ds, but
in the "Repose in Egypt," now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his arrangement
comes very close to Palma and Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child,
the attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting, head on hand, at the
Virgin's feet and gazing in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of
the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite landscape behind them, and
the vigorously drawn tree under which they recline, show Bassano true to
his passion for nature.

Hampton Court is rich in his pictures. "The Adoration of the Shepherds,"
in which the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an exercise in
the manner of Titian's Frari altarpiece. His portraits are fine and
sympathetic, but hardly any of them are signed or can be dated. His
own is in the Uffizi, and there is a splendid "Old Man" at Buda-Pesth.
Ariosto and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other distinguished
men were among his sitters; most of them are in half-length with
three-quarter heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly
attractive one of a young man with a sensitive, acute countenance,
robed in dignified, picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered linen
collar. He stands by the sort of square window, opening on a distant
landscape, of which Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front of
which a golden vase, holding a branch of olive, catches the rays of
light.

Bassano has no great power of design, and his knowledge of the nude
seems to have been small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour
leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates other shortcomings.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

Augsburg. Madonna and Saints.
Bassano. Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three
Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight
into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration
of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending
Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;
Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).
Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.);
Nativity.
S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.
Bergamo. Carrara: Portrait.
Lochis: Portraits.
Cittadella. Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.
Dresden. Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of
S. Paul.
Hampton Court. Portraits; Jacob's Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepher