Jacopo da Montagnana was dead by this day in 1499. The son of Paride Parisati, Jacopo began and ended his painting career in Padua, which had drawn him as a young man from the nearby town of Montagnana, from which he took his name according to custom for artists working away from home. Vasari claimed he studied with Giovanni Bellini, though his assertion that Jacopo “imitated his manner closely, in so far as is shown by his works, which are to be seen in Padua and in Venice” cannot be supported by documentary evidence. Jacopo certainly admired the work of Giovanni’s brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, as evidenced by stylistic similarities in Jacopo’s work. Jacopo was enrolled in Padua’s painters’ guild by 1469 and created a number of frescoes, panel paintings, and designs for papal vestments worn by Pope Sixtus IV. Unfortunately, many of Jacopo’s are badly damaged or no longer survive. Those that do reveal him to be an able painter, though not with the star power and virtuosity of his mentors.
The Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate, 1494-97, tempera on wood, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice
Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1480-85, tempera on canvas, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover
Polyptych of the Annunciation, 1495, formerly Palazzo Vescovile, Padua
Lamentation over the Dead Christ, Museo Diocesano, Padua
Virgin and Child, ca. 1480-90, oil on panel, Pinacoteca di Ferrara