Jacopo Tintoretto.
The last great artist of the Italian
Renaissance.
Was Jacopo Tintoretto (real name Jacopo Robusti) a
Mannerist painter or the last great artist of the Italian Renaissance?
Born on September 29th 1518 Jacopo was
one of twenty one children. His father was a silk dyer by trade and the
family was based in Venice.
The young Jacopo was trained for a short
period by Titian
and was a great admirer of Michelangelo, copying
his
drawings. It is even possible that he met Michelangelo on a visit to
Rome in 1545.
He tried to synthesise the drawings of
Michelangelo and the colouring of his old master Titian.
Tintoretto had
a style that was all his own and did not seek to paint simply in the
'manner' of the previous generation of artists, so yes, he was the last
of the great painters of the Italian Renaissance.
In or around 1548 Tintoretto was
commissioned to paint four pictures in the Scuola di S Marco, among
these was the celebrated "Miracle of the Slave. The other works are,
"The Finding the body of St Mark", "The Saint's body brought to
Venice", and "Votary of the Saint delivered by invoking him from an
Unclean Spirit".
"Miracle
of the Slave".
oil
on canvas 1548 Gallerie dell' Accademia Venice (w)
"The
Finding the body of St Mark" 1562 (w)
These works were well received
and
greatly enhanced the artist's fame.
Jacopo married Faustina de
Vescovi in
1550 and she appears to have produced two sons and five daughters. Two
sons Domenico and Marco, and also his daughter Marietta all assisted
him in his studio.
In 1564 the artist began his
association
with the Scuola di San
Rocco, where he worked for over twenty years and
decorated the building with vast canvases. His theme was the life of
the Virgin and the life of Christ. These pictures are executed with
tremendous freedom and include an enormous Crucifixion scene.
The versatile artist also
painted
numerous works for the ducal palace but many of these have been lost in
the great fire of 1577.
Crucifixion.
(s)
The last major work
of the
artist's life
is the huge "Paradise". This painting is a colossal 74 ft by 30 ft, and
the artist was assisted by his son Domenico, and painted many of the
heads and drapery from nature.
Tintoretto died on May 31st
1594. He had
suffered from severe stomach pains and fever and is buried in the
church of the Madonna dell'Orto by the side of his daughter Marietta.
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