbytery. After Giovanni's death, his eldest son Alessandro Belli (c. 1508-82) and another son Giacomino Belli (d after 1592) continued their involvement in the project, working especially on the intarsias. These were based primarily on designs by Lotto, with some by another brother, Giuseppe Belli (c. 1520-86). They were rightly praised (see Berenson) for their successful rendering of complex, painterly designs in wood. Among the intarsias attributable to Alessandro are two panels showing the Ascension (based on a design by Giuseppe) and panels of Hope, Justice and Fortitude, all in the choir apse; he signed a panel of grotesques in the same area HVIVS ORNAMENTV[M] OPERIS ALEXA[N]DER BELLVS FECIT. Work on the choir and presbytery project was halted in 1533-4 (at Capoferri di Lovere's death), resuming in 1547 under Alessandro's direction (together with Paolo di Pesaro, another intarsia maker), assisted by Giacomino and their youngest brother Andrea Belli. The project was completed in 1555, but Giacomino was recalled in 1572 to repair damage caused by a flood in 1564. Alessandro also contracted in 1539 to make wooden figures of St John the Baptist, St Peter, St John the Evangelist, the Virgin Enthroned with the Christ Child and half-length sculptures of St Roch and St Sebastian for an altarpiece in the church of S Giovanni Battista di Fuipiano in Valle Imagna; these are now in the sacristy of the church, together with busts of the Apostles and a tympanum depicting God the Father. Giuseppe Belli, who had probably also begun as a worker in wood, later became a painter. His two known paintings are a portrait of Gasparo Alberti, the choir master at S Maria Maggiore (signed and dated 5 Sept 1547; Carrara, Accad. B.A. & Liceo A.) and a depiction of St Peter, in papal garb between SS Paul and Alexander, for the high altar of S Pietro in Boccaleone, near Bergamo, for which he received payment in 1553. He studied under Lotto and was influenced by Giovanni Battista Moroni. He received a payment in 1555 for intarsia designs for S Maria Maggiore. Alessandro's son Antonio Belli and Giacomino's son Filippo Belli, also sculptors in wood and intarsia makers, received a payment in 1593 for four angels that they carved for the organ-case in S Maria Maggiore.

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