Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/213

 182 TINTORETTO. acquaintance with the sijmctnre and anatomy of the human fonn. He was unquestionably one of the most power- fol and original of painters; his fa- cility was so great that Sehastiano del Piombo said, that Tintoretto could paint as much in two days as would occupy him two years : his great rapi- dity of execution acquired him the nickname of II Fuiioso. Though his pictures exhibit none of the rehgious feeling or simple reverence peculiar to the earlier masters of the quaitro- cenioy they are conceiyed with a force of thought, a grandeur and vigour of imagination, and rendered with so powerful an application of light and shade and colour, that they bring a new element of delight before the mind, the infinite skill of the artist when impelled by a determined will, far more worthy of our admiration than a paralysed asceticism. Tintoretto sur- passed Titian in effects of light and shade, and in an occasional purity or ideality of form, but his drawing was ▼ery often sketchy and incorrect, and isxtremely mannered. His early works, though generally slight in treatment, are in some instances elaborately finished, and are more glowing in colour tiian some of his later produc- tions, which, owing to his habitual im- petuosity of execution, are dead in colour, and in form careless, incorrect, and mannered. The Venetians used to say he had three pencils — one of gold, one of silver, and a third of iron. His style is generally purely sensuous, and vast masses of figures are fre- quently grouped for the mere sake of such material surfaces or eontrasts: " he fails," says Eugler, ^ to fairly dis- tribute the interest of the subject, so as to make all the figures duly parti- cipate in the spirit of the action as a whole.'* The Crucifixion in the Scuola di San Rocco, engraved by Agostino Garracci; the Miracolo dello Schiavo, in the Academy; and the Marriage at Cana, in the church of Santa Maria della Salute, are three of the finest examples of Tintoretto's powers at Venice, and the only pictures to which he put his name. The Scuola di San Rocco still possesses a complete gal- lery of Tintoretto's, including several of his best works. He was very great as a portrait-painter: his facihty and force give surprising life to his pic- tures of this dass; he was the favourite of the Venetians : Vasari says he exe- cuted the greater part of the portraits painted at Venice in his time. Vasari states that Tintoretto was in the habit of painting at once on the canvas, without making any drawing or other preparation : on one occasion of a com- petition, with the chief painters of Venice, when the day was fixed for the sketches, Tintoretto sent in his finished picture, while the others sent only sketches. His rapidity and low prices were a frequent cause of complaint with his fellow-painters. He was so ambitious, and at the same time liberal, that on occasions of difficulty, he has presented his works rather than not see them in their destined places. His son, Domenico, h, 1562, d. 1637, followed the steps of his father, in style and subjects ; but says Lanzi, as As- canius did those of ^neas, non pastitnu aquis. His daughter. Marietta, b. 1560, d. 1590, painted some excellent por- traits. Worki, Venice, at the close of the last century, contained about 200 oil- pictures in the public buildings by Tintoretto; his frescoes have nearly all perished; his earliest works were those in the Scuola dei Sartori, and Santa Gaterina; and the latest^ those in Santa Maria Maggiore; the most extraordinaiy display is still afforded by the Scuola di San Rocco : in the Aca- demy are, the Miracle of St. Mark; Christ on the Cross; the ReBurreotioii