BASSA'NO (or, more properly, GIACOMO DA PONTE), an artist of great eminence, was b. at Bassano, in the n. of Italy, in 1510. He was first educated in the principles of his art by his father, Francesco da Porte, who was himself a painter of considerable merit, and afterwards visited Venice, where he became a pupil of Bonifazio 'Veneziano. Here he enjoyed opportunities of studying the designs of Parmcgiano, Titian, Tintoretto, and others. The earlier stages of his professional career clearly indicate that these great painters had kindled a rich and emulative enthusiasm in B., for his works display a loftier genius, both as regards conception and execution, than at a later period. IIis principal effort, belonging to this higher epoch, is a fresco painted on the front of the house of the Michelli family. It represents Samson destroying the Philistines; the figure of the mighty Israelite being considered not unworthy of :Ulnae] Angelo. After his 1 ather's death, he returned to Bassano, where he devoted himself to a simpler style of art. From this time, however, dates his celebrity. He may even be said to have founded a school, whose peculiarity was the delineation of common things, markets, fairs, country inns, farm-yards, etc. Ile had a passion for introducing cattle into his pictures, even under
the most inappropriate circumstances. The special merits of this lower style, into which B. filially lapsed, are its vigorous and picturesque coloring, and its accurate imitation of nature. B.'s landscapes, however, betray a comparative ignorance of perspective. Occa sionally, during his later years, B. showed that his early love of the sublime was not wholly extinguished, by painting several altar-pieces, which exhibit a noble grandeur of execution, such as the " Entombing of Christ." in the church of St. Maria. Padua; a "Nativity," now in the Louvre, Paris; "St. Roche interceding with the Virgin for a People infected with the Plague," at Vicenza; "The Wise Men's Offering," and the " Seizure of Christ in the Garden." His rural pictures are abundant in the Italian gal leries and in English collections. B. also painted heads of several of his contemporaries, Tasso, Ariosto, etc., and was in high favor with the emperor Rudolph II., for whom he also executed several works. He d. in 1592. He left four sons, who all followed their father's profession, but were not marked by any special originality of manner.