MANSUETI, GIOVANNI DI NICCOLÒ. - Venetian painter first mentioned in a document of 22 July 1485, died ca. 1526.
He is one of the minor figures in the circle of Gentile Bellini, with whom his relationship is evident in his first dated work, the Allegory of the Crucifixion in the National Gallery, London. M. collaborated twice with Gentile: in the “teleri” with the Stories of St. Mark for the Albergo of the Scuola of that Saint, of 1499 (now at Brera, in the Liechtenstein collection in Vienna, and in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice); and in the teleri with the Stories of the relic of the Holy Cross, for the antechamber of the Albergo of the Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista (now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia). In one of the latter he signs « Opus Ioannis d'Mansueti/s veneti/recte se/ntienti/um Bellini/ disciplì, thus proclaiming his dependence on the master, whom he seeks to imitate; M.’s intervention has also been supposed in the background figures of Gentile’s Procession of St. Mark.
Stylistic affinities have also been sought with Carpaccio, whose luminosity and clear spatial organization M. does not understand.