circa 1518 -1594 · Venice, dramatic light and painting in motion

Dizzying diagonals, supernatural lights and rapid gestures give Jacopo Tintoretto a narrative power that transforms each painting into spiritual theater.

Jacopo Robusti was born in Venice around 1518. His nickname, Tintoretto, means the little dyer and recalls his father's profession. He remained almost all his life in the lagoon city, where he built a career based on ambition, speed of execution and an extraordinary scenographic imagination. Tradition attributes to him the desire to unite Michelangelo's drawing with Titian's color. This formula sums up less an imitation than a project: giving bodies a sculptural energy while using the light and material specific to Venetian painting. From the 1540s, The Miracle of the Slave imposed its name. Saint Mark descends in shortcut into a crowd crossed by diagonals, as the instruments of torture break. The sacred event arises in the heart of a space seen from an unpredictable angle. Tintoretto often prepares his compositions with small figurines placed in models, which he illuminates to study shadows, backlights and perspectives. This method explains the theatrical coherence of scenes filled with dozens of figures. From 1564, he undertook the vast setting of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. For more than twenty years, walls and ceilings were covered with biblical episodes, including a monumental Crucifixion. Light is not only used to render volumes; it designates, reveals and connects actions. In its versions of The Last Supper, the table tilts in depth and the servants, angels or smoke bring everyday life into the vision. Suzanne and the old men show another mastery: the garden, the mirror, the jewelry and the hidden gazes construct a scene where beauty and threat coexist. After Titian's death, Tintoretto became with Veronese one of the main painters of Venice. His workshop, in which his children Marietta and Domenico participated in particular, responded to orders from churches, brotherhoods, palaces and portraits. He died in 1594, after having delivered with his workshop the immense Paradise of the Doge's Palace. His workshop, in which his children Marietta and Domenico participated, responded to orders from churches, brotherhoods, palaces and portraits. He died in 1594, after having delivered with his workshop the immense Paradise of the Doge's Palace. His art announces through its speed, its contrasts and its taste for effect several baroque inventions. The "Jacopo Tintoretto" selection notably compares The Miracle of the Slave and Crucifixion. His reading favors details.

In Tintoretto, light does not illuminate after action: it strikes, passes through and sets the story in motion itself.