The Four Seasons, with Triumphs of the Seasons in the backgrounds

The compositions derive, with additions, from works by the Bassani. The series upon which they are based was completed in their studio in circa 1577, with the format sketched by Jacopo, the preliminary painting laid in by Francesco and the final glazes and details lastly added by Jacopo. Of the original four, two survive, Summer and Autumn (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), but the remaining two are known from exact replicas - along with one of Summer - produced contemporaneously by Francesco alone (also Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; his replica of Autumn is probably the painting in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, see W.R. Rearick, 'The life and works of Jacopo dal Ponte, called Bassano c. 1510-1592', in the catalogue of the exhibition, Jacopo Bassano, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 5 September-25 April 1993, pp. 145-6 and nos. 50-1, pp. 385-389, illustrated). The original series subsequently entered into the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and were in Brussels by 1659, where they may well have been used by the present artist as a basis for this series.

It is also possible that the present series were painted from the engravings of the series completed by Johannes and Emmanuel Sadeler in 1598-1600, after a later series of replicas by the Bassani, which omit the background biblical scenes in the originals (see E. Pan, catalogue of the exhibition, Jacopo Bassano e l'incisione: La Fortuna dell'arte bassanesca nella grafica di riproduzione dal XVI al XIX secolo, Bassano del Grappa, 1992, nos. 9-12). The introduction of the aristocratic Flemish couples in the foregrounds, and the allegorical scenes in the backgrounds, would seem to be the inspiration of the present artist.