Leandro Bassano

The Bassano were a painting dynasty named after their hometown, Bassano del Grappa, on the mainland north of Venice. Leandro was the third son of Jacopo Bassano, the family's leading figure, and he grew up inside a busy workshop that turned out biblical scenes crowded with animals, kitchen pots and country labour.

When Jacopo died in 1592, one of Leandro's brothers, Francesco, took his own life not long after. Leandro moved to Venice and took charge of the family studio there. In the city he built his name on portraits, painting Venetian patricians in a dark, precise manner learned partly from Tintoretto, the reigning master of Venetian drama.

The work brought real standing. In 1595 the Doge Marino Grimani, the elected head of the Venetian state, granted him a knighthood, and from then on Leandro signed his pictures with the word Eques, Latin for knight. He kept working in Venice until his death in 1622.