Tintoretto

He married Faustina de Vescovi in 1550 and the couple probably had seven children- two boys and five girls.

His daughter Marietta Robusti was probably born out of his affair with a German woman.

On May 31, 1594 he died and was buried beside his darling daughter Marietta in the ‘Madonna dell'Orto’ church.

He was born sometime in late September or early October, 1518 in Venice as the eldest son of a cloth dyer ( also called a tintore) Giovanni Battista Robusti among twenty-one children. He thus got his nickname Tintoretto which means the ‘the dyer’s boy’ or the ‘little dyer’.

When the young Jacopo started scribbling and sketching the walls of the dyer, his knack for drawing was noticed by his father who sometime around 1533 took him to the famous painter Titian.

Titian however sent Tintoretto back for good after only ten days of training. Hypothetically two possibilities of such action of Titian did the rounds, that he became envious seeing the fabulous productions of the young artist or that Jacopo’s art reflected such independent manner that he might not become a proper pupil.

Though he remained an enthusiast of Titian’s work, he never became Titian’s acquaintance, while Titian and his followers maintained a refrained attitude towards him.

His untiring zeal led him learn the art on his own while living poorly and practicing with the few tools like bas-reliefs and casts that he could collect.

From around 1539 he began working independently as a painter. He started getting commission from churches, civic buildings and from the Venetian elites and worked on several altarpieces, portraits and mythological scenes.

His body of work is mostly marked with startling and theatrical gestures, muscular characters with a clear and resolute viewpoint. The use of light and colour in his paintings exemplifies conventional ‘Venetian School’ of paintings. Though his independent style of work set him apart, his work was often linked with Mannerist style of painting prevalent during the Late Renaissance.

To perceive the effect of light and shadow in his paintings that involved theatrical scenes with several figures in motion, he used to build up the scenes creating small stages with clay and wax figures.

Some of his early works including two mural paintings; ‘Cavalry Fight’ and ‘Belshazzar's Feast’ and a painting of him along with his brother are no more.

In 1546 he worked in the church ‘Madonna dell’Orto’ and produced three prominent paintings, ‘Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple’, ‘Last Judgment’ and ‘Worship of the Golden Calf’.

The most distinguished and memorable painting of his life remains his magnanimous production, ‘Paradise’ for the ‘Sala del Gran Consiglio’ of the Doges' Palace. It remains the most enormous painting ever done on a canvas with a size of 22.6 x 9.1 metres. A miniature sketch of the colossal painting that was offered by him as a proposal is at the ‘Louvre Museum’ in Paris and work on the main painting was initiated sometime in 1588 after receiving commission.

His later works contained more mysterious and darker displays exemplified by one of his masterpieces, the ‘Last Supper’ that he worked on from 1592 to 1594 for the church of ‘San Giorgio Maggiore’. The painting exhibits Christ and the apostles assemble around a table in a dark and shadowy hall while the adoring angels fill up the air subtly highlighting the darkness of the hall.