Adoration of the Magi

Although Jacopo da Ponte’s flourishing workshop, which he opened in 1539, was located in the minor provincial town of Bassano near Venice, he became one of the most influential 16th century painters in the entire Veneto region. First trained by his father, he studied in Venice from 1530 to 1535 before returning to Bassano, his home town. He was a pioneer in both landscape and genrepainting. His sons – Francesco, Giambattista, Leandro and Gerolamo, who successively joined his workshop – followed successfully in their father’s footsteps. Bassano’s works of the 1550s and 1560s show the increasing influence of Mannerist achievements from Upper Italy and Venice. The figures in the present Adoration also have elongated, unnaturally proportioned limbs; the composition is marked by indistinct spatial relationships and an exciting contrast between the reverent intimacy of the scene andits depiction in cool, restless coloration. In addition, Bassano combines two iconographic trends: the northern tradition of depicting the birth and adoration in the stable of Bethlehem in keeping with the biblical text and the modern Venetian version, which transferred the scene into an architectural setting of imitated classical forms.
© Cäcilia Bischoff, Masterpieces of the Picture Gallery. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2010