Marcantonio Bassetti

Marcantonio Bassetti was a painter from Verona who combined Venetian colour with the dramatic light of Caravaggio. His religious paintings and portraits of old men are warm, intense and closely observed.

Born in Verona, he studied the work of Tintoretto, Veronese and Jacopo Bassano, and spent a few years in Rome, where he absorbed Caravaggio’s realism. Back in Verona he painted altarpieces for local churches. He died in 1630.

His Dead Christ Supported by the Virgin and Mary Magdalene is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Look at his portraits of old men with books, where the light falls on wrinkled faces against dark backgrounds.