Jacopo da Ponte suffered an unhappy fate. He painted in Venice as the same time as Titian and Tintoretto. He despondently returned to his nearby native town, whose name, Bassano, became his own because he rarely signed his work, and when he did, merely brushed the modest words, "Jack, by the bridge at Basson." After almost four centuries of neglect, Bassano finally began getting recognition. He was the first Italian to paint gentle landscapes that resembled the actual country, instead of arranged scenery.

Jacopo's father was a painter, and the son handled brushes from childhood, adding touches to his father's canvases. He was only 15 when he left Bassano to be apprenticed in Venice to ...