Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/807

 TINTORETTO

737

TINTORETTO

possessions, both from the taxation-roll of 1291, and clergy of Santa Maria dell' Orto to paint two large

at the time of the Dissolution under Henry VIII, are pictures for that church (49 feet high, by 19 feet 6

given in detail by Dugdale. The accounts submitted inches wide), asking no payment but what would

by the last abbot, Richard Wych, in 1,535, place the cover their cost. His offer was eagerly accepted, and

net income at under £200 a year; and the abbey, con- Robusti painted the "Adoration of the Golden Calf"

taining at that time thirteen monks, was suppressed under the Act of 1536 which dissolved the smaller monasteries. The king granted it in 1537 to Henry, Earl of Worcester, in whose family (afterwards dukes of Beaufort) it remained until the sale of his Mon- mouthshire property by the ninth duke, when it was acquired by the Crown.

The rums of Tintern, which stands on the right bank of the river Wye, backed by a semicircle of wooded hills, rank with Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire as the most beautiful in England. The church, meas-

and the "Last Judgment ". In this rapidly executed and spirited work he displayed a precocious virtuosity, assembling in a tumultuous whole a great number of figures with agitated gestures and attitudes. His aim was to attract public attention and in this he fully succeeded. He painted several other pictures for this church, in which his talent, having grown more confi- dent, shows more poise. These were: "St. Peter ven- erating the Cross"; "The Martyrdom of St. Paul"; "St. Agnes recalhng to hfe the Prefect's Son"; the "Presentation of the Blessed Virgin". His latest

uring 245 feet in length, with transepts of 110 feet, is pictures were painted for the Ducal Palace and the almost perfect, though rootlo.'ss, the architecture being Confraternitj-of San Rocco (.Sc?/o/firfiSo«iJocco). For

the Diigcs' Palace he first

Portrait of Tixtoretto, by Himself UiEzi Galierj'. Florence He played well

of the transitional style from Early English to Decoraud. The window-tracerj' is ej^pe- cially fine. Hardly anything remains of the domestic build- ings of the abbey, the stone having been used for cottages and farm buildings in the neighbourhood.

DuGDALE. Moiiastuon A-nglicanum (London, 1823). 265-274; Tanxek. NotUia Monaslica (London, 17S8i : Monm. XIV; WiLUS. His'orie •,; Ahbits. II (Ixjndon, 1719). 142. .■^2^: Leland, Collectanea, ed. Hi sunk (London. 1770). I. 101; Gasqi et. The Greater Abbeys of Englnii.l (London. 1908), 190-197; Heath, Tintern Abbey (London. 17931; Cooper, Archileclural Reliques of Great Britain (London, 18071: Thomas. Tinlerne and its ricinity described (London. 1839).

D. O. Hunter-Blair.

Tintoretto, II (Jacopo Robusti), Italian painter, b. at Venice, 1518; d. there 1,'594. His father was a dyer; hence his surname of Tintoretto (the little dyer). In his early youth he displayed an extraor- dinary taste for the fine art on the harp, but his aptitude for painting was still more pronounced. His parents made him an ap- prentice of the aged Titian, but Jacopo, eager to distinguish himself, soon set up a studio of his own. His ambition was nothing less than to transform Venetian painting by adding to its distinguishing qualities of brilliantly harmonious colouring and pleas- ant grace of form the merits of the Florentine and Roman Schools, a knowledge of anatomy which excels in the nude, dramatic nit.se en scene, a pose full of movement, a vigorous contrast of light and shade. According to his biographer, C. Ridolfi, he sum- marized his ideal in the ambitious formula: "The drawing of Michelangelo and the colouring of Titian" (II disegno di Michelangelo, il colorito del Tiziano). To fit himself for carrj-ing out this magnificent but difficult programme Robusti devoted himself to unremitting labour. He studied the ancient statues; he had sent to him from Florence the reduc- tions which Daniel of Volterra had made in plaster of Michelangelo's masterpieces, "Dawn", "Noonday", "Twilight", and "Xight"; he drew incessantly from the living model or the draped lay figure; he dissected dead bodies; he worked not only by sunlight but also by the flicker of torches in order to master the varied play of light. This intense labour was not fruitless. Being gifted with wonderful facility he executed a countless number of works, and even tr> the end of his life sustained a veritable fever of production.

In order to make himself known he proposed to the XIV.— 47

pamted four scenes from the hfe of St. Mark (now scat- tered). The most remarkable is the "Miracle of St. Mark" (the saint releasing a slave about to be tortured), painted in 1.548, which is now in the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts. Robusti's eminent qualities as a draughtsman, colourist, and composer are most happily combined and harmonized in this picture. Other jiictures painted for the Sala dello Scrutinio perished in the fire of 1577. But the Ducal Pahico still preserves many of his works. As ex- amples of phistic beauty so popular at that time may be mentioned: "PalLas in chase of Mars"; "Ariadne crowned by Venus"; "St. George over- coming the Dragon"; "The Marriage of St. Catharine". In this line he succeeiled but without excelling, for his man- ner is not free from heaviness. Among the historic paintings may be mentioned: "The legates of the Pope and the Doge at Pavia before Frederick Barbarossa"; the "Defence of Brescia in 1483"; the "Capture of Gallipoh in 1484"; "Venice, Queen of the Sea".

In 1560 the Confraternity of San Rocco near the church of that name opened a contest for the decora- tion of a central ceihng whereon the "(llorific;ition of St. Rocco" was to be depicted. Tintoretto had for- midable competitors: Paolo Verones(% (iiuseppe Sal- viati, Federigo Zuccaro. Instead of submitting the required sketch, Tintoretto, with his feverish ardour, in a short time completed a picture which he quickly put in place. It pleased the Brothers of St. Rocco, who confided to him the entire decoration, to the great displeasure of his rivals, who were offende<l by the in- delicacy of the proceeding. Tintoretto worked on this vast undertaking from 1.560 to 1594. It consists of 56 compositions, many of them, such as the "Cal- vary", of colossal size. "It disphiys such fulness of light, such a triumphant blossoming of genius and success, that one comes away from it as from too full and loud a concert, half deafened, missing the pro- portion of things and not knowing whether to believe one's senses" (Taine). Tintoretto also painted pictures for several Venetian churches, the chief of which were the "Crucifixion" and the "Resurrec- tion" at San Cassiano, the "Marri.oge Fea.st of Cana" at Santa Maria della Salute, the "Baptism of Christ" at San Silveatro, the "Last Supper" at San Giorgio