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1914

The Great Masters
in Painting and Sculpture
Edited by G. C. Williamson

JACOPO ROBUSTI, CALLED
TINTORETTO

THE GREAT MASTERS IN PAINTING
AND SCULPTURE.
Edited by G. C. Williamson, Litt.D.
LIST OF THE SERIES.
BOTTICELLI. By A. Streeter.
BRUNELLESCHI. By Leader Scott.
CORREGGIO. By Selwyn Brinton, M.A.
CRIVELLI. By G. McNeil Rushforth, M.A.
DELLA ROBBIA. By the Makchesa Burlamacchi.
ANDREA DEL SARTO. By H. Guinness.
DONATELLO. By Hope Rea.
GERARD DOU. By W. Martin, Ph.D.
GAUDENZIO FERRARI. By Ethel Halsey.
FRANCIA. By George C. Williamson, Litt.D.
GIORGIONE. By Herbert Cook, M.A.
GIOTTO. By F. Mason Perkins.
FRANS HALS. By Gerald S. Davies, M.A.
LUINI. By George C Williamson, Litt.D.
MANTEGNA. By Maud Cruttwell.
MEMLINC. By W. H. James Weale.
MICHAEL ANGELO. By Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower, F.S.A.
PERUGINO. By George C. Williamson. Litt.D.
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA. By W. G. Waters, M.A.
PINTORICCHIO. By Evelyn March Phillipps.
RAPHAEL. By H. Strachey.
REMBRANDT. By Malcolm Bell.
RUBENS. By Hope Rea.
SIGNORELLI. By Maud Cruttwell.
SODOMA. By the Contessa Lorenzo Priuli-Bon.
TINTORETTO. By J. B. Stoughton Holborn, M.A.
VAN DYCK. By Lionel Cust, M.V.O., F.S.A.
VELASQUEZ. By R. A. M. Stevenson.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. By Edward McCurdy, M.A.
WATTEAU. By Edgcumbe Staley, B.A.
WILKIE. By Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower, F.S.A.
Others to follow.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.

JACOPO ROBUSTI

CALLED

TINTORETTO

BY

J. B. STOUGHTON HOLBORN
B.A. OXON., F.R.G.S.

LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1907

First published, 1903.
Cheaper Reissue, 1907.

PREFATORY NOTE
IT should perhaps be stated that this little book is an
abridgment in essay form of a much larger work at
one time contemplated and partially completed. This
fact may account for what will be felt by the real
student of Tintoretto to be a somewhat uneven treat
ment of the subject. The author takes this opportunity
of expressing his thanks to all those who have so kindly
assisted him, especially friends in Venice. To Miss
Holborn of Aberdeen Park his gratitude is particularly
due, as without her aid the book would never have been
written, and to her he would dedicate this small effort.
Oxford, March, 1903.

A 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter page
List of Illustrations  ix
Bibliography  xi
I. The Man  i
II. The Morning of Impressionism  15
III. Tintoretto's Pictures : their Condition and
Preservation. Earlier Work  24
IV. Titian and Tintoretto  36
V. Great Works in Venice  50
VI. Colour, Drawing and Composition  67
VII. S. Rocco  78
VIII. His Legacy  85
List of Pictures  95
Index  ,  153

vn

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO face
PAGE

The Temptation  Scuola di San Rocco, Venice
Frontispiece
Bacchus and Ariadne  Doge's Palace, Venice 4
Tintoretto's Last Portrait of Himself Uffizi Gallery, Florence 12
The Finding of the Body of St. Mark Brera Gallery, Milan 22
Adam and Eve  Accademia, Venice 30
Cain killing Abel  Accademia, Venice 32
Part of the Descent of Christ inteA
Hades  I ^". Cassiano, Venice 34
| Facing one another.
Ganymede (artist unknown) . . J National Gallery, London 34
The Presentation of the Virgin Madonna dell' Orto, Venice 42
Figure from the Presentation of\
the Virgin  I Madonna delV Orto, Venice 44
Figure from the Presentation of j Facing one another.
the Virgin (by Titian) . . J Accademia, Venice 44
The Crucifixion  ^S". Cassiano, Venice 46
Luna and the Hours . . ,  Berlin 50
The Adoration of the Shepherds Scuola di San Rocco, Venice 52
The Miracle of St. Agnes . . . Madonna del? Orto, Venice 56
The Last Supper  S. Paolo, Venice 58
St. George and the Dragon . . National Gallery, London 60
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple . Gesuiti, Venice 60
The Forge of Vulcan  Doge's Palace, Venice 62
Mercury and the Three Graces . . . Doge's Palace, Venice 62
The Battle on Lake Garda .... Doge's Palace, Venice 64
Study for II Paradiso  Prado Gallery, Madrid 64
St. Ursula and the Virgins . Church of the Hospital, Venice 66
ix

x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE
PAGE
The Finding of the True Cross S. Maria Mater Domini, Venice 66
Moses and the Purification of the Women of Midian
Prado Gallery, Madrid 70
Origin of the Milky Way (study for picture in the National
Gallery)  Accademia, Venice 74
St. Michael overcoming Lucifer .... Gallery, Dresden 76
The Annunciation  Scuola di San Rocco, Venice 80
The Crucifixion  Scuola di San Rocco, Venice 80
The Massacre of the Innocents Scuola di San Rocco, Venice 82
The Ascension  Scuola di San Rocco, Venice 82
Christ before Pilate .... Scuola di San Rocco, Venice 84
Unknown Portraits  Gallery, Vienna 86
Sebastian Veniero  Gallery, Vienna 86
The Last Supper  6". Giorgio Maggiore, Venice 88
Part of the Crucifixion . . . Madonna del Rosario, Venice 90
Part of picture of Madonna and Saints . Accademia, Venice 90
The Woman taken in Adultery .... Accademia, Venice 90

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carlo Ridolfi. De maraviglie dell' arte, overo le vite degl'
illustri pittori Veneti. Venice, 1648.
G. Vasari. Lives of Seventy of the most eminent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects.
Lacroix. Tintoret — in Revue des Arts, xv. 361. Brussels, 1862.
Maintz. Tintoret — in L' Artiste, iv. 246. Paris, 1869.
Galanti. Tintoretto — in Atti della Accademia. Venice, 1876.
Janitschek. Tintoretto — in the Kunst und Kiinstler series. 1876.
W. Roscoe Osler. Tintoretto (Illustrated Biographies of
Great Artists). London, 1879.
Alexandre Auguste Philippe Charles Blanc Histoire
de la renaissance artistique en Italie, revisee et publiee
par Maurice Faucon. Paris, 1889.
Luzio. Tintoretto — in L' Archivio, iii. 397.
Bernhard Berenson. The Venetian Painters of the Renaiss
ance. 1894.
John Ruskin. Modern Painters, Stones of Venice, etc.
Henry Thode. Tintoretto — in the Kiinstler-Monographien
series. Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1901.
Henry Thode. Tintoretto — in the Repertorium fur Kiinst-
wisschenschaft, redigirt von Frantz Schestag, Nos. 23 and
24. Still appearing. xi

xii BIBLIOGRAPHY
Moschini. Delia Pittura in Padova.
Ramdohr. Ueber Malerei, etc., in Rom.
Morelli. In addition there are the usual Guide Books and Catalogues,
those of the Old Masters' Exhibitions at the Royal Academy
being particularly valuable.

TINTORETTO CHAPTER I
THE MAN
" Meantime I'll draw you as you stand,
With few or none to watch and wonder.''
Robert Browning, Popularity.
IT is a familiar complaint that we know but little of
the lives of many of our greatest geniuses. But in
general it is because we pursue a chimaera, forgetting
how different are the actions which fill the life-hours of
statesman and warrior, poet and artist.
In the case of Jacopo Robusti, detto il Tintoretto, we
may be said to know how most of the hours of his life
were spent. Not only so, but in those great works of
his we can read his thoughts more fully than it is given
us to read the thoughts of many of those with whom we
come into daily contact. We have not to hunt through
chronicles of his actions ; they are there before us — look !
It is all there ; a large-handed, generous soul, yet passion
ate withal and easily moved, a restless, yearning character
that strives and will not be satisfied. We see, too, the
reverent spirit, and even feel the hand that is capable of
a loving touch or an affectionate caress. No : if we
B

2 TINTORETTO
grumble when we have that enormous output of more
than six hundred pictures, and what we may call Ridoln's
appendix to this living story, it is because we pursue a
chimaera. For what more could there be room for in the
span of a single human existence.
This little sketch by Ridolfi is most admirable, and just
supplements the extant work. Ridolfi, who was himself an
artist, was born almost exactly on the date of Tintoretto's
death, and hence we find in him a sympathy and insight
such as we should expect from one almost a contem
porary and of the same profession. It is most refreshing
to read such a simple, just, straightforward statement,
after observing the way that Tintoretto has been treated
by most of his German critics. Unfortunately their
opinion has been too readily accepted. For the most
part these men have not been artists, and it has been
difficult or impossible for them to enter into the artistic
spirit. This spirit was possessed by Tintoretto in a degree,
unusual even for a man of his profession, a fact which
has always rather limited the circle of those who would
place him on the highest pinnacle of artistic fame. Art
was everything to Robusti : it was no means to an end,
or at least a means to no end less than the great end'
of all being. Art, as Ridolfi insisted, in what should be
a truism, does not copy nature ; it transcends nature,'
The truth as ordinarily understood is for Art but half a
truth. It is not and was not for him or Tintoretto the
servant of religion or morality. A picture may have its
moral side, but the beauty and the goodness are each
capable of abstraction, and are but correlative parts ojf
a wider and grander whole. Hence Tintoretto could]-

THE MAN 3
paint the Crucifixion in the Scuola di S. Rocco or
S. Cassiano, and at the same time be the author of the
marvellously beautiful Bacchus and Ariadne in the Doge's
palace. There is nothing inconsistent in his position, as
is sometimes urged. No man had a greater religious
fervour ; no man had a greater power over the beautiful ;
but his philosophy was wider than that of his critics, and
beauty and goodness were for him neither synonymous
nor mutually exclusive terms, and there was room in his
work for one alone or both. This is the man with whom
we have to deal : a stumbling-block to the critic, but the
founder of all that is best in modern art.
The year of his birth is not certainly known. Prac
tically all that it is necessary to know in order to grasp his
position in the history of Art is that he was born in the
early part of the sixteenth century. Ridolfi gives 1 5 1 2
as the date. The records in the State Archives and
S. Marcilian do not tally with this ; from them the later
date of 1518 must be inferred, since they give the year
of his death as 1 594, and his age at death as seventy-five
years and eight months.
He was the son of Battista Robusti, a cloth^Iyer of
Venice. This explains the name Tintoretto, little dyer,
by which he was known. We may assume that he was
born in the city, and was therefore a Venetian in a sense
in which his great compeers were not. As a boy he was
fond of drawing ; and we know that he used to draw
upon the walls of his father's house, and found the colours
used by his father valuable for such a purpose.
There is reason to suppose that he studied for an in
appreciable amount of time under Titian. In the main,
however, if not entirely, he was his own master and his

4 TINTORETTO
indefatigable industry and lofty ideal of purpose is well
borne out by what Ridolfi tells us of his training :
" Knowing Titian's worth, and the many distinctions
he had gained, he studied his works with care, and also
the reliefs of Michael Angelo . . . and in order not to
depart from this resolution he wrote on the wall of his
studio these words :
" ' 11 disegno di Michel Angelo e '1 colorito di Titiano.'"
Perhaps we may best translate : the form of Michael
Angelo and the colour of Titian ; for the word " disegno,"
generally translated "drawing," means drawing in the
widest sense, including the notion of design. As the
essential constituents of a picture are its form and colour,
and the two artists named were the greatest in these two
lines respectively, the motto evidently means that his
ideal was the highest excellence all round. The inter
pretation of the motto as meaning that he intended to
combine the particular styles of the two masters is
utterly removed from the facts, as seen in his work.
That he may have copied some of their works in his
early days in order to find out how to achieve such ex
cellence is quite probable, but is not the same thing.
Left to his own devices we find that the first thing
that Tintoretto did was to procure chalk drawings from
the antique. He even took the trouble of getting small'
models by Daniello da Volterra of the famous figures
by Michael Angelo from the Medici tombs— Dawn,
Twilight, Night, and Day. These he carefully studied,
using for the most part artificial light in order to obtain
strong shadows, and he thus acquired an extraordinary
facility in dealing with objects in relief.

Hanfstdngl photo\

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE

[Doge's Palace, Venice

THE MAN 5
Besides working from these reliefs he made careful
studies from the life, and dissected bodies in order to
obtain a correct anatomical knowledge. Further, he
made models in wax or clay, draped them, and set them
in small houses made so that he could light them by
little windows, and thus gain a command over his lights
and shadows. It is also said that he suspended these
models from the ceiling, in order to learn the correct
perspective of flying figures seen from below. Then,
too, we hear of an ingenious device which he made by
straining strings across a rectangular framework, which
when held up before the model would assist the eye to
learn to measure the proportions carefully.
The result of all this training was that he did obtain
a mastery over drawing absolutely unparalleled by any
Venetian. This mastery enabled him to undertake with
ease poses involving the most difficult foreshortening.
His anatomical knowledge, although never obtruded or
leading to exaggeration, as is sometimes the case with
Michael Angelo, gave him a power of representing
motion in any position that has never been surpassed.
It is doubtful if there can be found by any master a
piece of modelling so incomparably subtle as that of
Tintoretto's Eve in the Adam and Eve belonging to
Mr. Crawshay. But despite his efforts and his undoubted
ability, the difficulty that he had in obtaining work was
extraordinary. Can it have been for the want of a little
influence at the start which, had things been otherwise, it
would have been natural for Titian to give ? Or was it this
versatility and power, this upsetting of old traditions by
a man still so young, that made the old wiseacres shake
their heads and say, " We never saw things done after

6 TINTORETTO
this fashion " ? Perhaps it was not entirely the conserva
tive spirit that was against him, for one of his earliest
successes was won by a striking departure from conven
tional rules.
In that long winding street called the Merceria, which
leads northward from the Clock Tower in St. Mark's
Square, it used to be the custom for the younger artists
to expose their pictures, not, apparently, with the object
of selling them, but as at a sort of exhibition, where they
would get the benefit of criticism passed upon their work.
Here Tintoretto once exhibited two portraits, the figures
strongly lit by artificial light — one of himself holding a
relief in his hand, and the other of his brother playing
the guitar. They were regarded as an extraordinary
tour de force, and created such a sensation that someone
was moved to write the following couplet :
" Si Tinctorettus noctis sic lucet in umbris
Exorto faciet quid radiente Die ? "
If Tintoretto thus by night is light,
What will he do when day has risen bright ?
Some have considered that these artificial light effects
show a decline in art, and this might be true of a painter
who confined himself entirely to effects of that sort.
Rembrandt, with all his greatness, is perhaps not quite
free from blame on this charge.
So great was his difficulty in getting employment, that
the first piece of work of which Ridolfi tells us was only
obtained in a most unorthodox way. He heard that a
new clock was to be placed in the Citadel (sic), and he
succeeded in inducing the workmen, whose business it
was to place the clock, to allow him to decorate the dial

THE MAN 7
according to his own design. We are not told, however,
what the architect thought of the freak, or whether
Robusti received anything for the work.
In his early life Tintoretto was indebted to his friend
Schiavone for some of his commissions. Schiavone was
a pupil of Titian, and, although he used to paint pictures
and frescoes, his chief occupation at that time seems
to have been the adornment of wooden benches and
cabinets. The calling was of some importance, and its
followers (of whom Schiavone was apparently the head)
had a place of exhibition in the Piazza. It is said that
Tintoretto acquired from Schiavone some of the secrets
of Titian's technique, whatever they may have been, and
that in return he used to assist Schiavone with his work.
Schiavone was the younger man, and probably owed his
advance at the first to Titian. The friendship was con
tinued throughout their lives, although their positions
were later reversed.
One of Tintoretto's most remarkable traits was his
passion for work. Work he would have at all costs, and
whether he was paid for his work or not did not seem to
matter to him. His restless ambition and limitless
energy sought even in his early years for some great
emprise wherein he might reveal the greatness that he
knew was in him, and with this end in view he offered
to paint the two great walls in the choir of Madonna dell'
Orto. The worthy prior was taken aback, for these
walls were fifty feet high ; he thought that it would be
impossible to pay for such a stupendous undertaking even
with a year's revenue of the fraternity, and he declined
the offer. But Tintoretto was not disheartened. He
proposed to do the paintings if his expenses merely were

8 TINTORETTO
guaranteed, and it was finally agreed that he should be
paid ioo ducats.
This action of Robusti's was most characteristic : we
hear of his doing the same thing on several occasions.
Yet his work seems hardly to have been appreciated as
it deserved. With a shrewd insight into human nature
Ridolfi here makes comment, that as we value ourselves
so are we assessed in the estimation of others. Tinto
retto painted these mighty themes for one hundred
ducats, and at one hundred ducats were they valued by
the crowd. And it is not surprising to find that they in
nowise enhanced his reputation ; nor was it till about
the year 1548 that he received a really important com
mission. In that year the great picture of The Miracle
of St. Mark was unveiled. It was painted for the
Scuola di San Marco, and now hangs in the Venetian
Academy between two even finer works by the same
hand. Ridolfi gives us another peep into Robusti's im
petuous nature, when he is telling us how the picture
did not at first meet with universal approbation : " But
because merit always encounters difficulties it came to
pass that dissensions broke out among the brotherhood,
some wishing that it should remain and others object
ing." This so angered Tintoretto that he took away
the picture and put it in his own house, but was after
wards induced to bring' it back and replace it. The
impetuosity of character here shown was clearly visible
in his work : it is the vigour and dash of it that gives
its strength and freshness. Yet this was the charge
that was brought against the picture, that it suffered
from a too hasty execution. Tintoretto was certainly a
quick workman, and the speed at which his thoughts

THE MAN 9
moved was astonishing, but the haste of carelessness
is one of the last charges that can be brought against
him. A good story illustrative of the speed at which Tinto
retto could work is told of the picture on the ceiling of
the refectory in the Scuola di San Rocco. "About
1 560 ' the members of the brotherhood resolved to have
a great picture painted in the refectory," and invited the
best artists of the city to compete. Tintoretto was one
of them, and secretly obtained the exact measurements,
so that, while the others were doing their designs, he
with his marvellous power of quick execution completed
a finished picture, which he privily had fixed into the
place it was to occupy.
" When, on the appointed day, Paolo Veronese, Andrea
Schiavone, Giuseppe Salviati, and Federigo Zuccaro
came to show their designs, and Tintoretto was asked
to exhibit his, he uncovered his canvas, which he had
cleverly hidden with a cartoon, and said that they could
make no mistake about the design which he had drawn ;
and if his readiness displeased them he would make a
gift of it to S. Rocco, who had already given him so
much." The artists were naturally surprised at the speed at
1 As the Crucifixion was not completed till 1565, it is possible
that "about 1560" may mean a year or two later, for huge as the
picture is, Tintoretto worked so quickly that 1563 is the latest date
likely for its inception. This would explain the fact that we know
of no pictures done before this according to the agreement. More
over, as in 1559 Robusti was actually working for the brotherhood
in their church, and giving satisfaction, a competition would have
been unlikely, whereas after an interval of a year or so this would
be more probable.

io TINTORETTO
which so great a work had been done, and withdrew
from the competition forthwith. But the brotherhood
were annoyed, and wanted to remove the picture on the
ground that they had only ordered a design. However,
on the matter being put to the vote, they decided to
keep it, partly because their rules forbade them to refuse
anything given to the saint, and partly because the pic
ture was very good.
" So they received Robusti into the brotherhood, and
gave him the charge of what paintings should be needful
for the rooms of the Scuola. In addition they granted
him an annuity of ioo ducats for life, on condition that
he^should provide one complete picture each year."
Perhaps Robusti went a little too far in this matter,
but the whole seems to have been regarded rather in
the light of a joke. Except the brotherhood no one
minded, and Paolo Veronese and Tintoretto always re
mained the best of friends.
Tintoretto seems to have been generally much be
loved, and, beside Pietro Aretino, we do not hear of
his falling foul of anyone. Aretino, who spared no man
in his lampoons, and was one of the most spiteful people
of his day, seems at length to have roused Tintoretto by
his scurrilous jests at his expense. Meeting him one
day Tintoretto invited him to his house as though he
wished to paint his portrait. When they were indoors
the host produced a pistol and proceeded, much to the
dismay of Aretino, who was a great coward, to measure
him with the weapon. " You are just two pistols and a
half," he observed, as if this was a usual preliminary of
the portrait painter. He then dismissed Aretino, who
seems to have taken the hint and troubled him no more.

THE MAN n
There are several stories illustrative of the merry side
of Robusti's nature, perhaps the most amusing of which
is the one about the picture of St. Jerome.
He had painted the picture of St. Jerome in the Wood,
representing him as in front of the trees. But his patron
objected, saying that the saint was not in the wood but
outside. Tintoretto did not reply, but when the man
came again there was nothing to be seen but the forest
of trees. " Where 's St. Jerome ? " he said, and Tintoretto
replied : " Oh, he 's in the wood, where you wished him
to be." "But I can't see him at all," he persisted.
" There he is," said Tintoretto, wiping off a piece of the
fresh paint, with which he had put an extra quantity of
oil. " In that case you'd better take him out again."
So the picture was cleaned and left as before.
We do not know the date of Tintoretto's marriage, but
we know that his wife was Faustina, daughter of Marco
dei Vescovi. When that has been said there is little
more to say, for we know nothing of the Vescovi family,
which, though noble, is not found in the golden book of
the ducal palace. It can only be assumed that they
came from the mainland. Faustina, too, is hardly more
than a name. Tintoretto is said to have painted her
portrait in the priestess in the Worship of the Golden
Calf, and in one of the women in The Nativity.
We are told that she was very particular about her
husband's attire, and insisted on his always wearing the
long cloak of the nobility. She was apparently the
family banker, and Tintoretto had to give a strict
account of all his expenditure. When pressed too
closely he used to tell her that he had given his money
to the poor, or the fund for prisoners.

12 TINTORETTO
They had certainly three children, Marco, Marietta,
born in 1560, and Domenico. Marietta was a great
favourite with her father, and used to accompany him, as
a child, to his studio dressed as a boy. There she
acquired her father's art, and became one of the most
celebrated portrait painters of her day. Domenico was
an artist of considerable skill, but lacked his father's in
ventive power and force of character. After his father's
death he seems to have held the foremost place among
the artists of Venice, but his work certainly suffers by
comparison with that of the greater man.
There are no descendants of the Robusti family now
in Venice. It seems to have flashed up from obscurity
for a brief moment, and disappeared as suddenly as it
came. Perhaps, too we should have liked a peep into
Jacopo Robusti's own family circle, or heard of some of
those evenings when he would delight his friends or
family with the music of which he was a great exponent.
But all this is denied us. It was, after all, but the playtime :
of his life, and the man for us lived in the studio, hard
working and strenuous, with but few idle moments in
which to satisfy the gossip of the curious.
One of the most discussed questions with regard to the life
of Tintoretto is that of his supposed visit to Rome. Let it be ;
said once for all that we have absolutely no evidence of any
kind whatever upon the point. The argument is entirely based]
on an imaginary resemblance to Michael Angelo's style found]
in the Madonna dell' Orto pictures, and not found in earlier
work. A similar argument is adduced for a visit to Florence
from the style of the picture in the Carmine, which it is not !
certain is a Tintoretto at all.
It is this picture that is probably at the bottom of all the

Unari photd\ [Uffizi Gallery, Flarejice
TINTORETTO'S LAST PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF

THE MAN 13
nonsense talked about Tintoretto. No one who has carefully
studied the S. Ermagora pictures, or the Cain and Abel and its
companion, can seriously contend for one moment that there
is any additional outside influence in The Last Judgement- &n&
The Worship of the Golden Calf.
It is not necessary to argue that he had not visited Rome,
but simply to point out that there is not a shadow of reason
for the affirmative view, any more than for a visit to Athens
or any other treasury of art. It should be noted that this kind
of argument is generally used by the lay critic, who is naturally
unacquainted with the lines pursued by the artist. In the
first place it is not necessary to assume that any resemblance
must be the result of conscious or unconscious plagiarism.
But without entering into a discussion of such a truism, it is
not unfair to assume that it is but natural that two men of
kindred genius working towards the same goal may, if sur
rounded by similar environments of race, time, and the works
of previous masters, develop on the same lines and in a similar
style quite independently.
But although this is more than possible, nevertheless it must
be recognized even by those of the most limited art experience
that it is not necessary to go to Rome to learn of Michael
Angelo. Indeed, we know in the case of Tintoretto that he
actually possessed casts after Michael Angelo's work, and
might be able to see drawings and designs at least without
going as far as Rome.
But the amusing part about the whole controversy is that
the supposed resemblance when analysed does not exist. To
build up any argument whatever it would be necessary to find
some point of resemblance other than that which already
existed in the minds and characters of the two men, or had
already been shown in previous works. But in, the case of
the Madonna dell' Orto pictures there is nothing of the kind.
There is a vigour of motion and power of conception about
them that transcend any pre-existing Venetian work ; but what

14 TINTORETTO
would we expect otherwise from Tintoretto — " il Furioso " as
they called him ? Indeed, we have it already in the Cain and
Abel and the S. Ermagora pictures. There is, too, a strength
of drawing that in a few places borders on exaggeration ; but
it hardly resembles Michael Angelo, and has a totally different
quality of line, and if there be anything it is more than
accounted for by the copies from that master that we know
Tintoretto actually to have made.

CHAPTER II
THE MORNING OF IMPRESSIONISM " Beyond
The ugly actual, lo, on every side
Imagination's limitless domain."
Robert Browning, Gerard de Lairesse.
THERE is a sense in which we may say that all Art
is Impressionism. It is certainly the function of
all Art to convey an impression of some kind. Yet the
word as at present used has a certain specific sense,
and, although somewhat vague, is not entirely void of
definite meaning. In fact, Impressionism may be said
to be the Art which endeavours rather to give an impres
sion of the whole than of the parts. It is only because
of the necessary limitations of the artist's material that
any such plurality of aim should be necessary, and in
the very greatest artists, who have most command over
their material, the impression may be nearly as vivid of
the one as of the other. But, in any case, one mind is
more inclined to a synthetic, another to an analytic
view ; one is deductive and another inductive. We find
that in the primitive art of all races the whole is merely
treated as an aggregation of unrelated parts. All the
care and attention is bestowed on the parts, and the
whole merely grows out of them, almost as it were by
accident. Even when this stage has been passed, the

1 6 TINTORETTO
parts still retain an importance out of all relation to the
whole. Detail still seems the supreme end. For though
great attention is now paid to the whole, nevertheless,
when the conflict necessitated by the particular medium
or material comes, it is never detail that is sacrificed :
that must be maintained at all costs, and the essential
tone values or colour relations, and so on, go for nothing.
When the scale begins to turn we have Impres
sionism ; and now, when for the sake of the broad light
effect or the general colour, or still more the primary
conception, which after all is the whole, for which the
picture was painted, something must give way, it is the
detail that must go. To take the simplest possible
instance — a portrait — then the furniture, the drapery,
the landscape, must all sink back and be sacrificed.
This is not the place to argue which is the truer con
ception of Art ; it is merely necessary to draw the dis
tinction. Although there are many instances of Impressionism
before Tintoretto, both in Greek and Italian Art, and we
cannot say that the dawn began with him ; yet he was
the first man who resolutely in all his work considered
the whole first, and subordinated everything to the one
great conception, working at it with a fiery and im
petuous zeal that gained for him the nickname of " il
Furioso." Hence we may say that with Jacopo Robusti
began the morning of Impressionism, and since his time
the day has developed to such an extent that some
would argue that we have now reached a late and garish
evening. We have already noted the care that he took in his
youthful studies to overcome the difficulties of lighting,

MORNING OF IMPRESSIONISM 17
so as to give depth to his pictures. He wanted to get
beyond the flat decorative effects of the earlier masters.
Art was tending in that direction, it is true ; the difference
between Titian and Bellini in this respect is very con
siderable, but the earlier masters were feeling their way
somewhat cautiously. Tintoretto seizes his inspiration
and flings himself into the work with the zest of a
prophet. Whatever Titian was remarkable for, it was
not depth, although we may not feel the lack of it
because of the extraordinary brilliancy of his colour.
Of course the full attainment of depth and relief means
a loss of detail ; but a great amount of detail in shadow
is a departure from nature without any corresponding
artistic advantage, as it only tends toward confusion
instead of simplicity. So that even from the point of
view of the merely imitative artist Tintoretto's position
was a great advance.
A sense of relief, if not depth, was imparted by the
earlier masters through the use of strong contrasts in
local colour, and the arbitrary arrangement of tones, but
not by a proper treatment of chiaroscuro. Tintoretto
did not disdain these methods, and we have magnificent
instances, as in such pictures as the Fall of Manna in
S. Giorgio Maggiore, but he added so much beside.
Perhaps one of the best examples is The Last Supper in
San Paolo, where the lighting is strong and masterly,
and the detail marvellous where there is much light, but
in the deep shadows everything gives way to their
luminous depth.
This concentration on the essential elements and
subordination of the minor detail, which we call Im
pressionism, was mistaken for haste by Robusti's con-
c

1 8 TINTORETTO
temporaries, and Ridolfi tells how they came and worried
him in his work, asking him how it was that he did not
paint slowly and carefully, like Bellini or Titian. He
put them off with a joke at their expense, probably
because he thought the serious truth that he wished to
convey was beyond them. We have already spoken of
the Miracle of St. Mark, a picture nearly rejected on this
account, but, as Thode remarks, it was merely a mistaken
view of what was really breadth of treatment. On looking
at the picture, for us it is almost hard to see to what
they referred. The work is most minutely finished, so
much so that at the shortest distance at which the whole
picture can be viewed with comfort the technique is
invisible. It was Tintoretto who first really showed that not only
must the technique be adapted to its medium, but 'at
the same time, the whole effort must be concentrated on
making a work of Art look at its best at the best point
of view. These are two of the cardinal truths of im
pressionism. It is quite clear that, if we wish to repro
duce a head in marble, it is not enough to follow exactly
the lines of the flesh, for the effect of light on marble is
totally different, and allowance must instinctively be
made accordingly. The same is equally true of paint,
complicated by the fact that we are representing on a
plane surface that which we see in the round. Obviously
then the technique that is suited to marble is unsuited to
wood, and that which is suited to water-colour is not so
suited to oil.
Tintoretto set himself to discover what was the tech
nique which was most suited to his particular medium.
He then saw at once, possibly without thinking about it,

MORNING OF IMPRESSIONISM 19
what is now equally obvious to us, since we have been
shown, and we wonder how we could ever think otherwise.
It is possible to imitate in oil colour a piece of skin, or a
small feather, or the like, so that looking closely into it
the resemblance is fairly exact ; but at the same time
this is not that for which the medium is best suited. It
is also possible to imitate the same things as seen at a
short distance, so that when the painting and the object
are viewed side by side at the same distance the resemb
lance is absolutely exact ; they are indistinguishable. So
far all is even too obvious, but what was not obvious,
before Tintoretto, was that this latter pair would not be
alike when looked at close together. Moreover, the
reason is not, as has been and even now is sometimes
erroneously supposed, because it is merely distance lend
ing enchantment, and that the thing is really badly done.
For if we take the first pair which resemble each other
upon a close inspection, we shall find that at a little
distance the resemblance ceases altogether. A remarkable
instance appears in a modern pre-Raphaelite picture by
one of the exponents of the school in a picture in the
Ashmolean at Oxford. In the grass are daisies painted
with such care that the yellow centres are distinct, and
the white florets can be counted, if one looks so closely
that only a few inches of the picture can be seen at a
time. As one moves away the daisies becomer grayer
and grayer, till at the distance at which the whole picture
can be seen they have totally disappeared, instead of
shining out, as daisies should shine, in the grass which
surrounds them.
It is useless then to paint a head in a picture which
looks at its best at about two feet distant if the picture

20 TINTORETTO'
is an altar-piece twelve feet high ; because when one is
two feet from the head it will be impossible to see the
rest of the picture. This was the kind of thing that the
early masters were constantly doing, so that every part
of the picture demands a different point of view, and
the effect which the whole is intended to convey is
destroyed. They probably -thought that it was the necessary
limitation of their material, but Tintoretto discovered
that it was the improper use of that material.
In painting anything but the smallest pictures, it is
remarkably hard to insure that this, which we call the
best point of view, shall be the same for every part of
the picture. In that grand picture of The Last Supper
in S. Paolo in Venice, the head of the Christ appears at
first sight very unsatisfactory, and it is not until we
approach it, and look closely into it, that we discover
that it is really a remarkably fine head. The fact is,
that, in his endeavour to do justice to the Redeemer's
head, Robusti has worked at it too closely, with too
much of what is commonly called finish, and the result
is a distinct blemish to the picture. In so many masters
this is the rule rather than the exception that we come
to regard their pictures as collections of fine bits, and
even cut them up, or at least photograph them in parts,
a thing that is practically impossible with Tintoretto.
There are of course other cases, and the Virgin's head,
for instance, in the S. Rocco Annunciation must have
struck most people ; but the marvel is not that there
should be any, but that there should be so few. For
when an artist is trying like Tintoretto to concentrate
the effect into one view-point, his failure to do so is

MORNING OF IMPRESSIONISM 21
much more noticeable than that of the man who has
made no such endeavour.
It must not be supposed that there is any intention
of suggesting by this that imitation is an end in itself
for Art. That we leave to the scene-painter ; but
imitation has its place, both as a mere training in the
use of his tools, and as the alphabet or language in
which the artist must express what he has to say ; but,
like language, though essential, it is a means and not an
end. Instances of Tintoretto's extraordinary power in this
respect occur in every picture, and it would be difficult
to select a special example ; but a very good one may
be found in the Finding of the Body of St. Mark, in the
Brera Gallery, Milan. The modelling of the partially
nude figure of a man on the right, at the proper distance,
appears as a most subtle piece of craftsmanship ; but,
on approaching the picture closely, it seems incredible
that subtlety could ever be the striking feature of those
great broad strong touches of light drawn, it almost
seems, with savage vehemence in a very fluid state
through the shadows underneath. The method is
familiar, but the power that lies behind it is not. With
other men these strong touches would have looked
sketchy to the last ; but with Tintoretto the variations
in the single stroke are so true that, directly we are far
enough away for the hair marks of the brush in the
stroke to be invisible, we have all the subtlety of
modelling and light and shade, and at the same time a
brilliancy of colour with no suggestion of teasing, that
could be gained by no other method, and is the envy
and despair of the colourist who comes after.

22 TINTORETTO
It is a typical impressionist picture of consummate
power that can hardly fail to strike the most casual
observer. Even the hasty foot of the American tourist
pauses before it, sometimes for many seconds, although
not starred in the guide-book, and I have seen many people
stand and look at it who did not know who it was by,
and had never heard of Jacopo Robusti. This does not
prove that it is a great picture, but it proves that at least
it has the power to impress, a not altogether unimportant :
quality ; and the picture is worthy of being considered
at some length. It is low in tone, but with wonderful
colour ; the upper part is cool with fine blue grays,
while the lower part is of a rich golden brown. A rather
startling note of colour is introduced into the picture by
the figure on the left, which is clad in robes of blue and
a high-toned red much cooled. This kind of thing is
not uncommon with Tintoretto : his colour often em
phasizes some point in the story,. and here the intention
is evidently to mark that the saint, although with the
actors in the drama, is not of them.1 The delicate;
variety of colour in the golden browns of the females
figure on the right is a characteristic piece of the master's'
best work.
The interpretation of the subject is not obvious, and
some writers have fallen into error, so that we may be
pardoned for attempting to describe the scene that is
taking place. Down the right-hand side of a " barrel-
vaulted " mausoleum are ranged a series of sarcophagi,
painted with a mastery over the technique of texture
that puts to shame the modern trickster in marble or
1 Ruskin has noticed this in one instance, The Stoning of Stephen,
in S. Giorgio Maggiore.

Brogi photo]

[Brera Gallery, Milan

THE FINDING OF THE BODY OF ST. MARK

MORNING OF IMPRESSIONISM 23
other feats in still life. On the left stands St. Mark,
distinguished by the halo and the above-mentioned
colour. Only by his presence do the searchers know
which is the body that his spirit tenanted on earth, and
he points to the one which tradition says is being taken
down by Buono, Rustico and Stauraco.
The body at his feet, then, is not the saint, but either
one that they have already taken down, or one that has
been brought to replace the stolen relic. On the right, a
demoniac clings convulsively about the knees of a
woman ; while the evil spirit, at the presence of the
saint, passes from him in the form of smoke. Perhaps
it is not a stretch of fancy to imagine that the kneeling
man who holds him, and whose falling drapery rather
suggests a shroud, has himself just been miraculously
restored to life. The kneeling figure looking toward
St. Mark is said to be Tommaso of Ravenna.
Tintoretto's impressionism developed and strengthened
as he grew older, and we find a unity of conception and
apparent lack of effort about his later works as com
pared with earlier productions. The Last Judgement, in
S. Maria dell' Orto, shows the germ of this great idea,
which is perhaps most fully if not most happily realized
in the huge canvas of The Paradise.
Such is a brief account of the principal truths that
Robusti taught in his impressionism ; some of the minor
points will be more appropriately considered under the
head of particular pictures.

CHAPTER III
TINTORETTO'S PICTURES : THEIR CONDITION AND
PRESERVATION. EARLIER WORK.
" While, blackening in the daily candle smoke,
They moulder on the damp wall's travertine,
'Mid echoes the light footstep never woke.
So, die my pictures ! "

Robert Browning, Pictor Ignotus.
ANYONE studying Tintoretto's work must have
been struck by the deplorable condition in which
it is found. Although Tintoretto is one of the last of
the great Italians, and the hand of time should there
fore have been laid less heavily on his work, nevertheless
his pictures are among those that have suffered most.
The preservation of a picture may seem a fairly simple
matter, but it has proved far too great a task for the
dwellers in Venice, and before assessing the value of
Tintoretto's achievement due allowance must be made
for this fact. Perhaps, as a class, the pictures in the
churches have suffered most. In every case they are
covered by thick layers of incense smoke which has
accumulated undisturbed for ages. Further, a large
proportion are sadly disfigured by the droppings of
candle grease, or are blistered by their nearness to the
flames. Is it any wonder then that the pictures have lost
their brilliancy ? Indeed, the picture by any master that
24

CONDITION OF HIS PICTURES 25
survives this treatment, must have been of dangerously
garish colour at the outset. But once the dirt is there,
it is difficult to decide what should be done. Anything of
the nature of cleaning, as ordinarily understood, is fatal.
However carefully varnish is removed there is certain
to be a minute amount of paint taken off also, whatever
process we employ. But it is just the surface glazing or
scumbling that often gives the subtle value to the
colour of a picture, and no matter how small the damage,
it is irrevocable. To clean down to the varnish is
another thing, if one can only find a man who will stop
there. Not only, however, has dirt disfigured the pictures, but
in many cases the colour has actually perished. Tinto
retto used to employ in his shadows a pigment or method
which, when properly preserved, gives an exquisite
slightly-green quality to the grays. Whatever this pig
ment or method was, it seems to have been particularly
liable to injury from the salt atmosphere of Venice, and
those pictures that have remained longest in Venice have
suffered most ; whereas the red pigment in Titian's
grays seems unaffected by this cause. There can be no
question about the right course to pursue : under ab
solutely no conceivable circumstances of any possible
kind whatsoever should the minutest touch of restoration
be permitted. This brings us to the consideration of
Robusti's worst enemy, the " restorer," and we find that
this blackening of the shadows is worst in those pictures
that have been " restored " ; take for example The Last
Supper in the church of S. Trovaso in Venice. It would
be impossible to mention all the pictures upon which the
restorer has been at work, The evil is all the greater

26 TINTORETTO
because no artist of any reputation would demean him
self to do such an act of vandalism, and thus it is
done by the worst and most ignorant of their craft.
The brotherhood of S. Rocco are amongst the worst
offenders, and the Academy goes so far as to keep
such a destroyer permanently employed to ruin their
pictures. There is no doubt that on the whole the best plan is
that pursued in the National Gallery, London, of cover
ing the pictures with glass. If the picture is properly
hung at the right angle, and not flat against the wall, as
generally in Italy, it is almost always quite possible to
see the picture well. In any case glass is not as difficult
to see through as dirt, and moreover is easily removed for
a short time for any special study of a picture. The
system of blinds, too, when rooms or churches are not
greatly frequented, would do much to prolong the life of
a picture. It is strange, but there are some people who would
condone the offence of restoration. Speaking of the two
mighty works by Robusti in the church of Madonna dell'
Orto in Venice, Mr. Stearns says : " fn the present instance
it was certainly better to repaint the pictures, so that we
can at least see what Tintoretto's designs originally were,
than to permit them to remain in the patchy and partially-
effaced condition that Ruskin Jound them in when he wrote
' The Stones of Venice' "
No ! photograph as much as you please, and copy all
with the greatest care, and preserve every minutest atom
of the design that you may. Reback the canvas if you
will, or secure a falling flake ; but leave us some idea of
the master himself, and, as long as a shred remains, let

CONDITION OF HIS PICTURES 27
us be able to distinguish what is his and what the copyist's,
which, directly the vandal's hand is let loose upon the
original, becomes impossible.
Ridolfi tells us that Tintoretto " produced in charcoal
and water colour on coloured cardboard the hands, arms
and torsos which he had collected, putting in the high
lights with chalk and white lead." Now, the method that
has been adopted in the case of many such drawings by
the old masters may conceivably point the way toward a
really legitimate method of restoration. Frequently the
high lights in these drawings have turned absolutely
black, yet it has been possible to recover their former
brilliance by chemical means 1 without the faintest pos
sibility of the most infinitesimal damage being done to
the drawings. It is perhaps not too much to hope that
modern chemists may one day assist us to recover some
of our " lost " pictures.
The restorer, the cleaner, and the negligent have thus
ruined a large proportion of the master's work, so that it
is only with the greatest hesitation that we can venture
to criticise what is extant. Much of the earlier work,
too, has totally disappeared. Of this we have some
account in Ridolfi, which may yet lead to the identifica
tion of some of the pictures buried in private collections
or scattered throughout the world. Some of his earliest
commissions were, as we have seen, obtained through his
friend Schiavone. Such was a panel of a full-length
female figure painted on the ceiling for the Zeno family.
This was so much appreciated that it led to a commission
for a large picture of the Conversion of St. Paul facing
1 Hydrogen peroxide.

28 TINTORETTO
the Campo San Paolo. The two friends are known to
have worked together over a frieze in some internal
decoration, representing the Life of St. Barbara, and a
figure of St. Christopher in a conspicuous position.1 Of
other pictures that Ridolfi mentions, The Adoration of
the Magi may be in England, and The Circumcision or
Presentation, so much admired by John Ruskin, and
Mr. Stearns in his excellent little book, still stands in its
original place in S. Maria del Carmine.
Ridolfi tells us that in his day many thought that the
picture was not by Tintoretto but by Schiavone, and,
were it not for the extravagant praise bestowed upon it
by the above authors, we should say that they were
probably right, and modern criticism wrong. As Tinto
retto and Schiavone so frequently worked together, it is
possible that the former had some hand in it. The style
may be unlike Schiavone, but it is not in the least char
acteristic of Tintoretto. The composition is exceedingly
weak, almost childish. An aggressive-looking table with
a white cloth fills the most important part of the picture,
whilst on either side are two figures that fulfil a some
what elementary notion of symmetry. On the left is
the high priest, with a fine face certainly, but with a
figure entirely out of drawing : on the right is a not very
happy idealization of the Mother of our Lord. She holds
the Saviour, who is standing on the table in an attitude
that is almost comic. The colour is warmer and flatter
than Tintoretto's wont, but is on the whole good, despite
the deplorable weakness of design. That good colour
1 This was customary in painting St. Christopher, because the
old belief was that anyone who saw St. Christopher was safe from
harm during that day.

EARLIER WORK 29
and bad design was Tintoretto's own criticism of Schia
vone is some argument in favour of the latter being the
author. The first date that we have for any work of Tinto
retto is given by Ridolfi for Belshazzar's Feast. This
he did in 1 546 for the facade of the house of the smiths
of the Arsenal. It was a fresco, and, like nearly all the
rest of Tintoretto's work in fresco, has entirely perished.
It is the more to be regretted as it would have given
us some clue to the dating of his pictures by their
style. It is mentioned immediately after the picture in the
Carmine, but, as Ridolfi merely says that he will record
with brevity the works of his first youth, we must not
lay too much stress upon this, particularly in view of
this picture's disputed authorship.
As Tintoretto grew in reputation he obtained more
important commissions, and in the next year he painted
two pictures for the church of S. Ermagora — a Supper
of Christ and a Washing of the Apostles' Feet. Ridolfi
admires the perspective of the latter, but tells us that it
was taken away and a copy substituted.1
1 Ridolfi also mentions three early pictures in San Benedetto, two
of which Mr. Stearns says (in the edition of his book published 1894)
that he has seen. He remarks that " they resemble the preceding
(i.e. The Presentation) not a little in their colouring, and the quiet
grouping of the figures, and are well worth visiting, though not so
decidedly works of genius and inspiration." This is one of the
most remarkable statements I ever came across, as the pictures are
not there, and I find on careful inquiry that they were certainly not
there eighty-eight years ago. Neither is there any possibility of
other pictures being mistaken for them, as I have carefully ran
sacked every corner, and all the lumber stored away in the
church.

3o TINTORETTO
Both these pictures are still to be seen in the church to-day,
which is more familiarly known as S. Marcuola.
It seems not altogether improbable that the painting of Th
Feet Washing is a replica by the master himself. In the dim
light of a stormy day it was certainly very impressive, being
painted in a remarkable colour scheme of whites and browns,
which is most pleasing. On the extreme right is the figure of
Christ kneeling, whilst the apostle is standing, as is also the
case in the S. Stephano picture. The table from which some of
the apostles have not yet risen is some way back in the picture,
which gives a curious effect. On the left of the table is a
group of two figures apparently about to fulfil the behest:
" If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye
also ought to wash one another's feet." Behind is a gallery
on columns running across the picture.
The strange effect of putting the table so far back in the
picture, a most telling device of composition, has been ex
aggerated by pieces of canvas being added both above and
below, so as to make it fit its new position when the church
was restored. The same has been done to the companion
picture; but the result is not altogether unpleasing, and at
least this method of restoration does no actual harm, and the
original intention can always be gathered by the use of two
books. It is advisable always to carry in Venice some such
adjuncts, as the conditions of lighting often make it impossible
to see anything otherwise : two broad L-shaped pieces of black
cardboard are perhaps the simplest expedient.
The original picture was in the collection of Charles I., but
along with the rest of that collection, at that time the best in
Europe, was sold by the Commonwealth Government, and now
is to be seen in the Escurial near Madrid. The other picture
is the earliest dated work of Robusti, and as the two were
probably executed together they give us some clue as to the
development of Tintoretto's genius.
The inscription on the picture is :

Hanfstdngl photo]

[Accademia, Venice

ADAM AND EVE

EARLIER WORK 31
"1547 die 17 Agosto
in tempo de miser
Isepo Morandelo
et compagni."
It is a fine piece of very rich colour, and a remarkable
contrast to the other. The clue then merely leads us to the
conclusion that even at that date Tintoretto's style was extra
ordinarily varied, and that we must beware of laying too much
emphasis upon his style in determining the date of his work.
In S. Severo he painted a Crucifixion, of which Ridolfi
gives a very short description. Blanc also mentions it,
and calls it a remarkable work. There is now a prison
on the site of the church, and it would be interesting to
know what became of this picture. Ridolfi speaks of it
as a long canvas, but whether he means anything more
than that it was not of the more usual upright shape of
altar-pictures we cannot tell. The description, as far as
it goes, would apply to the Academy picture, but that
we know to have been in SS. Giovanni e Paolo. It
would even better describe The Crucifixion at Merton
College, Oxford, but unfortunately the authorities cannot
give the date of its acquisition.
Among Tintoretto's early works were five pictures
painted for the church of The Trinity, having reference
to the creation of the world.1 The Fall of Man, some
times simply called Adam and Eve, and The Death of
1 The Creation of Fish, The Creation of Animals, The Creation
of Eve, The Fall of Man, The Death of Abel. Besides the two
in the Academy The Formation of Eve is supposed to be extant.
It was till recently in a private collection in Venice ; it then passed
into the hands of the dealers, and " suddenly, as rare things will,
it vanished."

32 TINTORETTO
Abel hang in the Academy, and are unfortunately rather
at a disadvantage by having their quiet warm brown
colouring thrust into too close proximity to The Miracle
of St. Mark, and all three pictures suffer from the colour
of the wall.
The Death of Abel is the finer composition; there is
no artificiality about it, no struggle for balance and
symmetry, which is perhaps just evident in the other;
and the result is completely satisfactory because it
defies analysis. The conception is as good as the com
position ; the tempest of motion that the winds of pas
sion have stirred — the sad world of sombre browns — >
with just a hope of better things suggested in the blue
vista beyond.
There is plenty of colour nevertheless in these low ¦
tones, exquisitely lovely in their gradations, and the
drawing is no less wonderful than the colour. Only
Raphael could have drawn a figure so splendid as that
of Abel ; different indeed, with a lither grace, but like
this, with none of the exaggerations that, say what one
may, are often a blemish to Michael Angelo's work.
But if this pose and its contours are a marvel, what is to
be said of the modelling of Adam's back in the com
panion picture? Many think it unsurpassed in this
world ; but it is because they have not seen the Adam
and Eve by the same hand in the possession of Mr.
Crawshay. What Robusti has here achieved in the case
of the male figure, he has there done in the case of the
female, and as it is the more difficult task it may be
deemed the higher achievement. Mr. Crawshay's pic
ture is by far the finer composition, and we cannot help
wishing that he had put this figure of Adam into it.

i Hnari photo]

CAIN KILLING ABEL1

[Accademia, Venice

EARLIER WORK 33
In the days of her glory the walls of Venice were
decked without by the works of her greatest masters ;
but these, alas ! have all perished, Tintoretto's along with
the rest. In his early years, when he could find but
insufficient outlet for his energetic nature, he once heard
that there was a new house being built near the Ponte
del Angelo. But he found upon inquiry that the owner
was not wishful to have his house painted. Tintoretto
was not to be daunted ; here was a field for his genius,
and paint it he must. So he offered to do it for nothing,
only being paid for the cost of the colour. And to this
the owner finally agreed. Ridolfi gives us a description
of it, with the knights riding on their infuriated horses,
and we know how Robusti would have revelled in such
a tumult of motion ; but it is idle to go into the de
scription of a work that is irredeemably lost to us.
" With a similar idea," says Ridolfi, " it came into his
mind to paint the little house of a dyer at S. Giovanni
Lateran, on which he painted a Ganymede, naked, car
ried by Jove in the form of an eagle. And he did not
represent a soft and delicate youth, such as the poets-
tell, but rather a figure stout of limb, and he painted it
with such vigour that it could not be surpassed."
On the east side of the Rio della Paglia, not far from
S. Giovanni Nuovo, is a small house overlooking the
water, upon which are the remains of some frescoes by the
hand of Tintoretto. It is also not twenty yards from
the Ponte del Angelo, but it is to be noted that the
house is small. A head or so, and parts of figures, may
be made out near the upper part of the wall. Is this the
little house of the dyer ? Perhaps it is, and yet that is
all that is left to us of this once beautiful work. One is
D

34 TINTORETTO
often arrested in wonder at the folly of the ancient
Venetian, who could waste such gifts in this prodigal
manner upon walls exposed to the ravages of the cruel
sea air of their city. But the wonder grows when we see
the folly turn to the criminal neglect of a later genera
tion. At least, in the days of her pride, it might be
urged that whence this came more might follow ; but
now that those mighty hands are laid in the dust for
ever, and the priceless gifts have come to an end, should
not the more care be taken of the remnant that is left ?
But as we speak the flakes are scaling from the walls,
and in a few years there will be nothing left even to
mark the place.1
Although it is not possible to trace anywhere the
muscular limbs of the beautiful cupbearer, nevertheless
the subject has a peculiar interest for us in Britain. In
the National Gallery hangs an octagonal picture of a
muscular Ganymede. It is or was called "School of
Titian," with what intent it is hard to say, for Titian
himself could never have painted it, much less a mere
follower. There is a certain amount of very doubtful
evidence in favour of this picture being by Damiano
Mazza. This on examination, although tempting, proves
to be quite inconclusive. Were the case really so,
Damiano Mazza could never, any more than Robusti
himself, be considered as a mere follower of Titian. It
is of exquisite colour and of a subdued brilliance, superb
in the subtlety of its gradations. The drawing is masterly,
combining a power over foreshortening with an extraor-
1 There is also the remnant of a fresco containing the beautiful
figure of a charioteer on the west side of the canal running past
the church of S. Trovaso.

A linari photo] [San Cassiano, Venice
PART OF THE DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO HADES

Alinari photo]

[National Gallery, London

GANYMEDE
ARTIST UNKNOWN

EARLIER WORK 35
dinary suggestiveness of motion. Titian never inspired
that picture ; it is remarkable in each of its qualities for
power that Titian did not possess. But who was the
master of motion, of foreshortening, of drawing and
colour in one ? And here Ridolfi tells us that Tintoretto
actually painted such a Ganymede. We know how fond
he was of repeating his subjects, and nothing is more
likely than that he should have repeated on some internal
decoration a design that had given him satisfaction on
the perishable surface of the outside of a house. But
further, if we go to the church of S. Cassiano (Venice)
and look at the figure of the angel in the upper corner
of the Christ in Hades, we shall be tempted to ask where
have we seen that figure before, and we find it in the
conception of the Ganymede in London.
To me at least then, the Ganymede in the National
Gallery will always be a Tintoretto ; and, though quite
possibly painted by another hand, it remains the em
bodiment in small compass of the peculiar character
istics of the master himself. It is one of the finest
pictures in the world, not of such size as to tempt one
to say it passes the limits of a picture, and although
probably once intended for a ceiling, it looks better on
the wall in its present frame than under such neck-
breaking conditions.

CHAPTER IV
TITIAN AND TINTORETTO
" Friend, there 's a certain sorry little scrub
Goes up and down our Florence, none cares how,
Who, were he set to plan and execute
As you are, pricked on by your popes and kings,
Would bring the sweat into that brow of yours ! "
Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto.
EVEN in the city of to-day, whose woebegone aspect
is calculated to inspire disgust rather than pity, there
is still sufficient to remind us that Venice once styled
herself not altogether inaptly " The Queen of the Sea."
And although it is true that, when the fingers of time
have been remodelling a stone building, we have a
surface incomparably lovely, in comparison with which
peeling paint and falling stucco are altogether abomin
able ; nevertheless, despite the paint and the filth and
the squalor, there is yet a suggestion of the. brilliancy of
old ; while the glorious light and the rich colours of the
water have lost nothing of their beauty.
This colour, which fascinates us to-day, and was to
Turner an inspiration, doubtless exercised to the full its
power over the artists of the city's golden age. When
Venice had passed her zenith, her people still revelled
in all the grandeur that colour could afford. Magnificent
displays of dress were the features of her public pageants,
36

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 37
and a wealth of brilliant hues adorned her private
citizens. Her artists naturally fell under the spell, and
the Venetian artists were the greatest of the world's
colourists. The earlier Venetians taught the world what could be
done by the juxtaposition of brilliant and harmonious
colour. Indeed, they had carried their art so far that
it seemed as though there were nothing more to say.
Yet in truth they were but the forerunners of a greater
school of colour than their own. The colouring of
Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto revealed an infinitude
of new possibilities, and to each of these men must be
credited much that was then discovered.
It has been too often the rule to give to Titian all the
honour which he should share with his contemporaries.
It is doubtful whether Titian did not himself directly
owe much to Giorgione, and in any case it is incorrect
to attribute Tintoretto's mastery to the direct teaching
of Titian, or even to any marked extent to his indirect
influence. Indeed, it is not unfair to say that the advance
in colour from Titian to Robusti is as great as Titian's
own advance upon that of his predecessors. With regard
to the effect of direct teaching upon Robusti, there
seems to be absolutely no reason against accepting the
story that Ridolfi gives us as substantially true. " His
parents," says that writer, " both wished to further his
desires, and took him to Titian, where he was received
with other boys, and allowed to copy some of Titian's
work. But when he returned after a short absence, he
saw some drawings peeping out from below a form, and
asked who did them. Jacopo, who had done them, and
was afraid of his work being wrong, said with some

38 TINTORETTO
hesitation that they were his. Titian perceiving that the
lad might from such a start become a great painter and
do him an injury, went upstairs, put off his cloak, and
told his pupil Girolamo to send Jacopo away, so that he
was deprived of a master without knowing why. So
active is the little worm of jealousy in the human
breast." There is no evidence against the story, and the only
argument is that of Titian's adherents, who refuse to
believe it, as showing in him a jealous and unfriendly
disposition. Yet if we look into the matter, we shall find
that what little evidence we have all points in the same
direction. In the year 1561 the senate resolved to
decorate the library, and appointed Titian to carry out
the work. It would have been most natural to have
asked Tintoretto to take part, yet Titian did nothing of
the kind, but distributed the undertaking between Paolo
Veronese, Schiavone, Zelotti, and Salviati. The result
was that people began to talk, and unpleasant comments.
were made, and the old story of the dismissal was raked
up again. It was certainly believed at the time, and we
hear of no contradiction while the actors were yet alive ;
so that it is a little late to raise an objection based upon
nothing but a preconceived prejudice in favour of Titian
after a lapse of more than 400 years. It is pleasant to
notice that the agitation had its effect, and the com
mittee to whom the affair had been entrusted allotted to
him the spaces between the windows, in which he painted
the fine, but somewhat overrated, series of philosophers
still to be seen there. Ridolfi mentions four, but the
official records assign seven to his hand.
It may also be added that we know from other sources

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 39
that Titian was not in the habit of treating his pupils too
well. Vasari, who was a great admirer of Titian, blames
him for his treatment of Paris Bordone, who found
Titian indifferent to his progress, and finally left the
studio, because, he said, that what he got there was not
worth the cost.
It is certainly a reversal of the usual order of things
when a master cares least about keeping his best pupils.
There is no doubt that Robusti himself believed that
Titian was not fair to him ; so much so, that he took
special pains to obtain an admission of his worth from
Titian, without the latter being aware to whom his praise
was given. Not very long, apparently, after his short
experience of Titian's studio, he painted a spirited his
torical work, and placed it on exhibition on the bridge of
the Rialto. In those days it was the only bridge over
the Grand Canal, and Titian was certain at some time
to cross it. It fell out as he had expected, and Robusti's
friends were able to tell him of Titian's criticism. It
seems that Titian was much struck by the picture, and
praised it exceedingly, without knowing the author.
We never hear of any direct intercourse between the
two men after the early incident, which it seems not
unfair to attribute to Titian's prejudice ; for there must
have been ample opportunity amongst their mutual ac
quaintances, and Tintoretto, we know, was a welcome
guest wherever he went, and much beloved by those who
most closely rivalled him in his work, and who were
endeavouring to obtain the same commissions.
As to the indirect influence of Titian upon Tintoretto
a certain amount undoubtedly cannot be denied. But
the temperament of the two men was so different, and

40 TINTORETTO
their ideals so wide asunder, that the usual view of the
influence of Titian is quite untenable.
Titian was a direct descendant of the older men ; his
colour was brilliant, because theirs was brilliant ; and
although he paid more attention to chiaroscuro than had
ever been done before, it was rather on the old lines,
and perhaps even here the honour of leading belongs to
Giorgione. But Tintoretto worked on a different prin
ciple ; his plan was rather to proceed as Turner did, from
the sombre and low-toned schemes of colour, working
up by a progress of his own, that did not depend upon
past tradition, to a more brilliant and gorgeous effect.
Tintoretto could rival and surpass Titian on his own
ground, working in the most brilliant colours without
suggesting the possibility of garishness. At the same
time he was the most consummate master of colour in a
more subdued key, the master in whose footsteps it was
the aim of Velasquez to follow. In the church of Ma
donna dell' Orto there is gathered about the painter's
ashes a veritable treasure-store of Tintoretto's genius,
and in one of the chapels of the nave hangs the mag
nificent low-toned picture of our Lady as a child ascend
ing the steps of the Temple. Ridolfi tells us that it was
once outside on the doors of the organ, but how it ever
fitted with the two pictures, which he says were inside,
is to me at least a mystery. A man may be able to gaze
upon the Worship of the Golden Calf, and upon its com
panion picture in the same church, and pass away un
moved ; but he must have a heart of stone, a sense of
Art more dead than lifeless stock, who can gaze upon
that picture without a thrill.
It is the more interesting because Titian also has

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 41
painted this subject with extraordinary power. I shall
never forget my first impression of Titian's picture, of
which I had never heard, and which, with no guide-book,
I came upon suddenly down the long gallery of the
Academy. Gradually it dawned upon me that it was a
Titian — a Titian so fine that it was almost too good to be
a Titian — with a wealth of wondrous colour based on the
keynote of a glorious turquoise blue. There was no flat
colour as in The Assumption or the Frari picture, none
even of that finer, grander, golden rosy glow ; but a sense
of harmony in the most perfect broken colour, suffused
with light, that with its marvellous subordination of the
part to the whole suggested Tintoretto. But it was not
Tintoretto. Tintoretto never drew those figures, beauti
ful as they are. Tintoretto could never have done so
great a work without flinging more passion into it, more
sentiment, more emotion. There was just a touch of
coldness — just a little. It was a scene to Titian, and
no more ; none of the fervour of religion, nor even the
fervour of " one that loved his fellow-men." Tintoretto
too, who painted the Paradise with a sense of unity,
would hardly have so forgotten the unity of so simple a
composition as to let that grand if somewhat hard figure
of the old woman predominate till it overweighs the
raison cFHre of the picture. But despite these faults, and
faults they fain must be, I had rather have Titian's Pre
sentation than fifty Assumptions, or fifty pictures of the
like achievement. And with this picture we must com
pare the Presentation by Robusti. It is not so ambitious
a work in colour or in size. But though the Titian may
strike us more, it is the Robusti we shall love the better.
Titian's work was painted in his old age, whereas

42 TINTORETTO
Tintoretto's was a comparatively early work. This may
be assumed partly by its style and colour-scheme, partly
by Ridolfi's apparently including it under his earlier
works. Hence it is assumed that the slight similarity in
treatment was a compliment to Tintoretto by the older
master. I do not, however, think that this is the case,
nor do I, with Mr. Stearns, think that " they were painted
in the same manner because it would be difficult to con
ceive them otherwise."
Like the Greeks, although to a less extent, the Italians
used to have certain conventions, to which they made
each particular treatment conform ; such, for instance, as
The Blood of the Redeemer or The Annunciation, both
favourite subjects of the earlier masters. But to say that
it is difficult to conceive a Presentation of the Virgin
without an obelisk in the background is the height of
folly. Yet such was the convention. Carpaccio has an
obelisk, Titian has an obelisk, Tintoretto has an obelisk.
The same applies to the flight of steps and other points.,
What was the origin of the convention is another problem,
probably the reversion to some earlier picture supposed,
in a sense, to represent the inspired tradition.
But there is little need to make a difficulty about it.
Within these limits, however, there was much room for
originality, and each has pursued the theme in his best
or nearly best manner. I think Titian's picture is far
nearer to his own high-water mark than is the case with
Robusti, although it is a very fine example of the latter.
In point of colour no comparison is possible. Titian's
is painted in a very brilliant scheme and is fairly high in
key. In Tintoretto's picture, on the other hand, the colour
is subordinated to that golden-brown effect of which he

Anderson photo] [Madonna de IV Orto t Venice
THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 43
is so fond. It is full of subtle variety, nevertheless, and is
an excellent instance of Robusti's special colour treat
ment which is elsewhere treated at length.
With regard to the composition of the pictures there
can be little doubt that Tintoretto's is much the finer.
It is less conventional and less stiff, and the happy idea
of the curved steps with their decorated risers is very
pleasing. The centre of interest is well preserved, although the
principal figure is small. The attendants behind the
high priest, even the people in the distance, whose heads
only are seen, the spectators, the beggars, and that grand
maternal figure at the foot of the steps, all lead up to
the small girlish form and the light that gleams about
her head, never to be darkened.
The spirit of wonder and reverence permeates the
picture, and we feel that although Titian's work is all
beautiful, and is a rare feast for the eye of the finest
effects that man may see, yet Tintoretto had a grasp
of the higher things that are not seen but eternal, and
that of these he would give us a glimpse if we care to
look behind the mere visual image.
An interesting comparison is afforded by the two
remarkably similar figures of Our Lady by these two
masters. Unfortunately they are, both of them, very
slight and rather sketchy. But as far as they go they
are typical.
Not much can be gathered from any reproductions,
and in this case a little allowance must be made for the
Tintoretto being from a 'bad photograph. It is particu
larly misleading, as it suffers from a certain flatness
which, though a not uncommon fault with Titian, was

44 TINTORETTO
one of which Tintoretto was never guilty. The marked
differences will at once be noted : Titian's figure is stiff
and stumpy, and is not merely sketchy, but, in com
parison with the other, is devoid of even a suggestion of
drawing. The drapery hangs in wooden lumps, and
suggests paint rather than any texture of drapery. It
is perhaps not fair to consider the faces, which occupied
so subordinate a part in the smallest figures of large
pictures (even Tintoretto's must be some 14 feet by
1 5 feet wide) ; but here Tintoretto suggests a subtlety
of pose in the head with the chin turned away from
the spectator. The texture of the veil is admirable, and
the whole figure, though sketchy, and with some faults
of drawing, is distinctly graceful. For those who prefer
the testimony of the ruler to the judgement of the eye,
we may remark that Tintoretto's is nearly a head taller,
and hence less stumpy. It is also very clear in the
painting, but it hardly comes out in the photograph,
that there is a roundness and feeling for modelling in
Tintoretto's little figure, whereas Titian's is somewhat
lacking in this respect.
Such, then, are the two pictures of The Presentation
of Our Lady, and, although it would be difficult to say
that one picture is finer than the other, it is quite true
to say that Tintoretto's picture contains much of the
highest value, which never enters into the art of Titian
at all.
In the Accademia at Venice there are hanging on two
adjacent walls a great picture by Tintoretto and a great
picture by Titian — The Miracle of St. Mark and The
Assumption. The former picture created some excite
ment at the time of its execution, and one of the stories

Alinari photo] [Madonna dell' Orto, Veme#
FIGURE FROM THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN

Alinari photo]

[Accademia, Venice
HE VIRGIN

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 45
connected with it has been already told, and the question
of its impressionism discussed. But it is not the quali
ties above considered alone that give The Miracle of
St. Mark its place among the pictures of the world ;
and much as the picture has been praised it has not been
overpraised, but other greater pictures left us by the
same giant mind have not had their due.
It has its faults certainly. St. Mark lacks that delicacy
of poise that so often lends a grace to Tintoretto's flying
figures ; he almost falls upon the multitude. But the
real reason why this cannot be considered as Robusti's
masterpiece is that it is a little lacking in inspiration.
It is indefinable, but one cannot but feel it ; the picture
was done to order. A sort of inspiration has been
kindled, more, perhaps, than often fell to the lot of
Titian ; yet that great soul of Tintoretto was not on
fire when he was told to paint this subject and created
this picture. Yet it is perhaps more than we could
expect such a subject to do ; the whole idea is too
theatrical, and here was no room for the pathetic
grandeur of a Crucifixion or a Christ before Pilate. We
look at it and wonder, but our hearts are not touched,
and the whole is a striking commentary on the fact that
miracles in themselves can do nothing ; the love behind
them can do much, and is as powerful without the
miracles as with them. But stand in San Cassiano
before those three lonely crosses gleaming ghostly in
the shadows, while the murmur of the crowd outside
the church only helps us to realize the murmuring
invisible crowd that must be massed behind that sea
of spears appearing over the brow of the little hill ; and
criticism of colour, technique, and composition flies to

46 TINTORETTO
the winds, and we can only stand and gaze, thrilled by
the painter's touch to something past him and us and
Art even, far away in the infinite beyond. Titian never
painted such a picture ; his loftiest conception was of
the earth earthy.
And here we have something more on a par with
Titian's work ; it is very clever, very grand, very good ;
but it is good prose, not good poetry. St. Mark de
scends from the sky ; the Christian slave, who was to
have been tortured, is' saved ; the tools are shattered
and held up for the inspection of the presiding officer
on his little raised dais on the right. The crowd surge
round and look on with a certain eager curiosity, but
it is a nine days' wonder, and then all will be as before.
Yet, despite what it lacks, the picture is great, wonder
ful, and impressive, if not inspiring, and affords oppor
tunity for comparison with the famous Assumption of
Titian. The Titian has been "restored" and the Tintoretto
has been " cleaned " ; so we must, to a certain extent, be
guided by what we know of the masters from other
works. The Titian, moreover, was removed from its
lofty position over the high altar, and perhaps it is im
possible to get away to exactly the right distance. But
as the picture suffers considerably from a fault discussed
in a previous chapter, of not being painted for a common
view-point, it is certainly impossible to say what that
distance is. The Tintoretto, too, was hardly intended"
for a boudoir, and the room is none too large for it. It
also suffers considerably from the excessive narrowness
of its frame, which brings it into too close proximity to
the colour of the wall, that clashes with it offensively.

Anderson photo]

THE CRUCIFIXION

[San Cassiano, Venice

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 47
Nevertheless, its colour is far the finer. There are
colours in it as brilliant as those in Titian's, but they
are kept more in hand. It is curiously like the difference
between ancient and modern glass. In the Tintoretto
the value of having large portions with less colour and
approaching to black or white is fully appreciated,
and reminds us of the clear glass used in the old
windows. Titian's Assumption, on the other hand,- like the modern
window, is too full of colour, so that it defeats its own
end by the conflict between the colours, and moreover
borders dangerously on the garish rather than the
beautiful. Then, too, there is a flatness that is very
painful, occasioned partly by the want of true colour
relief, and partly by an inadequate treatment of chiar
oscuro ; while Tintoretto's greater power over chiaroscuro
gives to his picture far more depth and solidity. It is
futile to compare the composition, as Titian's has no
composition at all, and the three parts of the picture
seem totally unrelated. A certain want of inspiration
in such a subject as The Miracle of St. Mark may be
pardoned, and indeed is not felt. But if an Assumption
is not inspired or inspiring, one might ask, why paint it ?
But the Madonna is heavy, the upper figures do not be
long to the picture, and those below are posing, but are
certainly in no wise touched by the scene they are
supposed to be watching.
If we take any other pictures by the same masters we
shall find that the same truths hold good. In delicacy
and beauty of colour Titian yields to none, although,
even in this, Robusti generally equals him. When it
comes to the yet more subtle treatment of that colour,

48 TINTORETTO
as the colour scheme in a whole picture, Titian falls far
behind. As a draughtsman or creator of great com
positions no one has ever claimed for Titian the foremost
place, and we are probably fully justified in saying that
in the greatness of ideas, the majesty of his conceptions,
and the earnestness of purpose no man ever approached
Jacopo Robusti.
It is not surprising, therefore, and it is only ordinary
human weakness after all, if Titian was a little jealous of
this man of greater powers than his own, seeing that he
himself had been accustomed for many years to justly
consider himself as without peer among the artists of
Venice. It was not, however, till the very end of his life that
Tintoretto was ever actually chosen over his head. The
great battle-scene representing the victory of Lepanto,
perhaps the most glorious in the history of the republic,
was destroyed by fire along with The Last fudgement
during the author's lifetime in 1577. Ridolfi tells us,
with regard to the former picture, that the senate had
determined after so great a triumph to have a large
painting executed to celebrate the event, and to this
end they chose Titian with Giuseppe Salviati as his
assistant. Titian was at that time so old that it was
clear that the undertaking was beyond his power, and
Robusti at length bestirred himself and approached the
Doge and his council, pointing out that the whole
arrangement was a mistake, and that Titian's great
name would merely screen the inefficiency of Salviati.
Moreover, he added, he was desirous of showing his
patriotism at this great moment of his country's history,
and was prepared to execute without payment, save the

TITIAN AND TINTORETTO 49
honour which it brought, a picture of his countrymen's
heroic deeds. This he would complete within a year,
and if anyone should produce a better representation
within two years he would remove his own picture.
This offer the senate accepted, and presumably enjoyed
the picture from 1572 to 1577. "Such a resolution,"
Ridolfi remarks, " could not find place in a base soul."

CHAPTER V
GREAT WORKS IN VENICE
" As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop,
Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop :
What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop ? "
Robert Browning, A Toccata of Galuppi's.
TINTORETTO was perhaps the most prolific artist
that the world has seen. When we take into con
sideration the numerous large frescoes by his hand, every
one of which has perished, and then consider the
enormous number of pictures that are actually extant
to-day, besides the many that have been burnt or lost,
it becomes a wonder that they were all executed within
a single lifetime. Almost every picture that he painted
is worthy of careful study ; but as that would be an im
possible task, it would be well to look at a few of his
masterpieces still to be seen in the city of his birth,
especially any of surpassing excellence about which
little has been said before.
Perhaps what most strikes the visitor for the first
time is the enormous size of the pictures, and the im
mense number of figures that they contain. It is for
this reason that the pictures outside Venice for the
most part give a very inadequate idea of Robusti's
greatness. There are doubtless many remarkable works
by him in the public and private galleries of Europe.
5°

*-"V

l£?L=

Hanfstdngl fihoto]

[Berlin

LUNA AND THE HOURS

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 51
Such pictures as the Esther before Ahasuerus, or the
Nine Muses at Hampton - Court, or, again, Mr. Craw-
shay's Adam and Eve, or Luna and The Hours at
Berlin, are miracles of art, but they are comparatively
small canvases. For the same reason it is absolutely
impossible to convey the least idea by means of small
reproductions in a book, and anyone who attempts to
judge even the drawing and composition by these means
will have a totally erroneous impression of the Art of
Tintoretto. Two comparatively early works of the master, for
instance, to which we have already alluded, are on can
vases fifty feet in height.1 These pictures, in the church
of Madonna dell' Orto, although of great importance to
the student of Tintoretto, somehow, with all their
power, are wanting in something after all.
" The doing savours of disrelish :
Thus achievement lacks a gracious somewhat."
There is a want of unity about both pictures, particu
larly the Worship of the Golden Calf. It maybe difficult
to preserve unity in a picture fifty feet high, but the in
controvertible answer is found in the question — why do
it ? Tintoretto elected to paint a picture this size, and
the size cannot be taken as an excuse for the fault ; it is
rather the fault itself.
But we must remember that these were early works ;
they were the training ground for other huge canvases
that were to follow. A man cannot paint fifty-foot
canvases in his studio for practice, and these were his
1 They are impossible to photograph because of their height and
the narrowness of the church.

52 TINTORETTO
first. And, whatever may be the general feeling with
regard to immense pictures, there are certainly some
pictures in the world that are undeniably great despite
their size, and of these Tintoretto painted the largest?
and greatest of all.
If we may judge from the small remnants of fresco
to which we have already alluded, it was his habit when
dealing with the large spaces of exterior walls to make
the figures colossal, and thus overcome the difficulty of
scattered composition. But whether that kind of work
helped him or not, we look at the Worship of the Golden
Calf and are bound to confess that it is broken up, that
the clouds across the middle are not a satisfactory
arrangement, and, in fact, that in themselves they are
undeniably ugly. Then, too, the straggling figures around
the Almighty are an uncomfortable solution of the
problem elsewhere better solved by Tintoretto than any
other of depicting figures floating in the air.
The lower part is more pleasing, and almost makes a
picture in itself; indeed, Tintoretto probably treated it as
if it were. He may even have intended to symbolize
how they were cut off in their folly from their everlast
ing Father. But this should not have been done so as
to spoil the picture. The Adoration of the Shepherds
is even more cut in two, but is a perfect composition,
nevertheless. The women under the canopy, who watch
the procession as it winds along, are a dream of beauty,
and the surging crowd behind the calf is admirabli.
But it is not in the composition merely that there is
something at fault. Given all the drawing, all the colour,
all the composition, all the conception of the grandeur
of the scene, and the glorious pageantry, yet we want

Anderson photo] [Saiola di San Rocco, Venice
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 53
something more. It is difficult to define it, but perhaps
we might call it a touch of tenderness. It might be that
Tintoretto was a little lacking in this quality. Titian
certainly never had the spirit, nor had Paolo Veronese,
and the Venetian life of the time was calculated to crush
out anything of the kind — one long-continued festa.
But it was not altogether so with Tintoretto. Those
who have seen his Christ before Pilate or the Pietd at
Milan see that such a hypothesis is impossible. Is it
then that this spirit is incompatible with these great
canvases and these innumerable hosts of human beings ?
Yet seldom is there any great concourse of humanity
where the tenderness, whether of pity or sorrow or love,
may not find a place. The poets give it to us, and we
would have our artists give it also. What a universe of
pity such a scene might evoke, and yet we cannot find a
trace of it here. There is almost a sense of light-hearted
joviality that jars : the very men that carry the accursed
thing are portraits of himself and his compeers. For
that great stalwart man is " the little dyer," mighty in
physique as in intellect. Perhaps there is something in
the look of the youngest bearer, supposed to be Giorgione,
that, suggesting as it does a yearning after higher things,
strikes the introductory chord ; but the rest of the music
has been drowned by the acclamation of the multitude.
The figure that is almost hidden is generally said to
be Titian, but about the remaining figure there is some
dispute. Paolo Veronese is perhaps the most likely, as
there might well be ten years between the ages of the
two front figures, but others have suggested Paris Bordone
¦ as nearer to Tintoretto in years. The tradition handed
down by the sacristan says Paolo Veronese.

54 TINTORETTO
But if it is hard to speak of the Worship of the Golden
Calf, it is still harder to treat of the Last Judgement.
It is certainly finer in composition as a whole, and surely
the finer work altogether ; but as it contains no portraits
about which to talk, it does not lend itself so well to the
guide and the guide-book, and therefore the tourist and
the unintelligent will prefer it less. But let those who
can afford twenty minutes for a picture that has taken
a year to think out, stand before it in wonder and try to
take it in.
The picture rises before us dark and awful ; forms in
numerable loom dimly in the gloom of its vast depths
and gradually shape themselves before our eyes. All is
movement, confusion, chaos ; for the last great day has
come, and the countless hosts of the generations of men
go to meet their reckoning. And there high up is the
vision of Him who came once as guide, but now appears
as judge over those who were to walk in the way that
He had shown, and by Him are the Virtues who repre
sent the whole armour of God, wherewithal we may
stand in this final hour. But many, alas! are they
who have neglected to put it on, and them, with drawn
sword, the Archangel Michael pursues and treads down
underfoot. While, lower yet, there rages a watery torrent,
whence arise those that have met their death in the
great waters, and in the which, as in a stream of eternity,
some that have arisen are swept down to perish anew.
Over these waves of doom is swept the little boat of
Charon, which passes the power of that dim helmsman
to control, and, laden high with many a derelict soul, is
drifted to the deeps of an endless damnation.
Still further down there writhe in contorted attitudes

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 55
some that have but half received again their fleshly
covering, while from others still the green leaves grow
in place of limbs, and one in vain attempts to flee from
out the scene and escape the tribulation that has fallen
upon her.
There are many greater pictures than this Last Judge
ment, but the men who have painted them are but few
in number, and were this the only picture that he ever
painted, and not merely an early effort when scarce
known to fame, Tintoretto would yet stand close within
that circling ring that holds apart the greatest of this
world's creators.
Of the drawing there is scarce need to speak ; but
look upon the figure sweeping headlong into the right-
hand lower corner of the composition ; or, again, see the
fleeing figure on the left, to which we have above alluded.
Indeed, the vast majority show a skill and mastery over
material and an ease of execution quite at the pinnacle
of artistic excellence ; and if not carried out to that
minute degree of finish that we meet with in the famous
quatrain of the Doge's palace, or the Adam and Eve of
Mr. Crawshay or the Venetian Academy, we feel it is
not because he had not the power, but simply because in
a work so huge there must be some sense of power in
reserve, which, squandered in profligate confusion over
that stretch of canvas, would be felt to be a waste of the
divine force within the artist.
Of the colour we can say nothing ; much remains, but
more has vanished beneath the touch of the house
decorator's facile brush.
There are two other magnificent pictures in this
church, where rest the mortal remains of the master

56 TINTORETTO
himself. Of one of these fit monuments to his genius,
The Presentation cf the Virgin, we shall have cause to
speak later ; the other is the picture in the chapel of
Cardinal Contarini, and represents the Miracle of St.
Agnes. It is one of Tintoretto's best pictures, but the light is
such that it is almost impossible to see. But with the
aid of two books, or one of those familiar metal shades,
we can make out a good deal.
The rejected pagan suitor lies upon the ground upon
the left. The scene evidently depicted is the moment
when, after attempting as a last resort to carry off the
bride of Christ, he has been struck by death. St. Agnes
is kneeling in prayer, with her face upturned to heaven,
and her petitions are beginning to produce their effect,
for the lovesick youth is gradually feeling back his way
to life. His father, the Prefect, stands with hands out
stretched in amazement on the right ; while behind the
eager curious crowd are seen the threatening spears, the
foreboding that tells of the saint's martyrdom, that not
all the efforts of the Prefect or his son could then avert.
Whatever we may think of the legend, in which the
saint certainly appears in a peculiarly unenviable light,
we cannot but admire the picture. The artist at any
rate has chosen the redeeming incident in the life of an
unfortunately self-conscious, if not selfish heroine. The
position was doubtless a hard one, and the selfishness
mistaken for self-sacrifice ; but the solution demanded a
greater than St. Agnes, or at least one that had walked
a little closer in the Master's footsteps, and gained a
little more of His broader and more comprehending
spirit of love and self-abnegation.

Alinari photo]

[Madonna delF Orto, Venice

&THE MIRACLE OF ST. AGNES

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 57
The picture is a wonderful example of all that is best in
Venetian art. There is the full richness of colour, com
bined with that management of tones in which Tintoretto
remains peerless. The composition is full, with a certain
sense of scenic display in which the great Venetians love
to revel. It is a graceful picture, in which Tintoretto
has paid a more than usual amount of attention to the
beauty of the female face. It is also very characteristic
in the way in which it brings out that fervour of spirit
which was so marked a trait in the artist's religious and
intellectual attitude.
It is interesting to compare Tintoretto in this respect
with others of the world's greatest artists. It is not that
other men were less religious, but theirs was a calmer
worship, like some inland lake ever for the most part
unruffled, but Tintoretto is like the troubled Northern
sea. The gentle Fra Angelico, or Crivelli with his
reverent touch, belong to another world. Raphael and
Andrea were never quite whole-hearted ; this world was
very dear, and religion might be a passing love, it was
not a consuming passion ; for Titian it was not much
more than merchandise ; Leonardo da Vinci was cold in
comparison with Tintoretto.
There is a cold formality about Leonardo's famous
Supper that contrasts unfavourably with Robusti's mag
nificent creation in S. Paolo, Venice. Leonardo's picture
is sadly ruined, but the light in the refectory is good,
and a not unjust estimate may be made of its former
excellence. Even its colour may be recovered some
what, and must at its best have been a little flat and
tame. Tintoretto's picture, which hangs in a very dark
corner, shines out like a lamp. The drawing, though

58 TINTORETTO
not lacking in refinement, has far more strength than
can be found in the other picture. From the technical
point of view, one of its highest qualities, apart from the
superb richness of its comparatively low-toned colour, is
the dexterous skill with which the reflected lights in the
shadows are treated. No one but Tintoretto could have
painted that tablecloth. None, save perhaps Rembrandt,
could have approached the lighting effect ; and, as a
piece of composition, it is idle to compare it with any
thing so prosaic as Leonardo da Vinci's conventional
representation. Here is poetry, here is life, here is fire
and imagination. The conception is magnificent. Peter,
the ever-impetuous, startles us with his passionate out
burst of loyal affection. The very sky partakes of the
passion of the moment, and yet at the same time strikes
the warning note, and in those wild clouds we see the
shadow of the approaching tragedy. This and far more is
plainly written in the picture, and it is one of the greatest
canvases in the world. But ere long it will utterly perish,
as all else that is noble in Venice ; and will make another
item in the general ruin that indifference and neglect
allow to crash and fall each day before our eyes.
Tintoretto's Last Supper in S. Paolo is by no means
his only conception of the theme. We have already
mentioned the S. Ermagora picture. There is also a
fine treatment of the subject in S. Rocco, while in
S. Trovaso is another, which is, perhaps, the most com
pletely obliterated picture of all that the restorer has
disfigured. But there is also in S. Giorgio Maggiore
another to which this creature has been more lenient.
It is a bold conception that once seen will never be for
gotten — the light that shines from the head of the Light

Nay a photo]

THE LAST SUPPER

[S. Paolo, Venice

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 59
of the world, before which the flaming brazier almost
pales, the smoke wreaths gradually shaping themselves
into angel spirits, the beautiful attendants, and the
eager company of apostles.
Much might be said about this picture as of the other
most valuable treasures from the same brush that S.
Giorgio Maggiore contains. But our attention must be
given to what at one time must have been almost the
grandest colour scheme that Robusti ever attempted.
The Gathering of Manna is one of his gigantic composi
tions that reproductions only travesty, and even now
still retains much of its gorgeous colour. The name
does well enough as a label by which to recognize the
picture, but certainly does not in the least represent the
subject, which is rather that of the many employments
of the children of Israel on their wanderings — the actual
gathering of the manna playing but a very subordinate
part in their many occupations. The picture is one of
the most satisfactory compositions of a large number of
figures in existence. It has all the completeness and
unity of a smaller work, in which each individual pre
serves his own interest, and the composition does not
degenerate into a crowd ; yet at the same time all the
majestic breadth of a gigantic canvas is fully maintained.
It is one of the pictures where Tintoretto is supposed to
have given us his own portrait. He just appears behind
Moses and Aaron in the right-hand bottom corner. It
does not, however, strongly resemble other portraits of
him. The drawing is of the finest, with delicate model
ling and a subtle mastery over flesh, combined in many
instances with a grace of motion and ease of pose that
are altogether charming.

60 TINTORETTO
For once Tintoretto does not seem to have any
secondary aim in view, and the painting contains no
exposition of any great principle. He revels in the sheer
beauty of the scene, especially in the colour. Blue is the
master colour — a rich and full azure blue, whilst the
brilliant reds, that the Venetians loved so much, play no
unimportant part. The colour scheme is something like
that of the delightful little St. George arid the Dragon in
the National Gallery, London. The most interesting
thing to note, however, is the valuable use of white, of
which Tintoretto so often makes such excellent use, and
which again and again enables him to carry out a scheme
too brilliant to be otherwise possible — a point that has
been elsewhere discussed. What this colour must have
been when Tintoretto left it, and before it was damaged,
it is hard even to faintly realize.
It is strange how easy it is to miss the things that are
most worth seeing, although we may pass quite, close to
them. In the church, of the Gesuiti is a remarkable pic
ture of the Assumption by Tintoretto, in which the
colour has been almost entirely ruined. Yet in the
refectory of the same church is one of the best preserved
and most beautiful pictures that have come down to jus;
but for every fifty persons that see the one, there is not
one that sees the other. The subject is the Presentation
oj our Lord, and is carried out in Robusti's finest manner.
It should be said that the reproduction gives absolutely
not the slightest idea of the picture, as the value of the
contrasts and the sense of relief are two of the most
prominent characteristics of the original. The colour is
strong, and reminds one of Titian at his best, but is more
broken and luminous. If examined too closely it has a

Hanfstdngl photo]

[National Gallery, London

ct nrnDPr A\rn ttttt FiDAnnAI

Nay a photo]

[Church of the Gesniti, Venice
THE ^PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 61
slightly rough appearance, but when seen at the proper
distance, like the Finding of the Body of St. Mark at
Milan, it gives an extraordinary sense of minute detail.
The charming peep of the singularly beautiful faces of
the women seen beyond the table is very typical of
Robusti, and the majestic figure, at the foot of the steps
on the right, outrivals Michael Angelo's best drawing.
The drawing of the head-dress is by no means a unique
instance in the work of Tintoretto of a reminiscence of
the drawing of Phidias, and indeed his idealistic treat
ment of drapery has been equalled by the great Greek
sculptors alone.
No visitor to Venice, still less a lover of Robusti, is
likely to omit a visit to the Doge's palace, neither will he
neglect the pictures in the Ante-Collegio ; but an in
cident that I myself there witnessed may be of interest.
One of the guides was taking a party of Americans
through the building, and as he reached this room he
paused for a moment before Paolo Veronese's Europa and
the Bull. " This," said he, in his very best English, " is
the finest picture he ever painted, and is always con
sidered his masterpiece." " Oh, ah ! " replied one of the
visitors, and turning to her companions remarked, " Isn't
it pretty ? " and they then left the room. The guide is
welcome to his opinion about Paolo Veronese, and this is
not the place to assess the picture at its true value among
the great master's works ; but to pass by the four pictures
that certainly are masterpieces was distinctly amusing.
Much has been written about this marvellous quatrain,
which would be sufficient excuse for not saying more, but
as they are the perfection of technical excellence that
passes criticism, it would be an additional superfluity.

62 TINTORETTO
There is not in these classical subjects quite the same
opportunity for majesty of conception, and Robusti has
chosen rather to treat them from a decorative point of
view. It would be hard to conceive anything more
beautiful than the Bacchus in the Bacchus and Ariadne^i
which even the reproduction gives some idea. Vulcan';^
Forge, a picture which at first sight is a little less satis
factory than the others, is one that has a tendency to
grow upon one more than the rest, whereof the first sight
astonishes. Perhaps Minerva and Mars is a little spoilt
by the motif, but its technique is as excellent as the
rest. There are, as we should expect, many other works of
wonderful merit in the Doge's palace that, were this a
larger work, it would be fitting to consider. Their special
qualities have, however, already been noticed by other
authors, or treated in this little book when they have
occurred in other pictures. The magnificent drawing
and composition, the power over motion that is to "be
found in the four ceiling panels * of the Grand Council
chamber has, for instance, already been met with again
and again. The stupendous composition in the Sala
dello Scrutinio representing the Conquest of Zara may
be taken as the greatest example of a type that might
be considered separately. They are huge canvases with '
mighty hosts of men, at one time battle-scenes, at another
ceremonial pageants, whether real or allegorical. There
are many such both in the palace and elsewhere, and
with all their greatness they suffer from a certain con-
1 Capture of Riva on the Lago di Garda; Brescia defended
against the Visconti; Capture of Gallipoli; Vittorio Soranzo
defeating the Estensi.

Alinari photo]

THE FORGE OF VULCAN

[Doge's Palace, Venice

Alinari photo]

[Doge's Palace, Venice

MERCURY AND THE THREE GRACES

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 63
fusedness which arises from a want of concentration of
interest in the battle-scenes, and the artificial dullness of
the whole proceedings in the other case, such as we are
wont to associate with a London civic show. It is not a
weakness in the composition, as one is tempted to
imagine at first sight, for on analysis this is found to be
absolutely untrue.
The Conquest of Zara rises above this, although belong
ing to the same class, and is really a great painting ; but
it is not by any of these pictures, done for the most part
to order, that Tintoretto will be remembered.
There is, however, another class of paintings which
deserve particular attention, and that the more so because
no one has taken the trouble to mention them before.
The little single figures, sometimes oi putti, sometimes of
allegorical representations of places, or of the virtues, and
so on, would really be worthy of a chapter to themselves.
The peculiar characteristics of the Italian photographer,
coupled with the regulations regarding photography in
Venice, have made it impossible to reproduce some of
these as I had hoped. The Sala delle Quattro Porte is
adorned with five of these, representing towns. Padua is
seated, and looks down to the right, holding a book upon
her knee, and is an example of most exquisite silvery
colour that reminds one of Paolo Veronese at his best
Brescia is equally fine, with magnificent colour of some
what deeper quality. It is a simpler conception, but
perhaps even better carried through. But perhaps most
pleasing of all, for its very slightness, is one of the four
putti in the Ingresso. He is a charming little infant,
reclining amid foliage, with a small piece of drapery
across him, with which he toys with his fingers. The

64 TINTORETTO
eyes are not quite happy, but otherwise it is most
beautiful. The colour scheme is a lovely golden brown.
In the Academy there are four beautiful single figures
on the ceiling of the small room containing the drawings,
that are seldom noticed, yet are well worth seeing.
Of the pictures in the Doge's palace, nothing has here
been said about the Paradise, in some respects the
greatest of all. Yet a great deal has been written about
this picture, sometimes on the most slender knowledge
of the work. Mr. Stearns devotes half a page of his de
scription to its red colour ; now I am writing these words
with the picture before me. It is not red ; if anything the
predominant colour is blue. . The wings are all blue,
the clouds are all blue, the distant peeps are all blue,
except just at the top, which is orange cooled with blue ;
and, moreover, there is quite as much blue as red drapery.
But his criticism, although containing other equally
astounding statements, is in the main just.
As the picture is impossible to reproduce, being nearly
eighty feet long, it is best to say but little about it. For
those who cannot see the picture Ruskin's criticism may
be interesting, but the long descriptions of any other
writer in such a case can only be irritating. As a
summing-up it might be said that the colour harmony is
grand, scaling through all colour. The unity that is
preserved throughout this composition is its most mar
vellous quality, and one which on d priori grounds it
might have been urged was impossible with so many
figures. It is thus a Paradise indeed. The one un
fortunate circumstance is that Christ and the Virgin are
the least satisfactory part of the whole picture.
It is interesting to remember that the commission was

A linari photo]

[Doge's Palace, Venice

THE BATTLE ON LAKE GARDA

-  ' ¦- ¦

Laurent photo]

[Prado Gallery, Madrid

STUDY FOR IL PARADISO

GREAT WORKS IN VENICE 65
originally given to Paolo Veronese. The committee who
had to choose the artist were for a long time doubtful,
some suggesting Tintoretto, but the majority considering
him to be too old. Francesco Bassano was to have been
Veronese's assistant, but as Veronese died before he had
completed even his sketches, there remained no one save
Robusti who was at all competent. In spite of his age
there was no diminution of vigour, and his son Domenico,
who assisted him, does not seem to have done anything
until the separate pieces, painted in the old Scuola of the
Misericordia, were put up in their final position. Robusti,
however, then found himself too old to run up and down
the ladders and give the last touches which should join it
satisfactorily together. So he left most of this to his son,
while he stood below and superintended the work.
Before proceeding to the Scuola di S. Rocco, there is
still one neglected picture in Venice that demands our
attention. The Finding of the True Cross, which hangs
in S. Maria Mater Domini, is one of the loveliest pictures
that Tintoretto has left us. It is unfortunately very hard
to see, and at least an hour is necessary before the eyes
get sufficiently accustomed to the gloom to do the picture
any justice. But when that is done it is a veritable colour
feast that will long remain in the memory. The picture
is equally remarkable for its tones, the beauty of its
drawing and strength of composition. It a little reminds
one of the Miracle of St. Agnes, but on account of its
shape is more satisfactory as a whole, for there is no
break in the composition. In the centre of the picture
can be seen Bishop Macarius and the mother of Constan
tine the Great, the Empress Helena, who visited Jeru
salem in 326 A.D., and made a search on Calvary for the
F

66 TINTORETTO
cross of Christ. In front of them is the sick woman
whom the cross restores to health, while the crosses of
the two thieves lie on the ground. The attendants of
the Empress are remarkably beautiful figures, in Robusti's
very best vein, and the curious bystanders, and the man
who eagerly receives the nails from the cross, are all
examples of the finest figure drawing.

Hanfstdngl photo]

[Church of the Hospital, Venice

Alinari tholo]

[Santa Maria Mater Domini I 'en ice

THE FINDING OF THE TRUE CROSS

CHAPTER VI
COLOUR, DRAWING, AND COMPOSITION
" No sketches first, no studies, that 's long past :
I do what many dream of all their lives,
— Dream ? strive to do, and agonize to do,
And fail in doing." Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto.
TO no painter save to Jacopo Robusti has it been
given to lay claim to be the world's greatest ex
ponent in each of the three departments of Colour,
Drawing, and Composition. Whoever we may consider
to be the greatest of all colourists, he has Robusti for
his rival. Similarly the draughtsman who surpasses
him can only hold the highest place ; whereas it is
doubtful if any can seriously maintain a position against
him as a master of composition.
It is conceivable that in each case another might,
after due consideration, be finally preferred ; yet the
fact remains that there is no other who could make such
a threefold claim.
The question of greatness of conception has purposely
been omitted from the title of this chapter, as opening
up too wide a field for discussion ; but it is doubtful if
any other picture in the world approaches the majesty
of conception in Tintoretto's great Crucifixion.
Taking, then, all things into consideration, we are
67

68 TINTORETTO
forced to but one conclusion, that, if comparisons are to
be made at all, there is only one man who can be said
to be the greatest painter that has yet lived.
Moreover, it follows that to adequately treat of Tinto
retto's colour, drawing, and composition would neces
sarily cover the whole ground of the theory of painting
on its technical side, from which we are fortunately pre
cluded by the size of this book, and thus it will be
merely a cursory and partial examination that is in any
way possible.
In looking at Tintoretto's colour one is struck in the
first place by its extraordinary luminosity ; the colour
seems to glow even in a somewhat low-toned picture.
Or if such a metaphor be not entirely satisfactory, it
might be said that his colour carries ; it has an unusual
power to make itself felt.
And the cause of this does not depend upon any one
circumstance alone. It has already been pointed out
how great a use he made of comparatively colourless
portions of canvas approaching to black and white. By
these means the colour is enhanced as a jewel in its
setting, or as the finest old glass with its clear lights,
that was quoted before. But not only is this the case,
but by these means he gains in scale of tone and colour.
It is quite obvious that paint can never render the full
scale of tone or colour that even a scene by candlelight
will have in nature, much less the greater though more
delicately graduated scale of daylight. Tintoretto then
was not going to handicap himself, as so many do at
the outset, by shortening his scale ; and for the most
part we shall find this principle observed. Such pic
tures as The Last Supper in S. Paolo, or The Miracle of

COLOUR, DRAWING, AND COMPOSITION 69
St. Agnes, or The Gathering of Manna in S. Giorgio
Maggiore, are excellent examples. Further, this has
enabled him still more effectively to treat those subtle
gradations of tone and colour that he loved. Moreover,
this want of colour in the high lights and the shadows
. is, after all, only the following out of the principles of
nature. The so-called realist is often most ridiculously
at fault in this particular, his realism being only the
worst convention of all. If an object is very brightly
lit, it is unable to absorb fully those rays of the spec
trum which it naturally should, and consequently reflects
back besides its own colour-rays a large quantity of
white light also ; or, as we sometimes express it, the
high lights of an object lose their colour. Similarly the
object in shadow absorbs all the little light that falls
upon it, and has little or no colour to reflect. Hence it
is the half-tones that will be most completely full of
colour. Many other masters have not realized this at all,
and none so fully as Tintoretto. Titian will often give his
fullest colour in the shadows, whereas the moderns often
make the worse fault of putting it in the high lights. It
is not because it is contrary to nature that we find fault
with them, because it might be a beautiful convention,
but because the result is confused and flat and loses its
power. Doubtless a great deal of his mastery over the sub
tlety of colour was learnt by painting in a much shorter
scale, keeping the whole colour scheme well under con
trol. Many of his works, particularly those that are
supposed to be earlier, are painted in a subdued, golden,
low-toned brown. It is most interesting to note how
the early work of Turner with its gloom-haunted browns

70 TINTORETTO
was yet the forerunner of brilliant colour, and it is not
too much to say that the subtlety learnt in these less
resplendent efforts was the secret of the power that both
masters had over the more brilliant hues of their most
celebrated works. Of these two masters almost alone
can it be said that their brightest colour was never garish.
But much of the luminosity of Tintoretto's colour de
pends on its freshness. His colour is never teased. In
some cases it has been worked in a very fluid condition,
and one colour has been drawn through the other, as we
see in many of the S. Rocco pictures, or again in The
Finding of St. Mark's Body at Milan. More often the
same effect of broken colour has been obtained by the
very light mixing that has been given on the palette,
varying degrees of such treatment being found between
such a picture as The Presentation in the Gesuiti, on the
one hand, and the great quatrain of the Doge's Palace
on the other. To the modern there is nothing novel in
such a treatment, but this was the great discovery of
the Venetians that gave the peculiar brilliance to their
colour, and of this method Tintoretto was by far the
greatest exponent. The earlier masters had been in the
habit of carefully mixing their tints till the result ob
tained was a flat colour, which, however brilliant in itself,
cannot of course have anything like the carrying power
and luminosity or apparent brilliance of broken colour.
One of the interesting questions with regard to Tin
toretto's colour that yet remains to be settled, is whether
he painted in distemper or oil-colour. At first sight there
seems to be no ground for the distemper-theory, but in
any case the varnish on the top would make it very
difficult to distinguish. Some, again, have suggested that

COLOUR, DRAWING, AND COMPOSITION 71
the first part of the picture was painted in distemper, and
that oil-colour was then painted over it. The theory gains
some support from the peculiar way in which some of
his colour has perished, which, as distemper would be
much more liable to injury from damp, is certainly
possible. There is, too, in certain pictures, notably those
in San Rocco and some of his ceiling pictures, a curious
resemblance to fresco.
In one or two cases his pictures have been damaged,
which would have given a clue, but the position and
lighting of the pictures make it impossible for me to
give any judgement from an examination of the torn
edges. On the whole I should be inclined to say that if
turpentine or other volatile oil was used by the Venetians
at all, the results that have taken place are more likely
to have arisen from a too free use of this medium, than
from any medium mixed with water.
In comparing Robusti's colour with that of Titian or
others of his predecessors, there is yet a most important
factor to consider. There is in nearly all Robusti's work
an element that is so subtle that it is apt to escape notice
altogether, but is nevertheless perfectly obvious in most
of his lower-toned pictures. Let us take for example
such a picture as The Feast of Cana, now hanging in the
Salute, which he originally painted for the Crociferi in
1561. It is not exactly a low-toned picture, but is that
way inclined. It was a painting that pleased him suffi
ciently well for him to paint a replica of it, and it was
considered of sufficient importance for a papal bull to
be issued to prevent its removal when the monastery of
the Crociferi was suppressed in 1657. It is therefore
well worthy of consideration.

72 TINTORETTO
It is not an uncommon criticism to say, " Oh, anyone
can paint a picture in a low key, or where the predomin
ance of a single colour such as this rich golden brown
before us is preserved throughout ; but to paint with
the full contrast of blues and reds such as we find in the
Titian in the church of the Frari, Venice, is another
matter." But the criticism is generally hasty and ill-
founded, for this hasty generalization really covers two
totally different things. It is possible, on the one hand,
to paint in monochrome, or to lessen the. scale of the
palette by keeping as nearly as possible to one or two
colours, and no doubt such a scheme is comparatively
easy to work. But, on the other hand, it is possible,
despite the predominating colour, to preserve throughout
an infinite scale of gradations of multitudinous colours,
subordinating them to the whole, but without losing any.
Perhaps a somewhat crude illustration may be used.
Suppose that we take a given scene, and look at it so as
to regard only the tones and not the colour. Then, if we
set this down in red chalk, we have a monochrome. We
may do this on a piece of greenish brown paper, and
heighten the lights with bluish white chalk, so that we
get a really pleasing colour effect, but although we
have more than one colour the result is practically a
monochrome, but it is a monochrome plus something
else. Supposing, on the other hand, that we take a piece of
red glass, and look through that at the scene, and then
set down what we see upon canvas. We shall see that
we have lost nothing ; the infinite gradation is all there
to the minutest degree, but it is there plus something-
else. In the latter case we have a superadded medium

COLOUR, DRAWING, AND COMPOSITION 73
applied to the colour ; in the former we have the medium
as it were by itself, or applied to form only.
But such would be but a poor explanation of the work
of an artist like Tintoretto. No such mechanical device
such as that of a red screen would give the least idea ; for
him the screen itself would be full of subtle changes
of tone, of varying colour effect suggested by the strenu
ous workings of the mind. All the play of the original
colour effect is there, nothing is missing ; and all the
complexity of his superadded medium is there also.
Perhaps the metaphor is not too strained if we say that
we had before a melody, but now it is a harmony. To a
certain extent such a treatment will always have a ten
dency towards lowness of tone, but it need be but slight.
After all, the mellowness given by time is but the unin
telligent application by nature of a similar treatment,
and the beauty of that is often of the highest order.
Such an analysis set forth in words will doubtless
seem bald and mechanical to the artist, and derogatory
to Tintoretto. For with the artist the whole process is
not so much a question of calculation as the uncon
scious, but necessary expression of his feeling.
Robusti's colour suggests many other interesting ques
tions ; but enough has been said to give some idea of the
number of ways in which it attains a higher level than
that of his predecessors, and his power as a draughtsman
falls to be considered. If it is hard to put into words
the qualities of colour without doing the injustice of
prosaic interpretation, how much harder is it to attempt
the same thing with regard to the even more subtle dis
tinctions of line.
We have not, as in the case of Michael Angelo,

74 TINTORETTO
Raphael, or Leonardo, a mass of drawings from which
we can judge of his draughtsmanship apart from his
colour. Tintoretto was not fond of chalk or pen, and
preferred to use the brush even for studies. We do,
however, possess one or two drawings of his. They are,
however, so exceedingly sketchy as to be of little use as
a criterion. They have all been rather essays in com
position than studies in drawing. The line is broken
and the execution hasty. We here reproduce one, as it
may prove interesting to show his method. The drawr
ing is interesting as being a study for the composition in
the National Gallery, London. It differs from the picture
in making the whole scene a vision viewed by the figure
below. It is even conceivable, although unlikely, that
the present canvas extended downward, as the small
figure below the goddess and to the left of her foot, is
there cut off halfway. But there is no reason why the
artist should not have changed his mind, nor is there
any reason to doubt the authenticity of the drawing.
To judge of Robusti's drawing we must turn to his
pictures, and although some of his drawing has never
been surpassed, it must be confessed that the enormous
speed at which he worked caused him in some cases to
leave examples of thoroughly bad drawing, such as we
only find in the sketch-books of other masters. Michael
Angelo certainly offers plenty of examples of bad draw
ing in his sketches, but it is doubtful if Raphael or
Leonardo ever perpetrated anything as bad as some of
the drawing in Robusti's Nine Muses at Vienna.
Nevertheless, in spite of these freaks, for they can be
called by no other name, his drawing is marked by
extraordinary strength. He fully lived up to his self-

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ORIGIN OF THE MILKY WAY
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COLOUR, DRAWING, AND COMPOSITION 75
chosen motto, and in strength his drawing in no way
falls short of Michael Angelo. Moreover, he rarely, if
ever, indulges in the exaggerations that often disfigure
that master's work, partly from a natural severity of
line, and partly because he seems to have revelled quite
as much in the framework of the body as in its fleshy
covering. His fondness, too, for difficult foreshortening
seems to have led to a greater care and keener sight for
the proportion of masses ; and although he may occa
sionally have indulged in a certain attenuation of figure,
he never allowed the limbs to become unwieldy, as is the
case sometimes in Michael Angelo. Although none of
his work in the round has come down to us, for he never
seems to have done anything in durable material, he too
was a great master of modelling, and doubtless this
helped to intensify his power of representing the subtle
ties of modelling on canvas. In this respect he was
entirely without a peer, and a few of his works stand
apart as unique in this respect in the history of Art.
The feeling of Tintoretto's line cannot fairly be ex
pressed in words. It has a magnificent sweep combined
with a refined precision and tender appreciation that at
its best surpasses Michael Angelo's at his best. But at
the same time it does not perhaps ever quite attain the
delicacy and grace of Raphael's highest achievements, as
that master in his turn, perhaps, never quite reached the
robustness of Michael Angelo or Tintoretto. In fine,
Tintoretto at his highest is unequalled, but he certainly
was more uneven than most of the very greatest artists.
In the matter of composition the earlier masters were
as children, and we find them less able to make a satis
factory composition with five or six figures than Tin-

lX

76 TINTORETTO
toretto with fifty or sixty. Stiffness, want of balance,
lack of concentration, conventionality, are words that
find no place in the vocabulary of one who would criticise.
the compositions of this prince in the art. The class
which might be called " donor pictures," containing por
traits of donors or officials must be left out of account,
as, whether from modesty or the reverse, these not
always beautiful individuals did not care to become too
integral a part of the composition. Some of them, how
ever, contain magnificent individual figures ; the full-
length figure of the angel in the Resurrection with Three
Senators, in the Doge's Palace, is one to haunt the
beholder for days. Tintoretto's mighty canvases speak
for themselves, and he did what no other artist, not even
Paolo Veronese, has been able to do before or since. No
doubt Paolo Veronese was a consummate master of
composition, but his compositions have far less variety,
and are apt to follow one or two particular schemes.
As a tour de force in composition, Robusti's Paradise
stands by itself. It cannot be considered as his most
satisfactory composition, yet a picture that contains
several hundred figures, and that still preserves a sense
of unity and pleasing balance and relation, must at least
be considered as absolute proof that its creator was more
than master of his art.
We have more than once had to consider the question
of inspiration as it affects the colour, drawing, composi
tion, and yet more the whole conception in a work of art.
It may be well, therefore, to obtain a side-light upon
this subject at the close of this chapter from Tintoretto
himself. In the year 1561, the same as that in which he painted

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[Dresden Gallery
ST. MICHAEL OVERCOMING LUCIFER
COLOUR, DRAWING, AND COMPOSITION 77
The Supper at Cana, Cardinal Gonzaga asked him to
paint a small representation of a Turkish battle. The
picture was completed in the following year, but Tin
toretto said to the cardinal : " I could wish very much
that your illustrious highness had appointed me some
thing that corresponds more to my style of work than
such small figures ; nevertheless, you will graciously
accept my good intention ; and if I have employed too
long time on this commission the blame must be laid
upon the difficulty of the work." It is the more interest
ing, as we have some reason to suppose that at the same
time he executed a small work with little figures that we
still possess. In the possession of the Earl of Wemyss
there is a picture which is apparently a study for The
Supper at Cana. It is rather a slight effort, and does
not resemble the picture in any marked degree, but is
not improbably a first sketch of the idea. The effect of
the small size upon the drawing of the figures is quite
remarkable. The drawing is positively bad, and yet at
the same time it is so much like the style of the master
as to be a sort of horrible caricature. There are, how
ever, examples by him of small figures which are mag
nificent, such as the St. George in the National Gallery,
London. This, however, merely emphasizes the point
that where the inspiration is wanting the work can only
suffer.

CHAPTER VII
S. ROCCO
" Wherever a fresco peels and drops,
Wherever an outline weakens and wanes
Till the latest life in the painting stops,
Stands One whom each fainter pulse tick pains :
One, wishful each scrap should clutch the brick,
Each tinge not wholly escape the plaster,
A lion who died of an ass's kick,
The wronged great soul of an ancient Master."
Robert Browning, Old Pictures in Florence.
ABOUT the year 1559 Robusti began his connection
with the brotherhood of S. Rocco, painting for
them in the chapel of the order. Some of the pictures
there are worthy to rank with his highest efforts ; but
for the most part they are not easy to see, and the
lighting of them is exceedingly bad. The reflections
upon those in the choir are such as to make the pictures
almost entirely invisible. It is strange that the Italians
have not grasped the value of a little judicious tilting to
enable a picture to be seen. But as this is perhaps the
most unenlightened community in Italy, we must not
expect too much. However, we are pleased to hear that
there is some likelihood of the government taking away
from them the custody of all their art treasures, and it is
to be hoped that no- effort will be spared either by their
countrymen or by visitors to bring this about.
78

S. ROCCO 79
Mr. Ruskin's description of these pictures, in the
appendix to the third volume of " The Stones of Venice,"
makes it superfluous to say much here. The pictures will
certainly be well worth a visit when in the hands of the
nation, but at present their invisibility is merely irritating
and makes it a waste of time.
Of the pictures in the choir the one which Mr. Ruskin
calls The Finding of the Body of S. Rocco seems to
require comment. Mr. Ruskin says of this painting :
"An elaborate but somewhat confused picture, with a
flying angel in blue drapery ; but it seemed to me alto
gether uninteresting, or, perhaps, requiring more study
than I was able to give to it."
Had I read this before, I should have given the
picture even more attention. My own notes tally
exactly in describing the picture as confused, but there
is still left some remarkably fine colour, although restora
tion has removed most of it, and the drawing almost
throughout reaches the highest level. The rush of figures
and the intense interest suggested in the composition,
would alone make this picture famous ; but, alas ! as has
been said before, the picture is almost impossible to see,
and half an hour is necessary before we can gather any
thing at all. It is to be regretted that the incivility of
the Scuola di San Rocco makes it impossible to give a
reproduction. This somewhat confused composition is
called by Ridolfi .S. Rocco struck by death and visited by
an Angel. The death apparently takes place in a prison,
and this perhaps is more likely than the traditional title
handed down by the sacristan and given by Mr. Ruskin.
There are just a few pictures in the world that are
beyond criticism and beyond praise, before which we

80 TINTORETTO
can only stand and admire, and in the presence of which
words fail us. It was such a picture that Tintoretto
painted for the refectory of S. Rocco in 1565. There it
hangs before us to-day vast and awful, and there it may
hang in safety if only the government will act quickly
and take over the Scuola as a national monument. But
it must be quickly, for the present brotherhood, in their
ignorance and rapacity, have already begun to ruin
most of the pictures in their possession, in order to cater
for the vulgar crowd. It is a work whose colour is of
surpassing beauty ; a silvery light plays upon it from the
cross, so that the scene shines out from that darkness
which overhangs the guilty city. There is a mighty
concourse of people, decked here and there with many
a gay colour ; but one figure stands out alone against
the sky ; the two thieves are not yet raised, and in lone
liness amid the multitude our eyes rest on the Saviour
of the world. All the rest is as some dream : there are
the soldiers with the dice ; there is one digging a place
for another cross ; while here at the foot of the central
cross is the sad group of mourners, and the Mother of
Christ swooning in her agony.
If ever a picture realized its end, if ever a picture grew
upon the spectator, till it overcame him with the majesty
of its conception, the harmony of its colour, the perfection
of its drawing, and the oneness of its composition, pointing
its one truth, it is this ; and be he artist, layman, saint,
or sinner, he cannot pass on unmoved without hearing
the cry spoken from that great canvas, " Is it nothihg to
you, all ye that pass by ? " Other pictures may excel in
their several excellences, but this excels in them all, and
excelling in all must excel in the highest. Surely, if any

A nderson photo]

THE ANNUNCIATION

[Scuola di San J?occo, Venice

Naya photo]

THI

[Scuola di San Rocco, Venice

tIFIXION

S. ROCCO 8 1
picture can lay claim to be the greatest in the world, it
is here. And great as this painting is, it is not alone,
and one can linger for hours in that strange treasure-
house breathing in an inspiration from every picture.
But others more able have written of their wonders, and/
this little book endeavours rather to point out what has
not been said before, than to go over the old familiar
ground, so that it is only here and there that we can
pause and see what the Scuola pictures have to tell.
We have had occasion before to mention the Annuncia
tion in the Lower Hall. It is a powerful, rather strange,
composition, symbolic of a mighty onrush, as the angel
and the Holy Spirit descend with a rushing mighty
wind compassed about with a great cloud of cherubim.
Mary is overcome with astonishment, while outside, all
unconscious, Joseph is working at his task. The picture
is absolutely free from convention, and we feel that we
are breathing in a freer, wider atmosphere. It is a paint
ing that would arrest the attention of the most careless
observer, and that once seen would never be forgotten.
It is difficult to know which pictures to single out for
comment in this unique collection, but perhaps the most
striking picture on this wall is The Massacre of the fnno-
cents, where we see the fury of man let loose — awful and
terrible. The very brush seems instilled with the same
demonic spirit. On it comes, a resistless tide of human
passion, nor all the love nor lamentation of motherhood
can stand against it. Invincible strength lives in every
line of the drawing, and the swirl of the onrush fills the
canvas, and we know that none, not even one, shall
escape. The statuesque strength of Michael Angelo is as
G

82 TINTORETTO
nothing to it. This is alive, and is even now upon us,
till the ground trembles beneath our feet.
There is warmth in the colour that becomes the hot]
rage of the slaughterers, yet in some strangely colder!
lights we may find, if such be our fancy, the cold-blooded?
calculation of the remorseless king.
But even Tintoretto is not always on the move, nor
has he his sole delight in the more physical aspect of
humanity. Let us come upstairs and stand for a
moment before his picture of The Temptation} Here
indeed is a revelation of the deepest truths. It must be
plain that this is something more than the ordinary in-1
terpretation of the narrative. This is no haughty princef
turning to one starving in the desert and bidding him '
satisfy his bodily needs. >j
It may have been a quaint conceit of Tintoretto's ;
but it is clear that to him, at least, such a temptation of
the mere bodily senses seemed to be no temptation at
all for the Saviour of the universe. The attitude of the
strangely beautiful figure of Satan is that of one that
implores ; he is a real suppliant, and the favour is for
him. It is he that wants the bread, and not the pitying
Christ that looks down upon him. And shall we be
going further than Tintoretto intended if we fancy that
we see in the stones the results of Satan's own husbandry,
a stony bread that satisfieth not, for the pleasures of sin
are but for a season. " Give me bread," he cries, " for this
is all that I have ; give me bread if Thou wilt " ; and this
time the answer is again a questioning repetition of the
suppliant's words : " If Thou wilt, O Satan ! nay, this is
1 Frontispiece.

Anderson photo]

K THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS

[Scuola di San Rocco, Venice

Anderson photo]

\ Scuola di San Rocco, Venice

S. ROCCO 83
the one thing that is impossible for the all-righteous ; not
even for the Almighty will the corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit, and there only remaineth the fire of
purification." One of the most interesting pictures in this collection
is The Ascension, in the same room. It is painted with
resplendent colour, cold yet jewelled, such as Tintoretto
alone could use. The colour has suffered from the
ravages of time and neglect, yet still affords great
delight to the beholder ; it is luminous broken colour
that seems to shine with a light of its own. It quite
baffles description, is far removed from the least sus
picion of crudity, maintaining throughout its iridescence
a quiet subtlety, which will always fail to appeal to the
crowd. But the picture does not demand a visit for the sake
of its colour alone. It is rich in the boldest, most
magnificent drawing. Parts of it are distinctly
sketchy, but they all show in their vigour of line and
grand rhythm of posture the cunning hand of the
great master. In the upper part of the picture is the
Christ, no longer the lowly son of the carpenter, but
the King of Glory, about whom there cluster the
beautiful attendants of the angel host, bearing Him up
in their hands lest He dash His foot against a stone.
The very sky is filled with His radiance, and clouds of
glory float about them all. Below we see far through
into a wonderful landscape distance, that stretches away
to the far hills, and in it walk the disciples from
Emmaus. On the right the company of apostles are
gathered together, no longer cast down, but exultant, for
hath not their Master gone to receive His Kingdom :

84 TINTORETTO
while in the foreground we see the evangelist with his
book, in the which to write of all these things, so that
we children of a latter day, far removed in time and.
space, may yet see the vision also, and hand down the
reflection of that first magnificence to our children's
children. It is impossible to leave the Scuola without pausirJg-
for a moment before the picture of Christ before Pilate.
There is something in this that differentiates it from
other pictures, whether by Tintoretto or other men. We
find the same indefinable quality in the great Cruci
fixion, but there it is one among many, here it is isolated.
It is, perhaps, the spirit of tragedy which in The Cruci
fixion at least implies a great hope, but here. the still
white Christ stands before us meek and defenceless, with
not even a single follower to suggest that all has not
been in vain.

Anderson j>1wto\

[Scuola di San Rocco, Venice

CHRIST BEFORE PILATE

CHAPTER VIII
HIS LEGACY
" You've seen the world
— The beauty and the wonder and the power,
The shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades,
Changes, surprises, — and God made it all ! "
Robert Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi.
IN the year 1594, on the 31st day of May, Robusti's
work was finished, and he was laid to rest in the
tomb of his father-in-law, Marco de' Vescovi, in the
church of Madonna dell' Orto ; and with him the last and
the greatest of the line of the mighty painters of Venice
came to an end. As has been said before, he was prob
ably the most prolific painter in the world's history, and
the very incomplete list which follows will give some
idea of his gigantic output. The portion of his actual
paintings which has survived is but part of the legacy
which Jacopo Robusti bequeathed to mankind. The
pictures themselves are, as it were, a treasure casket, a
casket unlocked indeed, but from which none save a few
bold souls have ventured to take of its store. He did not
leave behind him a select body of pupils to carry on his
traditions, although doubtless his son Domenico followed,
if at a considerable distance, in his father's steps. Yet
he had pupils of a kind, but not of his own day and
generation. When Velazquez was in Venice he was
85

86 TINTORETTO
ever drawing incessantly, and spent a very large portion
of his time in the Scuola di S. Rocco, where he made
studies from the great works of Tintoretto, especially from
The Crucifixion. Tintoretto's influence over Velazquez was
very marked, and we are told that he copied in their en
tirety some of the former's great works. He certainly
copied The Last Supper in S. Rocco for his royal master.
The Peace of Breda has a very strong likeness to the style
of some of Tintoretto's pictures in the Palazzo Ducale.
Not only is this very evident in the general treatment,
but the forest of spears cannot be seen without suggest
ing at once the wonderful San Cassiano picture of The
Crucifixion. There is no doubt, too, that Velazquez has been in
fluenced by Robusti's colour, both in the subtleties of its
broken treatment and in the careful management of
tone and colour value. We are so accustomed to looking
at the staring conventional colouring of other masters,
that to some people the plain truthful colour of Velazquez
or Tintoretto seems dull and too gray, notwithstanding
the fact that in this so-called dull colour there is often
far more real colour than in the louder but flat and pasty
efforts of other men.
Nothing has hitherto been said about Robusti as a
portrait painter, although here again he takes his place
in the front rank. The great truths which hold good in
the case of a mighty pictorial conception, hold good in
the more limited sphere of the portrait, and in the mair/
there is but little new to add. Neither does the scope of
this work admit of a discussion at any length of Tinto
retto's portraits, but it is upon the portraits of Titian and
Tintoretto that Velazquez founded his own style in ppr-

Hanfstdngl photo]

[Vienna Gallery

UNKNOWN PORTRAITS

Hanfsttingl photo]

[Vienna Gallery

SEBASTIAN VENIERO

HIS LEGACY 87
traiture. In the case of portraits it becomes more difficult
to distinguish between the influence of Titian and Tin
toretto, because what each man had to teach was in this
particular very much the same. We find, as we should
expect, a stronger drawing in the case of Tintoretto, but
he was certainly sometimes a little hard ; and when this
is coupled with an ugly or uninteresting model the result
is far from pleasing. He was, perhaps, a little more
erratic in this branch of art, which did not give so much
opportunity to his fervent and impetuous spirit. The
main truth that his portraits convey is, that to prsduce
a satisfactory portrait, it is necessary to concentrate the
interest on that which will really give the character, and
not on the accessories. It may be the face and hands,
which both he and Titian loved to paint shining out upon
the spectator from a sombre, if not gloomy background ;
or, again, it may be the whole pose and mien of the man,
or, on the other hand, merely some particular feature ;
but whatever it be, it is no tailor's dummy, still less a
forlorn-looking individual lost among the inappropriate
properties of a studio. In all these things, and in other
greater things, some of which have been treated else
where, the great Spaniard follows the great Venetian.
Boschini tells us that Velazquez, when seeing the many
Venetian masters, reserved his highest enthusiasm for
Titian — a statement that is hardly likely to be true, seeing
that he devoted so large a proportion of his time to the
study and copying of Robusti, and that it is the character
rather of the latter that we see in his style. Titian has
always been the more fashionable of the two, and Boschini
is only making a loose and general statement. The
colour, as above stated, and the strong drawing, together

88 TINTORETTO
with that indefinable quality of earnestness that was the
outcome of his religious character, appear again in the
eager and whole-hearted Spaniard, courtier though he
was. And it is not perhaps too much to say that Robusti
looked upon nature as the handiwork of God, from which,
although it was far from him to be a mere copyist, he
was nevertheless bound in the last resort to draw his
inspiration. Among Tintoretto's later pupils it would not be alto
gether unfair to reckon Vandyck, if not Rembrandt.
The former certainly studied in Venice with some care,
as the " Chatsworth Sketch Book" testifies, and those who
are pleased to fancy that genius can always be traced
through a sort of genealogical tree, will find that the
artificial-light effects of Rembrandt had all been essayed
by the earlier master, and treated with a vigour that it
would require a greater than Rembrandt to surpass.
Some, such as the S. Giorgio Maggiore Supper, have
already been mentioned ; others, such as the Paschal
Feast in S. Rocco, will occur to all students of Tintoretto,
whereas the story of Robusti's first striking success has
already been told. Like Rembrandt, Tintoretto some
times makes use of the effects of artificial light without
directly suggesting any such medium, in order to give a
sense of mystery. Such, for instance, is the Pietd in the
Academy, a grand conception that makes a better repro
duction than the Pietd at Milan, in reality a nobler work.
The scene is out of doors, but there is a marked sugges
tion of a mysterious light that emanates from some
unknown source and plays over the group of mourners.
Tintoretto's influence over Vandyck is not very marked ;
and although we know that he certainly studied Robusti's

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THE

[San. Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

I'SUPPER

HIS LEGACY 89
work, it is perhaps only making the same unwarrantable
conclusion, to which objection was made in the case of
|Robusti and Michael Angelo, if we attempt to find in
the delicate drawing of the hands, the keen appreciation
of tone, and insight into the character of his sitters an
intentional reminiscence of the older master.
The decline of the Venetian Republic doubtless ac
counts in some measure for the fact that the teaching of
'Robusti's art never roused any kindred spirit to carry reso-
i lutely forward painting from the point at which he left it.
It is not, perhaps, strange that the layman and art patron
have generally preferred the beautiful and magnificent
colouring of Titian, with its slightly meretricious ten
dencies, to the finer and more restrained harmonies of
Tintoretto's brush ; and as it requires an even more
educated eye to appreciate form than colour, so, from the
same people, Tintoretto has not received full justice, and
the galleries of Europe contain better examples of Titian
than Robusti. Nevertheless, among artists who have
travelled beyond the limits of the Northern treasuries of
painting, he has always been assessed at his true worth.
Further, if it be any source of satisfaction to find the
multitude praising the highest, it should be a matter for
congratulation that the greatest layman who ever took
art for his theme has crowned Tintoretto as the prince of
mediaeval artists. The lines of John Ruskin's criticism
do not always run so as to please the artist, but in the
main his judgement is sound on this point, and his con
clusions are those with which the artist will agree.
The very greatness of his bequest has probably much
to do with the fact that Robusti is still but imperfectly
understood. Some phases of his work are known ; some

go TINTORETTO
have still to be discovered. In conclusion, one such
might be taken as an instance. Many have acknow
ledged the force, the grandeur, and even delicacy of his
work, but have denied to him the subtlety of feeling. It
has indeed been said that he could not paint the tender--
ness of a woman's face. Besides hosts of others, the
faces in the St. Agnes and The Crucifixion in Madonna
del Rosario, here reproduced, would be alone sufficient
to disprove this ; but I have ventured also to include a
single figure from The Madonna and Saints in the
Accademia, as embodying such a tenderness and grace
both in face and mien. In this connection it would be
also instructive to examine carefully the picture of The
Woman taken in Adultery from the same gallery in
Venice. The attitude and expression of Christ is most
striking in its subtlety. The artist has just caught the
transient stage, when Christ has hardly turned His atten
tion to the woman. His hand shows that He is just
aware of her presence, but His head shows that His
interest is still partly claimed by something else. It is
no mere trick of turning head and hand in opposite
ways, but something deeper and indefinable. The
woman's face, too, tells a story, but a finer touch is
given in the maternal solicitude expressed in the beautiful
face behind.
Greater study, greater imagination, a grander impres
sionism and conception, and a more burning zeal, rather
than a faithful adherence to the traditions of the schools,
was Tintoretto's message to the ages. The modern land
scape artist, with men like Turner as the exponent of
his principles, has not been altogether unmindful of the
lesson, whether he learnt it from Robusti or not. Whether

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THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY
HIS LEGACY 91
the artist of this latter day has fully grasped the import
ance of greater study and zeal, not to mention a greater
imagination and a grander impressionism, it is not our
place to consider. The modern pre-Raphaelite school
certainly did yeoman service to the cause of Art, how
ever partial that service may have been ; and a modern
Tintoretto who would prove the will and enter into the
inheritance of Jacopo Robusti would find, if his master's
mantle were not too large for him altogether, that he was
a wondrous rich man in an age when poverty is by no
means unknown.

LIST OF PICTURES BY
TINTORETTO
AND OF CERTAIN WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO HIM,
ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE GALLERIES
IN WHICH THEY ARE CONTAINED

NOTE
In the following list, pictures which the author has seen or
that have been specially described for him are marked *. Those
marked t are given on the very best evidence — official catalogues
and the like. The remainder are mainly pictures mentioned by
reliable authors. This list was made some considerable time ago,
when he had not seen Herr Thode's list. A few are added from
that list, and in every case are acknowledged and marked in the
second class t.

LIST OF PICTURES
A USTRIA-HUNGAR Y
BUDA PESTH.— PICTURE GALLERY.
Portrait.
BUDA PESTH.— G. RATH.
Portrait.
GRAZ.— PARISH CHURCH.
tCORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. (Thode.)
INSBRUCK.— FERNANDINEUM.
¦(•Legend. (Thode.)
tPoRTRAiT. Pasquale Cicogna. (Thode.)
VIENNA.— IMPERIAL GALLERY.
tSt. Jerome.
ISusanna and the Elders. Susanna, her left foot still in
the bath, is engaged with her toilet. Behind her mirror
on /. can be seen head of one of the elders. In the back
ground is a garden in which is another elder and a statue.
95

96 TINTORETTO
tSebastiano Veniero. Half-length figure in armour ; turns
to /. nearly full face ; holding his baton in his hand. The
battle of Lepanto can be seen through an opening on the r.
tPortrait. An officer in armour. His right hand is on a
helmet ; he has his back to three columns. A ship can
be seen through an opening on /.
tPoRTRAiT. A procurator. Half length ; a bearded man.
A small piece of landscape on /.
tOld Man and Boy. Reproduced p. 86.
Portrait of a Youth.
Portrait of an Old Man.
Portrait of a Lady.
Portrait of a Man. Dated 1553.
Nine other Portraits of Men.
fLucRETiA. She looks upward and raises the dagger with
her right hand, its point nearly touching her bared breast.
tApollo and the Muses. Apollo floats through the air,
as does one of the Muses. The rest are grouped about
with divers attributes.
tHERCULES and Omphale. Hercules is turning a Faun
from the bed of Omphale. Doubtful. (Thode.)
Finding of Moses. Completed by Domenico Robusti.
Pieta.Christ bearing the Cross.
Il Bravo.
VIENNA.— COUNT CZERNINI'S GALLERY.
tPoRTRAiT of a Doge. Andrea Griti.

LIST OF PICTURES 97
VIENNA.— ACADEMY.
tDoGE Girolamo Priuli. (Thode.)
IDoge M. A. Trevisan. (Thode.)
tALESSANDRO CONTARINI AND PlETRO GRIMANI. (Thode.)
tSS. Jerome, Louis and Andrew. Doubtful. (Thode.)
VIENNA— AMBRASER COLLECTION.
INiccolo da Ponte. (Thode.)
tjACOPO Soranzo. (Thode.)
BELGIUM
BRUSSELS. The Martyrdom of St. Mark. In the centre are two
figures who are placing the Evangelist upon the pyre. A
third stands by with the hands raised together and clenched.
Many figures flee in all directions. In the background is
a storm at sea.
Portrait of a Man. An oval picture. An old man seated
in an armchair ; his left hand grasps a glove, and rests on
the arm of the chair. A ring on both little fingers.
Portrait of a Man. An oval picture. He holds up his
cloak with his left hand. Half length.
BRITISH ISLES
THE DUKE OF ABERCORN.
*Portrait of a Senator. 44 in. x 34^ in. Half length,
standing to r., head turned toward the spectator ; crimson
fur-lined robe, black cap ; architectural and curtain back
ground, with the sea and the buildings of a town seen
through a window on r. H

98 TINTORETTO
*Portrait of a Senator. 42 in. x $2± in. Half length,
standing to /., head turned toward the spectator ; crimson
fur-lined robe ; dark background.
*Portrait of a Senator. 66 in. x 54 in. Head facing
to /. ; velvet coat trimmed with ermine.
RALPH BANKES, ESQ., Kingston Lacy, Wimborne.
*Apollo and the Muses.
LORD BARRYMORE.
*Portrait of the Venetian Admiral Barbarossa. 48
in. x 36 in.
*Full-length Figure of St. Mark. About 6 ft. x 3 ft.
*Diogenes in his Tub. About 3 ft. x 5 ft.
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.
fportrait of veselius the anatomist.
Three-quarter-length Portrait of Himself as a
Young Man.
W. BROMLEY-DAVENPORT, ESQ., M.P.
*Apollo and Marsyas. 54 in. x 89 in. On the /. is
Apollo with a viol, and beside him Marsyas holding the
flute which had been thrown away by Athena ; the goddess
herself is seated on the r. under a tree, with three umpires
grouped round her.
EARL BROWNLOW.
*Christ curing the Paralytic Study in oil for
Church of S. Rocco picture. 38 in. x 74 in. Christ in
the midst, surrounded by many sick people in a hall with
four columns that adjoins the pool.

LIST OF PICTURES

99

*PORTRAITS OF ARETINO AND A GENERAL OF CHARLES V.
on the same canvas. 25 in. x 29 in.
?Portrait of a Senator. 46 in. X37 in.
?Portrait of Doge Francesco Donato. 29^ in. x 24 in.
(Of doubtful authenticity.)
?Removal of the Body of St. Mark. (This also is of
doubtful authenticity.)
THE BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.
fMiRACLE of St. Mark. 37 in. x 52 in. (A sketch ;
formerly belonged to the poet Rogers.)
THE MARQUIS OF BUTE.
*A Doge of Venice. 42 in. x 37 in. Standing, three-
quarter length.; a rather old man, in his robes of office.
?Allegorical Subject. 52 in. x 48 in. Female figures on
the /., and others offering jewels.
?Allegorical Subject. 52A in. x 48 in. Companion
picture. Female figures crowning an old man with laurel.
CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ.
?Moses striking the Rock. 46 in. x 71^ in. Assembly
of numerous figures : Moses clad in a crimson robe with
a dog at his feet ; hills in the background.
?Portrait of Venetian Senator. 60 in. x 42 in. In
robes of office.
THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
?Two Dukes of Ferrara. Kneeling in prayers at church,
attended by a servant and page : apparently painted on two
narrow canvases and afterwards joined.

100 TINTORETTO
?Sacrifice of Isaac. A landscape somewhat similar to
the St. Mary in Egypt and St. Mary Magdalene in the lower
hall of S. Rocco : the scenery resembles that of the bor
ders of Cadore.
?The Temptation of Christ. A somewhat similar land
scape.
?The Adoration of the Shepherds.
W. G. CAVENDISH BENTINCK, ESQ., M.P.
tPoRTRAiT of a Naval Officer. 454 in. x 37 in. Three-
quarter figure, standing to /., looking towards the spectator,
leaning his left arm on table, on which is a suit of armour.
Sea and shipping through window on /. ; inscribed : An
dreas Barbadicus. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1891.)
tPoRTRAiTS. A gentleman, lady, child and page. 73^ in.
X 93A in. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1873.)
fPoRTRAiT. 48 in. X5iiin. A Venetian naval officer of
the noble family of Capello. (Old Masters' Exhibition,
1876.)
fPoRTRAiT. 49 in. x 39 in. A Venetian gentleman of the
noble family of Contarini. (Old Masters' Exhibition,
1876.)
THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.
fPORTRAIT OF CARDINAL LORRAINE. 70 in. X 49 in. (Old
Masters' Exhibition, 1871.)
SIR FREDERICK COOK, BART.
fTHE Ascension (a sketch). Panel, 17 in. x 13 in. (Old
Masters' Exhibition, 1873.)
St. John the Baptist.
Portrait of Senator.

LIST OF PICTURES ioi
THE HON. MRS. CORBET.
?Portrait. 46 in. x 3 7^ in. Three-quarter figure, seated
to r., looking at the spectator ; his left arm rests on the
arm of his chair; dark fur-lined robe ; dark background.
LORD COWPER (PANSHANGER).
Portrait of a Man.
R. CRAWSHAY, ESQ.
?Adam and Eve. 45 in. X 38 in. Full-length figures ; Eve,
seated under a tree, gives the apple to Adam, lying at the
foot of the tree. One of the finest examples of Tintoretto
that I have seen.
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE.
Portrait. The Archbishop of Spalatro in an armchair.
An open book behind. (Chatsworth.)
Christ and the Woman of Samaria. (Chatsworth.)
CHAS. DOANE, ESQ.
fPORTRAIT OF VENETIAN NOBLE. l8^ in X 15 in. Bust to
/. ; black robe trimmed with gray fur ; dark background.
(Old Masters' Exhibition, 1881.)
THE EARL OF DUDLEY.
Christ delivered to the Jews. 35 in. x 50 in.
THE EARL OF ELLESMERE.
?Portrait. A man with large open book.
?Portrait. A Venetian Senator

102 * TINTORETTO
?The Entombment. Figures rather under life-size, with a
group surrounding the Virgin fainting.
?Portrait. A Venetian Nobleman. (Hands restored.)
?Presentation in the Temple.
THE MARQUIS OF EXETER.
The Entombment.
SIR W. J. FARRER.
?The Resurrection. 64 in. x 60 in. In the foreground
three soldiers, one asleep and two struck backwards. The
lid of the tomb is away, and Christ is' springing upward.
The two Maries are in the middle distance on the /. On
the ;\ is a group of angels. A study for the S. Rocco
picture, but with the above-noted differences.
?The Annunciation. 57 in. x 37 in.
?The Raising of Lazarus. 41^ in. x 57 in.
J. P. HESELTINE, ESQ.
?Last Judgement. (Drawing, 24 in. x n£ in.) Arched
top ; study for the whole subject in S. Maria dell' Orto ;
on gray paper washed and heightened with white.
?Christ led to Judgement. 8 in. x 6^ in. In the back
ground on the r. Peter and others round a fire. Reed
pen and bistre.
CAPTAIN HOLFORD.
fPoRTRAiT. 43 in. x 34 in. Half length, standing to /. ;
three-quarter profile; bare-headed; black dress; his r.

LIST OF PICTURES 103
arm rests on window-sill, through which is a river and
bridge, with buildings and hills beyond ; dark background.
Portrait. A Procurator of St. Mark, of Foscari family.
Portrait. A member of Foscari family.
Conversation Piece of Three Figures.
Raising of Lazarus.
THE LORD KINNAIRD.
?Conversion of St. Paul. 39 in. x 78 in.
THE LORD LECONFIELD.
Portrait of a Man.
F. R. LEYLAND, ESQ.
fPORTRAIT. 39 in. x 34 in. Said to be Pietro Aretino. Three-
quarter length ; seated to r. ; head slightly turned to /. ;
his hands on a book which is before him on a pedestal ;
gray background. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1884.)
tPoRTRAiT of a Senator. 37 in. x 29 in. Half length,
standing to r. ; three-quarter profile ; crimson robes ; dark
background. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1884.)
G. D. LESLIE, ESQ., R.A.
?Pharaoh's Daughter and the Infant Moses. 30 in. x
52 in. Small full-length figures of two women in land
scape ; one on r. in red robe holds infant, the other with
yellow dress and small crown prepares cradle ; stag-hunt
in background ; on /. a river.

104 TINTORETTO
THE COUNTESS OF LINDSAY.
f Adoration of the Shepherds. 41 in. x 58 in. Five
small full-length figures. The Virgin in centre, with Child
on cushion on her lap; behind St. Joseph, leaning on
staff, and an angel ; a young shepherd kneels on /. ; on r.
an old shepherd advances with lamb in left hand and takes
off hat with right ; on floor is a cradle. (Old Masters'
Exhibition, 1895.)
CAPTAIN R. A. MARKHAM.
?Baptism of Christ. 67 in. x 99 in.
THE LORD METHUEN.
?Sketch. 22 in. x 46 in. Executed by Tintoretto for
Philip II. of Spain to see before doing the finished picture.
Brought from Spain by Sir Paul Methuen when ambassador
there (1715).
H. BINGHAM MILDMAY, ESQ.
fPORTRAIT OF A VENETIAN ADMIRAL. 54 in. X 44 in.
Three-quarter length, life size, in armour, standing to r.,
holding a baton in his right hand ; a crimson mantle falls
over his left shoulder ; base of column behind on r. ; on it a
helmet and two batons. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1883.)
DOCTOR LUDWIG MOND.
?Galleys at Sea. 14^ in. x 72 in. On wood. (Bought at
Cavendish Bentinck Sale, 1891.)
?Portrait. 374. in. x 35^ in. Giovanni Griti.
?Portrait. 19 in. x 15^ in. A young man.

LIST OF PICTURES 105
LIONEL B. C. L. MUIRHEAD, ESQ.
?Crucifixion. 50 in. x 80 in. Christ on the Cross between
the two thieves, against a dark sky lit towards the horizon.
Behind are rocky valleys with groups of trees. Several
Roman soldiers, carrying banners, gallop away, leaving
two small figures swathed in black, apparently SS. Mary
and John.
?Supper at Bethany. 61 in. x 93 in. Christ on /. blesses
Mary, who kneels and anoints His feet. Peter, Judas, and
John converse on other side of table, on which are fish,
bread, and wine. Count Mocenigo in black, and Tinto
retto himself look on from behind. Martha, bearing a
child, and three men enter the room.
THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND.
fPoRTRAiT. 43 in. x 28 in. A young man in a dark dress
trimmed with fur. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1873.)
Portrait of Admiral in Armour.
Ecce Homo.
LORD CLARENCE PAGET (?).
Portrait of General Duodo. 45 in. x 37 in. Three-
quarter length to /. ; rich armour partly covered by a gold
embroidered mantle ; bare head ; long black beard ; in the
r. background a curtain ; on the /. the sea, with numerous
war vessels. (Old Masters' Exhibition, 1884.)
SIR GEORGE PHILIPS, BART.(?).
Adoration of the Magi. Panel, 7 in. x 104 in. On the
/. the Virgin seated, with the Child on her lap ; St. Joseph

106 TINTORETTO
standing behind and bending over them ; one of the wise
men kneels in adoration in front; behind him are seen
others with a camel ; architectural background, with land
scape seen in the r. distance. (Old Masters' Exhibition,
1882.)
THE VISCOUNT POWERSCOURT.
?St. Mark preaching. 51 in. x 121 in. St. Mark in yellow
and red, full length, is in the centre of the picture. The
St. Mark is a portrait of Tintoretto. The figures on the r.,
none more than half length, are portraits of Titian, nearest
the centre, Pordenone, and Giorgione, a figure with the
back nude.
THE EARL OF RADNOR.
?Portrait. 44 in. x 344^ in. Half length ; face nearly full ;
turned to /. ; right hand on bust of Lucretia, left hand on
hip ; ornamented silver-handled sword.
?Portrait. Venetian Nobleman. 44 in. X 35 in. Half
length, standing ; dark dress ; three-quarter face, /. ; right
hand on table, left hand by side ; on the picture, an(n)o
(a)etatis suo xx-xxi, and on the back, La Vrilnere
Noce (?).
SIR W. B. RICHMOND, R.A.
?Portrait. 40 in. x 36 in. A man holding a letter in his
hand inscribed, Domine preb. ripb. Innocent.
WILLIAM RUSSELL, ESQ.
Portrait of a Doge. 55 in. x 41 in. An old man in
robes of office ; three-quarter length ; his right hand rests
on a book. (Exhibited at Old Masters' Exhibition, 1878.)

LIST OF PICTURES 107
G. SALTING, ESQ.
Portrait of Ottavio di Stra.
MRS. ARTHUR SEVERN.
?Diana. 42^- in. x 41 in. Full-length figure of Diana re
clining on a bank with two dogs beside her (unfinished).
?The Doge in Prayer. 37^ in. x 79^ in. Doge Alvise
Mocenigo kneels on steps of platform ; on r. four patron
saints, SS. John the Baptist, Augustine, John the Evange
list, and Gregory ; on /. the Saviour surrounded by child
angels ; sea in background (unfinished).
?Annunciation. 22 in. x 27 in. Angel Gabriel holding
lily, bent, descends and beckons to Madonna, who sinks on
knees ; robed in red and blue.
?Annunciation. 27 in. x 35 in. Gabriel descends with
three-flowered upright lily ; Madonna kneels in white and
green ; Holy Spirit as dove in cloud.
THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND.
A Pope, with a large number of cardinals and monks, who
are giving him some document.
A Landscape, in which are many figures.
Portrait of Venetian Senator.
Portrait.
Removal of Body from Cross. 58J in. x 78! in.
B. C VERNON-WENTWORTH, ESQ.
Portrait of a Monk.

108 TINTORETTO
THE REV. W. H. WAYNE.
Pieta. Small full-length figure of the dead Christ supported
by two angels. Panel, 1 2 in. x 9 in. (Old Masters' Ex
hibition, 1886.)
THE EARL OF WEMYSS.
?Portrait of Senator. 54 in. x 39 in. Three-quarter
length, seated to /., full face ; crimson velvet robe bordered
with ermine ; hands on the arms of his chair ; dark back
ground.
?Portrait of Himself. 20 in. x 16 in. Painted on black
marble, which serves as background.
?Marriage Feast. 22^ in. x 37^ in. Interior of banquet
ing hall ; Saviour on /., seated near a table, along which
are guests, five on each side ; on r. stands governor of
feast, in front of whom servant pours out wine ; staircase
on /. of picture. (Trial sketch for Salute picture.)
?Adoration of the Magi. 37 in. x 45 in. The kings,
guided by the star, come to worship Virgin and Child
guarded by angels.
THE EARL OF YARBOROUGH.
?A Venetian Nobleman. 43!- in. x 36^ in. A portrait,
almost to the knees.
?The Creation of Eve. 331 in. x 43 in.
?Consecration of a Bishop. (A very large picture.) Con
tains portrait of Paul III., who officiates.
?Descent from the Cross. About 3^ ft. x 3 ft.

LIST OF PICTURES 109

THE EXORS. OF THE LATE LORD LEIGHTON.
|A Portrait of Paolo Paruta. 37 in. x 30 in. Three-
quarter figure, life size, sitting in an armchair to r. ; dark
fur-lined cloak ; glove in left hand ; curtain background.
Inscribed at the top, P Paruta, Nob; Ven., 1590. (Old
Masters' Exhibition, 1880. Also 1895.)

DUBLIN.— NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND.
Portrait of a Gentleman. 45 in. x 31^- in. Three-
quarter figure standing to /. at a table ; black dress lined
with brown fur; dark background. Inscribed: 1555.
Aetatis 29.

EDINBURGH.— NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOT
LAND.
?Five Pictures.
HAMPTON COURT.
?Esther before Ahasuerus. 81 in. x 105 in. Esther
supported by a male and a female figure; the king
anxiously descends steps of throne. A large concourse
of people crowd round in the background.
?Nine Muses. 80 in. x 121 in. Full-length figures amid
clouds. The sun in the distance. On left one is
seated with a lute; next to her Clio; above is another
floating in the air ; in the centre is Polyhymnia recumbent
with a chart ; behind is one with a spinet, and next to her
Urania with her hand on a globe. Inscribed : Jacomo
Tintoretto in Venetia.

no TINTORETTO
Portrait of Dominican.
Knight of Malta.
The Expulsion of Heresy.
Portrait of a Nobleman.
Male Portrait, possibly Ignatius Loyola.
LONDON.— NATIONAL GALLERY.
?St. George and the Dragon. Reproduced page 60.
?Washing of Feet.
?Origin of the Milky Way. See page 74.
OXFORD.— ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM.
?A Drawing.
OXFORD.— CHRIST CHURCH LIBRARY.
?Portrait of a Nobleman. 46 in. x 35 in. A young
Venetian nobleman dressed in a fur-trimmed silk coat;
nearly full face ; his left hand supinated resting on his hip,
his right hand holding what are apparently gloves.
OXFORD.— MERTON COLLEGE CHAPEL.
?Crucifixion. 53 in. x 167 in. In the centre is Christ,
from whom emanates the light that lights the picture ; the
two thieves are on either side. In the foreground a group
of six women, including the mother of our Lord, who is
fainting. Behind this and to the r. are four men casting
lots for Christ's raiment. There is an eclipse of the sun
on the r., and another sun or moon on /.

LIST OF PICTURES m

WINDSOR CASTLE.
Holy Family, with a Saint.

DENMARK
STOCKHOLM. tPoRTRAiT. G. Pesaro. (Thode.)
FRANCE
BESANCON.— VILLEMOT MUSEUM.
Nobleman with two Sons. (Thode.)
CAEN.— MUSEUM.
Deposition. (Thode.)
PARIS.— THE LOUVRE.
Portrait of Himself as an Old Man. Inscribed :
or ius
Jacobvs . Tentoretvs . pict . vent
IPSIUS . F .
Christ and two Angels.
?Susanna and the Elders.
?Study for the Paradise.
?Portrait of a Man.

112 TINTORETTO GERMANY
AUGSBURG. IChrist, Martha and Mary, Martha approaches Mary,
seated on r., asking her to assist in the cooking which is
going on in the background. Christ on /. at table ad
dresses Mary. Figures seen through open door at back.
BERLIN. fLuNA and the Hours. Reproduced page 50.
Portrait of a Procurator of St. Mark. 40 in. x
31^ in. In his official dress; a red mantle with wide
sleeves. The ground dark.
fPORTRAIT OF A PROCURATOR OF St. MARK. 43! in. X
37 in. In his official dress; a dark red fur, with wide
sleeves; background a chamber with outlook into the
open.
fTHE Virgin with the Child in GloryX"*88 in. x
62^ in. Two angels float around; she is worshipped by
the Apostles SS. Mark and Luke.,....,»— ¦-,~-
fPORTRAIT OF A MlDDLE-AGED MAN. 37^ in. X 29 in.
He is dressed in black ; ground dark.
Three Portraits on one Canvas.
fST. Mark and Senators. (Thode.)
f Annunciation. (Thode.)
BERLIN.— VON KAUFMAN.
fPORTRAIT OF an Old Man. (Thode.)

LIST OF PICTURES 113
BERLIN.— COUNT FRIEDRICH POURTALES.
IPortrait. (Thode.)
BRUNSWICK. ILast Supper. (Thode.)
CASSEL GALLERY.
Portrait of Young Man. He wears a ruff, and gloves
on both hands. The right hand rests on a table, on which
is a paper inscribed : Anno Salutis. mdlxxxv.
DARMSTADT. t PORTRAIT. (Thode.)
DESSAU. fPORTRAIT OF AN ADMIRAL. (Thode.)
+Head of Man. (Thode.)
DRESDEN. tViRGiN and Child, with two Saints and the Donor.
43 in. x 654 in. The Virgin holds Child on left arm,
which passes between His feet. He extends His right
hand and looks to the donor, a bearded man on /.
St. Catherine, crowned, assists to- support the Child.
Bearded male saint just appears in r. top corner.
fTHE Rescue. 64 in. x 106 in. A knight in armour
with a boat sets two women (nude) free from a tower. A
charming figure of a boy occupies the stern.
I

ii4 TINTORETTO
fLuciFER overcome by St. Michael, i 59 in. x 94 in.
Reproduced page 76.
fTwo Portraits. 63 in. x 50 in. A grave-looking man
in an easy chair ; behind him stands a youth.
fTHE Muses and Graces on Parnassus. 90 in. x
138 in. Above them is Apollo.
t Women with Musical Instruments. 61 in. x 90 in.
Contains six very beautiful figures very slightly draped.
|Christ and the Adulteress. 72 in. x 150 in.
fLADY dressed in Mourning.
tSusanna preparing for the Bath. 92 in. x 67 in. A
copy by Domenico Robusti.
HAMBURG.— CONSUL WEBER.
Ottaviano Farnese. (Thode.)
MUNICH. tPoRTRAiT Group. A man approaches the Doge of Venice,
and is about to take a paper from him with his right hand ;
his left hand is on his son's arm.
Birth of Christ.
Ecce Homo.
Mary Magdalene wiping Christ's Feet.
tPoRTRAiT of an Artist. He wears a ruff and holds a
pair of compasses in his right hand ; in his left hand a
small statuette. A landscape hangs in the right top corner.
MUNICH.— THEATINERKIRCHE.
tDeposition. (Thode.)

LIST OF PICTURES 115
SCHLEISSHEIM. tTwo Crucifixions. (Thode.)
SCHWERIN. tPoRTRAiT. Sebastiano Veniero. (Thode.)
STRASSBURG. tDescent from the Cross. (Thode.)
STUTTGART. tlMMACULATE CONCEPTION. (Thode.)
tCRUCiFixiON. A sketch. (Thode.)
ITALY
BERGAMO.— CARRARA GALLERY.
A Lady dressed as a Queen.
BELLUNO (N. ITALY).— PAGANI FAMILY.
?Adoration of the Shepherds. A large picture, figures
more than life size ; brilliant colouring.
BOLOGNA. tVlSITATION.
fPORTRAIT OF A MAN.
IChrist on the Cross with the Thieves. (Thode.)

n6 TINTORETTO
BRESCIA. Transfiguration. (Thode.)
Portrait of Old Man. White beard, in robes with ermine
fur turned broadly over ; holds glove (?) in right hand.
FERRARA. Madonna of the Rosary.
FLORENCE.— PITTI PALACE.
t Venus, Vulcan and Cupid. 31 in. x 75 in. The goddess
reclines upon green drapery before a red tent. She holds
Cupid on her bosom. Vulcan raises a white drapery
which covers the child. Mars appears in the clouds
driving a chariot.
fPORTRAIT of a Man. 37 in. x 29^ in. Full face, half length,
bald head, gray beard and moustache ; dress dark, mantle
same colour trimmed with fur ; wears a belt with buckle.
tPoRTRAiT of Vicenzo Zeno. 40 in. x 36 in. Three-quarter
face, half length, bald head, long white beard, black dress,
seated in easy chair. Behind is a red screen, and on other
side an open window which gives a view of the sea. In
scribed : VINCENTIUS ZENO ANNO AETATIS SUAE LXXIV.
tDescent from the Cross. 37 in. x 47 in. Composition
almost identical with picture in Accademia, Venice, q.v.,
but a figure of donor is introduced on the r.
+The Resurrection. 37 m. x 48 in. Christ comes victorious
from the tomb, holding in one hand a white banner, and
in the other a fold of the linen which covers him. Some
of the soldiers placed at the tomb have fallen down sense
less; others take to flight. In the background soldiers'
tents.

LIST OF PICTURES 117
tViRGiN and Child. 59 in. x 38 in. She stands upon the
clouds, one of which crosses her feet ; holds her Son in
her arms ; is surrounded by stars, and rests her right hand
upon a book.
t Portrait of a Man. 53^^x35 in. Half length, full face ;
short hair, long white beard; wears an amaranth dress,
and holds a handkerchief in his left hand.
fPORTRAIT of a Man. 43f in. x 38 in. Half length. Three-
quarter face, short hair, long beard, black dress. He lays
one hand on the model of a horse, and the other on a
book placed on a table.
f Portrait of a Man. 22 m. x 17 m. Three-quarter face,
short hair, little beard, robe trimmed with fur.
fPoRTRAiT of a Man. Three-quarter face, thin beard,
wearing a white collar and a black biretta; dress and
cloak black ; holds his gloves in right hand. Inscribed :
anno aetatis suae xxiv,
Study for a Last Supper.
FLORENCE.— UFFIZI GALLERY.
fPORTRAIT of Himself. In the hall of portraits of painters
by themselves. Reproduced page 12. Alongside is a
portrait of his daughter Marietta by herself.
tChrist entering Jerusalem. Probably only by an
imitator; a poor work. Christ, with a crowd on r., is
seated on the ass, which is about to tread on a garment
that two figures spread in the way.
fPORTRAIT of Admiral Veniero. Bust with arms ; his r.
hand on a helmet. In the background the sea and a
fortress.
fPORTRAIT of an old Man. Bust life-size.

n8 TINTORETTO
fWEDDiNG at Cana. A good replica of the picture in the
church of Madonna della Salute at Venice. Although the
composition is almost identical the colour is quite different.
fPoRTRAiT of Sansovino, sculptor and architect. An old
man, a compass in his hand. At the bottom is written,
Jacopo tatti Sansovino.
fPoRTRAiT. On wood, less than life-size. A man with a
beard. Inscribed, anno aetati xxx.
fPORTRAIT. A man, bust only, less than life-size.
fLEDA. She lies on a couch in front of a red curtain, and
takes hold of the swan with her right hand. Her maid
busies herself with a cage containing an animal. There is
a sketch on the back of this picture.
fVisiON of St. Augustine. (Thode.)
Crucifixion. A sketch.
FLORENCE.— CORSINI GALLERY.
fPORTRAIT. A young man of the Mazzi family, Venice ; he
wears an embroidered collar.
fPORTRAIT OF A MAN.
GENOA.— PALAZZO BRIGNOLE SALE.
fPORTRAIT OF A DOGE.
GENOA.— PALAZZO DURAZZO.
fPORTRAIT. A young man of the Durazzo family.
GENOA.- CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS.
Annunciation.

LIST OF PICTURES 119
GENOA.— SPINOLA EREDI.
fPORTRAIT. (Thode).
LUCCA.— PICTURE GALLERY.
fPORTRAIT OF A Man.
fPORTRAIT OF A SENATOR.
GENOA.— CATHEDRAL.
tLast Supper. (Thode.)
MILAN.— BRERA.
?St. Helena and three Donors. Two female saints in
centre at the foot of the Cross. Two male saints stand on
either side. Before kneel the donors, the one on the left
holding a cross.
?Finding the Body of St. Mark. Reproduced page 21.
?Pieta. The body of Christ lies along the canvas ; St.
Joseph raises the shoulders. The Madonna and another
woman gaze upon the dead. Semicircular top.
MILAN— ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE.
Christ and the Adulteress.
MILAN.— MUSEO CIVICO.
Bust of Procurator,

120 TINTORETTO
MODENA. fEiGHTEEN Scenes from Ovid's " Metamorphoses." On
the ceiling in the Gallery.
t Madonna with Saints. (Thode.)
NAPLES. ?Danae. Nude reclining figure. Very doubtful authen
ticity.
PADUA.— MUSEO CIVICO.
ISenator. (Thode.)
PALERMO.— PRIVATE GALLERY OF BORDONARO.
fMiRACLE of the Loaves. Christ is on the /., at the top
of a small mound. In front and around are grouped the
multitude.
PARMA.— ROYAL GALLERY.
Entombment. Christ is supported by angels on the /. ; a
saint and donor on the r.
A Purgatory.
ROME.— CAPITOL.
The Baptism.
Ecce Homo.
The Flagellation.

LIST OF PICTURES 121
ROME.— COLONNA.
Three Women and a Man adoring the Holy Spirit.
Old Man playing a Spinet.
Portrait. Man with a pointed beard.
Portrait. A young man.
IHylus or Narcissus. (Thode.)
ROME.— DORIA GALLERY.
Portrait.
TURIN.
?The Holy Trinity. This is the upper half of a " Cruci
fixion " of which the rest was burnt. Christ appears half-
length on the Cross. Above are the Dove and the
Almighty. Two angels, r. and /., raise the Cross. Two
cherubim below the arms. The expression of Christ's
head is fine.
VICENZA. St. Augustine healing the Plague-stricken.

VENICE.
SCUOLA DI SAN ROCCO.
Lower Hall.
?Annunciation. An angel and a cloud of cherubim
descend to Mary through the openings in a wall which
divides the picture into two. Joseph is at work outside
on the /,

122 TINTORETTO
?Adoration of the Magi. The Virgin and Child are
seated on a small brick dais, on to which two of the magi
come with their gifts. Clouds and cherubim appear
through the roof. Low in tone ; rich warm colour.
?Flight into Egypt. A landscape with fine broken sky ;
the figures occupy only the lower /. corner.
?Massacre of the Innocents. Described on page 81.
?The Magdalene. A small figure, warm in colour, seated
on r. in a cold and gloomy landscape.
?St. Mary in Egypt. Similar to above, but landscape
suggests more peace : figure is on the /.
?Presentation of Jesus in Temple. The high priest,
whose robes are held up by attendants, holds the Child
in centre of the picture. A lavish display of gold and
much warm colour.
?Assumption of the Virgin. A golden glory shines
about the Virgin ; the whole is a little theatrical.
On Ceiling.
tElijah ascending to Heaven. Small panel.
Staircase.
?Visitation. The two figures embrace in the centre of the
picture ; Joseph and Zacharias on either side.
Upper Hall.
?Adoration of the Shepherds. Reproduced page 52.
?Baptism of Christ. St. John and Christ in the river,
rather to the left. A crowd of figures, almost like spirits,
behind on the bank.

LIST OF PICTURES 123
?The Resurrection. Above is Christ ascending, while
below him float four angels : magnificent colour, silvery
and golden.
?The Agony in Gethsemane. An angel in the r. upper
corner bears the cup to Christ. The three apostles sleep
below. The colour is cold and suited to the subject.
?The Last Supper. A very low table is placed diagonally
across a tessellated pavement. This is one of the pictures
that Velazquez copied.
?S. Rocco in Heaven. (Altar-piece.)
?Miracle of Loaves and Fishes. Christ stands at the
top of a little hill, about which the crowd are grouped.
Colour rather like fresco; extraordinary grace in the
drawing.
?Raising of Lazarus. Christ is seated in lower r. corner.
Higher, on left of picture, two figures assist Lazarus to
rise. An instance of that cold jewelled colour that Tinto
retto alone could use, and of which there are many other
examples in S. Rocco.
?Ascension. Described on page 83.
?Pool of Bethesda. The pool, which is inside a building,
somewhat resembles an ordinary swimming-bath. A
dense crowd surrounds it. Christ is in the foreground
on the right. The picture is much injured.
?Temptation on the Mountain. Frontispiece, discussed
on page 82.
?S. Rocco. A fine rough colour sketch of single figure.
?S. Sebastian. Also fine, but rather for modelling than
colour.
?Portrait of Himself. Inscribed " religion(i) ? 1573."
Black, and not at all good.

124 TINTORETTO
Ceiling of Upper Hall.
?Adam and Eve. Sketchy, but very strong.
?Elijah. He rises with a grand rush, well expressed in
drawing.
?Moses. A majestic figure rising above the crowd; the
touch of pride is well expressed.
?Joshua. Companion picture to Elijah ; single figure.
?Jonah and the Whale.
?Ezekiel's Vision.
?Plague of Serpents. Above, in the sky, is the Al
mighty surrounded by angels. On a small hill to the left
is the brazen serpent, to which Moses points ; below are
the crowds writhing in their agony.
?Jacob's Dream.
?Sacrifice of Isaac.
?Elijah and the Angel. The angel is particularly beau
tiful, with silver in his wings.
?Fall of Manna. Unlike the great picture in S. Giorgio
Maggiore the manna here falls as snow.
?Elisha feeding the People. Note the fine stormy sky.
?Paschal Feast, referred to at page 88. They stand round,
staff in hand, watching the fire consume the remnant.
Refectory.
?The Great Crucifixion. See page 80.
?Christ before Pilate. Reproduced on page 84.
?Way to Golgotha. The procession winds round the
slope of a hill. A telling picture ; quiet colour.
?Ecce Homo. Christ is seated on the top of a small flight
of steps : a soldier in armour on the left.

LIST OF PICTURES 125
Ceiling.
?S. Rocco in Heaven. See page 9.
Putti. *i. Reclining, facing; brown shadows; white drapery
across thighs.
?2. Standing ; pinkish-white drapery ; beautiful colour.
?3. Walking towards spectator, with grayish-white drapery.
?4. Seated ; pinkish drapery ; not so pleasing.
Eleven beautiful Panels, good examples of Tintoretto's
simple compositions, mostly single figures :
?1. Man reclining with book (panel, irregular shape).
?2. Madonna laying hands upon three donors (flattened
oval).
?3. St. John reclining, with book and eagle (irregular).
?4. Female, with halo, reclining; holding chalice (irre
gular).
?5. Man, with halo, in armour, with a flag (flattened oval).
?6. Female, with halo; seated; book between knees
(irregular).
?7. Flying figure, with halo; arms on bosom; looks to
right ; beautiful rush of drapery (irregular).
?8. Female figure holding laurel wreath, surrounded by
cherub heads ; red and white drapery (oval).
?9. Flying figure ; red and white robes ; arms on bosom ;
looks to /. (irregular).
?10. Flying figure, with arms stretched out behind; red
drapery (irregular).
?11. Reclining female figure, with halo ; left hand draws
down the drapery near left breast (irregular).
ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS.
?Death of Abel. 554 in. x 86 in. Described on page 32.

126 TINTORETTO
?Miracle of St. Mark. 164 in. x 215 in. See page 44
et seq.
?Adam and Eve. 55^x86 in. See pages 5 and 32.
?Risen Christ blessing three Senators. 35^ in. x
i6o|- in. Christ rises from tomb on right; half length;
the senators stand stiffly in row on left (Paolo Contarini,
Giovanni Griti, Angelo Michiel).
?Madonna and three Portraits. 354- in. x 155 in.
(Nicolo Bon, Bartolomeo Paruta, Sebastiano Capello).
?Crucifixion. Christ in the centre with thieves on either
side. A ladder is placed against the cross; below, a
group with Virgin fainting ; Tintoretto himself appears as
a knight on horseback. A strange blue gray with a purplish
tinge plays over the picture.
?Resurrection. 54 in. x 92 in. Christ rises from grave
in centre of picture ; three soldiers asleep by the grave ;
a great crowd of persons on /.
?Scourging of Christ. Part of a large picture of which
the rest was destroyed ; fine rich colour, but the drawing
less masterly than usual.
?Magna Peccatrix. 45 in. x 8i^ in. A fine work in
warm and glowing colour ; low tone. See page 91.
?Deposition. See page 88, called Pieta in text.
?Madonna, three Saints and three Donors. 88 in. x
205 in. The Madonna is seated at top of steps on /. of
picture. On her r. is St. Sebastian. On her /. SS. Mark
and Theodore ; before her are the three donors, and be
hind, on r. of picture, their three attendants.
?Madonna and Child in Glory. SS. Cecilia, Theodore
and Damian offer gifts. A fine composition despite the
introduction of donors, who here really form part of the

LIST OF PICTURES 127
picture. Fine bright colour, inclined to be pretty. See
page 90.
?Assumption. 92 in. x 42^ in. Not a great work, although
showing a greater power over mere composition than
Titian's in same gallery ; the portraits in the crowd below
are a blemish.
?Virgin and Child and four Senators. 74iin. x 57 in.
On Ceiling of small room containing drawings : at present
Room IV.
?Prodigal Son. An octagonal picture, 80 in. in diameter.
The father stands on some steps to receive the son,
coming up on r. One of Tintoretto's inimitable figures
stoops in the foreground on /.
?Faith. 80 in. x 24 in. A figure standing on a cloud,
grasping a column and looking over right shoulder.
?Justice. 24 in. x 80 in. She is seated, crowned ; holds
scales in left hand and sword in right.
?Strength and Good Works. 80 in. x 24 in. A female
figure in red, seated upon the clouds.
?Knowledge (?). 24 in. x 80 in. Perhaps the finest of
an excellent series. A figure seated amongst books
amid the clouds, looks upward. In her right hand she
holds a crystal or lens. The colour is broken and full
of light. There are beautiful grays in the flesh.

?Madonna on the Pedestal. There was a legend to
the effect that the statue of a heathen deity being removed
the Madonna appeared in its place. A very stiff unlifelike
work. Some suggest that it is mostly the work of Do
menico or pupils.

128 TINTORETTO
fS. Justinian ; three Treasurers. 844- in. x 71 in. Marco
Giustinian, Alvise Badoer, and Alvise Soranzo.
fPORTRAIT OF DOGE NlCOLO DA PONTE. A di 30 Luglio
N da Ponte 1570.
fPoRTRAiT of Antonio Capello. 43 in. x 31 in. An-
tonius Capello mdlxxiii.
f PORTRAIT of Procurator. 20 in. x 1 7 in.
fPoRTRAiT of Melchiore Michiele. 45 in. x 391 in.
Melchior Michael Eq mdlviii.
fST. Mark. 291 in. x 25 in.
fPORTRAIT OF A DOMINICAN MONK. 47 in. X 26 in.
fPORTRAIT OF a Man. 37|rin. x 24 in.
fPORTRAIT OF a Young Man. 24 in. X 2iiin.
fPORTRAIT OF a Man. 32 in. x 25 in.
fPORTRAIT OF A SENATOR. 31 in. X 25^ in.
?Portrait of Cardinal Morosini. 53 in. x 45 in. With
his right hand hidden in his robes.
?Portrait of Battista Morosini. Black-robed, with
ermine ; cord round his waist, curtain behind, and land
scape on /.
fPORTRAIT of Procurator. 41 in. x 36 in. Coat of arms
and initials M D.
?Portrait of Andrea Dandolo. Red ermine-lined robe
and stole.
?Portrait of Andrea Capello. Holding handkerchief
in right hand. Letter A above shield in bottom r. corner.
?Portrait of Marco Grimani. 44 in. x 32 in. Marcus
Grimano mdlxxvi.
?Portrait of Doge Alvise Mocenigo. With ducal cap ;
fine golden brown colour throughout.

LIST OF PICTURES 129
?Portrait, as an Evangelist : with book closed on to right
hand ; red robe.
?Portrait, as an Evangelist ; writing in a book. Part of
oval frame painted on the canvas.
?Portrait of Senator, Pasquale (?). Seated, arm of chair
and left hand showing.
?Portrait of Senator, Cicogna (?). Right hand showing ;
no chair arm.
fPORTRAIT of Jacopo Soranzo. 41 in. x 35 in. Jacopus
Superantio mdlxxiii.

DOGE'S PALACE.
SALA DEL GRAN CONSIGLIO.
?Paradise. See page 64.
?Ambassadors appearing before Frederick I. at Pavia.
The two ambassadors of the Pope and the Doge ascend
the steps of the throne to Frederick on the /. Behind, a
great concourse of people, above whom rise many flags and
standards.
?Battle of Pirano and Capture of Otho. Sometimes
ascribed to Jacopo, but by Domenico.
?Capture of Zara. Do., do.
?Conquest of Constantinople. Do., do.
Ceiling.
?Capture of Riva on the Lago di Garda from the
Duke of Milan in 1440. One of a magnificent series of
four. See page 62. K

1 30 TINTORETTO
?Vittorio Soranzo defeating the Estensi in 1484.
Another of the same series and shape.
?Brescia defended against the Visconti in 1483.
Another of the same.
?Capture of Gallipoli from the Aragonese in 1484.
The fourth of this splendid series.
?Venice with the Gods and Doge Nicolo da Ponte.
Venice is seated in the clouds at the top ; below is the
Doge on a flight of steps, behind him is St. Mark's. Below
again are further flights of steps, and the composition
follows horizontal parallel lines.
SALA DELLO SCRUTINIO.
?Capture of Zara from the King of Hungary in 1346.
A magnificent piece of dark colour in which most beautiful
blues predominate. The management of tone is grand,
and gives the colour effect great magnificence.
?Two Portraits, one round and the other square, in the
passage to this chamber, are said to be by Tintoretto, but
it is improbable.
COLLEGIO. ?St. Mark introducing Doge Mocenigo to Christ.
A curious picture, which must once have contained fine
colour. Figure of St. Mark is perfect as he stands lightly
touching the Doge with his left hand. The Doge is less
happy ; he does not look up to Christ, but gazes woodenly
out of the picture. One fancies that these Doges were
very unsatisfactory sitters. They wanted a full-face portrait,
for instance, and did not mind it spoiling the composition,
to which they rarely seem to belong.

LIST OF PICTURES 131
?Figures in Grisaille around the clock ; beautiful draw
ing, but darkened by age.
?Doge da Ponte before the Virgin. Three cherubim
hold a canopy over the Virgin on the I. The Doge is
seated at the top of steps on r. ; behind is the sea and a
peep of the Campanile.
?Marriage of St. Catherine and Doge Dona. St.
Catherine kneels to receive the ring from the Child held
by his Mother ; Doge Dona kneels on steps to r. Higher
in key than some, with beautiful silvery whites. We could
do without the Doge, as usual, and St. Mark could then
give his undivided attention to St. Catherine, a most
charming figure, reminding us a little of Paolo Veronese.
?Doge Pietro Loredan imploring aid for Venice.
The Virgin appears amid a cloud of cherubim ; St. Mark
with his lion behind hovers on /.
Ceiling.
?Truth. She holds a mirror in her left hand, which typifies
the moon. The sun is behind her right hand, and the
stars in the background. One of those charming, though
slight, and perhaps even hasty pieces of work that make
us wish Tintoretto had done a few more easel pictures
instead of quite so many colossal conceptions.
?Eloquence. In a broidered robe she reclines amid a pile
of books, one of which she reads.
INGRESSO. ?Lorenzo Amelio (1570). Red robes with fur lining : sun
setting over the sea on r.
?Alessandro Bono. Red robe with ermine lining : ship at
sea on r. Letters A B above shield.

132 TINTORETTO
?Tommaso Contarini (1557). Red robes of two shades :
two columns behind on r.
?Vicenzo Morosini (1580). In red fur-lined robes with
old gold stole.
?Portrait of Old Man. Letters S. T. and coat of arms ;
red robes in two shades.
?Portrait of Old Man. Red and ermine robes, with
old gold stole ; seated in chair.
?Portrait of Nicolo Priuli. A white-bearded man.
Letters N. P. on the plinth below a column.
Ceiling.
?Justice presents a sword to Doge Priuli.
Four long Pictures. Monochrome, containing some
fine drawing. About 7 ft. x 14 in.
Putti. About 14 in. x 21 in.
?1. Infant Figure. Nude; lying with back to spectator;
holding a sickle.
?2. Nude Infant. Sitting, with flowers between his
feet.
?3. Infant reclining. Amid foliage ; nude.
?4. Slightly draped Figure. The most beautiful of
the series. See page 63.
PASSAGE TO COUNCIL OF TEN.
t Andrea Delphino. 1573.
fFEDERiGO Contarini. 1570.
?Resurrection. Christ rises amid angels from the tomb.
Three senators on r. See page 76.

LIST OF PICTURES 133
COLLEGIO. ?Doge Griti before the Virgin. In this the Doge is
more satisfactory and looks reverently toward the Virgin,
who is seated on a throne to r., holding the Christ Child,
a not very satisfactory figure, and not nearly so lovely
as the small cherub in lower r. corner. A quaint conceit
is the arch of heads of cherubim which surrounds the
Divine pair.
ANTE-COLLEGIO. ?Mercury and the Three Graces (1578). One of the
famous quatrain that for handling and technique are un
surpassed in the world. See page 62.
?Vulcan's Forge (1578). See page 62.
?Bacchus and Ariadne (1578). See page 4.
?Minerva expelling Mars (1578).
ANTE ROOM OF CHAPEL.
?SS. Margaret, George and Louis. Called " St. George
and the Princess."
?SS. Andrea and Jerome.
SENATO. ?The Descent from the Cross. About 9 ft. x 30 ft.
In the centre is our Lord borne by angels, and on either
side kneeling Doges.
Ceiling.
?Venice, Queen of the Sea. About 30 ft. x 15 ft. A
rather scattered composition, with some magnificent in
dividual figures.

134 TINTORETTO
SALA DELLE QUATTRO PORTE.
Ceiling.
?Zeus giving Venice the Empire of the Sea. Zeus
takes Venice by her left hand and leads her down from
Cloudland, where Apollo is seated with the other gods,
and points her to the sea.
?Hera surrounded by Nymphs. A circular picture.
?Padua. M.T. ALV ¦ ¦ ICO on corner. See page 6$.
?Brescia. Magnificent colour ; armour piled on r.
?Istria reclines on the clouds. She holds a wreath up
with her left hand.
?Treviso. A male figure seated, looking back over his
left shoulder. He holds his sword by the point.
?Friuli. Seated ; blue robes ; putting sword into its
sheath.
?Venice freed. Venice rises holding chains, supported
by two female figures. Two other figures hold up caps of
liberty.

CHURCHES AND PRIVATE OWNERS.
ABBAZIA. Adoration of the Magi. This picture is not there now,
nor do the authorities know anything about it.
S. ANGELI.
Finding of Body of S. Mark at Alexandria.

LIST OF PICTURES 135
SANTI APOSTOLI.
St. Lucia.
S. BENEDETTO. No pictures. See footnote on page 29.
S. CASSIANO.
?Crucifixion. About 8 ft. x 9 ft. See page 46.
?Christ in Hades. About 8 ft. x 9 ft. Christ descends
on /. ; before him Adam and Eve kneel. Above, on r., an
angel flies upward, and below a finely drawn figure swoops
down to the abyss. See page 34.
?Resurrection. Above, Christ ascends from the tomb
surrounded by cherubim ; below are St. Cecilia and other
saints. A knight in armour bends over the tomb from
behind. Much of the picture is hidden by a mass of
masonry.
?Three Legends below the Organ. These are said to be
by Tintoretto, but only very good evidence would lead
one to believe it.
S. CHIARA. Now destroyed.
There was here a portrait of Pope Sixtus V., probably with
other figures. This picture has yet to be traced.
CROCIFERI. tPresentation of the Virgin.
IChrist scourged. Christ is in the centre of the picture ;
behind him are three columns ; a man on r. is lifting his
arm to strike.

136 TINTORETTO
S. ERMAGORA.— See S. MARCUOLA.
S. FELICE.
*S. Demetrius in Armour. About 6 ft. x z\ ft. Semicircu
lar top. The saint holds a flag ; a half-length portrait of
the donor appears at the bottom of the picture.
S. FRANCESCO DELLA VIGNA.
The Entombment. There should be no difficulty in iden
tifying this picture, but I cannot find it, nor does Thode
mention it. Stearns discusses it at great length.
The body of Christ is carried by three bearers, who are
assisted by St. Joseph, a majestic full-bearded man. This
group occupies the centre of the picture. In the fore
ground is a second group of mourners, which is being re
passed by the procession as it turns in the winding road.
Here is the Virgin fainting, supported by Mary Magdalene
and " the other Mary." Above is an angel with the crown
of thorns, from whom a radiance is diffused over the
picture. The three crosses, two of them still bearing their
burdens, appear in the distance.
SS. GERVASIO E PROTASIO (known as S. Trovaso).
?Last Supper. The meal takes place at a square table
set diagonally in the picture. The apostles are seated on
rush-bottomed chairs, one of which is overturned in the
foreground.
?Temptation of St. Anthony. Christ floats down from
above to the saint surrounded by his four tempters.
There is some magnificent drawing in this picture, but it
is nearly ruined by the smoke.

LIST OF PICTURES 137
fCHRIST WASHING THE APOSTLES' FEET.
fADORATION OF THE MaGI.
fTHE Betrayal of Joachim.
These three pictures are mentioned by Thode.
GESUITI. ?Assumption of the Virgin. About 15 ft. x 74 ft. ; semi
circular top. The Virgin ascends amid a cloud of
cherubim. Below is a tomb(?), upon which a young
man reclines. An old man is drawing away what appears
to be his shroud, and the strange part of the picture is
the way the heads float about this piece of drapery : one
even is turned upside down, as though overturned by it.
A magnificent composition, but the colour is ruined.
?Presentation of Christ. About 6 ft. x 8 ft. See page 60.
S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE.
?The Last Supper. See page 88.
?The Gathering of Manna. See page 59.
?Martyrdom of various Saints. At the foot of the
picture St. Damian is being tied to a cross; above is
St. Cosmo, already tied and nailed. Two more are bound
at the foot of a tree. Men hurl stones and shoot arrows,
but the latter seem to return upon the assailants, The
colour has gone rather black. A fine composition.
?Resurrection. Christ is borne aloft by cherubim, some
of whom hold drapery as a canopy over him. On /.
about the cross are portraits of the Morosini family.
'Coronation of the Virgin. Above, amid angels, she
receives a crown from our Lord and the Eternal Father.
Below are some of the great ones of this earth, St. Bene
dict on the /., Pope Gregory in the middle.

138 TINTORETTO
?Entombment (in the Mortuary Chapel). Below, three men
are lowering our Lord's body into the grave ; women are
gathered round, one of whom, very beautiful, stoops to
kiss His hand. The colour is still superb.
SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO (known as S. Zanipolo).
The Last Supper (mentioned by Stearns). I can't find it.
The remainder were removed to the Academy.
S. GIUSEPPE DI CASTELLO.
?St. Michael overcoming Lucifer. About 10 ft. x 5 ft. ;
semicircular top. A piece of fine but subdued colour.
St. Michael in armour descends from above, his wings fit
ting the upper part of the picture. In his right hand a spear,
in his left the scales of justice. Lucifer, with claws on his
fingers, overthrown in /. bottom corner. The donor in
red robe stands on r.
CHAPEL OF THE HOSPITAL.
?St. Ursula and the Virgins. A remarkably beautiful
picture, full of delicate colour. The daughter of the
British prince has just landed with her 11,000 followers,
quite unconscious of the martyrdom that is to be the end
of their pious mission. The solicitude of the youthful
bishop is well expressed. St. Ursula's thoughts are far
away; perhaps, even, she thinks of that heathen lover
who is to become Christian for her sake, and who is
patiently awaiting her return. It is quite one of Tinto
retto's best pictures. Reproduced page 66.
SAN MARCO {Mosaics from Tintoretto's cartoons).
fADORATION OF THE MAGI.

LIST OF PICTURES 139
fBAPTISM. ¦^Transfiguration.fANNUNCIATION.
S. MARCUOLA (S. ERMAGORA).
?Last Supper. About 20 ft. x 16 ft. The supper takes
place in a large basilica with a vaulted roof. The apostles
are seated round the table on wooden stools. Christ faces
us in the centre of the other side. Dog begging in bottom
/. corner.
?Washing of Feet. About 20 ft. x 16 ft. See page 30.
S. MARIA DEL CARMINE.
?Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. About
13 ft. x 6 ft. Semicircular top. See page 28.
S. MARIA DEI FRARI.
?Massacre of the Innocents. About 6 ft. x 10 ft. A
grand picture ; magnificent colour with roseate tints. A
very full composition. In the centre a soldier pierces an
infant, while the mother, half falling back, endeavours to
thrust him away. In front to her r. a kneeling soldier
tears away a child. Very touching and beautiful is the
fallen mother, pressing her face against her child.
S. MARIA MATER DOMINI.
?Finding of the True Cross. A grand conception. See
page 65.
S. MARIA DELL' ORTO.
?Last Judgement. Seepage 54.

140 TINTORETTO
?Tablets of the Law and Golden Calf. See page 51
et seq.
?Martyrdom of St. Agnes. About 144 ft. x 6 ft. See
page 56.
?Presentation of the Virgin. About r4 ft. x 1$ ft.
See page 41.
?Martyrdom of St. Christopher. About 13 ft. x 64 ft.
Sometimes called Martyrdom of St. Paul, but there is no
doubt that the confusion has arisen from the similar mode
of death of the two saints. The church is dedicated both
to the Madonna and St. Christopher. The saint kneels
in the foreground. The executioner wields the sword on /.
Above, an angel with the martyr's crown.
?St. Peter and the Cross. About 13 ft. x 64- ft. St.
Peter is seated with a book on his knee, and gazes up at
the cross borne by angels assisted by a female figure in
blue and red robes.
S. MARIA DEL ROSARIO (GESUATI).
?Crucifixion. Part is reproduced page 90.
S. MARIA ZOBENIGO.
?Ascension. About n ft. x 44 ft. Divided into two
halves, sea and ship between. Above Christ, two angels
and cherubs ; below, is Mary on /., with the sword in her
heart and a monk on r.
S. MARZIALE.
?Glory of S. Marziale. The last work of Tintoretto,
which he did not complete. St. Peter on /., and St. Paul

LIST OF PICTURES 141
on r. below, were finished. The head of S. Marziale he
had scraped out as not pleasing him. This figure was
repainted, and another head, ridiculously small, painted in
after Tintoretto's death.
?Ascension. About 20 ft. x 8 ft. In upper part Christ
ascends to Heaven. On his /. is the cross with inscription
I.N. R.I. Below are the tomb and many figures. This and
the following are so placed as to be nearly invisible.
Crucifixion about 20 ft. x 8 ft. The three crosses occupy
the upper part, against the r. of which is a ladder. A
multitude of figures can be dimly made out below.
?The Angel of the Annunciation appearing to St. Mary.
About 20 ft. x 6 ft. This and the companion picture are
said to be by Tintoretto. The angel borne upon a cloud
descends through the gloom with a lily in his hand. The
figure greatly resembles the style of Paolo Veronese, but
seems to float rather than fall.
?St. Mary receiving the Angel. St. Mary is at a desk
and looks to r. toward the angel, while the Holy Spirit as
a dove is seen above in the sky. The same red tiles as
in the other picture. The two would join together.
S. MOISE.
?Christ washing the Apostles' Feet. About 18 ft. x 21 ft.
A small raised platform occupies r. of picture, on which
one of the apostles is seated. Christ stands to r. and
washes his feet. The other apostles are grouped on the
platform and steps. On /., lower down, a number of
worshippers.
S. PAOLO.
?Last Supper. See page 57.

142 TINTORETTO
?Assumption. About 114 in. x 5 in., semicircular top.
The Virgin ascends between two angels ; below is a crowd
of persons. A woman on r. holds the napkin with the
Sacred Face.
S. PIETRO MARTIRE (MURANO).
?Baptism of Christ. St. John on r. stands on rocks and
pours water over Christ's head. Many angels in the water.
Above are other angels, one of whom bears a towel or
raiment. The Dove is in the centre of the picture de
scending from the Almighty, high up on r.
S. PIETRO IN CASTELLO.
tMosaic from Cartoon (?). (Thode.)
f" Allerheilige von Erminio Zuccate," 1570. (Thode.)
REDENTORE. ?Scourging of Christ. Angels above : Christ below,
looking upward, his hands are bound behind. Behind
him, and to r., a man raises his hand to smite. A bundle
of thorny twigs at Christ's feet.
?Ascension. About 1 1 ft. x 5 ft. Christ, in red and blue
robe, above. A magnificent group of angels and disciples
below affords an interesting comparison with Titian's group
in "The Assumption."
CHURCH OF THE SCUOLA DI S. ROCCO.
?Annunciation. About 9 ft. x 8 ft. Angel descends on /.,
St. Mary kneels on r. The Holy Dove above. Rather
hard and gray in colour.

LIST OF PICTURES 143
?S. Rocco and the Pope. About 9 ft. x 8 ft. The saint
is being introduced by another to receive the blessing.
?Pool of Bethesda. About 8 ft. x 20 ft. The scene
takes place in a portico with many columns and a low
ceiling. A great multitude of figures.
?S. Rocco in the Campo d'Armata. About 6 ft. x 20 ft.
A picture divided into three parts by columns. In the
centre S. Rocco and a dog in a landscape, to r. and /. a
crowd of people.
?S. ROCCO HEALING THE SlCK. About 8 ft. X 24 ft. A
picture containing some fine warm colour and drawing.
?Death of S. Rocco. About 8 ft. x 24 ft. See page 79.
*S. Rocco and the Beasts of the Field. About 6 ft. x
24 ft. A picture containing horses and overthrown riders.
Practically impossible to see because of the reflections.
?Another Picture. About 6 ft. x 24 ft. Also impossible
to see ; containing many beasts and figures. Perhaps the
above title belongs to this picture.
tOur Lady in the Garden. A large work on the ceiling.
MADONNA DELLA SALUTE.
?Marriage of Cana. About 16 ft. x 21 ft. At the far
end of a long table on /. of the picture Christ is seated.
The guests for the most part look toward the attendants
in the foreground and on r., who are bringing the vessels
and pouring out the wine.

S. SILVESTRO.
?Baptism of Christ. About 15 ft. x 8 ft. Semicircular
top. St. John stands upon some rocks on r., from which

144 TINTORETTO
water flows down to the river in which Christ stands. St.
John pours water from a vessel on His head. The Dove
descends from above from the Almighty, who appears with
two cherubim nestling in His bosom.
S. SEBASTIANO. Sacristy.
fTHE Brazen Serpent. (Thode.)
S. STEPHANO.
Sacristy.
?Last Supper. About io ft. by 15 ft. Christ is seated at
the near end of a table, which is on a dais raised three
steps above the ground. Most of the apostles are seated
on the far side of the table. A child nearly nude is on
the steps, and to r. on the ground is a recumbent figure.
?Washing of Feet. About 10 ft. x 8 ft. Christ kneels
in the foreground at a basin, whilst Peter stands on r.,
the other apostles being grouped behind.
?Agony in the Garden. About 10 ft. x 8 ft. An angel
in the upper r. corner descends, bearing the cup to Christ,
who lies amid a mass of foliage. Below are some of the
apostles, one asleep, while one rises hurriedly with his
mantle about his head. '
S. SIMEONE GRANDE.
fLAST Supper. A table arranged slanting-wise towards r.,
much foreshortened. Behind sits Christ towards /. From
/. comes the founder praying. On r. steps forward the
hostess with a jug.

LIST OF PICTURES 145
S. ZACCARIA.
Sacristy.
?Birth of St. John. About 8 ft. x 6 ft. (Said to be by
Tintoretto.) On r. St. Elizabeth lies in a bed, a female
attendant standing by. In the foreground two women
bend over the infant. Two angels are seen above. The
head of St. Zacharias just appears on r.

PALAZZO REALE
Library.
?Transportation of the Body of St. Mark. About
1 2 ft. X 9 ft. The scene takes place in a piazza. A group
of figures in r. lower corner are carrying the body. Behind
them is a camel. Small figures are fleeing in the back
ground. Curious composition.
?St. Mark rescuing a shipwrecked Saracen. About
1 2 ft. x 9 ft. The saint descends in upper r. corner, and
lifts the half nude Saracen from a small open boat. Behind
is the sea and the sinking ship.
Seven Figures of Philosophers :
?1. Stands looking down at a globe which is on a pile of
books.
?2. Stands with left foot on a pedestal and a book on
knee.
?3. Stands facing, holding a small globe in his hand.
?4. Stands holding a globe, with back toward the spec
tator, but turning towards him.
?5. Stands with right foot on book, wearing a cap and
cloak. L

146 TINTORETTO
?6. Sits with right foot on book ; writes on a tablet ; sup
posed to be Diogenes.
?7. Clasps his hands on a book on his knee ; blue and
yellow robe.
In other rooms.
S. Rocco.
fYouNG Martyr. (Thode.)
Four Portrait Pictures, with three Procurators in each.
Very similar in style ; uninspired works, clearly done to
order :
?1. Black robes, red table, on which are gold bars.
Curtain and landscape behind.
?2. Black robes, red table, on which are silver and bags.
Columns and seascape behind.
?3. Black robes, r.ed table, on which is a book, and
silver columns and landscape behind.
?4. Black robes, red table, on which are gold bars and
coin ; plain background.
?Gathering of Manna. About 54- ft. x r3 ft. (Said to
be by Tintoretto.) Moses is praying on a small mount on
/., while the multitude are gathering manna. Behind is
the camp of Israel. The colour and drawing are good.
*MlRACLE OF THE LOAVES AND FiSHES. About 54 ft. X 13 ft.
(Said to be by Tintoretto.) Christ is on a small pedestal ;
about him are many figures, among whom is a small nude
figure of a boy giving a fish to a woman. The drawing is
a little soft.
PALACE OF PRINCE GIOVANELLI.
?Battle Piece. About 6 ft. x 16 ft. Rather confused ; some
good colour. Family of Contarini on r.

LIST OF PICTURES 147
?S. Sebastian. Said to be by Tintoretto, but it is unlikely.
?Portrait. Inscribed : Gasparis Contarini. s.r.t. Cardi-
nalis. Rather flat.
?Portrait. Inscribed: Jacobus Contareno fit Justi-
nopolis Venetorum subdita regnis Anno Dni.
mcclxxiv. (?) Fine pose ; wearing ducal crown ; not very
characteristic.
?Portrait. Inscribed : Thoma Contareno d.m. proc
Amplissimus omnibus summisque reip. muneribus
terra marique egregie perfunct. effigiem.
?Portrait. A man in armour ; sombre and rather flat.
?Portrait. A man in ermine cape. There is an easy
swing characteristic of Robusti. The picture is low in
tone ; painted in browns and grays.
?Portrait. Inscribed : Andreas Contareno anno dni
mccclxvii. (?) Red robes ; ducal crown with baton.
?Portrait. Seated; ermine cape; tiny book in right
hand; golden brown robes. Lighting of the picture is
good.
?A Portrait of Francesco Contarini is also ascribed to
Tintoretto. Whatever we may think of the authenticity
and dates of the others, this at least is impossible :
mdcxxiii. There are also two in oval frames most
doubtful.
PALACE OF GIUSTINIANI RECANATI.
?The Departure of Queen Cornaro from Cyprus.
About 5 ft. x 12 ft. A multitude of figures wind in pro
cession round the harbour. The queen is about to cross
a gangway on /. The colour has blackened. The best
part is the background, where the procession and galleys
are.

148 TINTORETTO
?Portrait of a Philosopher of the family of Recanati,
three-quarter length. He stands near a marble slab, and
holds a miniature (a little like Moroni).
?Portrait. About 15 in. x 14 in. Small three-quarter
face ; head supposed to be a youthful portrait of Robusti
himself.
COUNT SERNAGIOTTO (Schiavone Gallery).
tAdam and Eve in the Garden. 474 in. x 59 in. Two
half-length figures of Adam and Eve on /. They are girt
about with fig-leaves, and to them the Almighty appears
from behind a tree on r.
COLLECTION OF ITALO BRASS.
fTHE Woman taken in Adultery. Said to be the picture
described by Ridolfi, where Christ stoops to write on the
ground ; but that picture may be in England.
OTHER COLLECTIONS.
Some of the dealers in Venice profess to have pictures by
Robusti, but the authenticity of such pictures makes it not
worth while to include them. There is, however, some
where, a rather important picture. One author says it is
in the Ducal Palace, but the authorities know nothing of
it ; nor is it at the Correr Museum. It is the portrait of
Henry III., King of France, painted in 1574, of which
the delightful story is told how Robusti went in disguise
and painted it as the king was approaching Venice.
There are also two pictures worth noting recently sent from
Venice to England, but I cannot ascertain their present where
abouts.

LIST OF PICTURES 149
tBANQUETiNG Scene. 59 in. X 87 in. A table at which are
gathered five women and two men. The host, who faces
the spectator, wears a coronet and speaks to a female
attendant behind him. On the extreme /. another male
figure.
tPortrait. 434 in. x 354: in. A man wearing trunks, short
beard. Column on /., curtain on r. ; small round fancy
box near left hand.

RUSSIA
PETERSBURG— HERMITAGE GALLERY.
tHoly Spirit and Founder. (Thode.)
Perseus and Andromeda,
The Resurrection. Original study for picture in Venice.
SPAIN
MADRID.— PRADO.
fBATTLE on Land and Sea. 72 in. x 120 in. At the top
of the picture are the sails of the ships ; below a seething
crowd of men and horses. In the foreground part of two
ships. On the /. men are fighting for a very beautiful
woman.
f Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. 224 in. X17 in. Sketch
for a frieze.
fSOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. 22i in. X 80 in.
Sketch for a frieze.
fSusANNA and the Elders. 224 in. x 45I in. Sketch for
a frieze.

ISO TINTORETTO
fFiNDiNG of Moses. 22 in. x 464 in. Sketch for a frieze.
fEsTHER before Ahasuerus. 224- in- x 73i m- Sketch for
a frieze.
tJuDiTH and Holofernes. 224- in. x 464 in. Sketch for
a frieze.
•fPORTRAIT of Sebastiano Veniero. 32 in. x 26J in.
fMOSES AND THE PURIFICATION OF THE WOMEN OF
Midian. 115 in. x 704. in. Brought from Venice by
Velasquez.
fPoRTRAiT. 404 in. x 294^ in. Half length, dressed in black,
with gold chain.
fBAPTisM of Christ. 534^ in. x 414- in.
fPoRTRAiT. 30 in. x 24 in. Bust ; Venetian Senator, with
white beard.
fVENUS and Minerva. 8o|- in. x 544 in. Minerva puts
Venus to flight; other figures in picture — Theft and
Treason.
jChrist and the Woman taken in Adultery. Christ is
seated below a column toward the /. The accusers bring
the woman on the r.
fPoRTRAiT. 274 in. x 21 in. A prelate; bust only.
fPoRTRAiT. A young Jesuit with a black beard.
f Portrait. A young lady. Bust; low neck and bare
bosom, with a short scarf of thread lace.
fPoRTRAiT. 264 in. x 22 in. Bust; a man in armour.
Of doubtful authenticity.
¦^Portrait. 404 in. x 30 in. Half length; an elderly
man.
t Paradise. 654 in. x 133 in. Sketch for the great picture
in the Doge's Palace, purchased by Velazquez for Philip IV.

LIST OF PICTURES 151
IPortrait. 404 in. x 294. in. A young man holding a
paper in his left hand.
fPoRTRAiT. 21 in. x 19^ in. Bust of a man.
fPoRTRAiT. 21 in. x 19% in. Bust of a man. Of doubt
ful authenticity.
fPORTRAIT. 194 in. x 16^ in. Bust of a man.
fPORTRAIT. 194 in. X 154 in. Replica of above. Some
think this is by Domenico Robusti.
IPortrait. 32^ in. x 15^ in. Bust of a man.
|Death of Holofernes. 77 in. x 126! in.
tJumTH and Holofernes. 73^ in. x 97^ in.
fPORTRAIT. 21 in. x 1 44 in. Bust of man in armour.
IPortrait. 23! in. x ig% in- ^ust °f young Venetian
lady. Possibly by Marietta Robusti.
fPORTRAIT. 24 in. x 214 in. A woman, her right breast
exposed.
IPortrait. 25 in. x 19! in. A Venetian girl. She re
sembles the portrait of Marietta Robusti.
IRape of Lucretia by Tarquinius. 73f in. x 97|- in.
IPortrait. Venetian girl in red scarf, with pearls. This
may also be a portrait of Marietta.
MADRID.— THE ESCURIAL.
tChrist washing the Disciples' Feet. Original of picture
in S. Marcuola, Venice, q.v.
fCoNVERSiON of St. Mary Magdalene. (Thode.)
IFeast of Simon the Pharisee. (Thode.)
fEsTHER and Ahasuerus. (Thode.)
tChrist as the Man of Sorrows.

1 52 TINTORETTO
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BOSTON.— ART MUSEUM.
The Nativity. A large canvas with numerous figures.
Last Supper. Preparatory sketch for picture in S. Giorgio
Maggiore, Venice.
Adoration of the Magi.
Portrait of a Doge. Probably Niccolo da Ponte. This
may be a copy by Marietta Robusti of the original picture.
BOSTON.— MR. GEORGE HARRIS.
The Miracle of St. Mark. Preparatory study for the
picture in the Accademia, Venice.
BOSTON.— MR. QUINCY A. SHAW.
fADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. (Thode.)
t PORTRAIT. (Thode.)
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.— PROF. C. E. MORTON.
fTwo Portraits. (Thode.)
NEWPORT, U.S.A.— MR. DAVIS.
¦{¦Portrait. (Thode.)

INDEX

Adam and Eve (Venice, Academy),
3i» 32, SS. 126 5 HI; 3°-
 (Mr. Crawshay), 5, 32. 5«> 55)
101.
Adoration of the Magi, The (lost),
28.
Adoration of the Shepherds, The
(Madonna dell' Orto), 52.
 (S. Rocco), ill., 52.
Annunciation, The (S. Rocco), 20,
81, 121 ; ill., 80.
Aretino, Pietro, 10.
Ascension, The{S. Rocco), 83, 123 ;
ill., 82.
Assumption, The (Gesuiti), 60, 137.
Assumption, The (by Titian), 41,
44. 46-48.
Bacchus and Ariadne (Doge's Pa
lace), 3, 62; ill., 4.
Battle on Lake Garda, The (Doge's
Palace), 64.
Bellini, Giovanni, 17, 18.
Berlin, 51, 112.
Cain and Abel (Venice, Academy),
13, 14, 32; ill., 32.
Carpaccio, 42.
Christ before Pilate (S. Rocco), 53,
84; ill., 84.
Christ in Hades (S. Cassiano), 35,
135 5 HI; 34-

Conquest of Zara, The (Doge's Pa
lace), 62, 63, 130.
Conversion of St. Paul, 27.
Crawshay, Mr., S, 32, 51. 55-
Crivelli, Carlo, 57.
Crucifixion, The (Oxford, Merton
College), 31, no.
 (Venice, Academy), 31, 126.
 (Madonna del Rosario), 90 ;
ill., 90.
 (S. Cassiano), 3, 45, 86; ill., 46.
 (S. Rocco), 3, 9, 67, 80, 81,
84, 86, 124; ill., 80.
 (S. Severo, lost), 31.
Danaello da Volterra, 4.
Death of Abel, The (Venice, Aca
demy), 13, 14, 31, 32 ; ill., 32.
Del Sarto, Andrea, 57.
Esther before Ahasuerus (Hampton
Court), 51, 109.
Feast of Cana, The (Salute), 71, 72,
77. 143-
Finding of the Body of St. Mark,
The (Milan), 21, 22, 23, 61, 70;
ill., 22.
Finding of the Body of S. Rocco,
79. 143-
Finding of the True Cross, The (S.
M. Mater Domini), 65 ; ill., 66.

153

1 54
Fra Angelico, 57.

TINTORETTO

Ganymede (National Gallery), 34,
35; HI; 34-
Gathering of Manna, The (S. Gior
gio Maggiore), 17, 59, 60, 69.
Giorgione, 37, 40.
Gonzaga, Cardinal, 77.
Hampton Court, 51, 109.
Impressionism, 15 ; two cardinal
truths of, 18.
Last fudgement, The (Madonna dell'
Orto), 13, 23, 54. 55-
Last Supper, The{f>. Ermagora), 29,
139-
 (S. Giorgio Maggiore), 58,
88; ill., 88.
 (S. Paolo), 17, 20, 57, 58, 68 ;
ill, 58.
 (S. Rocco), 58, 86, 123.
 (S. Trovaso), 25, 58.
Leonardo da Vinci, 57. 74 ; his
Last Supper, 57, 58.
London, National Gallery, 34, 35,
74,77, no.
Luna and the Hours (Berlin), 51 ;
ill., 50.
Madonna and Saints (Venice, Aca
demy), 90, 126 ; ill., 90.
Massacre of the Innocents, The (S.
Rocco), 81 ; ill., 82.
Mercury and the Three Graces
(Doge's Palace), 133 ; ill, 62.
Michael Angelo, 4, 5, 12, 13, 14,
32, 73. 74, 75, 81.
Milan (Brera), 21, S3, 70, 88, 119.
Minerva and Mars (Doge's Palace),
62.

Miracle of St. Agnes, The (Madonna
dell' Orto), 56, 65, 68, 90 ; ill.,
56.
Miracle of St. Mark, The (Venice,
Academy), 8, 18, 44, 48.
Moses and the Purification of the
Women of Midian, ill., 70.
Nine Muses, Tke, 51, 74, 109.
Origin of the Milky Way, The, study
for, 74; UI., 74.
Oxford, Merton College, 31, no.
Paradise, The (Doge's Palace), 23,
41, 64, 76 ; study for, ill., 64.
Paschal Feast, The, 88, 124.
Pieta (Milan), 53, 88, 119 ; (Venice,
Academy), 88.
Presentation of Our Lord, The
(Gesuiti), 60, 70; ill., 60.
Presentation, The (S. Maria del
Carmine), 28.
Presentation of the Virgin, The (Ma
donna dell' Orto), 40-44, 56 ; ill.,
42, 44.
 by Titian (Venice, Academy),
43-44; ill, 44.
Raphael, 32, 57, 74, 75.
Rembrandt, influence of Tintoretto
on, 88.
Resurrection, with Three Senators,
The (Doge's Palace), 76.
Robusti, Battista, 3.
 Domenico, 12, 65, 85.
 Jacopo. See Tintoretto.
 Marco, 12.
 Marietta, 12.
Ruskin, John, 22, 64, 79-89.
Salviati, Giuseppe, 9, 38, 48.
Schiavone, Andrea, 7, 27, 28, 38.

INDEX

155

St. George and the Dragon, 60, 77,
no; ill., 60.
St.ferome in the Wood, II.
St. Michael overcoming Lucifer, ill. ,
114.
S. Rocco in Heaven, 9, 125.
5. Ursula ana* the Virgins, 138 ;
ill., 66.
Stearns, Mr., 26, 28, 29, 42, 64.
Stoning of Stephen, The (S. Georgio
Maggiore), 22.
Temptation, The (S. Rocco), 82,
123 ; ill., front.
Tintoretto, his view of art, 2, 3;
birth of, 3 ; his early training,
3-5 ; his mastery of drawing, 5 ;
his earliest works, 6 ; his friend
ship with Schiavone, 7 ; his pas
sion for work, 7 ; story of his first
picture for S. Rocco, 9, 10 ; story
of Aretino and, 10 ; story of his
picture of S. Jerome, 11; his
marriage, n ; his family, 12; his
supposed visit to Rome, 12-14;
called " il Furioso," 14, 16 ; his
impressionism, 16-23 > condition
of his pictures, 24-27; early works,
27"35 5 the Ganymede in the
National Gallery ascribed to, 35 ;
Titian and, 36-49 ; enormous size
of his best pictures, 50 ; great
works in Venice, 50-66; his
colour, 68-73 5 n*s drawing, 73-
75 ; his composition, 75-77 ; his
death, 85; his influence on Velaz
quez, 85-88; his portraits and
Titian's compared, 86, 87 ; his
influence on Vandyck and Rem
brandt, 88; his women's faces,
90; his last portrait of himself,
ill., 12.

Titian, 3, 4) 7, 17, 18, 36, 53, 69,
71, 72 ; his treatment of Tinto
retto, 37-39 ; comparison of with
Tintoretto, 40-48, 86, 87, 89.

Vandyck, influence of Tintoretto
on, 88.
Velazquez, influence of Tintoretto
on, 85-88.
Venice, Academy, 8, 31, 55, 64,
88, 90, 125-129.
 Doge's Palace, 3, 61-64, 7°.
76, 86, 129-134.
 Gesuiti, 60, 70, 137.
 Madonna dell' Orto, 7, 12,
13, 23, 26, 40, 51, 139, 140.
 Madonna del Rosario, 90,
140.
 Rio della Paglia, 33.
 San Benedetto, 29.
 S. Cassiano, 3, 35, 45, 86,
135-
 S. Ermagora (S. Marcuola),
13, M, 29, 3°, 139-
 S. Giorgio Maggiore, 17, 22,
58, 59, 69, 88, 137.
 S. Maria Mater Domini, 65.
 S. Paolo, 17, 20, 68, 141,
142.
 S. Rocco, 3, 9, 10, 20, 58, 70,
71, 78-84, 86, 88, 121-125, 142,
143-
 S. Trovaso, 25, 58.
 Salute, 71, 143.
Veniero, Sebastian, Portrait of
(Vienna), ill., 86.
Veronese, Paolo, 9, 10, 38, 53, 63,
65, 76 ; his Europa and the Bull,
61.
Vescovi, Faustina dei, n.
Vulcan's Forge (Doge's Palace),
62 ; ill., 62.

i56

TINTORETTO

Washing of the Apostles' Feet, The
(S. Ermagora), 29, 30.
Wemyss, Earl of, 77, 108.
Woman taken in Adultery, The
(Venice, Academy), 90 ; ill., 90.

Worship of the Golden Calf, The,
n, 13. 40, 5!-53-
Zelotti, 38.
Zuccaro, Federigo, 9.

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