 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Crowning with thorns ca. 1592 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Flagellation ca. 1587-92 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Baptism of Christ 1585 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome |
"In the same city of Venice and about the same time there lived, as he still does, a painter called Jacopo Tintoretto, who has delighted in all the arts, and particularly in playing various musical instruments, besides being agreeable in his every action, but in the matter of painting swift, resolute, fantastic, and extravagant, and the most extraordinary brain that the art of painting has ever produced, as may be seen from all his works and from the fantastic compositions of his scenes, executed by him in a fashion of his own and contrary to the use of other painters. Indeed, he has surpassed even the limits of extravagance with the new and fantastic inventions and the strange vagaries of his intellect, working at haphazard and without design, as if to prove that art is but a jest. This master at times has left as finished works sketches still so rough that the brush-strokes may be seen, done more by chance and vehemence than with judgment and design. He has painted almost every kind of picture in fresco and in oils, with portraits from life, and at every price, insomuch that with these methods he has executed, as he still does, the greater part of the pictures painted in Venice. And since in his youth he proved himself by many beautiful works a man of great judgment, if only he had recognized how great an advantage he had from nature, and had improved it by reasonable study, as has been done by those who have followed the beautiful manners of his predecessors, and had not dashed his work off by mere skill of hand, he would have been one of the greatest painters that Venice has ever had. Not that this prevents him from being a bold and able painter, and delicate, fanciful, and alert in spirit."
– Giorgio Vasari, from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 1568, translated by Gaston du C. de Vere and published in English in 1912
This passage shows poor Vasari struggling with the conflict between his refined Florentine sensibility (based on traditional principles of disegno) and Tintoretto's Venetian aesthetic of vivid and seemingly spontaneous colore. The tone suggests that Vasari would have liked to articulate an even harsher verdict, but was held back by two factors. One of these was cynical and worldly – a pragmatic deference to the master's overwhelming cultural prestige. But the other inhibiting factor confers more credit on Vasari's character as an artist and writer – in spite of his own contrary ideals, he could not force himself altogether to deny or disregard his colleague's originality and miraculous technique.
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Hercules expelling the Faun from the bed of Omphale 1585 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Portrait of Vincenzo Morosini ca. 1575-80 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Origin of the Milky Way ca. 1575 canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Madonna and Child venerated by St Mark and St Luke before 1570 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Susanna and the Elders 1555-56 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto St George and the Dragon ca. 1555 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Supper at Emmaus ca. 1542-43 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
 |
| Jacopo Tintoretto Sculpted Head of Giuliano de' Medici from below 1540s drawing Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide |
"Like many family-trained artists, Domenico Tintoretto began his career by helping his renowned father, Jacopo Tintoretto, in his Venice workshop. In 1576, when Domenico was seventeen years old, he was admitted to the Venetian painters' guild. . . . Though the influence of his father, and at times even his father's assistants, is evident in many of Domenico's paintings, his drawings are entirely original."
– curator's notes from the Getty Museum
 |
| Domenico Tintoretto Portrait of a man ca. 1585-90 oil on canvas Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas |
 |
| Domenico Tintoretto Tancred baptizing Clorinda ca. 1586-1600 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
 |
| Domenico Tintoretto Penitent Magdalene ca. 1595-1602 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome |