[4] In 1876, while still a student, he won the competition for the Poletti Prize with the painting Francesco Francia Admiring Raphael's Saint Cecilia for the First Time, defeating Achille Boschi.

Thus, "Resfa" – a work in rough and dark colors, inspired by German Symbolism – at first attracts criticism, but then is widely recognized as "the best painting of modern art in Modena".

He writes scenes of humble, everyday rural life, in which there are, for example, grandfather and grandson hugging each other, as well as card players, monks, workers, and sometimes animals.

At an exhibition in Genoa in 1885, he first presented "Happy Kitten" (Il micino fortunato), which brought him such a commercial success that Bellei immediately reproduced several versions of the same plot.

Bellei created a number of religious works, including an altarpiece with the Redeemer for the parish in Zocca and Blessed Cottolengo for the Rangoni chapel in Bomporto.