Jacopo Palma

called Il Giovane, circa 1548–1628, Venice

The painter and etcher, Jacopo Palma il Giovane, was born into a Venetian family of artists. He was the son of Antonio Palma and great-nephew of the renowned painter Jacopo Palma I, called 'il Vecchio'. Despite his origins, Palma Giovane was practically self-taught. In 1567 Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, became his patron and sent him to Rome to study in c.1573-4. He returned to Venice in the mid-1570s, where he received his first major public commission painting three canvases for the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Palmas work was strongly influenced by the style of Jacopo Tintoretto. After the latters death Palma rose to become one of the most esteemed and prolific artists in Venice.