This extraordinary altarpiece—deeply expressive and almost unique in showing the baptism of Christ as a noc-turne—is the last known work by Bassano. The great Venetian painter left it unfinished at his death in 1592, and his heirs retained it for more than a century. To some eyes, the painting’s unfinished (non finito) style seems a crucial step toward modernism, to be compared with, for example, Goya’s “black paintings.” Bassano interprets the baptism of Christ not as a sunny event in a pastoral landscape, but as the tragic opening of his Passion.