His father took note of Jacopo’s talent for painting at an early age. The boy had a penchant for daubing pigments on the wall of his father’s workshop in ways that were more creative than the sort of behaviour that might normally lead to a clip round the ear in such circumstances, and so, when he was about 14, his father sent him to the artist Titian (then aged 56) to see if he could be trained to make the best use of his skills.
The story goes that Titian sent him home after only ten days in his studio, on the grounds that the work Tintoretto was producing was so much better than that of his master that Titian grew jealous and refused to have him around. This is unlikely to be the real explanation, and it is far more likely that Titian recognised that the young man’s independent style was such that he had little to teach him. Tintoretto was therefore largely self-taught.
Whether or not Tintoretto regarded his treatment by Titian as a rebuff, it is clear that the two men did not get on well. Artists of the day depended on winning commissions from wealthy patrons, and Titian was out to win as many high-paying commissions as he could get. Tintoretto realised that he could get work by offering to do it for less than Titian demanded. This was hardly likely to endear Tintoretto to the older artist, or indeed to other Venetian artists on whom he pulled the same trick.
Another reason for Tintoretto’s success as an artist is that he was extremely reluctant ever to leave the city of Venice, and he was therefore on the spot when commissions came up, whereas Titian travelled all over Europe to work for foreign monarchs, the Church, and other patrons.
Tintoretto was thus able to have a successful and lucrative career as a Venetian portrait painter. Venice was at the height of its commercial and political power during the 16th century and there were many noblemen and wealthy merchants who were anxious to be immortalized in oils.
In 1550 Tintoretto married the daughter of a Venetian nobleman. The couple were very close, even to the extent that Tintoretto hated to be parted from her for more than a day at a time. It is probably also true that she wanted to keep a close eye on him. On the only occasion when Tintoretto is known to have left Venice, at the age of 62, he insisted that his wife accompany him to visit the court of the Gonzaga family at Mantua.
Tintoretto was able to work extremely quickly when the occasion demanded and this ability, together with his quick wits and opportunistic nature, stood him in very good stead when a major commission was announced, in 1564, for the decoration of the interior of the Scuola (Brotherhood) di San Rocco, a building next door to the church of San Rocco in Venice.
Four painters, including Tintoretto, were invited to present designs for the central roundel of the ceiling, which would then be considered by the committee of the Brotherhood. While the other three painters went away to work on their designs, Tintoretto measured the space in question, painted a canvas in double-quick time, and stuck the result in place. When the committee (and the other artists) protested, Tintoretto offered to give the painting to the Brotherhood for no fee. As their policy was never to turn down a gift, they had no choice but to accept it and, having done so, felt honour bound to give Tintoretto the rest of the commission, which he continued to work on for the next 24 years, including major works in the church next door.
Tintoretto’s other major work was on the Doges’ Palace, which had suffered fires in 1574 and 1577 and which was therefore in need of re-decoration. Tintoretto worked alongside Paolo Veronese (who, as his nickname suggests, was an “import” from Verona). Veronese had worked in the palace in 1553 when he first arrived in Venice, and he did not always appreciate having to share the work (and the fees) with the troublesome Tintoretto, especially after he had been robbed of a commission when the latter had offered to paint a work in Veronese’s style, at a lower fee than Veronese would have charged.
Tintoretto’s greatest and final contribution to the palace restoration was a painting on canvas entitled “Paradise” (1592). It is widely believed to be the largest painting ever done on canvas, measuring 75 feet by 30 feet. It includes hundreds of figures, many of which were painted from life. Tintoretto worked on this with his son Domenico, who was nothing like as talented as his father, and the painting’s lack of Tintoretto’s typical skill in depicting light and space might be due to that fact.
Tintoretto’s style owed much to what is termed Mannerism, which contrasted with both High Renaissance style and Baroque. The term is often used derogatively, to indicate a falling off from the classical perfection of the Renaissance towards an emphasis on structure at the expense of naturalism. Thus limbs might be extended to unnatural lengths or figures placed in strange positions if that suited the artist’s conception of how the painting should be structured.
If Tintoretto’s works sometimes appear “stagey” there is a very good reason for that. He often designed a work by making model figures out of wax that could be twisted into the desired shapes and placed on a board, with flying figures suspended from wires. He would therefore produce something that looked like a stage set from a model theatre, complete with lighting effects, and he would then paint what he saw.
Tintoretto’s use of light had a lot to do with living in Venice. It was customary for heavy shutters to be used to shield inhabitants from the bright Italian sun, but the light that entered rooms would then be diffuse and often be bounced up from the water of Venice’s many canals. This meant that the colours that Tintoretto saw and reproduced would glow but be muted, such as dull gold, crimson, mulberry and sea green, and there would only rarely be a direct light source. The overall effect is fluid and dreamlike, but without the physical immediacy that one associates with Titian.
Tintoretto died on 31st May 1594. He was buried alongside his daughter Marietta who had inherited some of her father’s talent as an artist but had died in 1590 aged about 30. Tintoretto’s name lives on as that of one of the greats of Italian post-Renaissance art.
© John Welford
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