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| DEATHS:
1837 MONSIAU — 1594 “TINTORETTO” |
| BIRTHS:
1860 SICKERT — 1879 BEERSTRATEN |
| ^
Born on 31 May 1860: Walter Richard
Sickert, British Post-Impressionist Camden
Town Group painter, printmaker, teacher, and writer of German birth,
who died on 22 January 1942. He studied under James
McNeill Whistler. — Sickert was one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He is often called a painter's painter, appealing primarily to artists working in the figurative tradition; there are few British figurative painters of the 20th century whose development can be adequately discussed without reference to Sickert's subject-matter or innovative techniques. He had a direct influence on the Camden Town Group and the Euston Road School, while his effect on Frank Auerbach, Howard Hodgkin and Francis Bacon was less tangible. Sickert's active career as an artist lasted for nearly 60 years. His output was vast. He may be judged equally as the last of the Victorian painters and as a major precursor of significant international developments in later 20th-century art, especially in his photo-based paintings. — Novelist tries to prove that Sickert was sicker than thought: that he was Jack the Ripper, the 1888 murderer of 5 prostitutes. — LINKS — Brighton Pierrots — Les Vénitiennes (1904, 46x57cm) — St Mark's, Venice (Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus) (1896, 91x120cm) _ Sickert first visited Venice in 1895. He painted St Mark's basilica several times under different conditions, possibly inspired by Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral, which he had seen in Paris. However, unlike Monet, he was not concerned with fleeting effects of light. Instead, he concentrated on the structure and mosaics, using the light to accentuate the sparkling gold pinnacles and to emphasise the spirituality of the basilica. This is Sickert's largest and most elaborate depiction of the front elevation. The title includes the Latin motto of the city. |
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Died on 31 May 1770: Nicolas
André Monsiau (or Monsiaux), French painter and illustrator
born in 1754. — [Quant aux tableaux, pas de monceaux de ceux de Monsieur
Monsiau dans l'internet] — He was a student of Jean-François-Pierre Peyron in Paris and, thanks to a sponsor, the Marquis de Couberon, followed his master to Rome in 1776. He stayed four years and made the acquaintance of Jacques-Louis David and Pierre Henri de Valenciennes. On his return to Paris he exhibited at the Salons de la Correspondance of 1781 and 1782. Monsiau was approved (agréé) as an associate of the Académie Royale on 30 June 1787 for Alexander Taming Bucephalus and was received (reçu) only on 3 October 1789, after a previous application had been refused; his morceau de réception was the Death of Agis. Affected by the hangings in 1792 and 1793 of his two protectors and by the slump in commissions brought about by the Revolution, he turned to book illustration for editions of Ovid, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Laurence Sterne, Jacques Delille and Salomon Gessner. — Monsiau passa quelques années à Rome, fit partie de l’Académie et exposa régulièrement au Salon. A partir de 1789, son art se fit de plus en plus académique. Il se consacra à la peinture religieuse, mais acquit la célébrité dans le grand genre qui, sous la Restauration, rejoignit sous sa brosse la peinture historique et anecdotique, comme en témoigne son Louis XVI et La Pérouse (1817, Versailles) qui fit partie des collections de Louis XVIII. — Louis XVI donnant ses instructions au capitaine de vaisseau La Pérouse pour son voyage d'exploration autour du monde (1817; 329x450pix, 48kb) _ zoomable detail (323x600pix, 37kb) — Odysseus ordering the women to remove the bodies of the suitors (1791; 360x720pix, 48kb) — Consulta de la République cisalpine réunie en comices à Lyon pour décerner la présidence au Premier Consul, le 26 janvier 1802 (1808; 935x1400pix, 261kb) _ Au terme de la deuxième campagne d’Italie marquée par la victoire de Marengo le 14 juin 1800, les troupes française occupent en grande partie l’Italie qui se retrouve scindée en deux républiques sœurs, liguriennes (Gênes) et cisalpine (Milan). En décembre 1801, le Premier consul réunit une Consulta législative à Lyon, c’est-à-dire une assemblée de notables (représentants de l’armée, membres du gouvernement, archevêques, évêques et curés délégués par leurs pairs, magistrats, universitaires…) choisis par Murat afin de mettre en place une nouvelle organisation des pouvoirs. La république reçoit une constitution très autoritaire, calquée sur celle de la France: le chef du pouvoir exécutif nomme les ministres, mais aussi les membres du Conseil législatif. Le 26 décembre 1801, Bonaparte lui attribue le nouveau nom de République italienne. Mais en décevant les espoirs des patriotes italiens qui souhaitaient l’unité avec le Piémont, Bonaparte entame en Italie une politique de formation de républiques vassales. Nommés par les quatre cent dix-huit députés, trente conseillers sont chargés d’élire le président de la République cisalpine. Sur l’insistance de Talleyrand, les Trente proposent à contrecœur Bonaparte. Le peintre Gérard refusa la commande de cette œuvre, préférant exécuter une série de portraits impériaux plutôt qu’un immense portrait de groupe. Monsiau fut donc chargé en 1806 de cette grande composition, qui devint son chef-d’œuvre, destinée à la galerie de Diane aux Tuileries, exposée au Salon de 1808, puis installée aux Tuileries en 1809. Bientôt remplacé par L’Entrée de Napoléon à Berlin par Meynier, le tableau demeura dans les réserves de 1810 à 1824. Louis-Philippe le fit entrer dans ses Galeries historiques du musée de Versailles. Le fait que l’Empire jugea opportun de célébrer un haut fait du Consulat trouve évidemment sa justification dans l’acceptation populaire du pouvoir de Napoléon. Mais dès 1810, la puissance guerrière devait supplanter, dans la propagande impériale, l’organisation législative de l’Empire: ce qui explique les divers avatars du tableau de Monsiau. Seule la soif rétrospective de Louis-Philippe, soucieux de restaurer la légitimité impériale en même temps que la puissance militaire du règne de Napoléon, sut réhabiliter cette immense composition héritière, dans la perfection de son exécution, de la grande tradition d’un David. La scène se tient dans la chapelle de l’ancien collège de la Trinité, actuel lycée Ampère, à Lyon. Le citoyen Napoléon Bonaparte apparaît ici entouré (à droite de la composition) de Murat, Berthier, Louis, Hortense et Joséphine de Beauharnais ; on reconnaît Chaptal assis au bas des marches. A la droite du Premier consul sont représentés Marescalchi, Talleyrand, Bernadotte, le comte Melzi d’Eril (lisant une allocution). Le moment choisi par Monsiau est celui où le citoyen Bonaparte, élu président de la République cisalpine le 24 janvier sur l’insistance de Talleyrand, vient de s’adresser en italien aux députés leur proposant d’adopter des attitudes nationales et de mettre sur pied une armée. Le nom de « république italienne » est acclamé, et lecture est donnée des noms des Italiens appelés à constituer les grands corps de l’État. |
| ^
Born on 31 May 1622: Jan Abrahamszoon
Beerstraten, Flemish landscape painter and printmaker who
died on 01 July 1666. — Beerstraten was the name of two Flemish landscape painters. Anthonie [1639-1665] painted mostly snow scenes somewhat similar to those of Hendrick Avercamp; Jan Abrahamszoon used more conventional subject matter. — Beerstraten, son of a cloth weaver, became a highly skilled topographical draftsman. Influenced by his early studies with a Dutch marine painter, he painted a few sea battles. He also painted imaginary seascapes, Italianate pictures influenced by the works of such artists as Nicolaes Berchem. Beerstraten may or may not have actually visited Italy, but he accurately conveyed the southern light. He also may have copied drawings given to him by Johannes Lingelbach, who occasionally painted the figures in Beerstraten's compositions. By the 1650s, public interest in native topography had grown, and Beerstraten's views of northern Netherlandish towns, villages, and castles satisfied that demand. A somewhat romantic atmosphere pervaded his landscapes. He usually painted winter scenes, with many neutral colors and soft outlines, as well as romanticized subjects. Beerstraten's son specialized in similar subjects. — LINKS — Village of Nieukoop in Winter with Child Funeral (92x129cm) _ This is one of three paintings of the same Gothic village church and the funeral procession. — Winter Landscape (1665, 77x110cm) _ A limited palette captures the hush of a winter day, with roofs of church and homes covered in a velvety blanket of snow and skaters gliding over the canal. The skaters' activity and the townspeople engaging in their daily business at the left enliven the otherwise bleak scene. Amid these pleasant activities, the huge, leafless tree squarely in the panel's center emphasizes the starkness of winter, towering over the human-made buildings and implying the dominance of nature. The tiny size of the people under the broad Dutch sky similarly accentuates their lack of control. Despite the recognizable tower of Rhenen in the background, the exact location of this scene has not been identified; rather than an actual place, it may be a product of the artist's imagination. |
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Died on 31 May 1594: Jacopo
Robusti “Tintoretto”, “il Furioso”,
great Venetian Mannerist
painter born in 1518. — Tintoretto was one of the most important artists of the late Renaissance. Early paintings include Vulcan Surprising Venus and Mars, the Mannerist Christ and the Adulteress, and his masterpiece of 1594, Last Supper of S. Giorgio Maggiore ). Increasingly concerned with the drama of light and space, he achieved in his mature work (e.g., The Law and the Golden Calf, 1562) a luminous, visionary quality. He was the father of Domenico Robusti and Marietta Robusti. Tintoretto studied under Titian. Tintoretto's students included Martin de Vos. — Venetian Mannerist painter “Tintoretto”, was one of the foremost artists of the later 16th century. His work inspired the development of baroque art. Tintoretto, originally named Jacopo Robusti, was called Il Tintoretto (“the little dyer”) in allusion to his father's profession. As a young man he studied briefly with Titian, who soon discharged him from his studio; the animosity between these two great painters lasted throughout their careers. Unlike Titian, Tintoretto lived and worked exclusively in Venice. His immense output was produced entirely for the churches, confraternities, and rulers of Venice and for the Venetian state. In the first decade of his career (circa 1538-48), Tintoretto searched for a style, turning to diverse sources for inspiration. Important among these were Florentine Mannerist paintings, the work of Michelangelo, and the relief sculpture of Jacopo Sansovino; from them Tintoretto learned modes of figure drawing and composition. From the Dalmatian painter Andrea Schiavone he learned an extraordinarily broad, free, sketchy way of applying paint. These elements were combined in varying ways to striking effect in Tintoretto's paintings of the 1540s. His artistic coming of age is marked by the large St. Mark (1548), painted for the Scuola di San Marco, in which Tintoretto's daring foreshortenings, spatial illusions, and high-keyed lighting mesh triumphantly to create an overwhelming impression of spontaneous action. In the decades that followed, Tintoretto's style intensified without essentially changing, and the huge number of commissions he received attests to its enthusiastic reception. Even his staggering facility as a designer and executant could not cope with the work load, and he was increasingly aided by a large corps of assistants, notable among them being his daughter Marietta and his son, Domenico, whose contributions are often difficult to distinguish from his own. As a mature artist, Tintoretto tended progressively to rely on contrasts of brilliant light and cavernous dark (in which color as such became relatively insignificant), on eccentric viewpoints and extreme foreshortenings, and on flamboyantly choreographic groupings to heighten the drama of the events portrayed. His highest powers were called forth by the theme of supernatural incursion into human events—as in the three paintings of the miracles of St. Mark, painted (1562-1566) for the Scuola di San Marco; the Last Supper (1594), in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore; and many of the biblical paintings with which he adorned the ceilings and walls of the Scuola di San Rocco between 1564 and 1587. These last constitute the greatest pictorial enterprise of his career and one of the wonders of Renaissance painting. Almost equally extensive is the cycle of paintings he and his assistants executed for the Palazzo Ducale, culminating in the vast Paradise (1588-90), but here the level of inspiration is less consistent and the assistants' share larger. Tintoretto's penchant for diagonal compositions plunging or zigzagging into deep space, as well as the commanding theatricality of his lighting and the overall dynamism and expansiveness of his style, was taken up by the work of such pioneers of the baroque style as the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens and the Carracci family. His effect on Venetian painting was still greater, but less beneficial. The shorthand notations for form and light that he developed tended even in his own later work to become stereotypes; for younger artists in Venice they were empty but seemingly inescapable formulas. After Tintoretto's death in Venice, Venetian painting precipitously declined. |
| — His nickname derives from
his father's profession of dyer (tintore). Although he was
prolific and with Veronese the most successful Venetian painter in the generation
after Titian's death, little
is known of his life. He is said to have trained very briefly with Titian,
but the style of his immature works suggests that he may also have studied
with Schiavone, Paris Bordone, or Bonifazio. Almost all his life was spent in Venice and most of his work is still in the churches or other buildings for which it was painted. He appears to have been unpopular because he was unscrupulous in procuring commissions and ready to undercut his competitors. By 1539 he was sufficiently mature to be established independently, painting pictures composed in a traditional Venetian manner with the figures arranged parallel to the picture plane and unlinked by any strong movement or variation in the arrangement (The Adoration of the Golden Calf, 1545). His early masterpiece is the Miracle of the Slave (1548), in which many of the qualities of his maturity, particularly his love of foreshortening, begin to be distinguishable. To help him with the complex poses he favoured, Tintoretto used to make small wax models which he arranged on a stage and experimented on with spotlights for effects of light and shade and composition. This method of composing explains the frequent repetition in his works of the same figures seen from different angles. He was a formidable draughtsman and, according to Ridolfi, he had inscribed on his studio wall the motto `The drawing of Michelangelo and the color of Titian'. However, he was very different in spirit from either of his avowed models -- more emotive, using vivid exaggerations of light and movement. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more sombre and mystical than Titian's. Tintoretto's greatest works are the vast series of paintings he did for the Scuola di San Rocco from 1565 to 1587 -- scenes from the life of Christ in the upper hall and scenes from the life of the Virgin in the lower hall. The complicated system, starting in the upper hall, was probably not conceived by Tintoretto himself, but he interpreted it with a vividness and economy of color and detail which gives a miraculous cohesion to the whole scheme. Its personal conception of the sacred story overwhelmed Ruskin, who devoted eloquent pages to it, and Henry James wrote of the stupendous Crucifixion: `Surely no single picture in the world contains more of human life: there is everything in it, including the most exquisite beauty.' The unorthodox rough brushwork incurred the censure of Vasari, but later generations recognized it as a means of heightening the drama and tension. As well as religious works, Tintoretto painted mythological scenes and he was also a fine portraitist, particularly of old men (a self-portrait in old age is in the Louvre). Some of the weaker portraits that go under his name may be the product of his large workshop. His son Domenico [1560- 17 May 1635] became his foreman and is said to have painted many portraits, although none can be attributed to him with certainty. Another son, Marco [1561-1637], and a daughter, Marietta [1556-1590], were among his other assistants. The later paintings can thus be divided into those which are largely studio productions on the one hand and the visionary inspirations from Tintoretto's own hand on the other. A prime example of the latter is The Last Supper (1594), the culmination of a lifetime's development of this subject, from the traditional frontal representation to this startling diagonally viewed composition. Tintoretto had great influence on Venetian painting, but the artist who most fruitfully absorbed the visionary energy and intensity of his work was El Greco. ^ — L’anno di nascita di Jacopo Robusti, il 1519, è desunta dall’atto di morte, in cui è detto settantacinquenne. Gli scrittori d’arte del Seicento lo indicano come allievo di Tiziano, e riferiscono di gravi contrasti fra i due, che avrebbero indotto il giovane Tintoretto a lasciare la bottega del maestro. Anche se non sappiamo quando l’artista inizi la sua carriera autonoma, questa deve essere collocata prima del 1539, quando Jacopo si firma “ maestro”, con una propria bottega in campo San Cassiano. Nel giugno 1544 l’artista sottoscrive una testimonianza indicando il nome (Giambattista) e la professione (tintore) del padre: da questa gli deriva il soprannome. Al 1545 risale la decorazione di due soffitti con soggetti mitologici per la dimora veneziana di Pietro Aretino. Due anni dopo firma la pala dell’Ultima cena nella chiesa veneziana di San Marcuola. Nel 1548 Tintoretto dipinge per la Scuola grande di San Rocco il Miracolo di san Marco, che suscitò grande interesse, come testimonia la lettera d’apprezzamento scritta dall’Aretino nell’aprile di quell’anno. A questa prima importante commissione fanno seguito quelle per la pala della chiesa di San Marziale, terminata nel 1549, e per il San Rocco risana gli appestati dell’omonima chiesa veneziana. Nel corso del sesto decennio del secolo l’attività dell’artista si fa più intensa: fra il 1551-1556 esegue le portelle dell’organo della chiesa di Santa Maria dell’Orto, e quelle, su commissione di Giulio Contarini, della chiesa di Santa Maria del Giglio; nel 1559 dipinge la Piscina probatica di San Rocco e l’Ultima cena già in San Felice a Venezia e ora in Saint-François Xavier a Parigi. Dall’unione con Faustina Episcopi, che Tintoretto sposa probabilmente nel 1553, nasceranno otto figli, alcuni dei quali come Giambattista e Marco, continueranno l’attività paterna. Negli anni Settanta, la sua attività subisce un’ulteriore accelerazione; accanto ai ritratti dei più illustri personaggi veneziani, e al soffitto dell’atrio quadrato in Palazzo ducale, l’artista dipinge numerose tele di soggetto religioso: l’Adorazione del vitello d’oro e il Giudizio universale per il presbiterio della chiesa della Madonna dell’Orto (1562), la Discesa di Cristo al limbo e la Crocifissione della chiesa di San Cassiano a Venezia (1568). Nel 1564 Tintoretto dà avvio alla decorazione, che si protrarrà per quasi tre decenni, della Scuola grande di San Rocco, con i dipinti di San Rocco in gloria (1564), la Crocifissione (1565), il San Rocco in carcere confortato dagli angeli (1568), e poi, nei decenni successivi, con alcune serie di teleri e diverse pale d’altare. Divenuto uno dei massimi artisti veneziani, durante l’ultimo ventennio di attività è impegnato anche in Palazzo ducale: termina nel 1578 le quattro Allegorie nella Sala dell’anticollegio, e nel 1582 la Battaglia di Zara per la Sala dello scrutinio. Negli anni 1578-1580 dipinge le otto grandi tele con i Fasti gonzagheschi commissionate per il Palazzo ducale di Mantova. Con le due grandi tele per il presbiterio della chiesa veneziana di San Giorgio Maggiore, dipinte fra il 1592 e il 1594, si conclude l’attività di Tintoretto che muore il 31 maggio del 1594. |
| ^ — LINKS — Saint George and the Dragon — Baptism of Jesus — Last Supper — Christ Before Pilate — Milky Way — Vulcan Surprising Venus and Mars — Young Man from the Renialme Family..., (1548) — Madonna and Child (1572, 99x129cm) — Christ at the Pool of Bethesda..., — Creation of the Animals (1550, 151x258cm) _ 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 Trinitá. 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. — Adam and Eve (1550, 150x220cm) _ Adam and Eve are depicted not in a landscape thrown into confusion by the hand of the Creator but in a more serene, more human dimension. In the leafy arbor the two nude figures moving around the trunk of the tree form the parallel diagonals of the composition. A strong light gives a sculptural effect to their ivory-pink flesh. But in the background, on the right, the tranquillity of the foreground scene gives way to the tumultuous epilogue to the fact of human disobedience to Divine will. With rapid brushstrokes Tintoretto evokes the fiery angel who drives Adam and Eve out into the distant desolate hills and plains. — The Birth of St. John the Baptist (1545), 181x266cm) _ detail _ Tintoretto, transfers the evangelical birth of John the Baptist into the contemporary context of a rich 16th century Venetian household. — The Adoration by the Shepherds (1581, 54x45cm) _ The Scuola di San Rocco is one - and certainly the best preserved - of Venice's six Scuole Grandi (Major Guilds) which for many centuries, together with the minor Confraternities, formed the network of brotherhoods of religious nature. These were set up to help the poor and sick, or to protect the interests of individual professions, or to help the weak and needy members of non-Venetian communities living in the city. The guild, dedicated to San Rocco of Montpellier who died in Piacenza in 1327 and whose remains are thought to have been brought to Venice in 1485, was legally recognized in 1478. Its aim was to relieve the suffering of the sick, especially those stricken by the epidemics. After several transfer its premises were built on the Campo di San Rocco. The grandiose building was begin in 1517 and the finishing touches lasted until 1560. Four years later Jacopo Tintoretto began his pictorial decorations of the rooms. This work, which took him until 1588, constitutes one of the most fascinating pictorial undertakings ever known: from 1564 to 1567 the 27 canvases on the ceiling and walls of the Hall of the Hostel, from 1576 to 1581 the 25 canvases on the ceiling and walls of the Upper Hall; from 1582 to 1587 the eight large canvases in the Ground Floor Hall; in 1588 the altarpiece. The Adoration by the Shepherds is the first canvas on the outside wall of the Upper Hall. In an open scenic illusionism, the shepherds below present their gifts with impassioned and joyous gestures. They are counterpointed by the light and shadow created by the brightness from outside; above, main and secondary figures taking part in the divine event take on attitudes of conscious, almost solemn participation and are dazzled by the light which streams through the cracks between the wooden beams of the humble barn. The two different spiritual moments are underlined also by the different color quality: without breaking the continuity the lower part is continually struck by reverberations and reflections and at the same time carefully and realistically evokes the animals in the stall, the brightly colored peacock, the humble tools; the upper part is calmer and more relaxed although the wide chromatic background painting is strengthened by sudden, flashing rays of light. — Baptism of Christ (detail) (1581, 54x46cm) _ Ten years had hardly passed since the pictorial decoration of the Sala dell'Albergo was finished when Tintoretto was already busy decorating the Upper Hall. The Baptism of Christ is on one of the side walls. The nearness of the painting to the one portraying the Adoration of the Shepherds emphasizes the radical difference in ideas between the two paintings. Whereas in the Adoration the main moment of the event is shown off by a complex scenic and chromatic-luministic setting, in the Baptism it is given no particular importance. The two protagonists are banished to the left and evoked by the beam of light that strikes the back of the kneeling Christ whose face is sunk in shadows. John the Baptist is also immersed in the shadow as he bends forward in the act of pouring the water from the river Jordan over the head of the Son of God. Around the two main actors a wide open space is created. It is bounded on the right in the foreground by a steep rocky wing in whose deep shadow some spectators of the scene are undressing under the glance of the devout brother absorbed in prayer. On the left however, in the background beyond the river Jordan, those waiting for baptism throng together in line. They are depicted in an extraordinary sparkling of blobs of color and of luminous reflections. Evoked with astonishing rapidity of touch, the procession seems to extend on both sides, with no break in continuity, against the thick curtain of trees and under the blanket of heavy, threatening storm clouds. — Marriage at Cana |
| — The
Last Supper (1594, 365x568cm) _ 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 consacrated in 1592 — The Harvest
of Manna, The Last Supper and Entombment — were certainly painted
by Tintoretto himself. Tintoretto painted the Last Supper several times
in his life. This version can be described as the fest of the poors, in
which the figure of Christ mingles with the crowds of apostles. However,
a supernatural scene with winged figures comes into sight by the light around
his head. This endows the painting with a visional character clearly differentiating
it from paintings of the same subject made by earlier painters like Leonardo.
— Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples (1547, 210x533cm) _ 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 coloring, 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. — Christ before Pilate (1567, 515x380cm) _ detail _ 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 Dürer, evidence of the lasting spell held by German graphics of the firdt 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 bladeagainst the crowd and the architectural scenery. He is centered by a bright ray of light and stands tall in front of the hypocritically bureaucratic judge that is aPilate 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 clamors for the death of Christ. — The Ascent to Calvary (1567, 515x390cm) _ 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. This agitated scene is set along a route rising at an acute angle; the first side, reading from left to right, is in deep shadow against which the chromatic tones of white, red, green, blue, yellow-orange of the robes of the two thieves and their escorts stand out vividly; the second part of the procession is done in full light against the sulphur-colored sky streaked with pink. It opens up with the dominating soldier seen against the light in the foreground who is holding the rope tied around Christ's neck and it is closed by the brightly colored group of pious women preceded by the soldier who lets the pale pink standard flutter in the wind. — Descent from the Cross (Pietà) (1559, 227x294cm) _ 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. |
| — Entombment
(1594, 288x166cm) _ 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 consacrated in 1592 - The Harvest of Manna, 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. — St. Mark Saving a Saracen from Shipwreck (1562, 398x337cm) _ This scene depicts the episode in which Saint Mark, according to legend, saved the life of a Saracen, his secret follower, by restoring him to the boat from which he had been thrown by the Christians during a storm at sea. The figures form a diagonal which is continually broken to indicate the fury of the natural elements. The stormy sea and wind-tossed clouds evoke the meteorological conditions in a way which is almost over-dramatized. This is, however, a superb example of the visionary and fantastical style of Tintoretto, who uses light to convey the desired appearance of reality. — The Miracle of St Mark Freeing the Slave (1548, 415x541cm) _ The painting is the first of a series of works, painted in 1548 for the Scuola Grande di San Marco while Marco Episcopi, his future father-in-law was Grand Guardian of the School. The subject of the huge canvas is the miraculous appearence of St Mark to rescue one of his devotees, a servant of a knight of Provence, who had been condemned to having his legs broken and his eyes put out for worshipping the relics of the saint against his master's will. The scenes takes place on a kind of proscenium which seems to force the action out of the painting towards the spectator who is thus involved in the amazement of the crowd standing in a semi-circle around the protagonists: the fore-shortened figure of the slave lying on the ground, the dumbfounded executioner holding aloft the broken implements of torture, the knight of Provence starting up from his seat out of the shadow into the light, while the figure of St Mark swoops down from above. In keeping with the drama of the action is the tight construction of the painting, the dramatic fore-shortening of the forms and sudden strong contrast of light and shade. — The Stealing of the Dead Body of St Mark (1566, 398x315cm) _ In 1562 Tintoretto was commissioned by the Guardian Grande, Tommaso Ragnone to complete the decoration of the School of St Mark. This work relates the episode in which the Christians of Alexandria, taking advantage of a sudden hurricane, take possession of the body of the saint which was about to be burned by the pagans. The group in the foreground (where Ragnone himself is depicted bearing the head of the saint) stands out sculpturally from the vertiginous depth of the background created by the use of light and by the obsessive architectural sequence of arcades and mullioned windows which terminate in the phosphorescence of the construction outlined against a reddish sky heavy with clouds. Light assumes an elemental role in this phantasmagorical scene. — St Jerome and St Andrew (1552, 235x145cm) _ The works of Tintoretto after the middle of the 16th century demonstrate still more clearly the search for strong sculptural effects achieved by use of chiaroscuro, a complex scenographic spatial representation and the use of clear, bright color in direct contrast to the more subdued harmonies of Titian's 'magica alchimia cromatica'. The work 'St. Jerome and St. Andrew' is a major example of these tendencies. It was commissioned for one of the rooms of the Magistrato del Sale in the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi at Rialto by Andrea Dandolo and Girolamo Bernardo, magistrates who left office between September and October 1552. The search for a Manneristic figural rhythm within the overall compositional plan is evident. The figure of St. Andrew takes up the whole of the small space to the left of the cross, leaving more room for St. Jerome alongside the curvilinear outline of the rock. The scenic effect of the figures constrained in a small space is given unity and the poetic sense of an intense spiritual life by the expressive force of light which brings out all the gradations of color. — St Nicholas (114x56cm) _ probably part of a larger painting. — St Louis, St George and the Princess (1553, 226x146cm) _ This work, commissioned by Giorgio Venier and Alvise Foscarini who left the Magistratura del Sale respectively on 13 September 1551 and 10 May 1553, is a fine example of Tintoretto's achievement of a dynamic compositional tension. The incisive force of the line combines with rich and luminous color to create the firmly modelled figures. The self-conscious statement of dramatic style became another pretext for the continuing polemic between Tintoretto and Titian. Dolce clearly alludes to it when, in his 'Dialogo della pittura' of 1558, he criticizes the unfortunate position of the princess, whom he takes to be St. Margaret, astride the dragon. — Vincenzo Morosini (1580) _ Morosini [1511-1588], also the subject of a portrait in Tintoretto's The Resurrection, was a leading member of the Venetian elite, Prefect of Bergamo, Procurator of St. Mark's, President of the University of Padua. This is a subtle, introspective painting. The pose Morosini adopts suggests weary wisdom, as if he would rather be in a monastic retreat or his study than here, wearing his golden sash, denoting knighthood. He doesn't collar your attention theatrically like earlier Renaissance portraits such as Titian's Portrait of a Man (1510, 81x66cm; 700x550pix, 69kb) whose subject leans out of the picture and looks challengingly at you, but seems to sink into the wall, shying away from the throng. Paradoxically, this recessive quality lends the painting a magnetic power, a sense that we are confronting a real person with a real inner life. Tintoretto achieves this by leading us away from the body, from Morosini's physical presence, into a world of color. Luring the eye into the unflashy chromatic effects of muted gold on shadowy burgundy flecked by foamy white, he stimulates dense, ambiguous realms of feeling – this public man has a private self that Tintoretto hints at. This hinting is the central contribution of Venetian color to the portrait. His face is long and sculpted, a prophet's or hermit's. His eyes look back at us warily as if he has heard our foolish talk before. Behind him is a wine-tinted curtain, a world of privacy and reflection, opening out on to a landscape painted abstractly, reductively, almost Chinese in manner, implying a misty morning in northern Italy, a landscape to contemplate in unworldly thought. — The Maundy (Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples) _ detail (1547) — Portrait of a Gentleman in a Fur (1550) — St. George and the Dragon (St Petersburg) (1550) — Leda and the Swan (1555) — St. George and the Dragon (London) (1558) — Drawing of a corpse for St George and the Dragon (1558) — Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples (1556) — The Deliverance of Arsinoe (1560) — Suzanna at Her Bath (1560) — The Baptism of Christ (1570) — The Origin of the Milky Way (1570) — The Woman Who Discovers the Bosom (1570) — Christ at the Sea of Galilee (1580) — Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1575) — Self~portrait (1588) — Venus, Vulcan, and Mars (detail) (1550) |
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^ Tintoretto stayed at home but he felt in his own person a craving for something that Titian could not teach him. The Venice he was born in was not the Venice of Titian's early youth, and his own adolescence fell in the period when Spain was rapidly making herself mistress of Italy. The haunting sense of powers almost irresistible gave a terrible fascination to Michelangelo's works. Tintoretto felt this fascination because he was in sympathy with the spirit which took form in colossal torsos and limbs. To him these were not, as they were to Michelangelo's enrolled followers, merely new patterns after which to model the nude. But, beside this, Tintoretto had to an even greater degree the feeling that whatever existed was for mankind. In his youth people were once more turning to religion, and in Venice poetry was making its way more than it had previously done, not only because Venice had become the refuge of men of letters, but also because of the diffusion of printed books. Tintoretto took to the new feeling for religion and poetry as to his birthright. Yet whether classic fable or Biblical episode were the subject of his art, Tintoretto colored it with his feeling for the human life at the heart of the story. His sense of power did not express itself in colossal nudes so much as in the immense energy, in the glowing health of the figures he painted, and more still in his effects of light. It was this which enabled him to give such living versions of Biblical stories and saintly legends. For, granting that an effect of reality were attainable in painting without an adequate treatment of light and atmosphere, even then the reality would look hideous, as it does in many modern painters who attempt to paint people of today in their everyday dress and among their usual surroundings. It is not 'Realism' which makes such pictures hideous, but the want of that toning down which the atmosphere gives to things in life, and of that harmonizing to which the light subjects all colors. "It was a great mastery of light and shadow which enabled Tintoretto to put into his pictures all the poetry there was in his soul without once tempting us to think that he might have found better expression in words. The poetry which quickens most of his works in the Scuola di San Rocco is almost entirely a matter of light and color. What is it but the light that changes the solitudes in which the Magdalen and St. Mary of Egypt are sitting, into dreamlands seen by poets in their moments of happiest inspiration? What but light and color., the gloom and chill of evening, with the white-stoled figure standing resignedly before the judge, that give the Christ before Pilate its sublime magic? What, again, but light, color., and the star-procession of cherubs that imbue the realism of the 'Annunciation' with music which thrills us through and through? Religion and poetry did not exist for Tintoretto because the love and cultivation of the Muses was a duty prescribed by the Greeks and Romans, and because the love of God and the saints was prescribed by the Church; but rather, as was the case with the best people of his time, because both poetry and religion were useful to man. They helped him to forget what was mean and sordid in life, they braced him to his task, and consoled him for his disappointments. Religion answered to an everliving need of the human heart. The Bible was no longer a mere document wherewith to justify Christian dogma. It was rather a series of parables and symbols pointing at all times to the path that led to a finer and nobler life. Why then continue to picture Christ and the Apostles, the Patriarchs and Prophets, as persons living under Roman rule, wearing the Roman toga, and walking about in the landscape of a Roman bas-relief? Christ and the Apostles, the Patriarchs and Prophets, were the embodiment of living principles and of living ideals. Tintoretto felt this so vividly that he could not think of them otherwise than as people of his own kind, living under conditions easily intelligible to himself and to his fellow men. Indeed, the more intelligible and the more familiar the look and garb and surroundings of Biblical and saintly personages, the more would they drive home the principles and ideas they incarnated. So Tintoretto did not hesitate to turn every Biblical episode into a picture of what the scene would look like had it taken place under his own eyes, nor to tinge it with his own mood. His conception of the human form was, it is true, colossal, although the slender elegance that was then coming into fashion, as if in protest against physical force and organization, influenced him considerably in his construction of the female figure; but the effect which he must always have produced upon his contemporaries, which most of his works still produce, is one of astounding reality as well as of wide sweep and power. Thus, in the Discovery of the Body of St. Mark, and in the Storm Rising while the Corpse is being Carried through the Streets of Alexandria, the figures, although colossal, are so energetic and so easy in movement, and the effects of perspective and of light and atmosphere are so on a level with the gigantic figures, that the eye at once adapts itself to the scale, and you feel as if you too partook of the strength and health of heroes. That feeling for reality which made the great painters look upon a picture as the representation of a cubic content of atmosphere enveloping all the objects depicted, made them also consider the fact that the given quantity of atmosphere is sure to contain other objects than those the artist wants for his purpose. He is free to leave them out, of course, but in so far as he does, so far is he from producing an effect of reality. The eye does not see everything, but all the eye would naturally see along with the principal objects must be painted,or the picture will not took true to life. This incorporation of small episodes running parallel with the subject rather than forming part of it, is one of the chief characteristics of modern as distinguished from ancient art. It is this which makes the Elizabethan drama so different from the Greek. It is this again which already separates the works of Duccio and Giotto from the plastic arts of Antiquity. Painting lends itself willingly to the consideration of minor episodes, and for that reason is almost as well fitted to be in touch with modern life as the novel itself. Such a treatment saves a picture from looking prepared and cold, just as light and atmosphere save it from rigidity and crudeness. No better illustration of this can be found among Italian masters than Tintoretto's Crucifixion in the Scuola di San Rocco. The scene is a vast one, and although Christ is on the Cross, life does not stop. To most of the people gathered there, what takes place is no more than a common execution. Many of them are attending to it as to a tedious duty. Others work away at some menial task more or less connected with the Crucifixion, as unconcerned as cobblers humming over their last. Most of the people in the huge canvas are represented, as no doubt they were in life, without much personal feeling about Christ. His own friends are painted with all their grief and despair, but the others are allowed to feel as they please. The painter does not try to give them the proper emotions. If one of the great modern novelists, if Tolstoy, for instance, were describing the Crucifixion, his account would read as if it were a description of Tintoretto's picture. But Tintoretto's fairness went even farther than letting all the spectators feel as they pleased about what he himself believed to be the greatest event that ever took place. Among this multitude he allowed the light of heaven to shine upon the wicked as well as upon the good, and the air to refresh them all equally. In other words, this enormous canvas is a great sea of air and light at the bottom of which the scene takes place. Without the atmosphere and the just distribution of light, it would look as lifeless and desolate, in spite of the crowd and animation, as if it were the bottom of a dried-up sea. While all these advances were being made, the art of portraiture had not stood still. Its popularity had only increased as the years went on. Titian was too busy with commissions for foreign princes to supply the great demand there was in Venice alone. Tintoretto painted portraits not only with much of the air of good breeding of Titian's likenesses, but with even greater splendor, and with an astonishing rapidity of execution. The Venetian portrait, it will be remembered, was expected to be more than a likeness. It was expected to give pleasure to the eye, and to stimulate the emotions. Tintoretto was ready to give ample satisfaction to all such expectations. His portraits, although they are not so individualized as Lotto's, nor such close studies of character as Titian's, always render the man at his best, in glowing health, full of life and determination. They give us the sensuous pleasure we get from jewels, and at the same time they make us look back with amazement to a State where the human plant was in such vigor as to produce old men of the kind represented in most of Tintoretto's portraits. |
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