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To not deface books by marks and writ! n^^ DEC 1 mi ^ My 3^4 32 arV18135 Tintoretto / Cornell University Ubrary 4 031 236 916 S.^ Cornell University B 'ly Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031236916 ILLUSTRATED 'BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT Q^RTISTS. J AGO PO ROBUST] CALLED TINTORETTO. ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS. The following volumes, each illustrated with from 14 to 20 Engramng!, are nov ready, price 3^. dd. Those marked with an asterisk are 2S. oa. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. By»F. S. Pulling, M.A. WILLIAM HOGARTH. By Austin Dobson. GAINSBOROUGH and CONSTABLE. By G. Erock-Arnold, M.A. LAWRENCE AND ROMNEY.* By Lord Ronald Gower, F.S.A. TURNER. By Cosmo Monkhouse SIR DAVID WILKIE. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. SIR EDWIN LANDSEER. By F. G. Stephens. GIOTTO. By Harry Quilter, M.A. FRA ANGELICO and BOTTICELLI. By C. M. Phillimore. FRA BARTOLOMMEO and ANDREA DEL SARTO. By Leader Scq-.t MANTEGNA and FRANCIA. By Julia Cartwright. GHIBERTI AND DONATELLO.* By Leader Scott. LUCA DELLA ROBBIA and CELLINI.* By Leader Scott. LEONARDO DA VINCL By Dr. J. Paul Richter. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTL By Charles Cl£.ment. RAPHAEL. By N. D'Anvers. TITIAN. By R. F. Heath, M.A. TINTORETTO. By W. R. Osler. CORREGGIO.* By M. Compton Heaton. VELAZQUEZ. By E. Stowe, M.A. MURILLO.* By Ellen E. Minor. ALBRECHT DiiRER. By R. F. Heath, M.A. THE LITTLE MASTERS OF GERMANY. By W. B. ScoTT HANS HOLBEIN. By Joseph Cundall. OVERBECK. By J. Beavington Atkinsoh. REMBRANDT. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. RUBENS. By C. W. Kett, M.A. VAN DYCK and HALS. By P. R. Head, B.A. FIGURE PAINTERS of HOLLAND. By Lord Ronald Gowkr, F.S.A. CLAUDE LORRAIN. By Owen J. Dullea. WATTEAU. By J. W. Mollett, B.A. VERNET and DELAROCHE. By J. RuuTZ Rees. MEISSONIER.* By J. W. Mollett, B.A. TINTORETTO. I'rom the portrait by himself, in the Louvre. ' The whole world without Art would be one great wilderness!' TINTORETTO BY W. ROSCOE OSLER, A TEACHER OF DRAWING IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SCHOOL, LONDON; AUTHOR OF OCCASIONAL ESSAYS ON ART. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, Ltd. St. §nnBisin'» ^oust Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 1893 (AU rig his reserved.) iiithard Clay cfc Sonsi Lh)\ited, London tt £u7t(/a% PREFACE, THERE is no separate biography of Tintoretto in English with which the author is acquainted. In compiling this brief essay he has received very valuable assistance from Dr. Hubert Janitschek's Biography of Tin- toret in the German work " Kunst und Kiinstler," edited by Dr. R. Dohme ; from M. Charles Blanc's " Histoiro des Peintres de toutes les Ecoles;" from the interesting work of the old Italian, Cavalier Carlo Ridolfi — the "Maraviglie dell' Arte;'' and from the writings of Mr. Ruskin. With regard to these last works, there is no need here to point out the profound knowledge of the art of Tiatoret which they contain. The writer has endeavoured to keep clear of technical matters which would not have been generally serviceable ; and in the few remarks he has ventured to make with respect to the great subject of creative art^ his chief aim has been to present to those who arc unacquainted with the matter in question a few of the problems with which the artist has to deal. In treating exclusively of creative art, a condition essential to the subject of the book, VI I'REFACK. he desires in no way to utter one syllable against any school or principle which is not distinctly specified. He wishes this little book to be an assistance to those who may desire to«study the works of Tintoretto, and not to serve as a vehicle for a didnctic expression of his own views. The illustrations — of which there are fewer in this volume than will appear in others of the present series — may assist as remembrances of the leading features of jiictures for those who have seen the original works, and a.s guides to those who have yet to make acquaintance with them. W. R. 0. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Page On the Creative Element in Venetian Painting . . . i 1 CHAPTER II. Biography of Tintoretto — Early Period ... .13 CHAPTER III. Personal Characteristics of Tintoret ...... 31 CHAPTER IV. The Work of Tintoretto in the Churches at Venice . . 44 CHAPTER V. The Scuola of San Rucco iO CHAPTER VI. Tlie I'ulucc of the Doges ........ 63 CHAPTER VII. A few concluding thoughts , 81 Notes .... 89 List of Paintings by Tintoretto 91 Exhibitions of the Worlts of the Old Masters .... 97 Chronology of Tintoretto's Life , , . . 99 Index . . - , r . , . . . 100 LIST OP ILLUSTKATIONS. ragt Jacopo Rubusli, Piirtrait of . , }<'rontispuce. The Miracle of tlie Slave {two pages) . 2'J The Marriage at Cana .... 45 The Eutombment (too ^a^'cs) . 48 Doge Paseale Cioonia .... 50 The Crucifixion {two pages) 59 Diogenes ..... r.j The Betrolhal of St. Catherine . . 08 TINTORETTO. CHAPTER T. ON THE CREATIVE ELEMENT IN VENETIAN PAIXTINO. " Nevertheless, wishing each party to retain his o\vn si>ecial persuasionsi, so far as they are honest, and adapted to his intellectual position, national or individual, we cannot but believe that thei-e is an inward and essential Truth in Art ; a Truth far deeper than the dictates of mere Modes, and which, could we pierce through thuse dictates, would be true for all nations and all men." — Carltle's Es^mj mi Goethe. FROM the early part of the thirteenth century, after the conquests of Venice in the East, especially the con- quest of Constantinople, Greek work — antique bas-reliefs and sculpture — ^were extensively brought to Venice by her art-loviijg inhabitants. Modern Greek artists were also attracted to the powerful city on the sea. Moreover, in the fourteenth century the influence of Griotto became impressed upon those who had seen his work at Padua and' Verona. Gradually, under these influences, the first elements of a native school of painters in Venice were festered. In the fifteenth century the school included painters whose work universally attracts the attention of those who are interested in art. Gentile da Fabriano visited Venice, took up his abode there, and was entrusted b a TINTOKETTO. with the painting of the Palace of the Doges. He was there assisted by Jacopo Bellini, the father of the two great Bellinis ; while the names of the more eminent native painters encouraged by Fabriano's influence commence with that of the family of Vivarini. From this period the school of Venice becomes divided into two great ages or periods, the one mainly comprised in the fifteenth century, and the other ending its existence with the death of Tin- toret in 1594. After this event, rapid and fatal signs of decline set in, nor does the old power ever again reappear in Venice. When painting was gradually reviving t^iroughout Italy, and its results were assembled here and there before the eyes of a people whose power of insight was very highly endowed, the true dignity of the aim of painting was at once shown in Venice. The painter's work was devoted at first, almost without exception, to an outward embodi- ment in his pictures of those harmonies with which the inward faith was imbued which existed in the general mind. Considered on their artistic side, the means by which the earlier Venetian painters embodied their ideas were characterized by a subtle, very graceful,.though occasionally timid method of rendering. This method was quite pecu- liar, in its foundation upon harmoniously completed hue, to the painting of Venice. The names of the painters that will interest the general reader, after a definitely established tradition of Vene- tian art had developed itself, commence, as has been already said, with the family of the Vivarini. Members of this family, came prominently forward in the island of Murano (which lies to the north of the city), at the THE BROTHERS BEIXINI. 3 boginning of I4OO. Following them, and bringing to Vouice the lessons which they had derived during a training on the mainland, and especially at Padua, appear the two brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. These painters succeeded in impressing upon the paintings of their school the traces of that refined and vigorous beauty which in- sured for it the position from which the Venetian school will never be removed. It was by the influence of Giovanni Bellini especially, an influence of the most beneficial kind, that the technical element of the Venetian school became deeply tinged, inaugurating that gold-toned eSect which became traditional to the school until its last two phases under Paul Veronese and Tintoretto. The remaining names of importance that find their place during the first period of the school are those of Victor Carpaccio and Cima of Conegliano, both of whom produced work charac- terized by a completeness that was often quite faithful to the delicate outside structure of natural imagery. Lastly must be mentioned Marco Basaiti, a painter of Greek de- scent, whose style was somewhat nearly allied with that of Giovanni Bellini. The ethical value of the work of these men and their fellows in Art consisted chiefly in the fact that the spiritual element which asserted its sympathy with a time-honoured faith in the reality of the Madonna, manifested to them the harmonies connected with a visual image that was appro- priate to her essential nature, and fully responded to the general devout ideal. But in embodying these inward harmonies in their pictures, the painters of this first group depended more or less exclusively upon a simple reference to the aspect of outward nature, as a means of translating their mental life into painting. 4 TINTORKTTO. Wo find, moreover, In their works, that the ^opyable parts of nature are often rendered as perfectly as they can be painted, A bird, a field of strawberry-plants in blossom and in fruit, a spray of leaves, or a girl's face, in Bellini's work, cannot perhaps be exceeded in perfection. But when their attention was directed, to those subjects -which do not find even dim analogies in the outwardly k visible scene — subjects of the highest truth and importance in connection with their faith, such as the 'Paradise,' for example— we find in their work traces of imperfection or weakness with which, doubtless, the painters themselves were well .conversant. With regard also to events — reli"- gious, historical, domestic — which demanded ' not only a sympathy with, but a profound command over, the forms of energetic and intermingled action ; and, in general, with regard to those elements which do not admit of a con- tinuously applied study, on account of their swift move- ment, or transiency, or other cause — we find that the work of the earlier painters does not attain to that truth which it displays in such subjects as the simple bended head of the Madonna, relieved in the quiet twilight. It is clea]; that there was some breath of power withheld as yet. But among a few of the pupils of the Bellinis, probably first definitely asserting its claims to them in presence of the antique sculpture, the creative power of the mind, was beginning to shadow forth its influence with a greater inten-' sity. The note of the recognition of this power was a per- ception that the visual faculties of the mind, which picture with their wonderful power in presence of external nature, possess not only this great gift, but are endowed with an allied inner visionary poetic power as well. The great masters perceived that the outward embodiment in Art of GIOEGIONE, PALMA, AND TITIAN. picfnrcs that were determined by tliia inward feeling, con- tained modifications of the image in the outward scene. The harmonious lineaments of form, or equipoise of action, that were seen at rare or sudden moments in nature, struck tl"ue and pure notes on an extended scale within the mind. The mental power of the painters in the second group of the Venetian school became gradually less anxious to depict again in Art the beauty that is so supreme at a given moment in Nature, than to announce the report of that clue within itself, by whose assistance the multitude of natural phenomena became marshalled in intelligible vision, and the impressions of reverence which they called forth were decisively sounded. ,^ The name of Giorgione, a pupil of Gio. Bellini, com- Vmences the second group. It was through his initiative that the ideal powers became the painters' guide in this school, and associated in their reverential analysis of the beauty of creation the unrivalled hues of the school of Venice with some elements of design of Lionardo da Vinci and the Greeks. Griorgione made very rapid progress ; and though he died in 1511, at the age of thirty-four years, he had laid the foundation of his work firmly. Palma the older, and Titian, followed close upon him. Titian was born in 1477, about the same time as Giorgione, and worked as a fellow pupU with him under the same master, /'Gio. Bellini. But Titian was much more deliberate and ! gradual in his progress than Giorgione. The three painters I Giorgio Barbarelli, Ja«opo Palma Vecchio ("the elder"), ^ and Tiziano Vecellio, proceeded simultaneously under an intuitional guidance that led them into the same fields of harmony. The other names of important rank in this second goup R TINTOKETTO. are those of Bonifazio, a fine painter whose work holds a place between Palma and Titian ; Jloretto and Moroni, very accomplished pupils of Titian ; Pordenone and Paris Bordone, good painters of a lesser rank ; Paul Veronese, the brilliant depictor of the drama and pageantry of human life ; and Jacopo Tintoretto. Of this group it is usually said — emphatically though vaguely — first, that its achieve- ments eclipsed those of its predecessors ; and secondly, that in the work of Tintoretto are to be observed the first signs of its decadence. With regard to the first portion of this criticism of our excellent guide-books, it may be said that in the eyes of serious students of art the qualities of the earlier painters preserve their individual excellences and truth in face of these later achievements of a more extended character. Indeed, an indiscriminate depreciation of one period at the expense of the other, is a readily conceived sophistry, against the influence of which the reader will do well to guard himself. The last development of the second age of the Venetian school before its decadence was comprised in the work of Tintoretto. But not with the name of this supreme artist is to be associated the downfall of the Venetian school. Rather was it that from those " Organic haiT)s diversely framed, That tremble into thouglit as o'er them sweeps, Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze," ' that breeze having reached its climax, henceforth ebbed in fitful gusts further and further away. No arbitrary choice asserts for Tintoretto a somewhat solitary position among the painters of the second group. ' Coleridge. TUE SPIRIT Of Tintoretto's work. 7 Ho had studied the work of the older painters, who had made simple reference to the external scene, with attempts at faithfal imagery of it. He had watched and worked with those whose avowed aim. was to reach again the Greek perfection, by the assembling together of chosen beauties in Nature, to be studied in the light of the har- monies of an intellectual ideal. But he devoted his own life to the creation of an array of work, unprecedented in its extent, that was referred finally to the particular pro- vinces of that poetic world, which involved more extended problemn.than had been solved in painting. Tintoretto's avowed endeavour was to depict the embodiment of that intellectual world which united a grasp over the mental world of Michelangelo with a capacity for depicting the splendour of colour harmony that had been revealed by tlie genius of Titian. Titian's conceptions, majestic as they were, were guided in their expression by an artistic limitation or completion, a holding back from problems that were to Tintoret his life's aim. This completedness of Titian finds a closer analogy in the achievements of Greek Art than does the work of Tintoret. For though during his labour and toil, Tintoret accepted from Nature a help similar to Titian's"^ experience, his imagination required less and less in the work of his maturity, guidance for its embodiment, from the previous achievements of human Art. His creations pre-eminently owed their existence to his intuitional life, which flooded the external world in its glow, and may be compared in this character not unfittingly as a means of illustration with the writings of Dante. These writings, moreover, were to him the object of a profound study. With regard to the truth and value residing in the 8 TINTORETTO. poetic power, it may be remembered, that far from the faithful imagery of outward Nature being more truthful than an adaptation of that imagjery by the mind's inmost harmonies, the original of Nature herself is but an ever- varying appeal to this origin that is" united with a still more boundless shore, where, crossing and re-crossing in the harmonies of thought,, of music, or of visual power, may be traced the rippling of infinity. The original power of poetic thought has more fre- quently been opeuly recognized in the part that it takes in the production of musical and poetic creations. But the organization of plastic form belongs to its nature, as de- finitely as its control over the other harmonies. It co- operates with the external vision, and employs that vision as its ground plan for an adequate translation of its attri- butes into painting. The works of creative art, as a great painter once said, do not show us the results of a study from Nature, but of a { study loith Nature. And this abiding by the promptings of the poetic invention that bring elucidation to supple- ment the splendour of the external scene, has been called, hot incorrectly, the creative power of art. Tintoretto stands in the first rank of painters for the magnitude and sublimity of his creative gift. Thus it is that a few words regarding the nature of this quality, howevermeagre they may be, will constitute a not unfitting preface to his biography. The intuitional world of forms and hues exemplified in plastic form by the genius of Tintoretto was as truly to him an inspiration as the source whence issued the Divina Commedia of Dante, or a symphony of Beethoven. The ofiice of the creative faculty in Tintoret's painting also, was NATURAL HARMONY, TONIC AND VISUAL. 9 to transmit chor Js from tbe harmonious regions with which it was conversant. In pre.seiice of the work of the painter, so great a con- summation is already achifeved before the sight in Nature that there can be little surprise that its brilliance quenched; in the popular idea, the knowledge of the dimmer li^ht of the created imagery, in plastic art. Bat the art of Music unquestionably affords evidence that can readily be deter- mined of the existence of an original source of art. It is sometimes said that music is the expression of feeling; painting the embodiment of the intellectual arrangement of natural images. The distinction does not seem a valid one. The work of Phidias, Raphael, or Titian is deeply imbued in its inmost essence with the feeling of the artist. The greater part of Turner's profoundly scientific work was accomplished without immediate reference to the out- ward world. The harmonies of music, of course, in nowise constitute a simple transference of beauties from the out- ward scene, to whose influences, nevertheless, they remain intensely sensitive. This relation also expresses the character of the creative clement in painting. In comparing the two arts we perceive that an array of perfect melodies for sight exists in the world around us, manifestations of beauty and grandeur that have been the theme of every prophet, poet, and painter as far as memory can echo ; and .yet there exists no outward natural response of similar completion to the musical intuition, which is as infinite and as beautiful as that of sight. But at least the absence of this natural response in the case of music to an organ well fitted to apprehend it, enables us to perceive more definitely the presence of the musical 10 TINTORETTO. creative faculty than that of painting. Beethoven's music, it is needless to say, leads the mind through realms of state- liness and proportion into a paradise of visionary beaaty. But to show us how secondary is the exclusive reproduction of external natural harmony in musical art, from the period when Beethoven had become quite deaf is to be dated a large proportion of his greatest works. "When he was less lonely, his intuitional source of harmony was directly answered by the outward world, in analogous fashion to that of the painter, though less com- pletely. But he heard the rippling stream shooting into slender rapids ; he heard its distant wavering chant among the matted stones; the sound of humming insects, the quaint and melodious cries of birds, and the exquisite choir of the song-birds ; the tones of loving voices, children's bright laughter, and the hymn of prayer. Yet these natural har- monies, however deeply to be revered, constitute simple melodies compared with those which sounded through him who heard no more. " The infinitely rich and ramified details of it " (the sym- phony), says Richard Wagner,i "are to reveal themselves not only to the connoispeur, but also to the most naive lay- man as soon as he may be sufficiently collected to receive the impression. Its effect upon him is to be at first similar to that of a fine forest of a summer night on a solitary visitor, who has just left the town noise behind him; the peculiarity of this impression upon the soul, which an ex- perienced reader can develop for himself in all its effects, consists in the perception of the ever-growing eloquence of silence. As far as the work of art is concerned, it may in ' Letter to M. Frederic Yillot, translated by E. Dannrcuther. MUSICAL INTUITION. 11 general be deemed safficient to have produced this funda- mental impression, and by its means imperceptibly to guide the hearer, and to dispose him towards a higher intention ; he thus unconsciously receives in himself the higher ten- dency. Juft as a visitor to the woods, overcome by the total impression, rests to collect his thoughts, and then, gradually^ straining the powers of his soul, distinguishes more and more clearly, as it were with new senses, the multitudinous forest voices. He hears songs such as he believes never to have been heard before — multiplied, they gain in strange power, louder and louder they grow ; and however many voices or separate songs he hears, the over- powering clear swelling sound appears as the one great forest-melody which at first disposed him to devotion, like unto the deep blue sky of night, which at other times at- tracted his eye, until, being completely absorbed in the night, he beheld more distinctly the countless hosts of stars. This melody will never cease to haunt him ; but repeat or hum it he cannot ; to hear it again he must return to the woods on a summer night. Would it not be folly if he were to catch a sweet wood-bird, so as to train it at home to whistle a fragment of that great forest melody ? And what would he hear if he succeeded-^which melody? " Such is an indication, from the hand of a master, of the enormously extended fields that appe:\r to us through the imagery of creative Art. If we make the necessary allow- ance for the far greater completion of visual imagery in Na- ture as externally apprehensible than of tonic harmony, the above passage will not mislead us if we regard it as assisting our conception of the source of creative power in painting. Nevertheless, when we listen to Natui'e in her sombre moods ; to the sighing of the wind amongst the high firs ; 1 2 TINTORETTO. to the distant rolling, very far away, yet ominous, and ap- proaching nearer ; the minute sounds that are heard more plainly now, a rivulet trickling, or the dry leaves twirling themselves hopelessly into little rustling whirlwinds ; and all at once, the presence of the mighty storm in a terrific burst, an infinite path cleft through the russet clouds, lightening the wide watery hearens as it wavers qniveringly before the thunder-peal, " that deep and dreadful organs pipe " ' — she arrests our imagination with a conception of what her contribution to the intuitionally apprehensible world of sound might be, did she complete her external realization of it as perfectly as she has elaborated her har- monies of sight. The .pictures of her tone harmonies she reserves for the most part in the inner world of composers like Beethoven. In the painter also a similar inward world still creates for us its imagery ; even in presence of the supreme embodi- ment of light and colour that the world presents, guided safely in its pathway through the deep, star-sprinkled fields. 'Shakespeare's " Tempest." CHAPTER II. BIOGEAPHY OF TINTOEETTO — EAELY PEEIOD. " There is a glorious City in the Sea, 'The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets, Ebbing^ and flowing; and the salt sea-weed Clings to the marble of her palaces. No track of men, no footsteps to and fro, Lead to her Gates. The path lies o'er the Sea Invisible." Kooees. AT the close of the fifteenth century, Yenice had reached her summit of power. With her many colonies and dependencies in the East, this isolated and beautiful city was respected by the whole of Europe. Together with^ the universal admiration that was accorded to her is to bo reckoned, no doubt, the element of fear also ; and in order to have attained her position as the supreme commercial centre of Europe, her prowess in war had been great, and her fleet commanded the Mediterranean. At .this period of history her population numbered 200,000. The crumbling walls of the great Arsenal at Venice, now employing an eighth part of the number of workmen to which it was once ac- customed, afiFord a striking symbol of her former power. The merchants of Venice fed the markets of Europe, even coasting the Netherlands and our own shores. Among her prominent mani;ifactures were the refining of sugar, the 14 TINTORETTO. ("manufacture of soap, of leather, silks, velvef, and lace. She made brocades of the rich character for which Persia had hitherto been famous ; and camlet, and the crimson dye of Tyre. The beauty of the glass of Murano was of unique character in Europe. In a variety of ways this city on the T sea was a home ideally fitted for its great artistic age ; an age, however, which shed its light on a State that had now reached its last days of greatness, for unfortunately in the ^sixteenth century her power began, to decline. Separated entirely from the mainland, with the sea-air breathing through her streets and sweeping round her limited compass, the production of beautiful buildings, high-storied and in serried ranks, became one of the chief home pursuits of her gifted people. Moreover, to an artistic sense such as theirs was, a peculiar value of effect is im- parted to the architecture that rises from its mobile base. The gentle sway and motion of the water bequeaths this effect to the fa9ades, pinnacles, and slender towers that re- main steadfast, and rise in polished and clear marble into the blue air. Sometimes also the marble was overlaid witli gold. Indeed the rippling of the green water was echoed in gradation even in the firm and delicate architecture, in the forms of waving ornament that are frequently seen in Venice, carved under the influence of the memory of the action of the sea. The pains that the Venetians spent upon"! the decoration of their city during the fourteenth and fif- teenth' centuries are not readily to be enumerated or esti- mated. Painters and sculptors were employed together with the architect, who was often himself a painter and sculptor, upon the public works, and palaces of the Venetian nobility. The interiors of these buildings were not considered pre- oentable until they had been lined with masterpieces, any BIRTH OF TINTOKETTO. 15 one of which is now an heirloom. But above the altars of the churches were placed, as a rule, the finest work. Somewhere in the midst of this city Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, was born early in the sixteenth century, probably in the year 1518.' His father, Battista Robusti, followed a trade for which Venice was famous, that of a dyer, or in Italian "tintore." The fine sounding "Tinto- retto" means then, the "young dyer." It was given to the painter in accordance with an Italian custom of be- stowing patronymics, that were sometimes based, as in the present instance, upon the father's occupation ; atj others, upon any appellation he might have obtained by some special achievement. The painter's earliest boyish memories were thus associated with the rich dyes of the Venetian dresses, as they were lifted fresh from his father's vats. He would never forget as long as he lived what colour can do ! Perhaps the fondness of the great Tinto- retto for grave and solemn tones was matured more readily in one whose love of brilliance had been satiated, to so groat an extent, in early life. Unlike Titian and Giorgione, who were born on the^ mainland, one among the mountains of Cadore, and the other at Castelfranco between those mountains and the sea, Tintoret was born of parents in a humble rank of life, who lived in the heart of the city. In this city their son spent the whole of his long life, with remarkably few intervals of travel. •* We are naturally told how in his boyish years he be-"* trayed that incipient capacity for art which delights in the practice of mural decoration, an ambition that is not ' See Note 1. IG TINTORETTO. confined to those wh.o are born painters. We. m!iy;s,uppose, however, that in a dyer's house, where rare opportunities, existed for youthful design, strong precautionary measures had been taken by the parents ; so that Tintoret's efforts may have been energetic enough to startle and arouse the parental mind, as Ridolfi assures us that he made use of his father's Vcolours and his father's walls. It may be that after leaving school he was made use of in his father's busines.=, and at that time in the intervals of his work began to show his real powers. However, the early period of his life, with his struggles and sorrows and the encouragement he received from his mother, is, like the similar period in the lives of many of the leading men in history, hidden from our view. Ridolfi, indeed, who is in the main a careful and reliable au- thority (except in the instance of the date of Tintoret's birth, and his quarrel with Titian), assures us that his boyish ef- forts were much appreciated at home, and that he was en- couraged to persevere. As he grew up he would naturally be attracted by the works of Giorgio ne and Titian. It is^ said that he nsed to wander about among the new buildings, i whose exteriors were undergoing fresco-painting. Ho often watched high up in the scaffolding the supple form of' Titian, then in the prime of life, ardently at work from morning till eve. His love of art, in the keen freshness of youth, responded to the soft tones of Titian, whose works were sufficient to colour his imagination for years to. come. Unfortu- nately, from an imperfectly known cause, coldness always existed between these two men in their later life ; though it seems to have been exaggerated among their different followers, and also in the different biographies. Great 'must have been the boy's anxiety and impatience, when TiNTORET DISMISSED BY TITIAN. 17 his father told him that he was resolved to take him to the studio of Tiziano Vecellio, to see what could be made of him. Besides being the object of Tintoret's enthusiasm, which never subsided, Titian was at that time in the zenith , of his fame. It was Titian who, with his friend Giorgione now dead for some years, had raised the Venetian school to such a level that it was recognized by the surrounding schools of Italy as one of the great schools. But this meeting between Tintoret and Titian was a fatal one for both of them. Tintoret remained but a few days in the^ studio, was then dismissed, and set to work, henceforth masterless, to devote his life to art with the singleness of a great though disappointed endeavour. Ridolfi. puts thej matter between Titian and Tintoretto in this form : — '■ Titian on coming home entered the pupils' room, and saw some papers peeping from beneath a form ; and seeing figures delineated on them, he asked who had exeoated them. Jacopo being the author, and fearing lest he had mistaken them, said rather bashfully that he had done them. Titian foreseeing by such beginnings that the boy would grow to be a great painter, and cause him detriment in his own art, became impatient (thus we see how powerful in human breasts is the little worm of jealousy), and having gone upstairs, and laid his cloak down, he ordered Girolamo, a pupil of his, to discharge Jacopo at once ; and therefore the latter was deprived of a master without ever knowing the reason of it." Now there is evidently something missing in this state- ment. It is impossible that Titian, then past middle-age, and at the pinnacle of renown among painters throughout Europe, could have been jealous of the power shown in the probably very imperfect design of his new and romantic C 18 ' TINTORE'ITO. young student. 'No writer that we have read has proposed an explanation of this difficulty other than the supposition that something has been left out of the narration as it de- scended to Ridolfi from Tintoret's friends. The subject was a bitter one to the young student, and it is not one that in after-life he would have cared to dwell upon. To us it seems highly probable that, so far from Titian's having admired the drawings, he saw traces in them of a method of work that ho disapproved in one so young ; and which we may conjecture, without any undue hazarding, he had for- bidden to his students. A great artist, who by a life's toil had arrived at the completion of his power and knowledge, would not easily believe that there could be a totally dis- tinct road ; a road nevertheless by which Tintoret, in the end, accomplished as individual and noble work as Titian himself. It must be remembered in addition that the competition to enter Titian's studio was very great. Youths from distant parts of the surrounding countries came to this common centre. Titian's nature also was a sensitive one, that loved work and quiet ; and in these matters of business it was often an abrupt one. These reasons seem to be quite sufiBcient to account for his action (an action nevertheless that cannot be considered to his credit), without having recourse to that incredible romance of Ridolfi's ; or rather, probably, of Tintoret's friends and worshippers. But to the poor youth, and to his family, this blow must have been one of those bitter trials that mould the resolves of the sufferer as it were in wax. The hopes and the dreams had gone, and life extended before Tintoret wrapped in the sombre hues whose influence always tinged his work. /• The ensuing years were years of great trial to him, if THE STUDENT AT HIS LABOUKS. 19 also they contained salutary discipline. He occupied a poorly furnished room for many years. Collecting about him fragments of antique sculpture, casts, and bas-reliefs, whose qualities he felt an unrecognized power to discern, he now began at last the serious study of his life. The memory of those early Titian days never faded. The soft ) maze of fairy-like hues, and golden-tissued threadwork, > 'THE MARRIAGE AT CANA.' 45 TIloy are placed in the different spacious churches which are seen in every part of Venice. Among the churches that earliest employed the services of Tintoretto, and in which his work still remains, are those of Santa Maria del Carmine and Santa Maria dell' Orto, to which reference has already been made. In the church of S. Benedetto, remain an ' Annunciation ' and ' Christ and the Woman of Samaria.' In the sacristy of the church of the Madonna della Salute — the Madonna of Safety — built in commemoration of the plague in 1639, an ungraceful pile of the later renais- sance, which yet is a familiar and acceptable feature of Venice, is now placed a picture that was originally painted for the brotherhood of the Crociferi, the ' Marriage at Cana.' This picture is one of the central works of Tin- toret's life. In the " Stones of Venice " it is thus men- t ioned : " This picture unites colour as rich as Titian's, with light and shade as forcible as Rembrandt's, and far more decisive." A bright golden light rests on the table- cloth. The guests are looking round, anxiously waiting for the newly made wine to be brought to them. Christ bends over at the far end of the table, in conversation Avith the guest on His left. The striking effect of light : is very marked in the picture, and doubtless arose from some definite indication in Tintoret's mind. Many see in it the sign of God's benign influence on that happy feast ; others may see in it a manifestation of that daily miracle, which has become to many " the light of common day." This picture affords an eminent example of Tintoret's refusal to be daunted by any diflSculties of a true represen- tation of his idea. The traditional method of representing the holy feasts exhibited the table extended from side to 46 TINTORETTO. side of tlie picture, with the figures grouped on its further side. Tintoret, however, was never content without making an effort to subdue all arrangements to a faithful image of his poetic idea. This idea was an essential outcome inhe- rited from the sacred event. At the same tjme it is not to be supposed that Tintoret was unaware how far different would have been a representation of the circumstantial phenomena of the real event. If Tintoret could have seen one of the truthful and elaborate pictures of Mr. Holman Hunt, he would perhaps at once have recognized the probability of its admirable historic accuracy, so far as tho general detail was concerned, in addition to its beauty. But he would not therefore have relinquished his own endeavour. The conceptions which have arisen from the actual occurrences, deepening in their poetry as ages passed on, would have possessed for Tintoret a more universal interest than that simple realism which, how- exer careful, can never photograph for us the original scenes. It is all very well for us to be told that a depic- tion of the events as they really happened should force home to us an awe, inspired directly from our knowledge and sympathy with the verities of life. But the pictures which men recognize as the expression of the essentia] nature of their faith, will always include the surroundings of an ideal life. The spiritual influence of Lionardo's 'Last Supper,' or Tintoret's 'Marriage at Cana,' will never lose its appeal to the ideas of solemnity essential to these themes; faiths which deepen or grow less according to the nature of man. A well-known picture of this period may be seen nt Hampton Court, ' The Nine Muses,' once in the collection of Charles I. J'or Greek strength and purity it is unrivalled. 'THE RAIN OF MANNA.' 47 In tte large ohurcli of S. Giorgio Maggiore, -begnu by Palladio in 1560, and so notable a feature of Venice, is placed a series of remarkably fine Tintorets of his later period, wHcb do not yet seem to have been much touched by " restoration." How long, alas, will they yet remaia to ns ? On the right hand of the high altar appears the 'Last Supper,' a deep toned impressive picture. In the upper portion of this picture the forms of angels begin to be visible through the dark air. Opposite to this picture is the ' Gathering of the Manna.' For the same reason that the " Pastoral Symphony " is remarkable among Beethoven's works — namely, for its elaborate aud beautiful expression of the influence of natural landscape phenomena — this will occupy a unique position among the works of Tintoret. The brook and the herb-grown banks, with the finely moulded figures seated about in varied attitudes, some washing garments in the blue stream, others stitching, with the plentiful flakes of manna sprinkled all around them, are a few constituents of this beautiful picture. A very necessary precaution in looking at Tintoret's works in the uncertain light of the churches is to employ an opera-glass ; after grasping the general idea of the picture. The beauties of the Manna picture appear in a most extended variety when carefully searched in this way. The flow of the stream, its herbage and shingly bed, will bear the closest inspection. Among the other pictures in the same church is 'The Resurrection,' nearest to the 'Rain of Manna,' in the aisle, whose chief features after the subject has been well studied, comprise its colour, a fine contrast of black and gold. Next to this picture is the ' Martyrdom of St. Stephen.' It is much faded by the rays of the sun which fall directly upon it every day. It will probably 48 TINTORETTO. oue day be the harbinger of a general assault lapon this noble series by a modern " artist." Pains might have been taken to shade it any time during the last three centuries. In the opposite aisle is a fine ' Martyrdom of St. Damian,' and next to this the ' Coronation of the Virgin.' The grouping of the angels round the feet of the Madonna, a favourite theme -with Tintoret, is especially re- markable. The light and shade, grey and rosy, and the graceful wreathed forms of this lovely conception are marked by the presence of his subtlest power. The face also of the Virgin will be noted, on account of her beauty. In the little chapel near the picture, which contains the tomb of Doge Michael, a hero of the early times of Venetian history, is a small but very impressive ' Descent from the Cross.' This collection of Tintorets is one of the most interestirig in Venice. In the church of S. Cassiano is a very fine ' Crucifixion.' Tintoret did not often excel what he has achieved in this picture. In the same church, hidden by the candles on the high altar, is ' The Resurrection.' In the old gothic church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo are two noteworthy pictures — a ' Crucifixion ' and the picture of the Camerlenghi family, as well as others. In the little church of S. Police is a picture of a knight in armour, ' St. Demetrias,' of deep rich hue ; it is little known, and quite untouched. In the church of S. Francesco della Vigna is the pic- ture of ' The Entombment,' unfortunately, however, much repainted. The angel in the fl.owing purple, rose and silver robe, in the upper part of the picture, will repay an especial attention, even through her restorations. Both iu action and colour this figure is of striking beauty. I z Co S •^ n "^ ?! S o 2; G w 4i .« H 'THE TKMPTATIOX OF ST. ANTHONY.' 43 At S. Trovaso remain two pictures, the 'Last Supper* and the 'Temptation of St. Anthony.' The first of tlicpo has been much repainted ; but by the greatest good for- tune the second, which is a noble specimen of our painter, remains entirely unhurt. A recapitulation of the principal works of Tintoret in the churches of Venice will be found at the end of this book ; bat the remaining churches of interest are those of the Gesuiti, of Sta. Maria Zobenigo, the Redentore, S. Rocco, SS. Apostoli, and Sta. Maria dei Frari. In this last great church, where Titian rests, high over one of the transept doors is seen the ' Massacre of the Innocents,' by Tintoret. It is a very striking though most painful work, and fortu- nately quite uninjured. The assistants and pupils of Tintoret were few in number, and included his two sons, Martin de Vos of Antwerp, Paolo Franceschi called Flamingo, and Odoardo Fialetti. There is an etching of Tintoret's, a portrait of ' Doge Pascale Ciconia,' and we hear that he was elected a foreign member of the Academy of Florence, along witt Titian, Veronese, Zucchero, and Palladio. CHAPTER V. THE SCUOLA OP SAN ROCCO, THE schools or confraternities of Venice were not necessarily — indeed were not often — places of edu- cation, but charitable institutions for the tendance of the sick, the burial of the dead, and the release of captives from the infidel. The six principal scuolas of Venice were those of San Giovanni Evangelista, the Misericordia, San Marco, San Teodnro, and San Rocco. The Scuola of San Rocco, now a monument to the in- domitable power of Tintoret, took the lead among these six brotherhoods. The nobles of Venice, senators, and even doges were proud to enrol themselves as members. The wealth of the Scuola was so great that it contributed money to the State itself in times of urgency or depression. The present building was begun in 1525 by the Lombardi, and forms externally a magnificent pile of the finer order of re- naissance work. However, compared with the Venetian Gothic, even the best work of this description is devoid of living beauty. But for qualities of imposing proportions and general brilliancy and stateliness, the Scuola is very re- markable. The interior is unfortunately very badly lighted, I result so often put forward as the argument against gothic, THE DOGE PASCALE CICONIA. From an etching by Tintorettu. TINTORKT AND THE SCUO-LA OF SAN KOCCO. 51 and in favour of renaissance work. The pictures can with difficulty be rightly seen. The general decoration of tlio interior is fully as sumptuous as externally, and was directed by Scarptignino. In the year 1547 a line marble staircase was laid down, and formed perhaps the distin- guisMng architectural feature of the Scaola. But the painting of the interior did not commence until 1560. Probably the old building possessed paintings, and the early Titiana still to be seen might have been amongst them. The brotherhood must have been keenly alive to its own social position and comfort in providing for itself so splen- did a palace. It was decorated throughout its interior with painting, and remains an undertaking whose importance to the cause of art can hardly be over-rated. In the year 1560 the brethren of the Scuola determined to complete their work. They entrusted to some of the chief painters of Venice — Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, Schiavone, Zucchero, and Salviati — a commission to send in trial designs for the centre-piece of the ceiling in tlieir smaller hall — the Sala dell' Albergo. The subject was to be ' St. Rocco received into Heaven.' Tintoretto set to work with the whole of his energy, and produced a picture instead of a sketch, which he managed to have placed in the oval for which it was intended. On the day for judging the designs, the brethren were not only astonished, but offended at this original procedure on the part of Tintoret. His fellow competitors also were naturally hurt. In answer to the brotherhood, Tintoret assured them that his was the right method of producing a sketch ; that he could not make one in any other way, and by that means they would know what it was that they had determined upon acquiring. Finally, in the face of many criticisms, Tintoret presented (. 52 TINTORETTO. Ms pictiire as a gift to St. Eocco. There was a bye-law of the Souola by which no such gift could be refused, and thus it was that Tintoret's picture was chosen for the place which it still adorns. The other decorations on the ceiling — a very beautiful series, with much of Veronese's feeling — were taken in hand by Tintoret, who completed them without payment. But such a determined spirit as our painter had shown probably made the brethren cautious how they entrusted commissions to him in the future. Thus we do not find him again at work in the Scuola until 1565. In this year he commenced the chief picture in the Souola, 'The Cru- cifixion,' one of the central pictures of his life. He was recompensed for it in March, 156G, by the payment of 260 diicats, and at this time he became a member of the Scuola. Opposite to this picture hangs the ' Ecce Homo ' of Titian, and may have been one of the incentives which occasioned Tintoret to devote all his strength to a masterpiece. In the year 1567 he was employed in the adjacent church of St. Rocco, and then ensues another pause until 1576. In June of that year he made another present to the Scuola of the centre picture in the ceiling of their great hall — a picture of the ' Plague of Serpents.' In March, 1577, he offered to paint the rest of this ceiling for any recompense which the brotherhood might think fit to give to him. This offer was accepted, and the same year saw the completion of the ' Paschal Feast ' and ' Moses striking the Eock : ' on that ceiling. On November 27, 1577, he made tlie following offer to the confraternity "that he would first complete the still empty partitions and angles of the ceiling in the Great Hall, then adorn the walls of the same hall with ten wall-pictures ; and at last the whole Scuola, MR. UUSKIN'S DESCKIPriON. • 53 together with the adjacent church. He wo'ald not ask more than an annuity of one hundred ducats for this work, and for this sum he engaged to furnish three pictures every year — at the Festival of St. Rocco."- Again his oBer was accepted — Tintoretto also, as is not always the case with great painters, kept his word ; and the entire work was completed with the exception of some of the ceiling pictures in the church, death itself alone prevent- ing the finishing strokes from being added to the great work. The entire sum which Tintoret received for the Scuola pictures amounted to 2,447 ducats. In commencing an enumeration of these pictures, we cannot do better than recall the following passage from the " Stones of Venice," as the most fitting introduction. " The number of valuable pictures is fifty-two ; arranged on the walls and ceilings of three rooms, so badly lighted, in consequence of the admirable arrangements of the Re- naissance architect, that it is only in the early morning that some of the pictures can be seen at all, nor can they ever be seen but imperfectly. They were all painted, how- evei', for their places in the dark, and, as compared with Tintoretto's other work, are therefore for the most part nothing more than vast sketches, made to produce under a certain degree of shadow, the efiect of finished, pictures. Their treatment is thus to be considered as a kind of scene-painting ; differing from ordin,ary scene-painting only in this, that the effect aimed at is not that of a natural scene, but of a perfect picture. They differ in this aspect from all other existing works, for there is not as far as I know, any other instance in which a great master has con- sented to work ,for a room plunged into almost total obscurity. It is probable that none but Tintoret would have 54 TINTORETTO. undertaken the task, but most fortunate tliat lie was forced to it." In the Lower Hall on entering, we see placed round two walls a series of eight large pictures. Directlj opposite to us is the ' Annunciation.' In this picture, the troop of cherubim flying through the roof form the most re- markable feature. The effect is very striking. Next to this picture, is the 'Adoration of the Magi' — an elaborately completed picture in Tintoret's grand manner. The following criticism from the " Stones of Venice" will best convey an idea of its nature: "The most finished picture in the Souola, except the ' Cruci- fixion,' and, perhaps the most delightful of the whole. It unites every source of pleasure that a picture can possess ; the highest elevation of principal subject, mixed with the lowest detail of picturesque incident ; the dignity of the highest ranks of men, opposed to the simplicity of the lowest; the quietness and serenity of an incident in cottage-life, contrasted with the turbulence of troops of •T horsemen, and the spiritual power of angels. The placing of the two doves as principal points of light in the front of the picture, in order to remind the spectator of the poverty of the mother whose Child is receiving the offerings and adoration of three monarchs, is one of Tintoret's master toixches, the whole scene indeed is conceived in his happiest manner. Nothing can be at once more humble or more dignified than the bearing of the kings, and there is a sweet reality given to the whole incident by the Madonna's stooping forward, and lifting her hand in admiration of the vase of gold which has been set before the Christ, though she does so with such gentleness and quietness, that her dignity is not the least injured by the simplicity of the 'RESTORATION.' 55 iiction. As if to illustrate the means by whicli ihe wise men were brought from the east, the whole picture is nothing but a large star, of which the Christ is the centre; all the figures, even the timbers of the roof, radiate from the small bright figure, on which the countenances of the flying angels are bent, the star itself gleaming through the timbers above, being quite subordinate." The head of the Virgin in this picture will be noticed for its extreme beauty. In both these pictures the painting of detail, of carpenter's tools, familiar animals, birds, is exceedingly interesting, very complete, but broad and swiftly delicate. Next to this picture is the ' Might into Egypt.' The trees and herbage and sky of this great landscape call to mind Turner's metaphor from his own art, when he spoko of the "stormy brush" of Tintoretto. The painting was evidently a tov/r de fovea to make an impression at the Festival of St. Rocco. Next to this is the well known ' Massacre of the Innocents,' a powerful and painful picture. On the right haiigs an upright picture of ' The Magdalen.' Crossing to the opposite side of the hall, we find opposite this a similar picture of ' St. Mary in Egypt.' Next in deep gloom, is a fine though rapidly painted ' Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.' The last picture in this room is the 'Assumption of the Virgin,' which has unfortunately been restored ; a fate which man had proposed for the whole scries in St. Rocco, if God had not disposed of his proposal thus : " twenty or thirty years ago the pictures were taken down to be retouched, but the man to whom the task was committed, providentially ciled, and only one of them was spoiled." " On the tablet or panel of stone which forms the side of 5G TINTORETTO. the tomb out of ■wMch the Madonna rises, is this inscription in large letters, best, antonics flouian. 1834. Exactly in proportion to a man's idiocy, is always the size of the letters in which he writes his name on the picture that he spoils. The old mosaicists in St. Mark's have not in a single in- stance, as far as I know, signed their names ; but the spectator who wishes to know who destroyed the effect of the Nave, may see his name inscribed twice over in letters half a foot high, Bartolomeo Bozza. I have never seen Tin- toret's name signed except in the great ' Crucifixion ; ' but this Antony Florian I have no doubt repiinted the whole side of the tomb that he might put his name upon it. The picture is of course ruined wherever he touched it, that is to say, half over." ("Stones of Venice," vol. iii.) The other pictures in this Hall, as indeed many throughout the Scuola, are glowing yet, and unfaded to a great extent. Ascending the fine marble staircase, we observe high up on the left hand, a delicate- toned picture of the ' Annuncia- tion.' It is a perfectly preserved Titian of his earlier life ; perhaps a reminiscence even of the old Scuola, though of this we are not certain. It is interesting to find it placed among the Tintorets. It is quite possible that Tintoret himself, who was entrusted with the whole decoration of painting, was glad to have it among the paintings of his masterwork, both as a recognition of what he owed Titian, and as an example by which might be tested the extent of his own labours. The bowed Madonna is one of the sweetest heads Titian has painted, while the landscape also is of course beautiful. Opposite to this picture and of similar shape, at the bend of the staircase hangs the ' Visitation of Mary to Elisabeth,' by Tintoret. Every resource of his art has 1 ccn employed THE GREAT HALL OF THE SCUOLA OF SAN KOCCO. 67 to endow it with solemnity of colour that will not pale in companionship with the Titian. Though very dark, this picture is, to our thinking, one of the finest pieces of colour and effect in existence. Progressing up the staircase, passing some large works by Zanchi and Negri (of much later times and not placed here under the superintendence of Robusti), which M. Charles Blanc, after remarking that the Scuola was built by Sansovino, compares to the works of two eminent t'rench painters, we arrive in the Great Upper Hall. In this grand space both walls and ceiling are inlaid with Tintorettos thioaghout their whole extent. Some of them are the "vast sketches" above referred to. Over the altar (services were held in this Hall) is a tine though rather darkened picture of ' St. Rocco in Heaven.' Next to it on the left of the spectator, the ' Last Supper.' Next to it on the left the ' Agony in the Garden,' a very impressive work, with some wavy and feverish flakes of foliage relieved amid the deep gloom. It is a picture not easily described. Then in the middle of the wall ' The Resurrection,' a thoroughly typical specimen of Tintoret's beauty and power. Next to that the ' Baptism of John,' and at the end of this wall the ' Adoration of the Shepherds,' not very remarkable. At the end of the Hall at which he has now arrived, the spectator will see the figures of two saints — St. Rocco and St. Sebastian. Passing by tbe entrance to the Sala doll' Albergo, which we shall soon visit to see the great ' Crucifixion,' the pictures on the wall in order are as follows : — the ' Temptation on the Moun- tain,' the ' Pool of Bethesda,' the ' Ascension,' the ' Re- surrection of Lazarus,' and the ' Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes.' 53 TINTORETTO. These five last pictures belong to th.e sweeping and stormy, "the vast sketch" manner of Tintoret. If we now look up to the ceiling we are struck by its labyrinth of work arranged amongst the gold carving. In the centre of all, that regal gift of Tintoret's, the ' Plague of Serpents.' " Rubens and Michel Angelo made the fiery serpents huge boa-constrictors, and knotted the sufferers together with them. Tintoret does not like to be so bound ; so he makes the serpents little flying fluttering monsters, like lampreys with wings They have triangular heads, with sharp beaks and muzzles, and short rather thick bodies, with bony processes down the back like sturgeons, and small wings spotted with orange and black, and round glaring eyes, not very large, but very ghastly, with an intense delight in biting expressed in them, (It is observable that the Venetian painter has got his main idea of tbem from the sea-horses and small reptiles of the Lagoons.) These monsters are fluttering and writhing about everywhere, fixing on whatever they come near with their sharp venomous heads ; and they are coil- ing about on the ground, and all the shadows and thickets are full of them, so that there is no escape anywhere." (" Stones of Venice.") The two larger pictures dn the ceiling that balance the ' Plague ' are ' Moses striking the Rock,' a picture of great brilliance of effect ; and the ' Pall of Manna,' not com- parable with the picture in S. Giorgio Maggiore. On either side of the ' Plague ' are ' Jacob's Dream ' and * Ezekiel's Vision.' On either side of ' Moses ' are ' Elijah ' and ' Joshua.' At the end nearest the gala dell' Albergo, is a very striking picture, ' Adam and Eve,' recalling the work of the man Tintoret never saw, but must have re- o 02 ^ U S w K X H s ."vj ■^ 'THE CRUCIFIXION.' 50 gardcd as the father of his school— Giorglone. On either side of the ' Rain of Manna,' are ' Elijah in the Wilderness, fed by an Angel,' and ' Elisha feeding the People.' At the end of the Hall on the portion of the ceiling immediately above the altar, is the ' Paschal Feast.' Lastly, between the ' Rain of Manna ' and the ' Plague,' and between the ' Plague ' and ' Moses,' are the ' Sacrifice of Isaac ' and the ' Prophet Jonah.' This completes the list of Tin- torets in the Great Hall. Passing to the extreme end on the left hand is the entrance to the Sala dell' Albergo. Here Tintoret's trial " sketch " was, and is still displayed, precisely as he left it in the centre of the ceiling. But covering the whole extent of the wall opposite to us is the great ' Crucifixion,' another of the chief pictures of Tintoretto. Chairs ate placed before it, and happily some optical screens, so that the side-light can be intercepted. After a careful study — necessary esprcially in a picture so elaborate as this is — the details, the arrangement of the subject, begin to be apparent. The darkness has fallen upon the earth, but a soft gleam of light rests behind the mountain that is beyond the central figure. Ciowds of people of every rank are here, some just arrived, some of them peasants from the country stopping on their way as they pass near the spot ; the soldiers are many of them used to the scene, and are drawing lots for the garments ; numbers also are departing on every side in misery, though here and there a scofier is still seen. Some families watch from a dis- tance and with them can be seen the horrified faces of little children. These form but a few incidents in the picture. In its workmanship it reaches Tintoret's highest 60 TINTORETTO. standard. It was painted to hang opposite some early work of Titian ; an incentive which, never failed to bring out all Tintoret's power. The general colour is sombre. Though many consider that the under layers of Tintoret's work have appeared on the surface in this and other works — we do not think so. Tintoret was fond of sombre tones, and for this subject he would have every opportunity of employing them appropriately. The same complaint of blackness that is brought against Tintoret's work, as showing that it has deteriorated, is often urged against the few modern paintings which possess much of the old Venetian harmony. When colour appears here and there in the dresses, the picture exhibits a Titian- esque beauty and depth. The tree-trunks are elaborately rounded in their woody strength. The foliage, both on the trees and trailing about the foreground, is of great delicacy and truth. Far away in the left hand corner, inscribed upon a piece of moulding like a gravestone, is the painter's name and the date of his work, 1565. On turning our eyes to the ceiling a great change is observed. Contrasted with tho deep hues of the ' Cruci- fixion,' everything here is light and brilliaut in hue. In the centre oval St. Rocco is welcomed in Heaven ; ministering angels cluster about him bathed in rosy light, the heavens are blue, and St. Rocco is attired in brilliant apparel. The extreme freshness of this picture is perhaps due in part to the fact that it was not quite finished when put in its place. For this is the famous trial sketch. There is a saying of Paul Veronese recorded (it will be remem- bered that Paul was a competitor with Tintoret on this o' casion), to the effect that, " It is a misfortune that Tintoret essayed the manner of so many masters." It THE CEILING OF THE SALA BELL' ALBERGO. Gl was indeed a misfortune for his brethren in art, though far from being so for the general cause of art. In this ceiling it is clear that he has endeavoured, and succeeded in his endeavour, to rival the bright colours and graceful ' deliberate forms of Paul Veronese ; perhaps partly to show the brethren that they had not lost anything through his own independent feat. The figure of St. Rocco in the oval centre-piece exhibits a similar type of form, dress, and colour to the figure of Alexander in the Veronese of our National Gallery — 'The Familyof Darius before Alexander.' The remarkable figures in the lower pnrt of the ' St Rocco' picture represent effigies of the other chief scuolas of Venice: The Carita, St. Giovanni Evangelista, tho Misericordia, San Marco, and San Teodoro. Tho remaining pictures on the ceiling, chiefly repre- senting children and maidens with children, are particu- larly remarkable as showing how very high was Tin- toret's conception of simple beauty, and how great was his power to realize the subtlety of Greek feeling when he chose. This ceiling gives us one more fresh view of Tintoret. After thus completing a study of this unique series of paintings, there still remains for us the church of St. Rocco, closely adjacent. Here, of course, the pictures are mostly restored for the glory of God. The most important Tintoret is ' Christ curing the Paralytic' Perhaps there will be in the memory of readers the fine study in oil foi this picture that occupied the central place in the Old Masters' Exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1878-9 — a picture in the possession of Earl Brownlow. In the same exhibition, a study for the ' Last Judgment ' of Sta. Maria dell' Orto was also exhibited, lent by Mr. Hescltine. G2 TINTORETTO. This elaborate drawing was completed to a very higl degree in pen and Indian ink, while the lights were bright- ened by white. Neither Titian nor Tintoret, as a rule, made small and elaborate studies for the whole arrange- ment of their works. At any rate if such was occasionally their practice, in common with the other Italian schools, the Venetians made a habit of destroying them when the ^ painting was complete. But this ' Last Judgment ' of Tintoret was the great effort of his early life, and would be likely to be associated with many laborious and incipient designs. CHAPTER VI. THE PALACE OP THE DOGES. THE paintings of Tintoret in the Doges' Palace are, with a few pre-eminent exceptions, destroyed by restoration. The present D6ges' Palace was commenced in the middle of the fourteenth century, and was not completed until nearly a hundred years later, about thirty years before the birth of Titian. The fa9ade of this building, which was the pride of the city, met the eyes of the "Venetians as they came home to Venice from all parts of Europe, as merchants or warriors. For the development of the firm and graceful style of the Venetian Gothic on a great scale, this building stands alone. Its internal decoration was entrusted to the first masters of Venice only. To be employed in the Ducal Palace was the ultimate ambition first of Bellini and Carpaccio, then of Titian and Giorgione, and afterwards of Tintoretto and Veronese. Until the year 1674, the collec- tion of pictures remained intact, and formed the central monument of the Venetian school, comprising works of every master of importance. But on May 11, 1574, a fire broke out, and destroyed four of the Halls, viz., the Sala deir Alrio Quadrato, del OoUegio, del Anti Collegio, and 04 TINTORETTO. the Sala del Senate. Among the pictures then de- stroyed were some of Titian's masterpieces, including one of the ' Doge Gritti praying to the Virgin,' which Tin- toret afterwards replaced from memory. But a graver misfortune still happened on December 20, 1577, when another fire destroyed the Hall of the Great Council and the Sala del Scrutinio (Voting-Hall). Titian, however, did not survive to witness this second destruction of his works, having been carried off by the plague in the pre- ceding year. Tintorettcf commenced his labours in the Ducal Palace probably in the year 15G0, an eventful year in his life, the date of the birth of Marietta, and of the commencement of his work at the Scuola of St. Boeco. There can be little doubt that Titian had had his share in the rejection of Tintoret's assistance hitherto. The first still-existing document, says Dr. Janitschek, which records Tintoret's work in the Doges' Palace is dated December 23, 1560. It is a receipt for the payment of twenty-five ducats which wore paid to Tintoret for a por- trait of the new Doge Girolamo Priuli. This document shows that Tintoretto must by this time have acquired a reputation for portrait painting ; as until now Titian himself had painted the portraits of the doges. In 1561 the Commissioners of the Ducal Palace resolved to commence the decoration of the walls and ceiling of the new Library. Titian was entrusted with the task of distributing the work amongst the younger painters, and in his selection of course passed over Tintoretto. But this judgment was manifestly an unfair one. In opposition to Titian's decision, a figure of Diogenes was entrusted to Tintoret. It is possible that Tintoret had used his in- DIOGENES. From the picture by Tintori^^, in Ihe Library of St. Mark Vcnir THE HALL OF THE GREAT CODNCIL. 65 fluence with the doge, whose portrait he had painted, to obtain this end. Again we find Tintoret exerting his strength to show his mettle, in defiance of the prejudice of Titian. The ' Diogenes ' is remarkable for its excel- lence, and its colour is full of dignity and power. This work raised Tintoret in the estimation of the members of the Great Council. He was next invited to enter into competition with Veronese and Marco Vecelli, the son of Tiziano, for the decoration of three still empty- spaces in the Hall of the Great Council. This task was the ambition of a Venetian painter's life, and Tintoretto put forth all his energy. In the end he carried off the palm of victory. Guariento of Padua had painted In 1305 a 'Paradise' at one end of the Hall. Later on. Gentile da Fabriano took up his abode in Venice, and devoted himself to paint- ing the Great Hall. Under his influence the native school was developing ; and the family of Vivarini, of the Bellini, Carpacoio, and lastly Titian, were in turn employed in completing the representative collection of the Venetian school. To this collection Tintoret first added the ' Ex- communication of Frederick I. by Pope Alexander III.,' a picture which received the praises of Vasari, who was not a warm admirer of Tintoret. Soon after that picture was completed he was engaged upon a 'Last Judgment,' in the Sala del Scrutinio. On November 6, 1571, a pro- posal was made by the Council of the Ten that a recent victory- gained over the Turks at Lepanto should be com- memorated by a painting in the Ducal Palace. This work was to be entrusted to the national painter Tiziano, with the help of Salviati. Tintoretto, however, moved heaven and earth to get the resolve altered, on account s 66 TINTORETTO. of Titian's great age. It is not very probable also that Titian desired the commission. Tintoret made petition to the Senate both in person and in writing. He declared to the Senate how painful it had been to him that he had not been able to shed his blood in the serTice of his conntry, and that they should at least allow him the gratification of devoting his whole strength to the memorial picture. And as a finishing touch he declared that he would not demand any recompense for his labour beyond the cost of his materials. Under these circumstances he succeeded in obtaining the commission. In a document of March 9, 1573, the picture is mentioned as finished. We now find Tintoret applying to the Senate for the office of a broker's patent in the.Fondaco de' Tedeschi (German Trading House), which was usually bestowed upon painters who had done good service to the State. He promised if this was given him to devote henceforth his services to the State. But it seems this petition was as yet unavailing. He next puts it to the generosity of the State, whether a work whicli was worth 300 ducats was adequately recompensed by the sum of 200 ducats, which he had, it seems, received. Surely they would not allow a poor father of a family to make such sacrifices, said he. This petition could not be resisted. In a meeting of the Council of the Ten, on September 27, 1574, they resolved to grant to Tintoret, in acknowledgment of his services past and to come, the reversion to the first broker's patent that should become vacant, with the power of leaving it to a son or a relation. Thus Tintoretto had now attained all the honours which for many years had been associated with the first masters in Venice. DESTRUCTION BY FIRE AND REPAINTING. 67 111 1574, as -we liave said, the fire broke out; and de- stroyed four of the halls : the great Council Hall escaping this time. Bat in 1577 all these works of Tintoret, together with the whole series in the Great Hall, were totally destroyed. Titian had passed away, the year before this event. On Veronese and Tintoret principally rested the great labour of creating for the Ducal Palace memorials of the Vene- tian school that should be worthy of its old renown. These two painters, with many others, set hard to work upon the new walls and ceilings ; Veronese devoting himself chiefly to ceiling-painting, and Tintoret to the paintings for the walls. It is the series of works executed at this period that has sufiered so fatally at the hands of the restorers. So complete is their destruction, for any art purpose (it should not be urged that the general efiect remains, for such remains in a good copy, which nevertheless is value- less as to its art ; but of course they preserve certain elements of interest), that a careful enumeration of the different subjects will not occupy our attention here. The restorers have forcibly obliterated the dextrous and fairy- like work of Veronese, and the deeper mystery of Tiutoret, so that the majority of these works are not to be looked upon as representing their genius. The following are the more important of Tintoret's contributions to this once magnifi- cent series. In the new Sala del Scrutinio Tintoret painted another battle-piece, the ' Taking of Zara from the Hungarians in 1346 ; ' a scene of violence and bloodshed amid a hurri- cane of missiles. In the Hall of the Senate was accomplished some of Tintoret's most thoughtful work — for example, the ' Descent from the Cross ' and the ' Virgin Mary, with 68 TINTOEETTO. Doge Piefcro Loredano praying for help for Venice,' on the walls. In the middle compartment of the ceiling, is a once scarcely-to-be-equalled poetic creation, 'Venice, Queen of the Sea ; ' now mined for the lover of art. In the hall of the College he painted a reprodnction from memory of Titian's picture of the 'Doge Andrea Gritti praying to the Virgin Mary,' which had been de- stroyed in the fire of 1574. ' In the same hall is the ' Betrothal of St. Catherine to the Redeemer,' whose general arrangement will be recalled by the accompanying cut. His two remaining works in this hall represent the ' Doge Mocenigo the First adoring the Redeemer,' and the ' Doge Nicolas da Ponte before the Virgin.' These works are rather less repainted than the majority of Tintoret's works in the Ducal Palace. In the Sala degli Stucchi (of the Stuccoes) will be found a portrait of Henry III., King of Prance. An interesting episode is related by Ridolfi in connection with this picture. In 1574 Henry, King of Poland, passed through Venice on his way to assume the crown of Prance. The magnificent city on the sea resolved to give him a royal reception. A triumphal arch was erected on the shores of Lido (an island which lies to the north-east of Venice, and helps to shield her from the Adriatic), where he would set his foot on Venetian land. Tintoretto and Paul Veronese, two of the first painters in Venice, were sent across to decorate the arch with mono- chrome paintings. Tintoretto, however, had formed his own plans. He had made np his mind to obtain a sketch of the king, which he could enlarge when he reached home, and so create an oil-portrait of King Henry. Leaving Paul Veronese — who seems often to have good- naturedly endured the whims of his impetuous friend — to THE BtTROTH; F^oni the picture by Tintoretto^ in t (I ■ ST. CATHERINE. tlifll of the Collegi, Ducal Pa Uue, Vinui. 'BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.' 69 complete the greater part of the monochrome work, Tin- toret, glad to get away, assumed the dress of an equerry to the doge, so as to pass unnoticed by King Henry, and entered the doge's galley (called the Bucentaure), which was setting out to meet the king. This proceeding on the part of one of the leading painters in Yenice seems a remarkable one; but it may be that there was some plan afoot to present the king with a speci- men of Venetian art, at this time renowned throughout Europe. Certain it is that Tintoret made his sketch, and afterwards enlarged it to an oil-painting ; which met with great approval from King Henry. He gave the painter sittings, and finally presented the picture to Doge Mocenigo. It is now, as we have said, in the Sala degli Stucchi of the Ducal Palace. In the small Sala dell' Anii-Oollegio four pictures by Tintoret may be seen in undimmed freshness and lustre. It has been said that these pictures, the ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' the ' Three Graces,' ' Pallas and Mars,' and the ' Forge of Vulcan,' date from the period of the painter's youth. But a document dated July 26, 1578, still remains, which states that Paul Veronese and Palma Giovane (the " younger ") were consulted as to whether the price asked by Tintoret for these works was one commensurate with their wortli. The price demanded amounted to fifty ducats each, besides seventeen ducats, one lira, sixteen soldi, for materials ; and was declared to be a price corresponding to the value of the pictures. The forms of the first three pictures are remarkable for their serenity and purity. The vesture is brilliant and harmonious ; a play of light floods the proportions of the figures, giving rise to the most graceful nuances of shade 70 TINTORETTO. and expression ; the foliage is delicate and rich, the skies brilliant and far away, and the general tone of the pictures wrought with a Greek ardour and strength of feeling. These well-known pictures have hitherto escaped the destroyer's touch. In the Anti-Chiesetta (Ante - Chapel) remain two pictures by Tintoretto that are not materially injured by restoration. They are little noticed generally ; indeed, nerhaps for that reason they have been allowed to retain some of their old qualities. One of them, ' St. George and the Princess,' is a very fine specimen of the master. The dark armoured figure of St. George, with the stern and invincible face, is raising his steel-clad arms in playful astonishment at the Princess, who has seated herself on the prostrate dragon, and pretends to ride him. She has tied a blue ribbon to a scaly protuberance of his head, and this serves for her rein. Another saint (perhaps St. Augus- tine) looks down at her, as if to keep up the staid character of the proceedings. The figure of St. George is very grand and quite untouched. That of the Princess is somewhat restored. Opposite to this picture is a companion canvas of ' St. Jerome and St. Andrew.' In both these pictures the student of art will perceive the presence of that chord of sombre grey grandeur that was the basis of Velazquez's work. It seems at least pro- bable that these two pictures may have been especially studied by Velazquez; at any rate, both in Ribera and Velazquez the influence of Tintoretto's art, though seldom acknowledged by biographers, is perfectly apparent. We have lastly to consider the works of Tintoret in the Sala del Maggiore Consiglio. They consist of nine large composition.", on the walls and ceiling, chiefly of battle- 'THE PARADISE.' 71 pieces ; but so much embellislied witli the work of a later date as to he nearly valueless. Bat extending over the entire wall above the door at which we have entered, is displayed that work which has defied the efforts of all the restorers as if they were gnat-bites, causing their sickly overcasts to appear as patches of fen-mist over the swerv- ing circles of the famous ' Paradise.' After reading in his guide-book that the picture " contains a perplexing multi- tude of figures," the spectator may not be unprepared for a feeling of disappointment, when for the first time this involved and sombre assemblage, partly of black tones deep as velvet, and partly involved in a luminous crimson gloom, meets his gaze, so full of anticipation. But to this work, as to a great Symphony, which also contains " a perplexing multitude of notes," must be given patient attention and many a peaceful visit. Unfortunately the accomplished French critic, M. Charles Blanc, has failed to derive from this picture the impression which its power implants in the beholder. We will give M. Blanc's criticism. It will be observed that his second sentence begins with the admission that he must not pass over in silence this work — which, seeing that it is Tintoret's masterpiece, and one of the leading pictures in the world, was hardly to be expected. We are reminded of a well-known English critic's remark in his " Life of Turner," to the effect that Turner was in every way below the standing of a gentlemau ; but " at the same time we cannot forget that he was endowed with that gift of his in art." A bewildering desire to speak moderately does not often result from respect for the feelings of others ; but from a consciousness, we think, that the writer possesses 72 TINTORETTO. a very large gi-asp of his subject (which may or may not be the case), leading him to perceive how nmch better Tintoret and Turner might have been made than they were made. . " Pour dire tons les travaux de plus fecond des peintres venitiens, I'espace nous manqve, et peut-etre la patience du lectenr nons manquerait-elle anssi. Mais nous ne pouvons passer sous silence une des plus etonnantes machines decet artiste inepnisable; c'est la Gloire du Paradis, qui occupe dans I'immense Salle du Grand-College, au palais ducal, le seul des quatres mnrs qui ne soit pas perce de fenetres, le cote ou tronait le doge. Si les ombres n.'en etaient pas devenues si epaisses, une telle peinture, avons-nous dit dans les Notes au Crayon anrait quelque chose de sublime (poor Tintoret ! ) ; mais ce ciel sans transparence, dont les lumieres memes sont d'une coulenr basanee et cuite, a plutot I'air d'un erebe eclaire que d'nn paradis — " and so on. But the judicious reader who goes to the Ducal Palace early in the day with a good opera-glass, may perhaps form a somewhat different idea of the picture. In the first place he finds that the gloomy shadows are deepened into black on account of the inextinguishable radiance that proceeds from Christ and the Madonna. Then, again, the only great resource by which the painter can impart to his poor pig- ments, at least on so great a scale — the work is seventy- four feet long and thirty feet high — some degree of the preciousness of real light, is by the isolation of brilliant points amid the surrounding shade. In addition, this picture was intended for an impressive counterpart of the other great pictures in the hall. The force and depth and tire of Tintoret's utmost power were needed here ; and also they were equal to the demand. He produced for us a MR. RUSKIN ON 'THE PARADISE.' 73 work which is without a fellow ia the world. Let ns not give our sympathy to a criticism that we are obliged to affirm, in this instance at least, to be an unworthy one. It is well to be fortified against a large amount of this kind of criticism : critical creative art of the nineteenth century though it be. On the other hand, there is that branch of criti- cism which does not seek to establish itself as an end ; but rather as a means of helping to explain the meaning of the creative artist. This branch recognizes the vital truth that the creative artist knows what his work ought to be better than the keenest critic; though, of course, we do not mean that this atones for work left wilfully imperfect. And in addition, ^long with the artist, the critic is abso- lutely aware of the tremendous sacrifice that must be made in transferring the original idea into even its highest em- bodiment in plastic art. The finest criticism of Tintoret's ' Paradise ' occurs in Mr. Ruskin's pamphlet, " The Relation of Michelangelo to Tintoret," a pamphlet ia which Michelangelo is dealt with in a manner to which he is rightly unaccustomed — sugges- tive as are the critical strictures passed upon him. The main lines of Mr. Ruskin's analysis of the ' Paradise ' are as follow. In the centre is Christ leaning on the globe of ihe earth. " He is crowned with a glory as of the sun, and all the picture is lighted by that glory, descending through circle beneath circle of cloud, and of flying or throned spirits." The Madonna kneels to Christ. The three arch- angels, meeting from three sides, fly towards Christ. Par np on the right will be seen by help of a glass the words "Throni" and " Principatus," carefully written above the circles of those who have administered justly the high places they had held on earth. These follow the Archangel 74 TINTOllliTTO. Michael. Beneath the principalities are the four great teachers — St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, and St. Augastine ; while " behind Augustine stands his mother, watching him her chief joy in Paradise." A carefal study of her gentle bowed head will be suffi- cient answer to hasty critics of Tintoret. Of all the paint- ings in Venice with which we are acquainted, not one exceeds that head for placid beauty. But throughout the picture will be found other heads of almost equal beauty ; for instance, the head far down to the left — perhaps poor Marietta — and the head of Eve. They form indeed integral parts of a composition such as few other painters have ac- complished ; but of course this fact does not detract from the single figures, which had they been painted alone, would have been lauded for every kind of sentiment. Under the thrones appear the Apostles, St. Paul separated from the rest. On the other side of the picture the Archangel Gabriel flies towards the Madonna carrying the Annunciation lily. Around, above, and following Gabriel are seen the troops of angels, inscribed " Serafini " and " Cherubini." Under them appear the Hebrew kings and prophets, and a few of the saints — David with his psaltery, Solomon, Isaiah, and Amos. To the left of David is Moses, behind him Abraham embracing Isaac, and near him St. Agnes. " In front nearer, dark and colossal, stands the glorious figure of Santa Giustina of Padua ; then a little subordinate to her, St. Catherine, and far on the left, and high, St. Barbara leaning on her tower." To descend for a moment to earthly matters, it will be noticed in this figure of St. Barbara that Tintoret has introduced memorials of the early master of his school, Giorgio Barbarella, whose work would have formed the devoted objects of his early study. This figure is MR. KUSKIN ON 'THE PARADISE.' 75 not only Giorgionesque in hue, and of the same full rounded type as Griorgione's female figures, but rests on lier tower in a favourite Giorgionesque attitude, much the same as in a figure in the Giorgione Idyl in the Louvre, leaning over the well with the glass vase in her hand. To return to the analysis. In the front flies the Arch- angel Raphael, beneath him the Evangelists, on the left Noah, on the right Adam and Eve. The key-note of this great picture, like the Jiast and most touching theme in a great piece of music, is the angel of the sea rising swiftly in the centre of the picture, praying for the safety of Venice, "Mary Magdalene is on the right, behind St. Monica, and lowest of all, Rachel among the angels of her children, gathered now again to her for ever. I have no hesitation," continues the same author, " in asserting this picture to be by far the most precious work of art of any kind whatsoever, now existing in the world ; and it is, I believe, on the edge of final destruction ; for it is said that the angle of the great council-chamber is soon to be rebuilt ; and that process will involve the destruction of the picture by removal, and far more by repainting." The picture still remains in great part free from destruction, but for how long it will remain so in our enlightened age no one dare say. This masterpiece was begun in the year 1588, when Tintoretto was seventy years old. If the usually assigned date of the painter's birth be accepted, he would be seventy- six years of age at the commencement of this work. Now, notwithstanding the great vitality exhibited by the Venetian painters — such as Giovanni Bellini and Titian — in extreme old age, we cannot believe that the colossal work was undertaken in the painter's seventy-sixth year 76 TINTORETTO. This is one of tlie many reasons -which, induce ns to accept the date of 1518 as the more probable year of his birth. The following is the interesting account handed down to us by Ridolfi in the " Maraviglie dell' Arte " ^ of the par- ticulars connected with the painting of the ' Paradise.' I " But let us approach the goal of the labours of this great author, for it would be impossible to refer to all the works painted by him ; so we will briefly speak of the masterpiece that he executed in the Hall of the Great Council, a work which sealed the glorious sequel of his labours, the ' Paradise.' The Senate having determined that besides the reproduction of the historical pictures in that hall, the ' Paradise' by Guariento, which existed pre- vious to the fire, should be repainted, a considerable time elapsed before the judges could decide about the painter who was to do the work; for the opinions were very various on account of the great number of trial-designs that had been sent in, and the different interests involved in the selection. " At length the majority decided to entrust Paul Vero- nese and Francesco Bassano with the work. But their styles being very different, neither of them had set to work, when in 1588 the death of Paul Veronese occurred ■ so that it was necessary to hold a new election. There was again a great competition, but the work was entrusted to Tintoretto, who had indeed left no method untried by which he might obtain it. Thus, sometimes in conversation with the Senators, he used to say that he prayed to the Lord to entrust him with the painting in this life, so that he might assuredly enter Paradise after death. But his friends facilitated his acquisition of the commission by ' Padua ed. 1837. CARLO RIDOLFI ON 'THE PARADISE.' 77 representing that ttere was now no other painter who could come up to the mark. " He composed more than one design for the picture ; one of them is preserved at Verona by the Counts B.evil- acqua (this is now in the Louvre), where he had arranged the souls of the blessed in several circles.^ At length having made up his mind as to the ai;T3,ngement of the picture, although indeed he frequently altered the work as it progressed (for he who abounds with invention can hardly ever remain satisfied with his first realizations), he began to work on the canvas 30 feet high and about 74 feet long ; having stretched the greater part of it in the old Scuola of the Misericordia (it was near Tintoret's house), that place allowing the presence of work on so extended a scale. There the good old man set himself steadily to work out his project, and never spared any trouble in rubbing out and repainting the parts which did not please him ; studying from nature those portions which demanded it, namely, the costumes of the saints who belonged to religious orders, and some of the coun- tenances of the virgins among the blessed " When the general arrangement was completed on the canvas and brought to some completion, he took it to the council hall in order to see its general effect. He then set himself to finish it in its place. But as ho was loaded with years, he found the fatigue caused by climbing up and down ladders so often, too great for his strength. His son Domenico was therefore of great help to him in painting the embroideries of the drapery, &o ' Another study finely preserved and showing the same arrangement as the picture, is said to be in the possession of the family of Mocenigo, at Venice. 78 TINTORETTO. "When so grand a conception of Paradise was nnveiled everybody thought that heavenly happiness had indeed been disclosed to the sight of mortals, .... the painter was therefore unanimously praised on every side. "Tintoretto's friends rivalled each other in congratulating him upon his work, as a marvel such as would not be seen again in this world ; and his fellow painters being over- whelmed with wonder, unreservedly commended his great ability. Even the senators greeted him, and embraced him affectionately, for he had brought to completion a labour which gave entire satisfaction to the whole city " As the gentlemen upon whom devolved the task of paying for the work, asked him to name a fitting recom- pense, which they would abide by, he replied that he left the matter to them. They awarded him a liberal recom- pense, which, however, it is said he did not accept in its entirety, and was contented \vith much less, wishing to purchase their affection ; and thus he acquired the admira- tion of the officers of state, as well as the respect of the different painters, who had estimated that the work was worth a very large sum indeed." While at work on this picture Tintoretto received a visit from some chiirch dignitaries and senators ; and even at this period of his life the old subject of his abandonment of the traditions-of Titian's method was broached again. If once some such theory as this is set floating about a painter, which is easily apprehensible by the general public, that individual, without knowing precisely what the report is, receives indications at every moment of his life (respect being paid to his 'feelings only occasionally), so that a concentrated fire is kept up at him, each of his critics thinking that he is possessed of an original homiletic LAST AVOEK ON EjVKTH. iV version, wliicli will be salutary to the object of criticism. Thus poor Tintoretto, in his old age and at work upon a picture that stands unique in the world, was asked by th6se dignitaries how it was that Bellini and Titian had spent so much care in finishing their work, yet he (Tintoretto) treated his work in so rigorons, nob to say high-handed a mainner. Tintoret restraining his feelings, politely replied, " Those older painters had not so many people to bother them as I have." After this he receired fewer visits at his work than hitherto. But we have now arrived at the last years on earth of Tintoretto. After the completion of the ' Paradise,' he rested altogether from his work for some time. At this period he was often seen walking in Sta Maria dell' Orto, in conversation with the fathers on theological themes. But he had not entirely relinquished his brush. He painted at his country seat at Carpanedo a panel for the Brotherhood of the Merchants ; and also pictures for the churches of St. Catherine and St. Margaret. He had also resolved to accomplish a series of drawings, as embodiments of his in- ventive power, which asserted itself powerfully still in the worn-out old man. This series, in a method not habitual to the Venetians, would have been deeply interesting ; unfortunately it was never carried out. In the year 1590 he had lost his daughter Marietta. This bereavement doubtless accelisrated his own end. The labours of his life also — during the busy period when he was struggling against adversity and ridicule to obtain even a secondary position ; and afterwards the expendi- ture of his energy upon work after work, each opening a new wealth of design and poetry, each also demanding; great physical energy on account of its magnitude — had 80 TINTORETTO. worn out tho aged painter. He was attacked by a com- plaint of the stomach which prevented him from taking food or obtaining sleep during the fortnight before his death. Eidolfi tells ns that he entrusted his unblemished honour to the care of his sons Domenico and Marco ; that ho asked them to leave him unburied during a space of three days, "and then, on the 31st May, 1594, his soul with a short sigh escaped from earth to heaven." A very large number of painters and friends, to whom he had been dear, followed him to his grave in Sta. Maria deir Orto. There he was laid in his last resting-place, as surely might have been hoped, in the tomb of the Vescovi, in the centre of the church beneath the choir. "When the church was rejuvenated in 1866, and its his- toric monuments practically cast to the winds, the grave of Tintoret was moved to the chapel on the right of the choir. The people of Venice have there erected to his memory a neat tablet, somewhat similar, though of rather more tasteful character, to the tablets with which we are familiar in England. The custodian of the church in- formed the writer that the remains of nine persons were found in the tomb, Marco Vescovi and his wife. Marietta Tintoret, the great Tintoretto and Faustina, Domenico and three children. The old gravestone which formerly covered Tintoretto inay be seen in the chapel to the right of his grave. We must trust that he will be pennitted to rest quietly at last. CHAPTER VII. A FEW CONCLUDING THOUGHTS. THE calm light and brilliaiice of a very early snmmer morning waken the memories of some place asso- ciated with times that are long since passed ; the concert of the birds fills our ears, each trying to sing or chirrup more cheerfully than its fellow ; and then as the sun begins to rise, the long shafts of light lighten gently in fairy bril- liance the sward that is sprinkled with myriads of dewy points, some concentrated into drops of flashing violet, others clinging in wavering festoons of minutest pearls : then gradually the charm melts as day advances : a cart passes ; the charm is gone ; -daylight, like real life, banishes the things to which we are attached, and this clear morn- ing vision resolves itself into inner hope for such a time someday again. Now a train of ideas similar to this, which may stand for a meagre instance in a specific direction, would form the basis of the influence of a creation in great landscape art. The widely extending value of the work of the masters of painting rests primarily u; on the impress in their work of feeling, possessing the power of awakening in us emotion similar in its keenness to that transmitted from a natural scene. How this is accomplished by the 82 TINTORETTO. painter ; — all questions either of technical or abstractly critical import belong of course to a very distinct, and, except to the painter himself, far subsidiary field to that of real appreciation of art. The compositions depicted in painting may be said to vary from an accurate recapitulation of the impressicii of the scene as it is received or originated by sensations of the mind, to the exponents of living depths of feeling which are only marred by any touch of words. But the work of the Masters of painting owes its origin to this inner fount of life. Rather, in its radiance their works announce the arrival of the painter at the position whence he can see the picture-plan of his deepest thought partially thrown upon the screen of his canvas, mirrored there, and awaiting, according to the limits of his skill, varying adjustments of dexterous polish and rhythm. f In Venetian art the harmonies were so controlled as to embody the scales of colour in their full-toned reality. Classically constructed melodies of line for primary method and scope of the design, found devotees at Florence, Milan, Rome, and elsewhere ; but never much attracted the Venetians. It has been customary to consider the Vene- tian tones to be tuned to the requirements of an ideal depth of tint alone; but in reality even Titian's embla- zonry becomes grey and retiring compared with the actual glow in natural imagery. The real power of colour in art has new fields before it still. But in echoing with enthusiasm the familiar admiration of Venetian colour, care may be taken to perceive that the drawing and modelling in Venetian work is not below the requirements of these impressive schemes of melodious tone. Few con- ditions of inventive arrangements of line as primary ob- QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE EXPRESSION OF JUDGMENT. 83 jecfcs of depiction were attained at Venice, in the direc- tion either of Mantegna or Raphael. But the modelling in Titian's 'Bacchus and Ariadne' and 'Assumption,' and 'Laura de' Dianti,' fulfil some of the fine conditions of Greek sculptural design. In Tintoret's work the arranged harmony of form is nobly shown. Tintoretto, above most of his school, fulfilled Da Vinci's decision, that a true painting is one whose forms are such as appear to be solidly rounded. When the work of the masters is under consideration, it is difiicult to avoid an undue influence upon our judg- ments of traditional critical atmospheres, that have eaoli gradually encircled round a single name. But it is surely most important for the cause of art, and for a real enjoy- ment of it, that the genuine inner life of the painter should be sought for under the varying and necessarily conven- tional technics of his art. One of the first conditions for a profound impression from, art seems to be the recollection that in order to appreciate a beautiful painting, a chord must exist in the mind within, upon which the harmony of that painting shall impinge and sound. And simply because the painting does not find its response in oneself, is not of course a sign that the fault rests with the paint- ing. There arc those to whom the life and glow of Vene- tian colour appeal with a vigour that renders pale thol impression received from Tuscan or Florentine work. But if we allow ourselves here to introduce the words "right and wrong," and apply them to the different theo- retic methods, 'we surely fall into error. Some feel that no real sublimity reaches the height of the cold pure cloisters in evening light at vespers ; some are lifted to a greater height by a fugue of Bach. One mind comprc- 84 TINTORETTO. hends a variety of the different qualities that are sensitive to the harmonies, but its own " highest " does not afford in itself a warrant for attacking the allied spiritual powers that shed their influences more vividly upon other minds. If then we feel inclined to depreciate a picture because it is not Venetian in colour, or music because it is not tinged with the spirit of Wagner or Beethoven, it may be well to recollect that possibly there falls upon us a vision and a cadence of lovely sound unnoted. The individual works of a master were the result of an untiring energy to attain certain consummations of mental embodiment, which seemed the most worth striving for of those within his reach. The nearer he approached a realization of his conceptions, Ihe more pronounced and definite often became his consistent individuality of work- manship. When the first pass was fairly traversed to an embodied vision of the intuitional abode, the prospect before him extended to a vast glory, and life shrank before the task he must fulfil ; and the discovered pass became his familiar and usual road. But in addition to the final individual conditions that determined the manner of each master, there existed many more which press their claim upon our remembrance, ad- vising a self-surrender of fixed feeling, and a wide tolera- tion of judgment in the presence of a great work of art. The conditions of the painter's outward life were often extremely important in moulding the manner of his work. One possessed a chance of laying steadily the foundations of his work through the dawn of life, while another had to toil for daily bread during that period. There is, it is needless to add, indeed another side to the whole question, and an array of pseudo-art which is un- SIXCERITT OF TRUE CRITICISM. 85 questionably false. Nevertheless, a just and charitable insight will certainly reveal the fact, trite tliough it sound, that the impressiveness of art appeals through an infinitely varied guise. We do not allow our powers of discernment, before the paintings of Da Yiuci or Raphael, to le clouded by the recollection that Jan Steen was " realistic," Rem- brandt "naturalistic," Titian honestly human, Perugino divine ; for if we do so, we refuse to face the truth that we possess within us, to put the matter in its rosiest light, a dim analogy to the reason why Raphael was not Rem- brandt, namely, our mind comprehends the style and claims of one painter alone. To approach the great works with patient ingenuous- ness ; not to expect or desire to be able " to tell a Michel- angelo " when we see it ; to refuse to be interested chiefly in the marked insignia of individual work, apparent to the barest intellect ; to accept as elevated if well known and necessary conditions, the different " manners," the rhythm of Lionardo, the flowing grace of Raphael, the noble mould- ing of Titian bathed in its melodious light, just as we accept the hexameters of Virgil, or the blank verse of Shakespeare ; to observe when Bellini or Bonifazio hns wrought lovingly the poetry of a flower or an evening garden ; to remember that when we last saw our friend the parting look was seen in the shade of the porch, and would not be bettered in our remembrance by its effect being either Rembrandtic or in startling mid-day cream- like and carnation tones ; to remember again, before a work radiant with the glow and glory of day, to let no doctrinaire sigh escape for some quiet Venetian depth — some of these recollections, conceived in no didactic spirit, may help us to do justice to the particular creating 86 TINTORETTO. Spirit of eacTi painter. " Only so far as the public may be penetrated with a critical spirit, and may have lost the ingenuousness of purely human perception, need the artist feel uneasy: "' the "critical spirit'' being applied to an abstract appraising in art, and not to a sincere exercise of judgment and experience. The traditional estimations which hare founded themselves upon the styles of different masters, have indeed not unfrequently expanded into burlesques. It may be that the onco unwearied spirit of the creator of a picture which has been lectured about ii every quarter of the globe, would rejoice to find people dwelling upon the qualities which he bent himself upon portraying so long ago. The works of the Italian masters were painted to fill the general mind with enjoyment, and peace and enlightenment. Art was the common source of refinement and elevation, just as were, in a higher degree, those special religious services of which it formed a part. The feelings of the fairness of a landscape, whose in- fluences have formed part of the daily dramas of the lives of ages, reveal themselves to the creative painter deepened into the power which moulds the wild melody and poetic glow of such work as Turner's ; or to the musician in the piercing tones of Gluck or Beethoven. And for all of us, after thinking of the ranks and array of those who are gone before ; after reading at quiet spaces the great his- tories and epics, the mind is tuned to respond to the har- mony of creative art. The subsidiary actual life of ours with the apparently insuflicient or sad present phenomena then drop away ; and in presence of great art we seem alone with the inner stillness that has passed unshaken through ' R. Wagner. THE END. 87 the great strife, and has given us what perceptions we possess of it. In the fields of painting there remains the large scope of quiet portraiture of life as seen around us. When replete with simplicity these pictures follow nature high among the tender images of her consummate glories of cloud and sea. But -when — " Tlie clouds are broken in the sky, And thro', the mountain-walls A rolling organ harmony Swells up, and shakes, and falls — " Tens Tt SON. we are with Beethoven and Tintoretto Now the creative harmonies sound through the inner deep ; and if they often recede far, yet the shimmer on the distant sands is the sea ; and the sea-echoes sing art is wide. NOTES. Note 1. Dr. Hubert Janitschek, who has made very careful and accurate ro- aearches connected with the life of Tintoretto, says, with respect to the date of his birth, that the statement of Ridolfi, assigning 1512 as that date, is erroneous. Unfortunately the date has passed into all lesser biographies and catalogues. Zabeo had indeed published in his " Elogio " the record of death preserved at the Church of St. Marcilian in the following terms : — "31 May, 1594. Died Messer Jacomo Robusti, called Tintoretto, aged 75 years 8 months ; having been sick of fever for a fortnight. San Marcilian." But Zabeo contended, for Eidolfi's sake, that this statement was not autheutic. However, a full confirmation of the document has been found in the Registry of Deaths of the Board of Health (Necrologio dei Fro- veditori alia Saniid, N. 31, 1593-94; 1825. R. Arch. Gen. dei Frari), where the following entry occurs : — " Adi 31. Majo 1594. El maguifico Messer Jacomo di Robusti detto il Tentoretto de anni 75 da febre giorni 15. S. Marcilian." The matter can hardly be said to be absolutely decided. It is obvious that one of these statements may have been copied from the other ; but Dr. JanitscheVs contention has every argument iu its favour, in connec- tion with the probable dates of production of the different works. There 90 NOTKS. is also a letter of Aretino's to Tintoretto, dated 1545, addressing liim, " Mio figliuolo," and making other reference to his extreme youth. Note 2. A testiniony of the dexterity of Tintoret is seen in a document in the possession of Messrs. Guggenheim at Venice, which is an agreemcrt on the part of Tintoret to finish within two months two historical pictures of twenty figures each, and seven portrait!. A LIST OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORKS OF TINTORETTO. Scuola of San Rocco. Bbund the walls of the lower room : — Vekice. 8. entrance. ■ staircase. ■ 1. Annunciation. 2. Adoration of Magi. 3. Flight into Egypt. 4. Massacre of Innocents. 5. Mary Magdalene, fi. Mary in Egypt. 7. Presentation of Jesus. 8. Assumption of the Virgin. On the staircase — the Visitation of Mary to Elisabeth — this picture being opposite to Titian's Annunciation. Hound the walls of the upper room ; — 2. 13. 12. e.[ 11. 10. ■ stau'case. 1. Adoration of the Shepherds. 2. Baptism of Christ. 3. Resurrection. 4. Gethsemane — The Agony. 5. Last Supper. 7. MiracleoftheLoavcs and Fishes. 8. Raising of Lazarus. 9. Ascension. 10. Pool of Bethesda. 1 1. Temptation in the Wilderness. 6. Altai'-piece, St, Rocco in Heaven. 12. St. Rocco. 13. St. Sebastian. 92 A MST OF THE MOST IMrORTANT Vekice. On the ceiling of tlie upper room : — (2) (7) (11) (1) [ 3 ] (5) [ 6 ] (9) [ 10 ] (13) (4) (8) (12) 1 . Adam and Eve. 7. Ezelciel's Vision. '1. Elijah. 8. Jacob's Dream. a. Moses striking the Rock. 9. Sacrifice of Isaa 4. Joshua. 10. Fall of Manna. 5. Jonah. 11. Elijah and the Angel. 0. Plague of Serpents. 12. Elisha feeding the People. 13. Paschal Feast. In the Sala delV Alhergo. The Crucifi.xion. The Reception of St. Rocco into Heaven. And various beautiful ideal figures. In the DuciL Pal.ice. Sala del Macfgiore Consiglio. On the The Paradise. walls. The Ambassadors appearing before the Emperor Frederick I. at Pavia. Naval Battle of Salvore, and Capture of Otho. Capture of Zara. Tlie Conquest of Constantinople. The second Conquest of Constantinople. Gh ceiling. Capture of Riva ou the Lago di Garda from the Duke of Milan in 1440, Vittorio Soranzo defeating the Estensi in 1484. Venice, with the Divinities and Doge Nicolo da Ponte. Brescia defended against the Visconti in 1483. Tlie capture of Gallipoli from the Aragonese in 1484. Sala del Scruiinio. The capture of Zara from the King of Hungai'y in 1346 Sala degli Stucchi. Poi-trait of Henry III., King of France, in 1574. Sala del Senato. Tlie Descent from the Cross. 1 )ogc Loredano praying for help for Venice On ceiling. Venice, Queen of the Sea. ■\VOEKS OF TINTOllKTTO. 93 Sola delV Anti-Chiesctta. Venice. St. George and the Princess. St. Jerome and St. Andrew. Sala dei CoUegior Diige Andrea Grifti praying to tlie Virgni. The Wedding of St. Catherine. ]>..(re Nicolas da Ponte before the Virgin. I)iif;e Mocenigo the First adoring the Itedeemer. Sala delV Anti- Collrgio. Bacchus and Ariadne. Pallas turning away Mars. Mercury and the Graces. The F->rse of Vulcan. Besides a large series of portraits in the Palace, many of them of t'le highest possible excellence. Academt/ of Fine Arts. The Miracle of the Slave. The Pall of Man. The -Death of Abel. And a large variety of other works, both subject-pieces an>l pi irtraita. Church of the Madonna, del Salute. 'lire Marriage of Cana. Church of the Madonna delV Orto, The Last Judgment, Moses on the Mount. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Tine Miracle of St. Agnes. Church of the Carmim. Presentation in the Temple. Church oj S. Casiiiant>. Crucifixion. Besurrection. Descent into Hades. 94 A LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT Vknicb. Church of S. Trovaso. Last Supper. Temptation of St. Anthony. Church, of S, Giorgio Maggiore. Gathering the Manna. The Last Supper. Martyrdom of St. Damian and other Saints. Coronation of the Virgin. Resurrection of Christ. Martyrdom of St. Stephen. Descent 'from the Cross. Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Crucifixion. The Madonna and Camerlenghi Family. Church of S. Felice, St. Demetrius, in armour. Church of Sta. Maria dei Fran. Massacre of the Innocents. Church of the Sanii Apostoli. St. Lucia. {_A fine early war Jc.) Cfmrch of S. Francesco della Vigno, Entombment. Church of S. Benedetto. Annunciation. Woman of Samaria. Church of S. Silvestro. Baptism of Cluist. Church of Sia. Maria Zobenigc. Ascension. Church of 8. Socco. Christ healing the Paralytic. Our Lady in the Garden, [a large work on ceilbuj. St Kocco in the Hospital, Holy Martyrs. Church of the Eedentcri. Scourging of Christ. Ascension. WORKS OF TINTORETTO. Church of the Gemiti, 96 Cruoifixioo. Church of Sia. Maria Mater Domini. The finding of the True Cross. (These comprise most of the chief works of Tintoret in Venice.) Uffi^i. Tintoret's Portrait of himself. Portrait of Sansovino, and other portraits. A good replica of the Wedding at Cana. Fitti. Portraits. Descent from the Cross, Resurrection . Madonna and Child. Venus, Vulcan, and Cupid. Palazzo Colonna, Two Benedictines — portraits, liylas at the Spring. Adoration of the Hoot. (JFitianesq'ue,) Brora. Pietk. St. Helena, and other Saints. Boi/al Gallery, Ceiling-piece from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Three fine Cabinet Works. Entombment. Portrait of a Doge. Eoyal Gallery. Palazzo Brignole Sale Palazzo Surazzo. Portrait of one of the Durazzo Family. Church of St. Francis. Venice. Flokekck Home. Milam. MODENA. Pasha. Genoa. Annunciation. 96 A I,If3T OF THE MOST IMPORTANT Beklin. Miiseum. Madonna, St. MavU, and St. Luke. St. Mark instructing Three Procurators of the Families of Zane, Cornaro and Molino. Dated 1569. Luna witli the Hours. (From Foiidaco de Tedeschi.) Three Portraits. Drksijes. Coronation of the Virgin. The Muses and Graces on Mount Parnassus. Concert of Young Women. Portrait of an Old Man. MiTNicii. Piimkothek. Birth of Christ. Ecce Homo. Mary Magdalen wiping tlie Feet of Oirist. ViKNN.A. Bdvidere. Portraits. Christ beax-ing the Cross. Susanna at the Bath. Madrid. Mmeo del Frado Thirty-four Pictures, some of which arc of doubtful authentic! 'y. Parts. The Loiivre. Susanna at the Bath. Christ and the Two Angels. Paradise. {An oil sketch.) Portrait of Tintoretto as an old man. {Signed jacobus tentoeettjs : , piCT°i TENET'".) Portrait of a Gentleman. London. National Gallery. St. George and the Dragoi.. Hampton Court. Queen Esther. The Nine Muses. {An exceedingly jine work.^ A few Portraits. The names of those pictures in the above list which the writer has not himself seen, are transcribed from the works of Dr. Janitschek and JM. £lanc. WORKS BY TlNTORETTi". 07 WORKS BY TINTOEETTO IN THE EXHIBITIONS OP THE WOEKS OP THE OLD MASTERS AH THE EOTAL ACADEMY OF ARTS. J *71. Tlie Miracle of St. Mark : a Sketch. Lent by Baroness Burdett Coutts. Esther and Ahasuerus. Lent by Her Majesty, from Hampton Court, Portrait of Cardinal Lorraine. Lent by the Earl of Chesterfield. Christ delivered to the Jews. Lent by the Earl of Dudley. 1672. Portraits of a Gentleman, Lady, and Child, with a Page. Lent by the Eight Hon. G. Cavendish Beiitiiick. Portrait of a Man, holding a letter in his hand. Inscribed Bomine preb. ripb. Innocent. Lent by (x. Biehmond, R.A. 187.S. Portrait of a Young Man, in a dark dress trimmed with fur. Lent by the Duke of Northumberland. The Baptism of Christ. Lent by Colonel Markhavi. 1876. Portrait of a Venetian Naval Ufficer of the noble family of Capello. Lent by the Eight Hon. G. Cavendish Bentinck. Portrait of a Ventitian Gentleman of the noble family of Contarini. Lent by the Eight Hon. G. Cavendish Bentinck. 1B78. St. Mark preaching at Venice. Lent by Viscotmt Powerscouri. This picture is said to cuntaia portraits of Giorgione, Titian, Fordenone, and Tintoretto himself. Portrait of a Doge, Lent by William Eiissell, Esq. Three-quarter figure of an aged man in his robes of oiHce, his right hand resting on a boolc. 1879. A Hunting Scene. Letit by Earl Bromilow. A party of two gentlemen and three ladies round a table ; three attendants with dogs ; huntsman in the background^ Christ curing the Paralytic. Lent by Earl Bromilow. Study for the picture iu San Rocco, at Venice. In the centre, Christ sur- rounded by sick people gathered in a hall on the brink of a pool ; four columns and about thirty-six figures. 1880. Portrait of Paolo Paruta, the " Cato of Venice." Inscribed P. Panda, Nob. Ven. 1590. Lent by Sir F. Leighton, P.R.A. 1881. Portrait of a Venetian Noble. Leiit by Clmrles Doane, Esq. 1882. • Portrait of a Gentleman. Inscribed, 1555 .lEtatis 29. Lertt by the National Gallery of Ireland. Adoration of the Magi. Lent by Sir George Philips, Bart. B CHIIONOLOGY OF JACOPO ROBDSTI, CALLED TINTORETTO: AND INDEX. 1518. 1546. 1548. 1560. 1566. 1574. 1588. 1590. l.'>94, Born at Venice .... Entered Titian's studio Influence of Michelangelo friendship with Sohiavonu . Employed by the Churches . Painted for S. Maria dell' ( )rto . Painted for the Scuola of St. MarU His wife, Faustina Birth of his daughter, Marietta . Domenico, Tintoretto's son . Sayings of Tintoretto . Personal appearance, and portriiils His work in the Venice Churches His Pupils Elected member of the Florence Academ v . The Scuola of San Rocco .... Commenced work in the Ducal Fa!ace . Became a member of the Scuola of San Huuci ■ Obtained a patent in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi Commenced " The Paradise "... Death of Marietta ... Death of Tintoretto 5 . 17 . 19 . 20 , 23 . 26 . 29 . 33 . 33 . 34 . 37 . 43 . 44 . 49 . 49 . 50 . 51 . 52 . 66 . 78 . 34 80 BIBLIOGRAPHr. List of ilie most important mwdem Works on Tintoretto. TlNTOItETTO, PAOLO VERONESE. By Dr. Hubert Janitseheli, in " Kunst uiid Kiinstlcr." Leipzig, 187C. IL TINTOKETTO. By Galanti. Published in the " Atti della R. Accademia di Belle Ani in Venezia," 1876, in which are printed some kitherto unknown documents. THE STONES OF VENICE. By John Euskin, D.C.L. ; especially in the 3rd volume of the early editions; and in other works by the same author. LE TINTOUET ET MORONI. By Charles Blanc, in " Histoirc des I'eintres de toutcs Ics Ecoles." Paris, 1876, INDEX. { The Names of Pictures are m Italics.) Page Academy, The Roj'al, Old Masters' Exhibition, 1879 . 61 Adam and Eve '24 Adoration of the Magi ... 54 Adoration of the Shepherds . 57 Agony in the Gardeny The . . 57 Annunciation, The . . . 2-i, 45, 54 Aretino, Pietro .... 29, 40 Aw(nsion, The 57 Assumption of the Virgin . .55 Bacchm and Ariadne .... 69 Baptism of S. John . . . . 57 JJasaiti, Marco 3 iJellini, Gentile . . . 3, 65 Itellini, Giovanni . . . . 3, 65 Hullini, Jacopo 2, 65 Belshassat's Feast 21 Betrothal of St. Gatlwrine . . 68 Blanc, M. Charles 71 lionifazio 6, 22 Bordone, Paris 6 Oamerlenghi Family, The . .48 Carpaccio, Victor .... 3, 65 Ca.valry Fight 21 Christ curing the Paralytic , . 61 Church of flip " Frari " . .49 Page Church of the " Gesiiiti " . . 49 Church of the " Redentore ' . 49 Cima da Conegliano .... 3 Contarino, .Jacopo 39 Gorotmtion of the Virgin ... 48 Crucifixion, The . . . 48,52,59 Death of Aid, The 24 Descent from the Cross ... 48 Diogenes .64 Doge Andrea Gritti, cupy of Titian's picture 6S Doge Mocenigo the First adoring the Bedcemer 68 Doge Nicholas da Ponte before the Virgin 68 Doge Pascale Ciconia (Etching) 49 Doraenico, Tintoretto's Son . . 34 ])ucal Palace, The 63 Elisha feeding the People . . 59 Elijah fed in the Wilderness . . 59 Entombment, The 48 Excommunicationof Fredtrick r. 65 Esekicl's Vision 58 Fabriano, Gentile da Fall of Manna 1,2,65 . . 58 INDEX. 101 Page Faustina de Vescovi, wife of Tintoretto 31, 35 Fialetti, Odoardo ..... 49 Fiamingo — Paolo Franceschi 49 Vliffht into Egypt 55 Forge of Vulcan, The .... 69 Gathering of the Marma . . .47 Giorgione ....... 5 Giotto 1, 28 Guariento of Padua .... 65 Hampton Court 46 Henry HI. of France, Portrait of 68 Hunt, Holman 46 Jacob's Bream , 58 Janitschek, Dr 64 Jonah, The Prophet .... 59 Last Judgment 26, 65 „ Study for the . 81 Last Bupper, The . . ,47, 49, 57 Madonna della Salute. ... 45 Magdalen, The 55 Marietta, Tintoretto's Dauglifer 33 Mario Augusta 34 Marriage at Gana 45 Martyrdom of St. Damian , . 48 Martyrdom of Si. Stephen . . 47 Massacre of the Innocents . 49,55 Michelangelo 19 Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes 5 7 Miracle of the Slave . . . .29 Moretto 6 i\Ioroni G Moses striking the Rock . . 52, 58 Murano, Island of 2 The Nine 40 Page Pallas and Mars, 69 Palma Vecchio, Jacopo . . 5, 22 Paradise, The 71, 73 Paschal Feast 52, 59 Plagut of Serpents, The . . 52,58 Pool of Bethesda 57 Pordenone 6, 22 Presentation irp the Temple . 23, 55 Presentation, of the Virgin . ' 27 Pritili, Doge Girolamo ... 64 Resurrection, The . . . 47, 48, 57 Sesurrection of Lazartis ... 67 R.bera 70 Ridolfi 32, 35, 40, 76 Robusti, Batti.sta 15 Bobttsti, Jaeopo 15 Kuskin, John .24,30,35,45,53,73 Sacrifice of Isaac 59 St. Angeli, at Muruno ... 29 St. Cassiano .... . 48 St. Derdetrius 48 St. Felice 48 St. Kranccsco della Vigna . . 48 St. George and the Princess . . 70 St. Giorgio Maggiore ... 46 St. Jerome and St. Andrew . . 70 St. Mark's bodiybrovght to Venice 29 St. Mary in Egypt .... 55 ■St. Rocco, Churdi of . . 49, 52, 6 1 St. liocco received into Beavd. nark volume. Elementary History of Architecture. By N. D'Anveks. V\ ith an Intiodui;tion by Profesior T. ROGER Smith. Givin; a briff Account of the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Early Christian, Bvzantirie, Rimanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Modem Architecture. With ^o Illustrations. Elementary History of Sculpture. By N. D'Anver?. 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