Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/163

 132 PONTE— PORTA. National Gallery. One peculiarity of Bassano and his school is the too com- mon practice of concealing the hands and feet, whether designedly or acci- dentally, a paltry resource if had re- course to to spare labour or to avoid difficulties. The chief attractions in his pictures are — ^the easy, masterly touch, the animated grouping, the occasional brilliancy of his colouring, and the striking efifect of his lights and shadows. He painted latterly figures of a small size only, and frequently on a dark ground. His portraits are generally excellent. His pictures are yery numerous. Jacopo had four sons, all of whom he brought up as painters : Francesco, Giambattista, Leandro, and Girolamo. Francesco, the eldest, b, 1550, d, July 4th, 1592, was the most distinguished. He was employed in the Ducal Palace with Tintoretto and Paul Veronese, but he threw himself from a window, in a fever, in his 42nd year, and left these works unfinished. Leandro, Cavaliere, the third son, b. 1558, d, 1623, was an excellent portrait-painter, and he completed some of his brother's un- finished works. The others, Giam- battista, b. 1553, d, 1613, and Giro- lamo, b, 1560, d, 1622, chiefly copied or imitated the works of their father. They were all known by the name of Bassano. Works, Florence, the Uffi^, a Family Concert. Venice, Academy, the Bepose; and the Baising of Lazariis and several other portraits by Leandro Bassano. Padua, church of Santa Maria, the Entombment Naples, StucU) the portrait of a woman. Berlin Gallery, portrait of an old man ; and the Crucifixion. Louvre, the Nativity ; the Entrance into the Ark ; the Portrait of John of Bologna; and various other subjects. London, Na- tional Gallery, portrait of a gentleman ; and the Expulsion froTD. the Temple. {fiidolfif Vercif Lanzi, Cadarin,) PONTOBMO, Jacopo Cahucci DA, b. at Pontormo, 1493; d. at Florence, 1558. Tuscan School. He studied a short time in the school of Leonardo da Vinci, then with Piero di Cosimo, with Albertinelli, and finally, in 1512, with Andrea del Sarto, whom he imitated. His early works were admired by Raphael and by Michelangelo; their merit seems to have excited the jealousy of Andrea, who excluded him from his studio. At this lime his figures were dignified and graceM, his heads animated and expressive, and his colouring rich and harmonious. But he could never remain fixed to one style ; he became now a copyist of Albert Diirer, and in his Deluge and Last Judgment, in San Lorenzo, which occupied him eleven years, he adopted the style of the anato- mical imitators of Michelangelo : they have long since been whitewashed over. There are, however, some ex- cellent portraits by Pontormo, power- fully painted, full of animation, warm in colour, and admirable in finish. Works, Florence, VfSjii, two cabinets, on which are the paintings of the His- tory of Joseph ; Portrait of Cosmo de* Medici. In the Court of the Annnnziata, the Salutation : Pitti Palace, Hall of Saturn, Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici ; and the Martyrdom of the forty crown- ed Saints. Berlin Gallery, Venus and Love, from a cartoon by Michelangelo ; the Portrait of Andrea del Sarto. Louvre, a Holy Family ; a Portrait of Giovanni delle Comiole. ( VasarL) PORDENONE. [Licinio.] PORTA, Giuseppe, called Del Sal- viATi, b, at Castel Nuovo, in the Gar- fagnana, about 1520; living in 1572. Tuscan School. A pupil and imitator of Francesco Salviati, under whom he studied at Rome. He afterwards ac- companied his master to Venice, where he was employed many years, and in 1572 published a treatise on the Ionic