JACOPO

PALMA (c. 1480-1528)  , Italian painter of the Venetian school, was born at Serinalta near Bergamo, towards 1480, and died at the age of forty-eight in July 1528 . He is currently named Palma Vecchio (Old Palma) to distinguish him from Palma Giovane, his grand-nephew, a much inferior painter . His grandfather's name was Negretto . He is reputed to have been a companion and competitor of Lorenzo Lotto, and to some extent a pupil of Titian, after arriving in Venice early in the 16th century; he may also have been the master of Bonifazio . His earlier works betray the influence of the Bellini; but modifying his style from the study of Giorgione and Titian, Palma took high rank among those painters of the distinctively Venetian type who remain a little below the leading masters . For richness of colour he is hardly to be surpassed; but neither in invention nor vigorous draughtsmanship does he often attain any peculiar excellence . A face frequently seen in his pictures is that of his (so-called) daughter Violante, of whom Titian was said to be enamoured . Two works by, Palma are more particularly celebrated . The first is a composition of six paintings in the Venetian church of S . Maria Formosa, with St Barbara in the centre, under the dead Christ, and to right and left SS . Dominic, Sebastian, John Baptist and Anthony . The second work is in the Dresden Gallery, representing three sisters seated in the open air; it is frequently named " The Three Graces." A third fine work, discovered in Venice in r9oe), is a portrait supposed to represent Violante .

Other leading examples are: the " Last Supper," in S . Maria Mater Domini; a " Madonna," in the church of S . Stefano in

Vicenza; the " Epiphany," in the Brera of Milan; the " Holy Family, with a young shepherd adoring," in the Louvre; " St Stephen and other Saints," " Christ and the Widow of Nain," and the " Assumption of the Virgin," in the Academy of Venice; and "Christ at Emmaus," in the Pitti Gallery . The beautiful portrait of the National Gallery, London, with a back-ground of foliage, originally described as " Ariosto•" and as by Titian, and now reascribed to that master, was for some years assumed to be an unknown poet by Palma Vecchio . It is certainly much more like the work of Titian than of Palma . In 1907 the'Staedel Institute in Frankfort acquired an important work by Palma Vecchio, identified by its director as an illustration of Ovid's second Metamorphosis, and named " Jupiter and Calisto." Palma's grand-nephew, Palma Giovane, was also named Jacopo (1544 to about 1626) . His works belong to the decline of Venetian art . (W . M .