around 1518 -1594 · Venice, mannerism and theater of light

Bold shortcuts, dazzling diagonals and supernatural lights make Tintoretto the great director of Venice.

Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, was born in Venice around 1518 and died there in 1594. His nickname comes from his father's profession as a dyer. Trained in the Venetian culture of color and deeply marked by Titian, he also seeks the anatomical and monumental energy of Michelangelo. This ambition produces an immediately recognizable language: accelerated perspectives, figures seen in shortcut, diagonals, backlighting and luminous apparitions transform the religious story into theater. Installed almost all his life in Venice, Tintoretto worked for brotherhoods, churches, patricians and the Doge's palace. From 1564, Tintoretto worked for brotherhoods, churches, patricians and the Doge's Palace. his major laboratory; he organizes ceilings and walls there as a total experience. An incisive portraitist, he also captures age, rank and intelligence with remarkable economy of means. The Self-Portrait directly confronts the viewer, while Suzanne at the bath pits luminous flesh against the invisible threat of old people. Paradise destined for the Doge's Palace displays a celestial crowd on a Republic scale. After the death of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese dominate Venetian painting; his vast workshop, in which his children Marietta and Domenico participate, ensures large commissions. His freedom of touch and his sense of spectacle announce the baroque in places. The "Tintoretto Tintoretto" selection notably compares The Coronation of the Virgin, known as Paradise, and Suzanne in the Bath. His reading favors the story.

Tintoretto not only describes the event: it places the viewer in the trajectory of light and drama.