Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-94) is an ambiguous figure in the history of art. His radically
unorthodox paintings are not readily classifiable and although he was Venetian by birth his
claim to be truly a member of the Venetian School has often been doubted. As a youth he was
rejected early on from the workshop of the great Titian who was accepted then as now as the
quintessential Venetian painter. In the long career that nonetheless followed Tintoretto
abandoned the humanist narratives and sensual colour values typical of Titians work in favour
of a renewed concentration on core Christian subjects. He painted these in a chiaroscuro-based
style using a rough and abbreviated technique. Writers such as Giorgio Vasari and John Ruskin
interpreted Tintorettos opposition to the artistic practice of his time as an aspect of
personal eccentricity or spirituality. Jean-Paul Sartre saw the painter as the son of an
artisan . . . attacking the patrician aesthetics of fixity and being. These oversimplified and
a-historical interpretations mean that Tom Nicholss re-assessment of Tintorettos place in the
history of art is long overdue. Nichols shows how the artist created a new manner of painting
which for all its originality and sophistication made its first appeal to the shared emotions
of the widest-possible viewing audience. This generously illustrated book now available in a
compact pocket format and featuring 16 added illustrations and a new Afterword by the author
charts the artists life and work in the context of Venetian art and the culture of the
Cinquecento. The book deals extensively with Tintorettos greatest works including the
paintings at the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice.
