Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was allotted to him, and it was the last great effort of his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is evident that the painter has framed it upon the thought of Dante’s mystic rose. The circles and many of the figures can be traced in the poem, and the idea of the Eternal Light streaming through the leaves of the rose dominates the composition. It is appropriate that it should have been his last great work, as it was also the greatest attempt at composition ever made by a master of the Venetian School.
His portraits are hardly equal to Titian’s intellectual grasp or fine-grained colour, but they are extraordinarily characteristic. He prefers to paint men rather than women, and he painted hundreds—all the great persons of his time who lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian portrait by this time was expected to be more than a likeness and more than a problem. It was to please the taste as a picture, to interest and to satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets behind the scenes, and we see some mood, some aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected to show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto’s, but he deals with his sitters with an observation which pierces below the surface.
In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often unable to discriminate between the turgid and melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental. The first all must abhor, but the last is sincere and deserves to be respected. It is by his best that we must judge a man, and taking his best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one has left a larger amount which will stand the test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and elevated central ideas, which unify all parts of his composition, Tintoretto stands with the greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual side of life was exemplified in Florentine art, but the Renaissance would have been a one-sided development if there had not arisen a body of men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous apprehension seemed of supreme value, and at the very last there arose with him one who, to their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of their chosen medium, added the crowning glory of the imaginative idea.
| Augsburg. | Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. |
| Berlin. | Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator
before S. Mark. |
| Dresden. | Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits. |
| Florence. | Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno. |
| Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old
Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait. |
| Hampton Court. | Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of
Dominican; Knight of Malta. |
| London. | S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;
Origin of Milky Way. |
| Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait. |
| Madrid. | Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;
Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before
Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes. |
| Milan. | Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S. Mark (E.). |
| Paris. | Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of Himself. |
| Rome. | Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation. |
| Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet; Portraits. |
| Turin. | The Trinity. |
| Venice. | Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints
and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;
Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea
Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam
and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna
and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in
Temple. |
| Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;
Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;
Doge Gritti before the Virgin. |
| Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan’s Forge;
Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578. |
| Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;
SS. Andrew and Jerome. |
| Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin. |
| Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,
Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:
Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit. |
| Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590. |
| Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara. |
| Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark
rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers. |
| Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits. |
| S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection. |
| S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;
Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel). |
| S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross. |
| S. Maria dell’ Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);
Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes. |
| S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin. |
| S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the
Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d’ Armata;
S. Roch consoled by an Angel. |
| Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.
Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls
and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before
Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560. |
| Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen. |
| S. Silvestro: Baptism. |
| S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden. |
| S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony. |
| Vienna. | Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of
Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and
Boy; Portrait of Lady. |