Jacopo Bassano

Jacopo Bassano
Self-portrait in later age
Born	Jacopo dal Ponte around 1510 Bassano del Grappa near Venice, Republic of Venice
Died	14 February 1592 Bassano del Grappa near Venice, Republic of Venice
Nationality	Italian
Education	Bonifazio Veronese
Known for	Painting
Notable work	The Supper at Emmaus (1538) Flight into Egypt (1544) Christ in the House of Mary and Martha Baptism of Christ (1590)
Movement	Venetian School

Jacopo Bassano (ca. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, from which he adopted the name. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco the Elder, and maybe in contact with the shop of Bonifazio Veronese in Venice, he painted mostly religious paintings including landscape and genre scenes . Bassano's pictures, and those of his two sons, Francesco Bassano the Younger, Giambattista Bassano the Younger, Leandro Bassano, Girolamo Bassano who followed him closely, were very popular in Venice because of their depiction of animals and nocturnal scenes. Bassano is considered to be the first modern landscape painter.

He was born around 1510 in the town of Bassano del Grappa, located about 65 km from the city of Venice. His father, Francesco il Vecchio, was a locally successful painter who had established a family workshop which primarily produced religious works in the local style. During his early youth Bassano was an apprentice in his father's workshop. He eventually made his way to Venice in the 1530s, during which he studied under Bonifazio de Pitati (also known as Bonifazio Veronese) and was exposed to such famous artists as Titian and il Pordenone. After his father's death in 1539 he returned to Bassano del Grappa and permanently set up residence there, even taking a local woman, Elisabetta Merzari, as his wife in 1546. He took over the management of his family workshop, which would eventually come to include his four sons, Leandro Bassano, Francesco Bassano the Younger, Giovanni Battista da Ponte, and Girolamo da Ponte. After his death in 1592, his sons continued to produce numerous works in his style, making it difficult for later art historians to establish which pieces were created by Jacopo himself and which works were created at the hands of his progeny.