Renaissance Artists - Jacopo Bassano

Jacopo da Ponte, a Mannerist artist from the Renaissance period, born in 1510, Bassano del Grappa just north of Venice, initially trained by his father, Francesco also an artist. As he began to make a name for himself, Jacopo took the name of the town where he grew up and became renowned as the Renaissance naturalist artist Jacopo del Bassano.

Bassano initially trained under his father, whose village art very much influenced his style, and later went on to study with Bonifacio Veronese. Bassano's figurative work also calls to mind the works of Titian and he further developed his style studying prints of Raphael’s work. He made a name for himself with his luscious depictions of plant and foliage and uses of light and shade. Canvasses became vast landscapes; populated with people, creatures and objects they are as much about the content of the painting as they are about the subject.

The themes painted by Bassano are predominantly religious but in the Mannerist style he includes many every day articles, rural people, barns and farmhouses. His work is devoid of the grand temples, the silk and furs of his contemporaries; Bassano’s depictions are of normal people, undertaking daily tasks. Many of his works are Franciscan in content, full of nature and animals, the focal points of his pictures are often surrounded by detailed images of farm animals, dogs and cats. His painting Two hunting dogs tied to a tree is credited with being one of the first animal portraits in Western art in existence.

Bassano set up a studio in the town of his birth, married and had four sons, all of whom became artists and worked alongside their father. Francesco the Younger, Gerolamo, Giovanni Battista and Leandro. He died in 1592 having lived all his life in Bassano.

In 2010 to celebrate his 500^th birthday, the town of Bassano has honoured their feted son with an exhibition in the Civic museum. It features 40 pieces of his work, gathered from across the world and some on exhibition in Italy for the first time. Paintings from the Louvre, Milan and London all collected together in a display of his early work with a second show planned in the town for 2012. The exhibition, called exhibition “Jacopo Bassano e lo stupendo inganno dell’ochio” (Jacopo Bassano and the wonderful optical illusion) is a quote from fellow artist Annibale Carraci, who while visiting Bassano tried to pick up a book in one of his paintings.

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