Leandro Bassano

Leandro Bassano is a very famous Venetian artist of the 16th and 17th centuries. The artist’s paintings were so popular at the time that he was even knighted in the late 1590s.

He was mainly interested in religious subjects. But he also painted portraits and landscapes. The most famous cycle of paintings by Leandro Bassano called “Twelve Months”. It consists of twelve paintings, each of which is dedicated to one of the months of the year. This fascinating pictorial encyclopedia of 12 allegory paintings presents each month of the year in the form of labor scenes from the everyday life of Italian peasants.
By the way, it is in Russia – in the Tula Regional Museum, to be precise – that the world’s only (!) complete collection of Bassano’s paintings is kept, representing all 12 months of one conceptual year. Even the master’s native Venice cannot boast of such luxury, not to mention St. Petersburg with Rome and London with Paris, where Leandro Bassano’s “annual cycle” is presented only occasionally.









