Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) (1518-1594)

Italian painter, b. at Venice, 1518; d. there 1594. His father was a dyer; hence his surname of Tintoretto (the little dyer). In his early youth he displayed an extraordinary taste for the fine arts. He played well on the harp, but his aptitude for painting was still more pronounced. His parents made him an apprentice of the aged Titian, but Jacopo, eager to distinguish himself, soon set up a studio of his own. His ambition was nothing less than to transform Venetian painting by adding to its distinguishing qualities of brilliantly harmonious colouring and pleasant grace of form the merits of the Florentine and Roman schools, a knowledge of anatomy which excels in the nude, dramatic mise en scene, a pose full of movement, a vigorous contrast of light and shade. According to his biographer, C. Ridolfi, he summarized his ideal in the ambitious formula: "The drawing of Michelangelo and the colouring of Titian" (Il disegno di Michelangelo, il colorito del Tiziano). To fit himself for carrying out this magnificent but difficult programme Robusti devoted himself to unremitting labour. He studied the ancient statues; he had sent to him from Florence the reductions which Daniel of Volterra had made in plaster of Michelangelo's masterpieces, "Dawn", "Noonday", "Twilight", and "Night"; he drew incessantly from the living model or the draped lay figure; he dissected dead bodies; he worked not only by sunlight but also by the flicker of torches in order to master the varied play of light. This intense labour was not fruitless. Being gifted with wonderful facility he executed a countless number of works, and even to the end of his life sustained a veritable fever of production. - Malaspina Biography

Books from Alibris: Tintoretto