Tintoretto

I  finally watched this SKY ARTS appreciation of the Venetian artist of the sixteenth century Tintoretto whose real name was Jacopo Robusto.

His father was a dyer (tintoro) and, as the Italians like to add “etto” or “ino”  on a surname to denote “ little”, he acquired the moniker Tintoretto.  

Even more than Titian who was jealous of him and Canaletto, Tintoretto was a painter of and from Venice. He was born, lived and died in that city.

The theme of the programme – subtitled The Rebel of Venice – was that Tintoretto was a rebel.

Although Tintoretto moved away from Titian in colour and form, he was still a painter of Biblical scenes.

Certainly like many an artist before and since he was a clever businessman and self-promoter. To get in with the renowned schools of fraternities he was prepared to undercut other artists and for some commissions charge nothing at all.

Titian who had a large studio concentrated more on being a court painter outside Venice. Veronese was a competitor but he died young. Tintoretto unlike Titian did not die in the Plague that afflicted Venice.

Personally High Renaissance biblical art is not my bag.

Give me any day a representation of street life in Delft from the Golden Age of Dutch Art.

Nonetheless I find myself admiring the sheer scale of Tintoetto’s oeuvres.

His paintings are full of people, incident, colour and I made a mental note to organise a Rust art trip to Venice to see them when and if we can travel again.

For once the presenters did not get in the way but were a knowledgeable group of academics, curators and critics from Venice and beyond.

At two hours it was on the lengthy side which is why I recorded it and took it in stages.