The Adoration of the Shepherds

Jacopo dal Ponte, better known as Bassano, received his early training in his hometown of Bassano del Grappa under his father, Francesco. He is documented in Venice in 1535, where he is traditionally thought to have continued his training in the workshop of Bonificio Veronese, though he may have been present in the city by 1533. When this Adoration of the Shepherds sold in 1965, and again in 1997, it was thought to be the work of Bonifacio (loc. cit.). In his 1980 article, however, Roger Rearick recognized the hand as that of the youthful Jacopo Bassano, an attribution later endorsed by Alessandro Ballarin, who published it as such in 1996 (loc. cit.). Rearick dated the picture to 1534-35 and Ballarin to 1535, situating it in Bassano’s earliest moments in Venice.

The Titianesque qualities of this painting are evident not only in the color palette, but also in the distant landscape, where light suffuses the horizon. Rearick noted that the young Bassano’s composition takes inspiration from Titian’s painting of the same subject, now in the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, dating to circa 1532-33 (inv. no. 423). Titian’s painting was popularized through a widely circulated print by Giovanni Britto (fig. 1), and Bassano’s composition follows the same direction as the print, with the Virgin facing right, indicating that it was the print - rather than the painting itself - that served as the artist’s point of reference.