Palma Vecchio was born Jacopo Negretti around 1480 in Serina, near Bergamo. He was established in Venice by 1510 and may have trained with Andrea Previtali or another Bergamasque painter working there.

He became a successful painter of the Venetian Renaissance, specializing in sacred conversations, portraits, and idealized half-length images of women. His work combined Giorgionesque landscape and atmosphere with the rich color and substantial figures associated with Titian and contemporary Venetian painting.

Palma remained active in Venice until his death there in 1528. His paintings were widely admired and collected, and his grandnephew Jacopo Palma the Younger later became a prominent Venetian painter.