The richness in Venetian color reflected the wealth prominent in Venice during the Renaissance. The dark reds, brilliant blues and muted yellows used in the oil paintings of Venetian School artists such as Jacopo Bellini have both a deepness and transparency meant to reflect light and expose the shades of layered color. Often muted in tone, Venetian colors gradually softened throughout the Renaissance to replicate natural color rather than exaggerated hues.
Unlike the Florentine masters who began masterpieces by focusing on the linear movement of a composition, the Venetian School artists would begin forming their work with shapes of color painted directly on the canvas. Shades of color were carefully layered and blended to create a subtle shift of hue and tone to define form in place of the severe lines notable in other style movements.
A careful consideration of light's impact on color is reflected in the work of the masters of the Venetian School period. Whereas other movements would mimic the actual color of a subject as a whole, Venetian colorists would incorporate the subtle shifts of hue caused by the reflected light on the subject with their unique layering and blending techniques. With the interplay of shadows and light across a subject, traditional Venetian color application suggests form without sharp edges, creating a difficult to achieve sense of depth and realism.