REDISCOVERED MASTER

JACOPO da Ponte suffered an unhappy fate. He painted in Venice at the same time as Titian and Tintoretto. It was enough to depress even the most talented artist, and 16th century Venetian dandies did not help matters by sneering that Jacopo was "full of provincial sap." Jacopo despondently returned to his nearby native town, whose name, Bassano, became his own because he rarely signed his work, and when he did. merely brushed the modest words. "Jack, by the bridge at Bassano."

This year, after almost four centuries of neglect, Jacopo Bassano is getting recognition at last. Under the high patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, a summer-long exhibition is being given in Venice, and most of the ornate third floor of the Doge's Palace on the Piazza di San Marco is taken over by 86 religious, Biblical and scenic paintings, 13 portraits and 30 drawings by the man from Bassano.

Painter by Peeping. Hundreds of people walked through the palatial rooms daily, admiring the works of the once-scorned Renaissance master. In paintings such as Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (opposite), they could see Bassano's dazzling treatment of light and color. Now there was appreciation for his gentle landscapes --the first by an Italian to resemble the actual country, instead of arranged scenery --and the dogs, cats, cows, sheep, goats, asses, rabbits and doves that populated so many of his canvases. Italian critics were warm. "A maestro," exclaimed Il Popolo, "who recapitulated a whole golden age of painting."

Jacopo's father was a painter, and the son handled brushes from childhood, adding touches to his father's canvases. He was only 15 when he left Bassano to be apprenticed in Venice to Bonifazio di Pitati. who had the disconcerting and unhelpful habit of locking himself in his studio when he was painting. Jacopo proved resourceful, peeped through the keyhole "to learn the master's methods and copy his works."

Beside the fame and accomplishments of Tintoretto and Titian, Venetian snobs considered simple Bassano a peasant. But the painters respected him. Titian turned commissions over to him, telling clients that since they were people of taste he knew that they would be pleased with Bassano's work. When Bassano's reputation as an animal painter was growing, a client of Tintoretto, in an argument over a portrait of himself, threatened to fly into a "beastly rage," only to hear Tintoretto placidly say, "Go to Jacopo. He is an excellent painter of beasts. He will do a wonderful portrait of you."

To Learn Again. The atmosphere of Venice was not to Jacopo's taste, and when his father died, he went back home, serenely painting by the peaceful bridge over the Brenta. Unlike Venice, the town of Bassano appreciated his work so much that he was exempted from paying city taxes. His Adoration, painted for the local church, was so successful that crowds flocked to see it, and many bid to buy it, until finally the church decreed that "the painting shall never be removed, under any pretext whatsoever, and under penalty of a 500 ducats fine."*

Jacopo lived simply in Bassano. He cultivated herbs, played the flute, trained all four of his sons to be painters. Since they all used the name Bassano, as well as Jacopo's father, a son-in-law, a grandson and great-grandson, it took a few centuries to sort out Jacopo's work from the rest of the family's. When Jacopo died in 1592, he had only one regret. "I am sorry to die," he murmured, "because death prevents me from learning my craft all over again."

*It is still there on the wall of San Giuseppe Church.

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