TINTORETTO

born c. 1518, , Venice died May 31, 1594, Venice The Last Supper, oil painting by Tintoretto, 1594; in the chancel, S. Giorgio Maggiore, byname of Jacopo Robusti great Mannerist painter of the Venetian school and 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 (see photograph). Increasingly concerned with the drama of light and space, he achieved in his mature work (e.g., The Law and the Golden Calf, c. 1562) a luminous, visionary quality. Additional reading For documentation of the works and an examination of the artist, see Carol Ridolfi, La vita di Giacopo Robusti detto il Tintoretto (1642), and Le maraviglie dell'arte, 2 vol. (1648; rev. by Detley Von Hadeln, 191424); Marco Boschini, La carta del navegar pitoresco (1660; ed. by Anna Pallucchini, 1966); and Antonio M. Zanetti, Della pittura veneziana . . . (1771). At some distance from the historiography of the 17th century is John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, 3 vol. (185153, reprinted 1979; abridged ed., 1960, reissued 1981), which approaches Tintoretto with a new interpretation, inaugurating the tradition of Anglo-Saxon studies. The following works have all contributed to an understanding of Tintoretto: Bernhard Berenson, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, 3rd ed. (1897); John B. Stoughton Holborn, Jacopo Robusti, Called Tintoretto (1907); Evelyn M. Phillipps, Tintoretto (1911); Francis P.B. Osmaston, The Art and Genius of Tintoretto, 2 vol. (1915); and Eric Newton, Tintoretto (1952, reissued 1972). A complete edition of the work of Tintoretto is offered in Carlo Bernari and Pierluigi de Vecchi, L'opera completa del Tintoretto (1970).