So universally was he admired, that he received innumerable commissions from various courts, and an invitation to that of Vienna. What is more honourable, notwithstanding his defects, he extorted the highest praises, if not from Vasari, from many of the most renowned artists; from Titian, from Annibal Caracci, who was so much deceived by a book painted upon a table, that he stretched out his hand to take it up; and from Tintoretto, who commended his colouring, and in some measure wished to imitate him. Above all, he was highly honoured by Paul Veronese, who entrusted him with his son Carletto, for a pupil, to receive his general instructions, "and more particularly in regard to that just disposition of lights reflected from one object to another, and in those happy counterpositions, owing to which the depicted objects seem clothed with a profusion of light." Such is the flattering testimony given by Algarotti to the style of Jacopo da Ponte. Bassano educated four of his sons to the same profession, which thus became transmitted to others, so that the Bassanese school continued for the length of a century, though still declining and departing fast from its primitive splendour. Francesco and Leandro were the two members of Jacopo's family best disposed to pursue his footsteps, and he was accustomed to pride himself upon the inventive talents displayed by the former, and the singular ability of the latter for portrait painting, Of his two other sons, Giambatista and Girolamo, he used to observe, that they were the most accurate copyists of his own works. All of these, more especially the two latter, were instructed by their father in those refinements of the art he himself practised, and they so far succeeded, that many of their copies, made both during and after the lifetime of their father, very frequently imposed upon professors, being received for the originals of Jacopo. The whole of them, however, produced original works, and Francesco the eldest, having established himself in Venice, gave ample proof of it in those histories drawn from Venetian records, which he painted for the Palazzo Grande. They are placed near those of Paul Veronese, and appear to advantage even in such competition. His father here assisted him with his advice; himself attending upon the spot, and instructing him where he found occasion, how to add force to his tints, to improve his perspective, and to bring the whole work to the most perfect degree of art. His pencil may be very clearly traced in that of his son, as well as his style, which in the opinion of critics is somewhat too much loaded, especially in his shades. Francesco, likewise, produced several beautiful altarpieces, in which, on the other hand, he appears less vigorous than his father; as may be seen in his Paradiso, at the Gesù, in Rome, or in his San Apollonio, at Brescia, one of the most beautiful pieces in the church of S. Afra, and much admired by foreigners. And he would have achieved