(Bassano del Grappa circa 1510–1592)
Winter,
traces of an inventory number lower right,
oil on canvas, 75.5 x 107.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614–1662);
probably Prague Castle, 1659;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 12 December 2002, lot 118 (as Workshop of Jacopo da Ponte, called Jacopo Bassano);
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
A. Ballarin, Jacopo Bassano, Francesco Bassano, Inverno, in: Altomani 2004, catalogue, Milan/Pesaro 2004, illustrated p. 70 (as Jacopo da Ponte, called Jacopo Bassano).

Ballarin has suggested that the present painting is the missing fully autograph original by Jacopo Bassano for his celebrated series of the Four Seasons created in the 1570s (see literature).

We are also grateful to Bernard Aikema for independently confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original.

A series of the Four Seasons by Jacopo Bassano belonged to the celebrated collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614–1656). The Archduke’s collection subsequently became a significant part of present-day collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum conserves three of the Seasons by Jacopo Bassano: Spring, Summer and Autumn (inv. nos. 4303, 4302, 4304). These three paintings share the same dimensions (circa 80 x 110 cm) and correspond to those owned by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm.

The present painting depicting Winter shares similar dimensions to the series in Vienna (75.5 x 107 cm) and it is particularly notable for its similar pictorial quality. It has been suggested that this canvas is the final, missing painting of the group conceived by Jacopo in the 1570s.

The canvases in the Kunsthorisches Museum are recorded in the inventories of Prague Castle from the end of the seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century, where they are listed as by Jacopo Bassano; they were only transferred to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 1894.

However, at the time of the transfer of the paintings from Prague to Vienna only two paintings are registered as arriving: Summer and Autumn (see B. L. Brown, P. Marini (eds.), Jacopo Bassano c. 1510-1592, Bologna 1992, p. CLX, note 302)

It is therefore difficult to be sure when the series was broken up and the canvas representing Winter was separated from the group.

In the present painting, Winter is conceived in a composition known in later versions, including one from the 1580s painted by Jacopo Bassano’s son, Francesco, which forms part of another series of the Seasons, also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Further workshop versions of Winter, include those in the Galleria Borghese, Rome and the Castello Sforzesco, Milan.

The originality of Jacopo Bassano’s invention is evident when the present painting is placed in relation to the other canvases of the series (see figg. 1–3). The painter portrays the landscapes in the four canvases, as a series of studies of the changing light throughout the day, creating interconnecting and complimentary effects between the works.

If we imagine the cycle of the Seasons hanging on the walls of a single room, their profound beauty depicting the changing light of day would become ever more evident: Spring starts the series bathed in dawn light, Summer follows while Autumn reveals the last light of day changing to the warm tones of afternoon, and the setting-in of dusk. In Winter, evening gives way to the coming night, the waning light revealing the luminous splendour of the white mountaintops against the dark night sky. In this series, Jacopo’s appreciation of nature is apparent, combined with his interest in depicitng occupations of rural and domestic life.