_Bassano_ (Venetian: 1510-1592).
Jacopo da Ponte is commonly called Il Bassano or Jacopo
da Bassano from his native town, near Venice. His father,
Francesco, who was a painter in the school of the Bellini, was
his first master; he afterwards studied under Bonifazio at
Venice. After a short stay in that city, Jacopo returned to his
native town, where he remained for the rest of a long life.
"His best works are almost worthy," says Sir F. Burton, "of
Titian. They are conspicuous among other qualities for Venetian
excellence of colouring--especially in his green, where he
exhibits a peculiar brilliancy. Most of his pictures seem at
first sight as dazzling, then as cooling and soothing, as the
best kind of stained glass; while the colouring of details,
particularly of those under high lights, is jewel-like, as
clear and deep and satisfying as rubies and emeralds." No. 228
in this Collection has passages which illustrate this point.
Jacopo was nearly contemporary with the great Tintoretto, but
while the latter was the last of the Venetian painters in the
grand style, Bassano after a time devoted himself to simple
scenes of country life. His distinguishing place in the history
of art is that he was the first Italian painter of _genre_--a
painter, that is, _du genre bas_, painter of a low class of
subjects, of familiar objects such as do not belong to any
other recognised class of paintings (as history, portrait,
etc.): see, for instance, No. 228, in which the religious
subject merely gives the painter an opportunity for a scene
of market life. "His pictures were for the inhabitants of the
small market-town from which he takes his name, where, besides
the gates, you still see men and women in rustic garb crouching
over their many-coloured wares; and where, just outside the
walls, you may see all the ordinary occupations connected
with farming and grazing. Inspired, although unawares, by
the new idea of giving perfectly modern versions of Biblical
stories, Bassano introduced into nearly every picture he
painted episodes from the life in the streets of Bassano and
in the country just outside the gates. Another thing Bassano
could not fail to do, working as he did in the country and
for country people, was to paint landscape. He loved to paint
the real country. He was, in fact, the first modern landscape
painter" (Berenson: _Venetian Painters of the Renaissance_, §
xxi). "Giovanni Bellini places his figure in the crystal air
of an Italian morning; Titian and Tintoretto give us daylight,
mighty while subdued; but Bassano throws a lurid grey over his
landscape and carries the eye to the solemn twilight spread
along the distant horizon. This peculiarity of feature is
partly accounted for by the position of the town of Bassano,
which is wrapped in an early twilight by the high mountains
above it on the west" (Layard's edition of _Kugler_, ii. 624).
A fine portrait--somewhat recalling Rembrandt in style--of a very
refined face. In the vase beside him is a sprig of myrtle. This painter
is fond of introducing such vases: see one in 277. In the principal
street of Bassano, where the artist was born and, after studying at
Venice, continued to live, such vessels may still be seen placed out
for sale.