Jacopo Robusti, best known as Tintoretto, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticised the speed with which he painted and the unprecedented boldness of his brushwork. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed il Furioso. His work is characterised by muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective, in the Mannerist style.
Paintings by Tintoretto
Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan (1555)
Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan or Venus, Vulcan and Mars is a 1551-1552 oil on canvas painting by Jacopo Tintoretto, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
The painting depicts a scene of adultery. The goddess Venus is lying nude on a couch whilst her lover Mars is hiding helmeted under a bed. Venus' husband Vulcan, tipped off by Apollo, has just returned unexpectedly and has become distracted by his wife's naked body, disregarding the warnings of his dog. Cupid is sleeping in a cot by the window.
The Origin of the Milky Way (1575)
The Origin of the Milky Way is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Jacopo Tintoretto, in the National Gallery, London, formerly in the Orleans Collection. The painting is considered one of Tintoretto’s most successful paintings in the Venetian style. It is an oil painting on canvas, and dates from ca. 1575–1580.
It is unknown why the bottom third of the painting was cut off, but we do know that it was cut around 1727. The painting holds many symbolic references to the gods and goddesses depicted and the story itself. The painting is further known for its vivid colors that are layered and textured and for keep eyes on the complex details of the pieces.
Last Supper (Tintoretto) (1563)
The Last Supper is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Jacopo Tintoretto. An oil painting on canvas executed in 1592–1594, it is housed in the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy.
Tintoretto depicted the Last Supper several times during his artistic career. His earlier paintings for the Chiesa di San Marcuola (1547) and for the Chiesa di San Felice (1559) depict the scene from a frontal perspective, with the figures seated at a table placed parallel to the picture plane. This follows a convention observed in most paintings of the Last Supper, of which Leonardo da Vinci's late 1490s mural painting in Milan, Italy, is probably the best-known example.
Miracle of the Slave (Tintoretto) (1547)
The Miracle of the Slave (also known as The Miracle of St. Mark) is a painting completed in 1548 by the Italian Renaissance artist Jacopo Tintoretto. Originally commissioned for the Scuola Grande di San Marco, a confraternity in the city of Venice, the work has been held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia since 1815.
The painting portrays Saint Mark, patron saint of Venice, performing a posthumous miracle of saving a slave from torture. Drawn from hagiographic sources on the saint’s life, like Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend and Jacopo Sansovino's bronze reliefs, Saint Mark appears at the top of the image after being summoned by the slave, destroying the tools used in his torture and stunning the crowd.
Susanna and the Elders (Tintoretto) (1555)
Susanna and the Elders is an oil painting by the Venetian painter Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti, 1518–1594). Robusti, also known as Tintoretto or Il Furioso, for the energy and "fury" with which he painted, depicted both sacred and profane subjects in a period sometimes known as the Venetian “golden century”.
Susanna and the Elders (c. 1555–56) depicts a scene from the biblical episode of Susanna, from the Book of Daniel. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Susanna and the Elders was a popular subject in late Renaissance art.
Saint Mark's Body Brought to Venice (1564)
Saint Mark's Body Brought to Venice, The Abduction of the Body of Saint Mark or Translation of the Body of Saint Mark is a painting by Tintoretto depicting the translatio, or transfer of Saint Mark's relics from Alexandria to Venice. It was produced between 1562 and 1566 as part of a series of works on Saint Mark for the Sala Capitolare of the Scuola Grande di San Marco - the others are Miracle of the Slave, Saint Mark Saving a Saracen from Shipwreck and Finding of the Body of Saint Mark. It is now held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.
The painting is notable for its striking, deep perspective background lines. The colours are darker in the near subjects, while the figures in the background are white, nearly transparent. The strange red sky is roiling with ominous gray clouds, riven with a thunderbolt, affording the painting a heavy, dynamic atmosphere. Tintoretto depicted himself within the work as the bearded man beside the camel. He portrays Torcello and Malamocco carrying Mark's body as they arrived back in Venice. The Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's Square is displayed in the painting with onlookers fleeing in the background. The public square appears narrow to convey the tenseness of the abduction of Saint Mark's body.
Finding of the Body of Saint Mark (1562)
The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark or Discovery of the Body of Saint Mark is a painting by Tintoretto. Dated to between 1562 and 1566, it is part of a cycle of paintings dedicated to Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice. It is now held in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
The painting was commissioned by Tommaso Rangone., the “grand guardian” of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice, from Tintoretto as part of a series of large canvases depicting Venice's acquisition of the body of Saint Mark.
Crucifixion (Tintoretto) (1565)
The Crucifixion by Tintoretto is a large painting in oil on canvas, installed in the Sala dell'Albergo of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. It is signed and dated 1565. This painting is one of the most dramatic versions of the Crucifixion in the history of Christian art.
Tintoretto painted other images of the Crucifixion as well, including one that is in the Church of San Cassiano in Venice (1568), one that is in Church of the Gesuati in Venice (c. 1565)., and one that is in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice and was formerly in the Church of San Severo in Venice. Colm Tóibín wrote about visiting all four of these paintings.
Danaë (Tintoretto) (1570)
Danaë is an oil painting by the Italian artist Tintoretto, from c. 1570. It was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon in 1811, where it still hangs.
The canvas depicts a scene from the legend of Zeus and Danaë. According to the legend, King Acrisius of Argos was warned by an oracle that he would be killed by his own grandson. To frustrate the prediction, he locked up his beautiful only daughter Danaë in a specially constructed bronze chamber. However, Zeus, king of the gods, desired her so much that he managed to enter the chamber as a shower of golden rain, and impregnated her. A child was born, whom she named Perseus. He would later, with the help of his father and other gods, kill the Gorgon Medusa. Later the oracle's prophecy came true when Perseus accidentally killed his grandfather during a throwing event at the Larissa athletic games.
Il Paradiso (1588)
Il Paradiso is a massive (22 x 9 metres) oil painting on canvas that dominates the main hall of the Doge's Palace, which hosted the Great Council of Venice. It is one of the largest paintings on canvas in the world and was painted by Jacopo Robusti, known more commonly as Tintoretto. The painting features a heavenly scene with depictions of various religious figures such as the portrayal of Justina, patron saint of Padua (whose celebration day is October 7, the date of the Battle of Lepanto).
From the centre of the stage, a path of light opens up towards the Empyrean, allowing the souls of the Just to ascend (with the assistance of angels) and God's Grace to descend upon the Doge. At the centre of this path is the radiant figure of a semi-veiled Archangel. The composition is crowded with around 500 figures, depicted in detail.
Portrait of Procurator Jacopo Soranzo (1550)
Portrait of Procurator Jacopo Soranzo is an oil on canvas by Tintoretto, from 1550. It is held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venice. A larger portrait of Soranzo with his family also survives, now divided into three parts, all held at the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, in Milan.
Tintoretto had fame as a great portrait painter, and as his fame grew, so did the number of portraits he was commissioned. This painting, which came from the Procuratorium de Supra, was originally larger and in the form of a lunette. Towards the end of the 16th century, the artist and his son Domenico remade it to adapt it to the recently rebuilt Procuratorium.>
Adam and Eve (Tintoretto) (1550)
Adam and Eve (Italian: Adamo ed Eva), also known as The Temptation of Adam, Original Sin, and The Fall of Man, may refer to either of two similar works by the Venetian painter Tintoretto: an oil painting in the collection of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, made around 1550–1553; and a panel in the ceiling of the Upper Hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, made around 1577–1578.
For the Scuola della Trinità, Tintoretto painted four or five pictures depicting subjects taken from the Book of Genesis, having reference to the creation of the world; of which two are preserved untouched, and now hang on either side of Titian's Assumption in the academy at Venice. These are The Death of Abel and Adam and Eve, of which William Roscoe Osler writes:The concentration of effect ... is marvellous without being violent. The influence of the antique sculptures is apparent in the figures, accompanied with a great knowledge of nature, and of the build of the human form. The landscapes also are most striking, not being allied to a great extent with the Titianesque landscape, but rather heralding a new poetic departure in art, such as probably had a deep effect upon Rubens, Rembrandt, and Turner. Traces may still be perceived in them of Schiavone's influence.