1562
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist is a 1562 oil by Jacopo Bassano, a Early Baroque Italian work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see Mary holding baby Jesus while young John the Baptist kneels beside them, all bathed in soft golden light. Bassano painted this in his hometown, far from Venice’s busy art scene. Yet the deep reds and shimmering fabric folds feel just like the work of Venetian painters—almost as if he brought the city’s glow to the countryside. The faces are calm, but the brushstrokes are quick and alive, especially in the folds of Mary’s robe. Look up *impasto* to see how thick, textured paint can make light dance on a surface.
Throughout most of his working life, Jacopo Bassano remained in his birthplace, the small town of Bassano del Grappa in the mainland territory of the Venetian Republic. The rich colors and textural brushstrokes in his paintings, however, are also characteristic of contemporary painters working in the city of Venice itself. His engagement with the work of two such artists, Titian and Paolo Veronese , is evident in the flickering highlights that here animate the Virgin’s robes and the rich red hanging. The slender proportions of the Madonna’s head and neck, on the other hand, are more…
Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (died 1825), Castle Howard, Yorkshire by 1812, probably acquired between about 1770 and 1790 [according to email from Christopher Ridgway dated 3 September 2004 in curatorial file]; by descent to George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle (died 1911), Castle Howard, Yorkshire; by descent to his son the Hon. Geoffrey William Algernon Howard (died 1935), Castle Howard, Yorkshire; his estate sale Christie’s, London, 18 February 1944, no. 3, to Agnew’s [according to Agnew’s invoice dated October 9, 1968 in curatorial file]; sold by Thomas Agnew and Sons,…
London, The New Gallery, Exhibition of Venetian Art, 1894-95, no. 115. London, Thomas Agnew and Sons, Ltd, Spring Exhibition, 1944, no cat. London, Thomas Agnew and Sons, Ltd, Loan Exhibition of Thirty-Nine Masterpieces of Venetian Painting, 1953, cat. 2. Venice, Palazzo Ducale, Jacopo Bassano, June 29 - Oct. 27, 1957, cat. 52. The Art Institute of Chicago, Christmas Exhibition, 1968-69, no cat. The Art Institute of Chicago, Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey, October 16, 1999 – January 9, 2000, included in the gallery that held Viola’s The Greeting for the Chicago venue.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jacopo Bassano was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. He was born and died in Bassano del Grappa, and took the village as his surname. Having trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco the…
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