Bellini, Giovanni, behl LEE nee, joh VAHN nee (1430 or 1435-1516), was the greatest member of the Bellini family of painters in Venice during the Italian Renaissance. His most important contribution to art lay in his experimentation with the use of color and atmosphere in oil painting. His poetic landscapes influenced Giorgione, Titian, and other Venetian painters of the 1500's. Giovanni Bellini also helped further the development of a type of painting called sacra conversazione (holy conversation), which features the Madonna and Child in an interior or landscape setting with two or more saints.