Tintoretto

(Jacopo Robusti, 1518-1594)

   Venetian painter, usually associated with the mannerist tradition and known for his portraits and religious paintings. He was the only major figure of the Venetian school of painting actually born in Venice. The identity of his teacher is un-known, but by 1539 he was an independent master. He closely studied the works of Michelangelo and also those of his Venetian contemporary Titian. Tintoretto's first important work was the Miracle of St. Mark Rescuing a Slave (1548), painted for a Venetian confraternity, the Scuola di San Marco. He produced several other paintings of St. Mark for this confraternity. In 1564 he executed The Apotheosis of St. Roch in the chapel of that saint's confraternity, and the following year he created his most important painting, the Crucifixion. He produced several other paintings for the confraternity of St. Roch and became a member him-self. The best known of these is his Christ Before Pilate (1566-1567). Tintoretto's last major work, The Last Supper (1592-1594), when com-pared with the painting on the same subject by Leonardo da Vinci, pro-vides a striking example of the difference between a High Renaissance and a mannerist treatment of the same theme. He also painted many por-traits, including one of himself.