Today on The Master’s of Venice we’re traveling to the crossroads of the Venetian Renaissance and fusion of Mannerism – a style that emerged in the High Renaissance and through The Baroque era.

• Mannerism is derived from Italian maniera meaning style. It was a rejection of extreme realism that took hold in certain Renaissance circles; ex: perfect symmetery is replaced with asymmetrical placement that is still cohesive and beautiful. Mannerism is sometimes defined as the “stylish style” for its emphasis on self-conscious artifice over realistic depiction. 
  • In our last lesson we met Venetian Master of masters, Titian who began to play around with Mannerism and High Venetian style in his later works including the Pesaro Madonna in Venice

While Tintoretto is often classed as a Mannerism because of his dramatic and loose style, I would argue that Tintoretto created a style of his own. I’ll nickname it Il Furioso – the nickname of this dramatic and detailed Venetian artist.

I was first introduced to Tintoretto during visits to my local art museum, The NCMA in Raleigh, which is blessed to have three pieces by Tintoretto, including The Raising of Lazarus (image at top of post).

Staring into the heart of The Raising of Lazarus time and again, I am always drawn to the mystical and human elements. Jesus is grounded in his humanity and yet afire with his light and kindled halo that is aflame with The Holy Spirit.

Lazarus steps out of his tomb, confused and bewildered – as we are all astonished when we come out of our ‘spiritual tombs’ into the light of Christ.

The drama and conversation of the crowd hearkens itself to something out of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper – this isn’t ordered, by has a drama that is lifelike. No one would remain still in light of a resurrection of Lazarus from the dead.

As an artist who struggles with light and dark, I’m astonished by his ease of bringing out light and dark with broad brushstrokes…it appears simple and natural from the lighter tones to darker hues in a single piece of clothing.

This painting is a prime example of the breath of color, action, movement and mastery of Tintoretto.

Let’s learn more about Tintoretto:

Born as Jacopo Robusti in October 1518 in Brescia, a part of the Veneto Region. His father, Battista was a dyer or tintore (tint as in dye)and young Jacopo earned the nickname ‘Tintoretto’ or little dyer. The nickname stuck.

You’ll notice a lot of Italian painters are known by their nicknames like Tintoretto’s contemporary Veronese (Paolo Caliari – his nickname came from his birthplace, Verona)

Legend has it that he had an apprenticeship with Titian for a few days before Titian angrily dismissed him either because of jealousy of new pupils talent or more likely a personality clash.

While Tintoretto continued to admire Titian, Titian did not like Tintoretto’s bold style and quick brushwork.

Tintoretto was a fast painter whose furious brushwork and mix of illuminated light and earthy tones earned him the term ‘il furioso’ – The furious painter for painting so quickly.

Like Giorgione and Titian, Tintoretto did not do serious sketching before sketching creating a painterly style

He moved in the mannerism style with his muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective. (I use the word ‘bold’ a lot to describe Tintoretto because his style was truly bold and furious in movement.)

Tintoretto received little formal training and taught himself.

Michelangelo’s work inspired him; Circa 1540, Tintoretto acquired models of Michelangelo’s Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night which he studied in numerous drawings made for all angles.

• Fun fact: He had this quote over his studio door: “Il disgno di Michelangelo ed il colorito di Tiziano” – Michelangeo’s drawing and Titian’s color

Titian worked with Andrea Schiavone on several now destroyed frescoes.

As we’ve mentioned before in our course, Venice’s wet climate was not ideal for fresco painting and the new medium of oil quickly became popular with artists like Titian and Tintoretto.

Highlights of Tintoretto’s work:

• St. Mark is the patron saint of Venice and a popular theme in Venetian art. One of his most unique works is St. Mark’s Body is Brought to Venice, one of three paintings about St. Mark that were commissioned by 1562 to 1566 as a series for the Sala Capitolare of the Scuola Grande di San Marco.
• This painting showcases Tintoretto’s deep perspective background lines. The figures in the background are ethereal and white, with a strange red sky rolling in ominious clouds while the colors are rich and darker near St. Mark’s body.

The Miracle of the Slave is from The Golden Legend, and the legend of a Christian slave or captive who was tortured by St. Mark intervened. It is marked by its theatrical storytelling

Tintoretto grew in fame and infamy with multiple commissions including many churches.

He began to create laterali- horizatonal paintings, these large scale paintings intended for the side walls of Venetian chapels were popular in scuola and churches.

• Tintoretto composed his laterali with an off-center perspective so the illusion of depth would be effective when seen from a viewpoint near the end of the painting that was closer to worshippers.

The Arrival of Veronese

• In 1551, Veronese arrive in Venice and the equally amazing talent started taking commissions from Tintoretto.
• Tintoretto approached the leaders of his neighborhood church, the Madonna dell’Orto with a proposal to paint for two colossal canvasses on a cost only basis.
• He painted two massaive works for the church – The Worship of the Golden Calf and The Last Judgment – both over 47 feet high
  • two of the tallest paintings created in the Renaissance.
• He and Veronese eventually worked together on a few civic projects after a massive fire at The Ducal Palace.

The Controversy of Tintoretto:

• His ability to paint fast and on a budget, made Tintoretto popular for commissions and also earned him poor criticism from contemporaries who said his work looked unfinished.
• In one notorious instance, Tintoretto beat his competition for a commission by painting the entire ceiling project before others could enter and offering it as a gift to the scuola (Scuola Grande di Rocco)…They were not allowed to take a donation as a scuola and Tintoretto won by doing with his furious style.

His personal life:

Tintoretto fell in love and married the daughter of a Venetian noblewoman, Faustina de Vescovi in 1560. They had seven children. He also had an earlier daughter prior to his marriage. He trained his sons and daughters in art.

His masterpiece: Il Paradiso – Paradise

• Located in The Ducal Palace, Tintoretto’s Paradise is his crowning achievement. It is the largest painted canvas with oil medium in the world. Click here to learn more.

One of my favorite Tintoretto’s is his version of The Last Supper. I plan on doing a video on this painting soon, but here is a glimpse at this work

The theme of this version of The Last Supper, which is in San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice is mix of mysticism and shadow and light. It differs from many other contemporary Last Supper paintings. Tintoretto wanted to emphasize the transformation of the bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ and the act of the Eucharist itself. You see the table almost coming alive as Christ transforms the bread and wine into himself and gives himself to the Apostles.

This painting is asymmetrical and mannerist in style and yet brings a bridge to Baroque.

Legacy of Tintoretto

He continues to remain a popular painter and his brushwork influenced masters of The late Renaissance like El Greco (who saw his works while in Venice) as well as Peter Paul Rubens

• El Greco originally from Greece visited Venice. He made his career in Spain and was known as ‘The Greek’ as he was from Greece.

We’ll revisit more works by Tintoretto and other Venetian masters in future posts.

Next time we’ll get to know sometimes rival and collaborator Veronese.

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