TINTORETTO

Many years after the competition for the tondi on the ceiling of the Libreria Marciana (in which Tintoretto did not take part), the painter was asked to complete the decoration of the reading room. Five of the figures in niches are by Tintoretto who for once refrained from crowded narrative scenes and concentrated on reproducing effects of light on the strained pose of a single figure.

This figure forms part of the wall decoration of the Salone in the Biblioteca Marciana, but was originally located along with all the other wall paintings in the Room of the Philosophers in the Palazzo Ducale.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

The bent knee pose of Faith, easily recognizable by the chalice held in her left hand, greatly recalls Patience by Giorgio Vasari, already part of a ceiling in Palazzo Corner-Spinelli in Venice.

A chalk drawing, which for the larger version Tintoretto transferred to the canvas by means of a graph, was the model for this ceiling painting. Seated on a cloud and surrounded by cherubim, the female allegorical figure is bending down to the viewer as if through an opening in the roof. A compromise between a view from below and a less extreme lateral view was chosen.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

This female figure is portrayed in flight, her arms open in a gesture of silent adoration and it is here that some have wished to identify the Allegory of Generosity.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

In the Uffizi in Florence there is also a preliminary drawing with writing on it for Goodness. This permits an exact identification of the iconography of the allegory. The figure seems to draw back in a gesture of trusting piety while the legs, holding the large volume, stretch out along the edge of the oval.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

The figure is recognized as Happiness based on the inscription found on the preliminary drawing in the Uffizi, Florence. While the legs are bent, following an idea by Vasari, the bust is turned towards the front in a clear harmony of dark green and bright red.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity. Truth twists her bust and every part of her body seems to spread out in the chromatic and luministic context.

Among the sixteen allegories around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are five allegorical figures of the Scoule Grandi of Venice. These and the other allegorical figures of the Cardinal Virtues are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings.

Portrayed in a complex movement, the allegory of the Scuola della Carità passes rapidly in a tangle of robes between light and shade, taking with her the two infants in an affectionate embrace.

Among the sixteen allegories around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are five allegorical figures of the Scoule Grandi of Venice. These and the other allegorical figures of the Cardinal Virtues are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings.

In the Allegory of the Scuola della Misericordia, the Virgin, who has inserted on her breast a medallion showing the Child Jesus, stretches out her arms drawing the brothers close to her.

Among the sixteen allegories around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are five allegorical figures of the Scoule Grandi of Venice. These and the other allegorical figures of the Cardinal Virtues are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings.

In the Allegory of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista, the eagle looms over the figure of the Saint who is leaning back and engrossed in reading.

Among the sixteen allegories around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are five allegorical figures of the Scoule Grandi of Venice. These and the other allegorical figures of the Cardinal Virtues are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings.

In the Allegory of the Scuola di San Marco, the Saint lies opposite Saint John the Evangelist and like the latter, dedicates himself to reading.

Among the sixteen allegories around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are five allegorical figures of the Scoule Grandi of Venice. These and the other allegorical figures of the Cardinal Virtues are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings.

In the Allegory of the Scuola di San Teodoro, identified as such by the writing on the preliminary drawing which is in the Uffizi in Florence, the warrior Saint seems to be barely contained in the oval space where he stands out in the flashing light of his shining armour.

The painting once hung in the Venetian church of San Stin, or St Stephen Priest, a structure that was torn down shortly after its secularisation in 1810.

Within the brilliantly calculated composition - a vortex of rotary movement - we can distinguish among the Apostles at least three portraits, no doubts representing the picture’s commissioners.

The central oval canvas on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo is surrounded by 16 allegories of various size. In the four corners are located the round allegories of the four seasons. The seasons are represented by cherubs vivaciously set out in a flowing agility of poses in the middle of varying vegetation.

Four almost square paintings by Tintoretto, Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne; Minerva Sending Away Mars from Peace and Prosperity; Vulcan’s Forge; Mercury and the Graces) are set in stucco frames and arranged symmetrically on the walls of the Sala dell’Anticollegio in the Palazzo Ducale. Originally they were on the walls of the Atrio Quadrato (Square Anteroom) in the same palace. The four works have mythological or allegorical subjects and were originally part of a compact program to celebrate the good government of Doge Gerolamo Priuli. The figures and landscapes enshrine images of concord and prosperity and are classical in inspiration. The paintings were meant by the author to extol the unity and glory of the Venetian Republic.

In Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne, Bacchus arrives from the sea with his wreath and skirt of vine leaves, bearing a bunch of grapes and a ring. Among her rocks and drapes, Ariadne feebly extends her ring finger as an airborne Venus crowns her with stars. Ariadne - discovered by Bacchus on the island of Naxos and crowned by Venus to be received amongst the gods - stands for Venice, born on the sea, graced by divine favour and crowned by freedom. The imagery suggests the mythical marriage of Venice with the sea.

This canvas now occupies the place of honour in the main altar of the Chapel of Sant’Atanasio, the former nun’s choir, in the Church of San Zaccaria. Certain aspects of the painting remain mysterious, although it was executed by a well-known artist for a prominent church. Some authorities view this as a youthful work, while others place it after 1560. The precise subject matter is also unclear. The picture is located in a church dedicated to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, which could indicate that the subject is the Birth of John the Baptist. However, the presence of angels appearing in a burst of heavenly light may, alternatively, suggest that the painting represents the Birth of the Virgin.

This painting, before its original arched top was cut off, once decorated a family altar in the Venetian church of San Francesco della Vigna. The painting shows Christ being carried to the tomb, and in the foreground, the three Maries and the Virgin, who swoons with inconsolable grief. Tintoretto was hugely prolific as a painter of large-scale canvases for Venice’s churches and lay confraternities in their campaign of active spiritual renewal, and this picture shares with many of them the effects of flickering candlelight and the mood of deep religiosity.

It was long supposed that this work was executed for the church of San Marcuola in Venice, but the copy still in the church better accords with another version of the subject now in Newcastle. However, there is no doubt about Tintoretto’s autograph authorship of the Prado painting, which was almost certainly painted at about the same time.

Typical of Tintoretto throughout his carrer is the dramatic setting for the scene, the long diagonal vistas serving to transform the humble event into an apocalyptic vision. The colouring, however, is bright and sumptuous, the modeling firm, and the space and light clear and still - a sign of the fairly early date of the work in the artist’s career.

Tintoretto copied the animal in the foreground from a painting by Jacopo Bassano.

During the Last Supper Christ rises, wraps a cloth around himself, and begins washing the feet of the apostles. When Peter protests, Christ replies: “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shall know it hereafter.” Tintoretto sets the scene in the interior of a palazzo with a view of a canal. The example Christ gives his disciples of humility and charity was ostentatiously imitated on certain occasions by the upper classes of Venetian society: the Doge used to wash the feet of twelve poor people on Maundy Thursday, and twelve of the ‘nobili’ and their ladies did the same in 1524 at the Ospedale degli Incurabili (a hospital for incurable syphilitics).

This version of the subject was executed by the workshop of Tintoretto.

This painting was described by Ridolfi in 1642 in his biography of Tintoretto. Ridolfi writes that the picture “is painted of the adulteress at the moment when Our Lord writes the letters in the dirt with his hand, and the Scribes and Pharisees depart, one after the other, concealing themselves among the columns of a portico that is represented with the most rare perspectival skill; and it is a picture filled with much erudition”. The pictorial erudition that so struck Ridolfi is demonstrated in the perspective structure, yet Tintoretto did not achieve this effortlessly: x-rays have revealed errors and redrawings in the lines of the architecture, above all in the patterning of the pavement. There is a strong centrifugal movement to the scene, and its quality of space extended by light seems to prefigure the artist’s trilogy of paintings of the life of St Mark.

In his painting of the encounter of Christ and the woman taken in adultery, Tintoretto provides a literal depiction of the biblical account (in John 8: 1 -11): the adulteress stands “in the midst” before Christ, who is seated in the temple preaching, and his disciples; on the right, the scribes and Pharisees are leaving the scene of their defeat, “beginning with the eldest, even unto the last.” Christ’s judgment frees the woman from the power other accusers: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

The prevailing opinion of the critics places this painting in the years between 1545 and 1550. The painting belongs to a group of works of medium size and similar format which treat the theme of Christ and the woman taken in adultery in various ways. The best known of these, along with the canvas in Rome, is the version at the Rijskmuseum in Amsterdam.

The attribution of this painting is contested. Recently it was proposed that the author of the Adulteress was Giovanni Galizzi (active 1543-1565), a follower of Tintoretto.

As X-ray examination of the painting has shown, Jacopo sketched the beautiful adulteress naked first, and then added clothes. The model for the only female character in this important early work by Tintoretto was the central figure of a woman in a tapestry design by the Flemish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst, showing St Paul preaching to the women of Philippi. Several copies of his tapestry series on the story of the Apostles were available after 1528, and it is quite possible that one came to Venice or Mantua, where Jacopo could have seen it.

Earlier some critics assumed that this painting is a work of El Greco.

Tintoretto decorated the walls of the Sala dell’Albergo by paintings showing important moments from the Passion of Christ and he finished them in the early months of 1567.

The most admired has always been Christ before Pilate. Perhaps while painting it Tintoretto partially kept in mind one of the wood-engravings by Albrecht D�rer, evidence of the lasting spell held by German graphics of the first half of the 16th century over the imagination of the protagonists of Venetian Mannerist interpretations. The dramatic staging of the scene is however completely original. In a very fine and measured luministic web the figure of Christ, wrapped in a white mantle, stands out like a shining blade against the crowd and the architectural scenery. He is centred by a bright ray of light and stands tall in front of the hypocritically bureaucratic judge that is Pilate who is portrayed in red robes and as if sunk in shadows. Certainly taking up the idea of Carpaccio in his St Ursula cycle, Tintoretto portraits the old secretary at the foot of Pilate’s throne. He leans against a stool covered with dark green cloth and with great diligent enthusiasm notes down every moment, every word spoken by the judge amid the murmurings of the pitiless crowd which obstinately clamours for the death of Christ.

Remark to Hungarian visitors: the famous painting of Mih�ly Munk�csy depicting the same subject was undoubtedly and strongly influenced by the composition of this painting.

The small crowd is stunned, Pilate shuns responsibility, the Turkish dignitary tugs at the stole that marks his rank, and the scribe does not know what to write. In any case, what can he possibly record if Christ, wearing the white robe of madness, says not a single word?

Jacopo Robusti took his nickname, Tintoretto, from his father’s profession of dyer (tintore). Notably devout, he was much in demand as a painter of altarpieces and reli- gious narratives for the churches and confraternities of his native Venice, and also executed many portraits. He modified his style and technique according to the commission. He sometimes deliberately imitated the style of other painters, but his ideal was said to be ‘the drawing of Michelangelo and the colouring of Titian’. What is uniquely his own is his sense of drama, often verging on melodrama, expressed through violent movement and vertiginous shifts in scale, as figures plunge towards us or recede abruptly into the distance, and by lurid tonal or colour contrasts.

The Sala dello Scrutinio (Voting Hall) is the second-largest hall of the Doge’s Palace. The balloting and secret votes of the magistracies and the doge took place in this hall with a complicated system. The Venetian Republic had created it to avoid intrigues and subterfuge during the elections and to ensure that vote could not be bought from the poor nobility in favour of its richer equivalent..

The iconographic theme of the hall of the Sala dello Scrutinio was inspired by the battle in which Venice conquered Zara. The town was defended by local Zara citizens, helped by Louis I Angevin (Louis the Great), King of Croatia and Hungary. However, lacking sufficient military support from Louis, Zadar surrendered to the Venetians on 21 December 1346.

One of the major achievements of Tintoretto’s early works is the series of canvases painted in about 1550 for the Sala dell’Albergo of the Scuola della Santissima Trinit�. And of these the Creation of the animals is certainly unique for the swirling rhythm of the composition. In a blaze of golden light, which does not entirely escape the darkness still partly enveloping the newly created earth God the Father is portrayed as if suspended in mid-air in the act of creation. The animals rush forward from behind him while the birds shoot across the sky and the fishes dart through the water like arrows from his hand. The dramatic wind-swept scene is furrowed by the profiles of the animals which cross the canvas in running lines, conveying with extraordinary concision and expressiveness the theme of the work.

Like Pietro Aretino’s novel on the subject of Genesis, Tintoretto’s painting shows the unicorn (right). The alleged curative and decontaminating qualities of the narwhal tusk, an essential item in every Renaissance cabinet of curiosities, were regarded as proof of the existence of this fabulous creature. Exotic creatures like the ostrich walking on the shore were much admired as gifts from guests to the princely courts of northern Italy, and were portrayed in drawings or engravings. As a true Venetian, however, Tintoretto here devotes particular artistic skill to the fishes, including sturgeon, salmon and red mullet.

Tintoretto’s model for this composition was Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne (National Gallery, London); he adopted the flying divine figure as well as the setting.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

Joseph Haydn: The Creation, introduction and aria

Tintoretto’s Crucifixion in the Sala dell’Albergo presents a panorama of Golgotha populated by a crowd of soldiers, executioners, horsemen, and apostles. At the left the cross of the penitent thief is being partly lifted, partly tugged into place by ropes; at the right the impenitent thief is about to be tied to his cross. A soldier on a ladder behind Christ reaches down to take the reed with the sponge soaked in vinegar from another soldier on the ground. The tumult of the crowd, the grief of the apostles, and the yearning of the penitent thief seem to come to a focus in the head of Christ.

Owing to Tintoretto’s light-on-dark technique, his figures sometimes have a tendency to look a bit ghostly, but the foreground figures in the Crucifixion, grouped in a massive pyramid at the base of the cross, are defined by vigorous contours and are modelled to create a strong sculptural effect. The little group, huddled as if for protection against the hostile crowds, form the base of the composition.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 48 minutes):

Johann Sebastian Bach: Easter Oratorio, BWV 249

This detail represents the central part of the huge composition.

Danaë is frequently represented in Renaissance and Baroque painting. You can view other depictions of Danaë in the Web Gallery of Art.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):

Richard Strauss: Danaë’s Love, Danaë’s monologue

The present decoration of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Hall of the Great Council) in the Palazzo Ducale was realized after the disastrous fire of 1577 during which all the structures of the ship’s-keel Gothic ceiling and the wall-paintings were destroyed. An immense flat ceiling, in accordance with the taste of the end of the century, was constructed with gilded cornices sculpted in high-relief, which framed a series of paintings. The canvases were dedicated, thematically, to the Glorification of Venice, in remembrance of the numerous military undertakings in the East or on the mainland by the Venetian ground troops. On the ceiling great importance was given to the victories of the Venetian army in conquering the mainland; along the wall to the dispute between Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa, who reached an agreement in Venice with the political mediation of Doge Sebastiano Ziani; and to the events of the Fourth Crusade, led by Doge Enrico Dandolo in the early years of the 13th century.

Tintoretto’s Defence of Brescia is one of the thirty five panels on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio.

The design for the ceiling painting of the Felicità in the Sala dell’Albergo in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco shows that even when figures were to be shown clothed, Tintoretto first drew them as nudes. In the painting he could then drape the clothing more convincingly on a body that had been drawn with anatomical precision. As here, his workshop assistants served as models even for female figures - the feminine right breast was added only later, drawn without a live model. The arching lines with which Tintoretto depicts the sculptural volume of the figure at regular intervals are striking.

In his Metamorphoses Ovid describes the devout couple Deucalion and Pyrrha praying to Themis, goddess of justice, after they have been saved from the deluge sent by Jupiter. With its pronounced foreshortenings seen from below, its compelling sculptural quality, and its powerful dynamics, the cycle of 16 ceiling paintings from which this panel comes showed an advance in the quality of Tintoretto’s work, and indeed of Venetian ceiling painting in general.

Alvise Mocenigo, born in 1507, served as Doge from 1570 to 1577. The portrait may very well have been painted near the time of the subject’s election.

The paintings on the walls of the Sala del Collegio, above the sculpted and gilded wooden wainscot, were executed by Tintoretto and his workshop between 1581 and 1584. The paintings, which include Doge Nicolò da Ponte Invoking the Protection of the Virgin, depict particular moments of the religious and social life of a few doges. The doges are accompanied by their protector saints and the symbolic figures of their human virtues.

The present decoration of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Hall of the Great Council) was realized after the disastrous fire of 1577 during which all the structures of the ship’s-keel Gothic ceiling and the wall-paintings were destroyed. An immense flat ceiling, in accordance with the taste of the end of the century, was constructed with gilded cornices sculpted in high-relief, which framed a series of paintings. The canvases were dedicated, thematically, to the Glorification of Venice, in remembrance of the numerous military undertakings in the East or on the mainland by the Venetian ground troops. On the ceiling great importance was given to the victories of the Venetian army in conquering the mainland; along the wall to the dispute between Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa, who reached an agreement in Venice with the political mediation of Doge Sebastiano Ziani; and to the events of the Fourth Crusade, led by Doge Enrico Dandolo in the early years of the 13th century.

This painting is one of the large central canvases on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. It portrays Venice offering an olive-branch crown to Doge Nicolò da Ponte accompanied by the Signoria and scarlet-robed senators.

The present decoration of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Hall of the Great Council) was realized after the disastrous fire of 1577 during which all the structures of the ship’s-keel Gothic ceiling and the wall-paintings were destroyed. An immense flat ceiling, in accordance with the taste of the end of the century, was constructed with gilded cornices sculpted in high-relief, which framed a series of paintings. The canvases were dedicated, thematically, to the Glorification of Venice, in remembrance of the numerous military undertakings in the East or on the mainland by the Venetian ground troops. On the ceiling great importance was given to the victories of the Venetian army in conquering the mainland; along the wall to the dispute between Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa, who reached an agreement in Venice with the political mediation of Doge Sebastiano Ziani; and to the events of the Fourth Crusade, led by Doge Enrico Dandolo in the early years of the 13th century.

This painting is one of the large central canvases on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. It portrays Venice offering an olive-branch crown to Doge Nicolò da Ponte accompanied by the Signoria and scarlet-robed senators.

The Ecce Homo is cleverly inserted around the outline of the tympanum of the door and does not show the tumult of the crowd that characterizes the other scenes in the Sala dell’Albergo. In the centre of the composition Christ is seated regally on the steps against the shroud. The prominent figures of Pilate and the soldier act as human wings on the left and right. In the strong stream of light that comes from the left, the shades of colour brighten up and vary extraordinarily: the red of Pilate’s robes and of the soldier’s and of Christ’s mantle; the steel grey streaked with luminous reflections of the armour; the dull white spotted with blood of the shroud; the pinky yellow of the flesh of Christ with his pathetically sad face.

This oval depicts the Old Testament story when Elijah flees to Horeb (1 Kings 19:1-5).

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

Most of this oval is taken up with the figure of Elisha who is handing out bread and who towers over the Jews in the desert. Tintoretto’s work has however been altered, especially in the background, by restoration work done by Giuseppe Angeli in 1777-78.

The church of San Giorgio Maggiore was built on the San Giorgio Island between 1566 and 1600 using the design of Palladio. After 1590 the workshop of Tintoretto was commissioned to paint big canvases for decorating it. Due the large number of commissions, Tintoretto in his late years increasingly relied on his coworkers. However, three surviving paintings placed in a chapel consecrated in 1592 - The Jews in the Desert, The Last Supper and Entombment - were certainly painted by Tintoretto himself.

It is remarkable on this picture that the dead Christ and the fainted Mary is depicted in similar position in two different groups of figures. The representation of the figures is rather simplified, and therefore, the composition shows some similarity to late medieval, Venetian-Byzantine type passion scenes.

The subject of the picture is taken from the Book of Esther which exists in two versions: the first of Hebraic origin as part of the Old Testament and the second of Greek origin in the Apocrypha. It is the second more emotional account that seems to have been known to Tintoretto. He has depicted the dramatic moment (15:2-16) when Esther, the Jewish queen of the Persian emperor, Ahasuerus, intervenes on behalf of her people in Persia who were threatened with death in a proclamation issued by the chief minister, Haman. Esther attended the court in regal dress in order to appeal to Ahasuerus. ‘But as she was speaking, she fell fainting. And the King was agitated, and all his servants sought to comfort her’ (15:7). Ahasuerus stands on the left at the top of the flight of steps at the foot of which Esther kneels, supported by her entourage. Following this intercession and further deliberation Ahasuerus overrules Haman, who was himself hanged as a consequence of his ill-judged policy. The story of Esther was often treated as a prefiguration of the role of the Virgin in the Last Judgment.

On stylistic evidence the painting can be dated to the second half of the 1540s, close to the Last Supper of 1547 (Venice, San Marcuola) and the Miracle of Saint Mark of 1548 (Venice, Accademia). During the 1540s Tintoretto displayed a close interest in Central Italian art, particularly the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, which he probably knew through such secondary sources as prints. As a result Mannerist concepts were grafted onto the Venetian training that Tintoretto received in the workshop of Bonifazio de’ Pitati. The tall swaying figures and operatic gestures bespeak Central Italian influence, while the warm flesh tones and rich colouring attest the artist’s Venetian origins. The conflation of these two aspects became the basis of Tintoretto’s mature style.

The composition of Esther before Ahasuerus is dependent in a general sense upon the cartoon by Raphael of the Sacrifice of Lystra, a preparatory drawing for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel, but the stooping figure on the far right fits more easily into the context of Raphael’s School of Athens in the Stanza della Segnatura. The male head at the right edge towards the back, looking out of the picture, may possibly be a portrait of Pietro Aretino, one of the greatest writers of the Renaissance, a friend of Titian and an early patron of Tintoretto. The scale of the painting accords with many of Tintoretto’s undertakings dating from the 1540s including the scenes from the life of Saint Mark (Venice, Accademia) executed for the Scuola Grande di San Marco. The free handling of Esther before Ahasuerus is also typical, and several changes were made to the figures by the artist as he worked on the canvas, creating the effect of improvisation.

For over twenty years from 1565, Tintoretto lavished his creative energy on the interior of the Scuola Grande di SanRocco, with a series of paintings that reveal his transition from a descriptive and realistic style to one of visionary spirituality.

The fa�ade of the Scuola was designed by Bartolomeo Bon and Antonio Abbondi (called Scarpignino).

We recommend to take a virtual tour in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco starting from the homepage of the Scuola.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

The two female figures next to Happiness still have not been given a precise identification. Arranged in gestures of devote piety, they seem to pass through the clouds driven by a raging wind. Their robes of white and red lake billow out in violent swirls which are given prominence by shining threads of light painted with skilful vividness.

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

The two female figures next to Happiness still have not been given a precise identification. Arranged in gestures of devote piety, they seem to pass through the clouds driven by a raging wind. Their robes of white and red lake billow out in violent swirls which are given prominence by shining threads of light painted with skilful vividness.

This biblical episode is considered to be an allusion to the Resurrection and to the Ascension of Christ depicted in the large canvases on the walls of the Upper Hall. The swift vivid description of the ideal ladder created in the most phantasmagoric upside down perspective is extraordinarily evocative of the distance that separates Jacob down below, seen from behind against the light, from the Eternal Father who appears indistinct in the pink glows of the sky-blue highest heaven.

In this painting Tintoretto catches the moment when Jonah comes out of the enormous jaws of the monstrous fish and suddenly finds himself before God. The scene turns out to have an amazing intensity of feeling for life because of the characteristic strength behind the brush-work and the contrasting succession of shades of colour.

Joseph was the elder son of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and of Rachel. His numerous older brothers were strictly only half-brothers, being the sons of Leah or of handmaidens. The events of his romantic life story have been depicted continuously in Christian art from the 6th century onwards. The medieval Church saw the episodes of his life as a prefiguration of the life of Christ, and it is to this that he owes his important place in Christian art.

When in Egypt as a slave, Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh’s guard, bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites and made him steward of his household (Gen. 39:7-20). Potiphar’s wife ‘cast her eyes over him and said, “Come and lie with me.”’ He refused her though she continued to press him. One day when they were alone together she clutched his robes, pleading with him to make love to her. At this, Joseph fled so precipitately that he left his cloak at her hands. When Potiphar came home she avenged her humiliation by accusing Joseph of trying to violate her, using the cloak as evidence. Joseph was promptly thrown into prison.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):

�tienne Nicolas M�hul: Joseph, aria

There is an earlier version of this subject by Tintoretto, also in the Prado. This version was executed with the contribution of the workshop.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 17 minutes):

Alessandro Scarlatti: La Giuditta, oratorio, Part I (excerpts)

The painting comes from the now demolished church of Santa Maria dell’Umilt�. A dramatic interplay of beams of light and heavy shadows lends atmosphere to this lamentation, under the merest hint of a cross and ladder.

The subject was treated by Tintoretto several times before 1559, this version can be considered as a summary of his previous experiments. There are no unnecessary details only a closed group of figures with dominating diagonal lines. Everything is subordinated to the expression of extreme emotions.

The painting is clearly demonstrating how Tintoretto broke with the traditional representations of frequently painted subjects.

The communion, openly, is in both species. The traitor, a purse hanging from his belt, performs an act of charity. The donor-viewer is seriously puzzled.AMbiguity and disguise inform this, the most complex of Tintoretto’s Last Suppers.

The Madonna dei Tesorieri (Madonna of the Treasurers) comes from the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi at Rialto. It is a votive picture commissioned by the noble magistrates Michele Pisani, Lorenzo Dolfin and Marin Malinpiero (depicted in the centre), who, with their secretaries, are paying tribute to Mary and a select court of saints, including other disguised portraits.

The most recent restoration of this painting made it clear that Tintoretto has concealed in it a very sophisticated “puzzle picture”: the strikingly light colour of Mary’s white cloak falls, as if by chance, into a crescent shape. Especially from a distance, this gives the image of a “Madonna of the Crescent Moon,” a manner of depicting the Virgin referring back to the Revelation of St John, and emphasizing her immaculate conception: the idea that she herself came into the world free of original sin. As in so many of his paintings, Tintoretto uses medieval motifs in the Madonna of the Treasurers, merging them perfectly with their modern context.

The inscription below the column tells us that the unknown sitter was 30 years old. The style of the armour has the characteristics of the 1540s.

The painting is in the Sacristy of the Basilica; it came from the refectory of the monastery of the Crociferi.

The wedding breakfast has a distinctly sober atmosphere, as the miracle has yet to take place. The cups are empty, the bride and groom are worried, and their guests are puzzled. Christ, who is in the middle distance, but highlighted by the perspective of the table, will shortly restore everybody’s good humour.

Tintoretto painted this huge canvas for the refectory of the monastery of the Crociferi. The author may have portrayed his painter friends as the guests and their models as the women. His self-portrait appears in the first guest on the left, and at the hem of the robe he placed his signature and the date: 1561 - Jacomo Tentor. Note the play of perspective in the painting, which moves according to the angle from which it is viewed. The typical aspects of the master’s style are apparent: the light sources from within, the movement of the characters, the geometrical construction of the interior and the nobility of the scene as a whole.

Tintoretto painted this picture for the refectory of the monastery of the Crociferi, from where it was transferred some time after 1657 to the church of Santa Maria della Salute. The painting with its bold perspective transpose the scene to 16th-century Venice and shows interesting details of everyday life, customs, and fashion.

Four almost square paintings by Tintoretto, Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne; Minerva Sending Away Mars from Peace and Prosperity; Vulcan’s Forge; Mercury and the Graces) are set in stucco frames and arranged symmetrically on the walls of the Sala dell’Anticollegio in the Palazzo Ducale. Originally they were on the walls of the Atrio Quadrato (Square Anteroom) in the same palace. The four works have mythological or allegorical subjects and were originally part of a compact program to celebrate the good government of Doge Gerolamo Priuli. The figures and landscapes enshrine images of concord and prosperity and are classical in inspiration. The paintings were meant by the author to extol the unity and glory of the Venetian Republic.

In the Mercury and the Graces, the Graces intermingle, as complementary and contiguous as the sides of a die, flaunting the rose and myrtle of Venus under Minerva’s olive tree. Mercury monitors this admixture of reason, love and peace.

Four almost square paintings by Tintoretto, Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne; Minerva Sending Away Mars from Peace and Prosperity; Vulcan’s Forge; Mercury and the Graces) are set in stucco frames and arranged symmetrically on the walls of the Sala dell’Anticollegio in the Palazzo Ducale. Originally they were on the walls of the Atrio Quadrato (Square Anteroom) in the same palace. The four works have mythological or allegorical subjects and were originally part of a compact program to celebrate the good government of Doge Gerolamo Priuli. The figures and landscapes enshrine images of concord and prosperity and are classical in inspiration.

In Minerva Sending Away Mars from Peace and Prosperity, a well-nourished Peace, crowned with an olive wreath, and Prosperity, peeping into the scene to fill her cup with splendid fruit, are protected by Minerva. She has left almost all her instruments of war on the ground and pushes back a formidably beweaponed mars.

This painting is on the ceiling of the Sala Superiore.

After finishing the central canvas on the ceiling of the Upper Hall Tintoretto immediately began to carry out the two large side paintings at the beginning of 1577. In this painting, which clearly alludes to the task of the Brothers of the Scuola of quenching the thirst of the poor, Moses, by his clothes and pose, recalls the figure of Christ and the water gushing from the rock symbolizes the blood that flows from the side of the Son of God. At the centre of the canvas, Moses strikes a rock and powerful streams of water erupt from it, filling plates, bowls, and jars held out eagerly by the parched Israelites.

God the Father, borne aloft on a supernatural crystal globe, comes in haste to save his thirsty people. The water struck by Moses from the rock for the Israelites seems to be spurting toward the viewer past the leaves of a fig tree. In the background is yet another threat: the Amalekites are attacking the camp of the children of Israel. The Lord observes from above.

To care for the health and nourishment of the poor, the common denominator between the three great ceiling paintings, was among the principal social obligations of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.

In the background is yet another threat: the Amalekites are attacking the camp of the children of Israel.

As soon as the Israelites had been saved from dying of thirst by the miracle of Moses smiting the rock, the next danger threatened: the Amalekites, a nomadic tribe of the northern Sinai peninsula and hostile to the children of Israel, marched on their camp in Rephidim. In setting the battle with the Amalekites apart from the darker foreground by its pale pastel colours, Tintoretto puts spatial and temporal distance between the battle and the miracle of the water.

While Moses, transfigured by divine light, receives the tablets, the Jews collect gold from which to fashion the calf. A clay model has already been prepared. The enormous dimensions of the work emphasize the contrast of high against low, religion against idolatry, and the spiritual splendour of heaven against the material brilliance of metal.

The giving of donations to make the Golden Calf is depicted in the lower part of this picture: four strong men carry a wax or clay model of the calf through the Israelite camp, and jewelry and golden vessels are being collected in baskets. Women are helping each other to remove their earrings. Aaron, maker of the idol, is seated in the foreground right. In conversation with the skilled craftsman Belzaleel (with compasses) and his assistant Oholiab, he is giving orders for the placing of the Calf - it is to go on the altar in front of the picture, in the choir of the Madonna dell’Orto itself.

On the peak of cloud-capped Mount Sinai, Moses, his arms outstretched in a Christ-like attitude, receives the two Tables of the Law brought to him by God and ten angels, some of them, as with Michelangelo’s angels, without wings. In the blaze of God’s aureole, Moses seems to become an astral body in an effect suggesting the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor.

The painting belongs to the series on the wall of the Sala del Collegio by Tintoretto. The sequence of paintings extols the devotion of the doges. The scenes are rather contrived, since they had to combine the doges’ portraits with a votive subject. Tintoretto invariably managed to avoid the repetitiveness that tended to mar the decorations in the palace after his death. This painting shows the Doge Francesco Donà surrounded by Prudence, Temperance, Eloquence, and Charity.

Major fires in the Doge’s Palace in 1574 and 1577 necessitated the wholesale renovation of its pictorial decoration, and artists received explicit instructions about subject and even composition, the idea being to emulate the visual authority of the destroyed works as closely as possible. Tintoretto painted several large ceiling panels for the elaborate program, which emphasized Venice’s military achievements, celebrated the city’s unique form of government, touted civic freedom, and claimed Venice’s parity with the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.

Tintoretto’s most important contribution to the enterprise was the replacement of Guariento’s 1365 Coronation of the Virgin, located behind the dais on which the doge and leading patricians sat during meetings of the Great Council. It had been decided that the replacement would continue to centre around Christ and Mary, preserving the general paradisiacal theme of Guariento’s composition. However, the focus of Tintoretto’s Paradise composition was to be Christ rather than Mary, eliminating the flanking scenes of the Annunciation and setting Christ as the supreme authority, to whom Mary is subsidiary. The seething crowds of saints and angels purposefully suggest a Last Judgment, reminding Great Council members of the gravity and enduring significance of their deliberations and actions.

In 1577 a serious fire in the Palazzo Ducale destroyed the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, originally the meeting place for the Venetian legislature. The ruined fresco by Guariento was replaced in 1594 by the immense canvas (reputedly the world’s largest painting on canvas) planned and painted by Tintoretto and his workshop. Hung above the gilded throne, it depicts the image of Paradise with hundreds of figures placed according to a series of curved lines in concentric perspective with the representations of angels and saints. The movement builds up towards a brilliant central point on high dominated by the figures of Christ and the Virgin.

The best description of this picture is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “A Paradise by Tintoretto, or rather the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven in the presence of all the patriarchs, prophets, saints, angels, etc., a nonsensical idea executed with the greatest genius. There is such ease of brushwork, spirit, and wealth of expression here that to admire and enjoy the piece properly one would have to own it, since the work may be said to be infinite, and the least of the angels’ heads have character […].”

In 1557 a serious fire in the Palazzo Ducale destroyed the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, originally the meeting place for the Venetian legislature. The ruined fresco by Guariento was replaced in 1594 by the immense canvas (reputedly the world’s largest painting on canvas) planned and painted by Tintoretto and his workshop. Hung above the gilded throne, it depicts the image of Paradise with hundreds of figures placed according to a series of curved lines in concentric perspective with the representations of angels and saints. The movement builds up towards a brilliant central point on high dominated by the figures of Christ and the Virgin.

In 1557 a serious fire in the Palazzo Ducale destroyed the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, originally the meeting place for the Venetian legislature. The ruined fresco by Guariento was replaced in 1594 by the immense canvas (reputedly the world’s largest painting on canvas) planned and painted by Tintoretto and his workshop. Hung above the gilded throne, it depicts the image of Paradise with hundreds of figures placed according to a series of curved lines in concentric perspective with the representations of angels and saints. The movement builds up towards a brilliant central point on high dominated by the figures of Christ and the Virgin.

Alvise Cornaro (1484-1566) was an Italian patron of arts. Delicacy, respectful observation, and realism all came into play in this portrait of great stillness, which was made shortly before the sitter’s death.

In such portraits as this, Tintoretto prepared the way for Netherlandish portrait painting of the 17th century. The style as a whole is very sketch-like. The sometimes hatched brushwork is characteristic of portraits executed by Tintoretto from life on the canvas. Zigzag brushstrokes indicate the eyebrows, red dots of colour in the corners of the eyes, and very fine highlights on the pupils bring the sitters gaze to life. The edge of the white fabric cap or rensa, shown as a wavy line, suggests the narrow fit and pressure of the cornu, the Doge’s cap, and thus, indirectly, of his office.

Pietro Loredano was the Doge of the Venetian Republic between 1567-70. Tintoretto as the official painter of the republic made a portrait of the the doges since 1559. He painted several portraits of Doge Loredano the best two of them was destroyed by the fire of the Palazzo Ducale in in 1577. The remaining oictures can be found in various museums. The portrait in Budapest is undoubtedly Tintoretto’s work with some contribution of his workshop.

The painter presented Cornaro, a connoisseur of antiques, in a dignified manner, his left hand resting on a sculpted female head. The dark palette and partial lighting of the face and hands are typical of Venetian portraiture at that time.

Unless an artist provided state portraits, for instance of the Doges, which were usually paid for at the rate of 25 ducats each, there was not much money to be earned by portrait painting. Men of letters who were Tintoretto’s friends and whose portraits he painted usually recompensed him only with a public letter or a verse eulogy. However, Tintoretto accepted many commissions for private portraits, particularly in his youth, since they brought him into contact with people of importance, and enabled him to extend his social network. The early portrait of the Venetian “protomaestro” or municipal architect Jacopo Sansovino was probably done without charge, as a kind of advertisement for himself.

In its extreme reduction, this portrait looks like the timeless presentation of the figure of a philosopher. Unlike the portrait of two decades earlier, which was still very elaborately staged, this small, intimate picture shows Tintoretto abstaining from eloquent gestures, allegorical accessories, a perspective view, and informative inscriptions.

Tintoretto probably painted this portrait for the funeral ceremonies held in honour of Sansovino by the Florentine Accademia. He took the small likeness he had painted dal vivo (from life) as his model, and adapted it to suit the occasion: the dead man’s features are made flatteringly younger, the bust enlarged to the size of a pedestal, and the inscription of Sansovino’s name is added. The overall result was a portrait very much in the nature of a memorial.

This was probably one of the first official portraits that Tintoretto painted for the procurators, the powerful Venetian officers of state. Antonio Cappello (1494?-1565), as “provveditore sopra la fabbrica del Palazzo”, was the power behind the state program of rebuilding and renovation, coordinated by Jacopo Sansovino. He signed the contract for the giants, as a procurator of St Mark’s he supervised the hiring of Alessandro Vittoria, and Francesco Sansovino gives credit to him for overseeing the Loggetta. He was also a particularly important patron for Tintoretto.

In composition and execution, this imposing portrait still looks very Titianesque. As the colour is only thinly applied, the structure of the canvas also plays a part. It lends the painted surface a vibrant character making the sitter appear very much alive.

This fine example of Tintoretto’s portraits is a fragment of a larger work which contains other portraits and dates from not long after the other portrayal of Jacopo Soranzo in the possession of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. No longer governed by precepts of Renaissance portraiture this painting exemplifies, an immeddiacy of interpretation and a penetrating understanding of the psychology of the sitter. In the portrait of Soranzo the brush strokes build up the features of the face with extraordinary precision, subtle effects of light evoking the leanness of the flesh, the burning eyes, the hair and beard of the subject. A sudden light forces Soranzo out of the shadow and he appears to be engaged in an intense conversation with the observer, revealing to him his innermost human and spiritual emotions. The rapid expressionistic way in which the character is conveyed is very different from the idealized dignity which Titian confers upon his powerful contemporaries in his portraits of them.

Soranzo was to die in the following year, but his shrewd, dignified old age is unclouded by dark forebodings.

Gravity, dignity, and integrity radiate from this portrait, which is very restrained in both colour and setting. Old Soranzo’s white hair matches the fur trimming of his robe of office in both tone and artistic technique: marks of age and the insignia of power are closely connected in the gerontocracy of the Venetians. As the dominating element in the composition, the taut fur trimming continues the line of the strong-willed furrow between the brows. This feature makes the impressively upright bearing of the old procurator visible to the viewer even from some distance away.

Tintoretto’s painting depicts Nicolò Priuli, nobleman who, after a brilliant political career during which he held several important positions including the membership of the Council of X, was elected prosecutor in 1545. The portrait is considered to be an early work of Jacopo Tintoretto, painted prior to the election of a nobleman for the office of the prosecutor.