\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Italian painter.\par
Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto after his fatherÆs profession of dyer (\i tintore\i0 ), had close
ties to Venetian artistic circles and belonged to the extraordinary tradition of Titian, even though he was not his direct pupil. His familiarity with Tuscan and Roman Mannerism is evident, especially in his study of drawings and engravings after works b
y Michelangelo. However, a characteristic of TintorettoÆs painting is the attention he pays to architectural motifs and to scenography, a concern that, along with that of the attitudes of the figures, is clearly apparent in the \i Washing of the Feet\i0
(Madrid, Museo del Prado) or in \i Saint Mark Rescuing a Slave\i0 (Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia), painted in 1548 for the Scuola Grande di San Marco. The artist used extremely spectacular devices, setting the scenes in a dramatic atmosphere. Yet the
se elements were combined with the influence of the painting of Veronese, who came to Venice in the 1550s and pushed Jacopo in the direction of a more obvious emphasis on color. This can be seen in the \i Moses Saved from the Waters\i0 (Madrid, Museo de
l Prado). In 1564 Tintoretto began work on the decoration of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, an undertaking that was to last for almost three decades. The great intellectual and religious commitment of the project was something in which the artist partic
ipated with conviction. In the building belonging to the important confraternity, the artist painted a series of canvases for the Sala dellÆAlbergo, including \i Christ before Pilate\i0 and the \i Crucifixion\i0 . From 1576 onward, Tintoretto, now the u
ndisputed protagonist of figurative culture in Venice, was engaged in important commissions of a public character for the DogeÆs Palace. Here he painted a series of mythological canvases for the Sala dellÆAnticollegio, the walls of the Sala del Collegio,
and the ceilings of the Sala delle Quattro Porte and the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. The last room, in which Veronese also worked, contains the enormous representation of \i Paradise\i0 , painted by a group of collaborators under the direction of Tintor
etto. In the last years of his life, Tintoretto also painted a series of canvases for the Venetian church of San\b \b0 Giorgio Maggiore û the \i Collection of Manna\i0 , the \i Deposition\i0 , and the \i Last Supper\i0 . In these paintings one can see t
he dramatic tension of the artistÆs language, now stripped of its more complex and spectacular elements, attains results that are at times visionary, at others of great spiritual force.
