BASSANO (IACOPO) – Rest during the Flight into Egypt – Milan, Ambrosiana Picture Gallery.
(Anderson photograph)
In Bassano, the light, which kindles flashes wherever it falls, magnificently sets off the shimmering garment of the kneeling saint, the saint’s golden cross, and the cleric’s vestments, delineated by luminous threads. The touch is always rapid, highly effective, and plastic. Boschini indeed says, speaking of Venetian drawing, that the greatest author of relief-like paintings was Iacopo B. with the S. Lucilla. This is the Venetian plasticity of Tintoretto or Veronese, achieved through colour and light: a plasticity internal to the painting and not sculptural, like relief against an inert background.
FRANCESCO IL GIOVANE (born in Bassano in January 1549, died in Venice on 3 July 1592), the pupil and imitator of his father Iacopo, was characterized by the rapidity of his touch and the scintillation of his colours and lights.
Among his works we may recall Il buon Samaritano (Vienna, Hofmuseum); Dio indica la via della terra promessa (there); l'Ultima Cena (Madrid, Prado); il Viaggio degli Ebrei verso la terra promessa (Vienna, Hofmuseum); il Viaggio di Tobia con l'Angelo (Dresden, State Gallery); l'Adorazione dei Magi (Rome, Borghese Gallery). During his final years F. followed Tintoretto in seeking plasticity and movement, producing the Martirio di s. Caterina (Florence, Pitti Gallery), the Ratto delle Sabine (Turin, Picture Gallery), and the ceiling paintings in the Hall of the Great Council (Venice, Ducal Palace).
GIOVANNI BATTISTA (born in Bassano in March 1553, died on 9 March 1613), Iacopo’s second son, worked in his father’s workshop and painted in 1598 the altarpiece of Gallio, now in the Bassano Museum.
LEANDRO (born in Bassano in June 1557, died in Venice on 15 April 1622), like his brother Francesco, derived his painting from that of his father. Yet we do not find in him Francesco’s gifts for colour and light, but rather harshness of touch and heaviness of form.
His works include the Circoncisione (Rosà, parish church), the Martirio di s. Lucia (Venice, church of S. Giorgio), L'epulone e Lazzaro (Vienna, Hofmuseum), l'Adorazione dei Magi (Borgo S. Sepolcro, gallery), and the Resurrezione di Lazzaro (Venice, Accademia). Like his brother, he also painted in the Ducal Palace in Venice.
GIROLAMO (born in Bassano in June 1566, died in Venice on 8 November 1621), like his brother Giovanni Battista, grossly imitated Iacopo’s forms. The Madonna e Santi in the Bassano Museum is his work, a heavy and artificial production.