Tintoretto (1518–1594)

Venetian painter who produced portraits and religious works of great intensity. Outstanding among his many works is a series of religious works in the Scuola di S Rocco in Venice (1564–88), the dramatic figures lit by a flickering, unearthly light, the space around them distorted into long perspectives. Among his best-known works is St George and the Dragon (c.1570; National Gallery, London).

He was born in Venice, the son of a dyer, hence the name Tintoretto (‘little dyer’). He studied under Titian, and was strongly influenced by Michelangelo: it is commonly claimed that his motto was ‘Michelangelo's drawing, and Titian's colour’. His works are characterized by broad and dramatic composition, fine draughtsmanship, and a superb use of colour, the scenes spectacularly lit and full of movement.

His works include the Miracle of St Mark Rescuing a Slave (1548; Accademia, Venice); his lives of Christ and the Virgin for the Scuola di S Rocco (including the vast Christ before Pilate and The Last Supper); his Paradise (1588), for the Doge's Palace; his St George and the Dragon, which demonstrates his characteristic originality in depicting figures in rushing movement; and The Origin of the Milky Way (after 1570; National Gallery, London), one of the finest of his allegories.

He also painted a large number of portraits, such as the Doge Mocenigo (Accademia, Venice), Self-Portrait (Louvre, Paris), and Vincenzo Morosini (National Gallery, London). Other works, apart from his religious works on a decorative scale, include Susanna and the Elders (Accademia, Vienna).

The characteristic qualities of his works – a wonderfully dramatic sense of movement, space, and lighting – were in part aided by his use of small wax models which he grouped inside a box to create a stagelike setting, changing the figures, lighting, and setting to explore different effects.

Tintoretto spent almost all his career in Venice, where he maintained a busy workshop producing a vast output of religious paintings, portraits, and a number of allegorical and mythological subjects. His son Domenico (c. 1560–1635) was his assistant in his later works and carried on his workshop, in which another son, Marco (1561–1637), and his daughter, Marietta (c. 1556–1590), were also trained.