ay discussing contemporary painters with the latter, Tintoretto
exclaimed, "Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing and I had your colour I
would defy the devil himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to
make any show beside us."

Bassano was invited to take up his residence at the Court of the Emperor
Rudolph, but he refused to leave his mountain city, where he died in
1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd of the poorest inhabitants,
for whom his charity had been boundless.

The "Journey of Jacob," to which we have already alluded, is among his
most beautiful works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated to
the charm of the landscape. The evening dusk draws all objects into its
embrace. The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out against a gleam
of sunset sky. The tree-trunks and light play of leafy branches, which
break up the composition, are from da Ponte's own country round Bassano.
The pony upon which the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among the quiet
sheep, are given with all the loving truth of the born animal-painter.
It is no wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him, and has more than
once imitated his whole design.

The "Baptism of St. Lucilla" (in the Museum at Bassano) is one of his
most Titianesque creations. The personages in it are grouped upon a
flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance palace with cypresses
against a sky of evening-red barred with purple clouds. The drawing
and modelling of the figures are almost faultless, and the colour is
dazzling. The bending figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling on
her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before the young bishop, St.
Valentine, is one of the most graceful things in art, and Titian himself
need not have disowned the little angels, bearing palm branches and
frolicking in the stream of radiance overhead.

Bassano has a "Concert," which is interesting as a family piece. It was
painted in the year in which his son Leandro's marriage took place, and
is probably a bridal painting to celebrate the event. The "Magistrates
in Adoration" (Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light, and
its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto's numerous pictures of
kneeling doges and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.

[Illustration: _Jacopo da Ponte._
BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.
_Bassano._
(_Photo, Alinari._)]

Madonnas and saints are usually built into close-packed pyrami