BASSANO, Italian family of painters
Italian family of painters. Its members were active in Venice and the Veneto from the early 16th century to the early 17th and acquired the surname 'dal Ponte' because their workshop in Bassano del Grappa was close to the bridge. The name 'Bassano' was used in Venice first for Jacopo Bassano and then for the family.
Jacopo (or Giacomo) da Ponte first worked under his father, the painter Francesco the Elder (1474-1539), then studied in Venice. About 1530 he returned to Bassano where some of his finest work was done. His portraits and biblical subjects are notable for their realistic landscape settings, which include animals and details of peasant life, and for their colour, influenced by Titian. The best known of his four sons are Francesco the Younger and Leandro, whose work closely followed that of their father. Many paintings attributed to Jacopo are the work of his sons.
