Workshop Of Leandro Dal Ponte, Known As Leandro Bassano (1557–1622), The Month Of December

Workshop of Leandro dal Ponte, known as Leandro Bassano (Bassano del Grappa, 1557 – Venice, 1622)

The Month of December

Oil on canvas, 96 x 139 cm – with frame, 112 x 152 cm

The painting The Month of December is a vivid testament to the figurative art produced by the Bassano workshop, the dynasty that profoundly shaped Venetian painting between the 16th and 17th centuries. The painting illustrates the allegory of the month of December through a choral narrative teeming with life, where agricultural and domestic activities take center stage. In the foreground, attention is drawn to the slaughter of the pig, a fundamental ritual of the winter peasant economy, rendered with a strong realism evident in the depiction of the meat and the tools of the trade. Around this narrative focal point, other scenes of daily life unfold: a woman tending to a large pot on the stove, figures busy preparing food, and a man on the right working at a workbench, while the background reveals a landscape dominated by snow-capped mountains and bare trees—elements that immediately evoke the harshness of the cold season. The painting fits perfectly into the tradition of the successful series of The Months conceived by Jacopo Bassano and widely replicated by his sons and collaborators to meet the growing demand from international collectors. The iconographic model for this specific composition can be traced to the autograph canvas by Leandro Bassano housed at the Tula Museum in Russia, whose spatial structure and arrangement of figures our work faithfully reproduces. Further comparisons can be drawn with the version in the Unicredit Art Collection, which, despite presenting some variations in the characters, shares the same scenographic approach, and with the canvas from Leandro’s school housed at the Uffizi in Florence. These variations attest to the efficiency of the Bassano production system, capable of interpreting Jacopo’s naturalism through Leandro’s more calligraphic and precise sensibility. The Bassano workshop’s activity originated with Francesco il Vecchio, but it was Jacopo who elevated the family style to the heights of European excellence, synthesizing the Venetian coloristic tradition with an analytical observation of nature. Upon his death, his sons inherited a legacy of models and a well-established technique. Leandro, in particular, after training under his father’s tutelage, settled in Venice in 1592, becoming one of the most sought-after portraitists and participating in the prestigious projects at the Doge’s Palace. His style, while rooted in the family tradition, was distinguished by a more pronounced outline and a less fragmented brushstroke than his father’s, influenced by his engagement with the works of Tintoretto. This transition is clearly evident in this painting: although the composition adheres to the workshop’s typical taste for genre scenes, the definition of volumes and the handling of light—which cuts through the winter darkness to bring out domestic details—reflect the maturity achieved by Leandro and his close collaborators in interpreting naturalistic Baroque.