The young Tintoretto showed artistic tendencies in his youth such that, at 12 years of age, his father sought to apprentice him to Titian. His tenure with Titian lasted all of 10 days, with the resulting ill-will lasting until Titian's death.
Bereft of a master, Tintoretto worked diligently to hone his painterly skills. In addition to working in the world of fine art on canvas, he worked with fresco and furniture painters, areas which required rapid painting, one of the hallmarks of his future career.
Tintoretto's technique embraced the very nature of oil paint itself: slow-drying and easily reworked, the medium allowed the artist to devise the composition directly on the canvas and make changes as he worked. Foregoing the goal of capturing the illusion of reality, Tintoretto delighted in shortcuts, using broad strokes and strong contours to define forms, as if drawing in paint. His bold and energetic brushwork, left thick and visible on the surface, make his pictures look startlingly new -- and continues to inspire painters today (National Gallery of Art).
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| Self-Portrait Jacopo Tintoretto, c. 1546/1547 |
The first works which brought him critical acclaim, and established him as one of the finest young artists on the Venetian scene, were the paintings done for Scuola Grande di San Marco in 1548 and between 1562 and 1564. The 1548 effort was The Miracle of St Mark Freeing the Slave which, according to museothyssen.org, featured elements such as daring foreshortening, artificial poses of the figures, and brilliant chromatic range. The painting created a sensation and made him the most talked-about painter in Venice with a number of commissions from churches and confraternities resulting (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).
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| The Miracle of St Mark Freeing the Slave Jacopo Tintoretto, 1548 |
The works completed in the 1562 - 1566 timeframe were The Finding of the Body of St Mark and St Mark's Body brought to Venice.
The next major cycle of work involved the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. The Scuola leadership had asked that five artists submit drawings for the rotunda ceiling, with the promise that the artist of the winning drawing would be invited to paint the said space. Rather than submitting a drawing, Tintoretto painted the space in full, revealing his effort when all the parties had gathered together. Further, knowing that the Scuola could not refuse a donation, he gifted the painting to the organization. This infuriated the other painters who were "outraged by his aggressive marketing."
Bad feelings notwithstanding, he signed a contract to decorate the walls and ceilings of San Rocco, an effort which ran between 1564 and 1588. The series of large-format canvasses that comprise the San Rocco works are characterized by "daring and innovative effects of color and light." The Crucifixion of Christ, taking up an entire wall in the Sala dell' Albergo, is considered one of Tintoretto's greatest works.
In conception and execution, Tintoretto's Christ on the Cross is one of the most unusual and compelling scenes of the crucifixion of the 16th century. Instead of focusing on the individuals directly involved in the event, the artist provides us with a panoramic scene of Golgotha, populated by an astonishingly varied throng -- including soldiers, executioners, horsemen, tradesmen, onlookers, thieves and apostles -- engaged in all sorts of different activities and movements with almost insect-like urgency (visual-arts-cork.com)
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| The Crucifixion of Christ Jacopo Tintoretto, 1565 |
During the time that he was involved with the San Rocco effort, Tintoretto was also engaged (along with Veronese) in the redecoration of the Doge's palace (1574 - 1577).
His crowning achievement was the The Last Supper, done for the Basilica di San Giorgi Maggiore and painted between 1592 and 1594. This composition differs drastically from that of the more traditional composition as represented in Leonardo's effort directly below.
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| The Last Supper Jacopo Tintoretto, 1594 |
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| The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci, 1490s |
The table is at a diagonal and the central point is the people serving and clearing the table. There is a mix of darkness and light with the light sources being the lamp above and Jesus' aureola. Angels hover above the somewhat spectral scene which is populated with muscular bodies and unnatural Tintoretto poses. According to Gardner (cited in Wikipedia), "The ability of this dramatic scene to engage viewers was well in keeping with Counter-Reformation ideals and the Catholic Church's belief in the didactic nature of religious art."
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| Self-Portrait Jacopo Tintoretto, c. 1588 |
Tintoretto died in 1594 and was survived by his wife and eight children, three of whom were active in the workshop which their father had established.
As viewed by the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), "With Titian and Veronese, Tintoretto (c. 1519 - 1594) was one of the three great painters of the golden age of Venetian art, a bold innovator whose works overwhelmed and sometimes outraged his peers." Giorgi Vasari described him as "swift, resolute, fantastic, and extravagant, and the most extraordinary brain that painting has ever produced." Henry James, considered among the greatest English-language novelists, called Tintoretto "The biggest genius who ever wielded a brush."
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