Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.

  • Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 1794-1860.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was Jacopo Robusti. His father was a dyer (in Italian, Tin- tore) ; hence he received in childhood the diminutive nick- name 1! Tintoretto, by which he is best known to us. He began, like many other painters whose genius we have recorded, by drawing all kinds of objects and figures on the walls of his father’s house. The dyer, being a man of sense, did not attempt to oppose his son’s predilection for Art, but procured for him the best instruction his means would allow, and even sent him to study under Titian. This did not avail him much, for that most excellent painter was by no means a good instructor. Tintoretto, however, did not lose courage ; he pur- sued his studies, and after a few years set up an academy of his own, and on the wall of his painting-room he placed the following inscription, as being expressive of the principles he in- tended to follow: “II disegno di Michel Agnolo: il colorito di Tiziano ” (the drawing of Michael Angelo, and the coloring of Titian). Tintoretto was a man of extraordinary talent, un- equalled for the quickness of his invention and the facility and rapidity of his execution ; with an original, often eccentric, way of treating his subjects which set religious convention- alities at naught. I remember, as instances, an Annuncia- tion, in which the Angel Gabriel, instead of approaching in the usual manner, comes rushing down from heaven into the presence of the Virgin Mary with a whole host of attendant spirits ; and no one who has seen his Christ before Pilate, in the [Scuola di S. Rocco] at Venice, will ever forget that pale pa- thetic figure. It frequently happened that he would not give himself the trouble to make any design or sketch for his pic- ture, .but composed as he went along, throwing his figures on the canvas, and painting them in at once, with wonderful power and truth, considering the little time and pains they cost him. But this want of study was fatal to his real great- ness. He is the most unequal of painters. In his composi- tions we find often the grossest faults in close proximity with the highest beauty. How he would paint a picture almost equal to Titian ; then produce one so coarse and careless that it seemed to justify Titian’s expression of a “ dauber.” He abused his mechanical power by the utmost recklessness of pencil; but then, again, his wonderful talent redeemed him, and he would enchant his fellow-citizens by the gran- deur, the dramatic vivacity, the gorgeous colors, and the luxu-