Altarpiece of the Blessed Conception

Bassano painted this altarpiece in 1541, when he was about 30 and still building his name out on the mainland. It shows Saint Anne enthroned with the infant Virgin on her lap, flanked by Saints Jerome and Francis. It was made for a religious community in Asolo, a hill town north of Venice, and it has travelled a great deal since. It entered the Accademia in 1812. Near the end of the 19th century the museum sent it on long-term loan to the parish church of Sossano, a village out on the plain, where it hung for more than 100 years. It came back to Venice in May 2020, in the same days the Accademia reopened its doors after the first Covid lockdown.