Tintoretto

Commissions at any price

Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, is born on September 29, 1518 in Venice. Next to Veronese he is the most active artist in Venice in the second half of the 16th century. Il Tintoretto is Italian for ‘the dyer’s boy’ and refers to his father’s trade.

His mentor and role model is Titian. He is first employed in Titian’s workshop but his master, quick to recognise Tintoretto’s potentially extraordinary talent, dismisses him out of jealousy. Tintoretto soon makes a name for himself and completely redefines traditional spatial construction such as that of Bellini. His representations of the human body drawn from the study of ancient sculpture and Michelangelo’s work become famous.

But his notoriety is not only the result of his new painting style. Anecdotes from the time reveal his obsession with bagging commissions, which he accepts for a lower fee than is needed to produce them, much to the disgruntlement of his colleagues. This way of working certainly doesn’t make him any wealthier. Tintoretto dies in Venice on May 31, 1594.