Bassano, Jacopo (Jacopo da Ponte) (c. 1510-1592)

Italian painter. Influenced early in his career by the Venetian painter Titian, and then by Mannerism, Bassano gradually developed an elegant style of religious painting noted for its rich colour and dramatic handling of light. An example is Adoration of the Shepherds (Museo Civico, Bassano, Italy).

His style changed continually according to changing influences and around 1540 he adopted a Mannerist style with graceful attenuation of figures, as in his Adoration of the Magi (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). This painting is one of several in which he displayed his skill (much praised by contemporaries) in depicting animals. He had a keen eye for the world around him and became known for painting biblical scenes with rural settings peopled by sturdy peasants.

The son of the artist Francesco da Ponte the Elder (c. 1475-1539), Bassano was born in Bassano (hence his name) and studied first under his father and then under Bonifacio Veneziano (de' Pitati) in nearby Venice. There contact with the paintings of Titian stimulated in him the feeling for colour and light that is characteristic of much of his work. From the 1530s he worked mainly in Bassano.

His four sons included the painters Francesco the Younger (1549-1592) and Leandro (1557-1622).