In Venice, where on the occasion of the 500. After a major retrospective exhibition in the Doge’s Palace and the Gallerie dell’Accademia on the occasion of Tintoretto’s 100th birthday, the painter is now praised in retrospect as an “action painter”, whose rapid brushstrokes lend his paintings an unprecedented dynamism. He provided the religious orders and charitable lay confraternities of Venice – the so-called “Scuole” – with biblical motifs, he served the city nobility with paintings for private rooms and with portraits, and he glorified the Venetian state in history paintings. And sometimes these works give you the impression of seeing stills from a monumental motion picture. An excellent example of this is the painting ‘Tarquinius and Lucrezia’ (c. 1578/1580) from the Art Institute of Chicago, which shows the two figures wrestling with each other in free fall.
Tintoretto reacted almost seismographically to crises, upheavals and innovations in Renaissance Venice. Literature and theater inspire the aspiring artist. He virtuously juggles with printmaking templates, wax models and plaster casts. Religious and allegorical, decorative and erotic paintings as well as portraits by the hand of the young Tintoretto meet here closely related works by his colleagues and competitors: the gripping and multifaceted story of a meteoric rise. The power of his paintings has radiated on great painters, Velásquez, El Greco, Rubens and later Delacroix or Manet. Over the centuries, the restless Tintoretto proves to be an eternal contemporary, as it were, to this day. This also applies to Anselm Kiefer, for example. And even Jeff Koons recently incorporated a painting by Tintoretto into his “Gazing Ball Paintings” series.
In 27 churches and numerous museums and palazzi of the city, the paintings of the late Renaissance painter can always be seen. Maybe that’s why there hasn’t been an exhibition for the great Jacopo Tintoretto in his hometown for 80 years. No other painter has presented such diversity in his work. It is hard to believe that the exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale is about one and the same painter, so different are the style and colorfulness of the paintings. Two grandiose, extremely exciting shows to marvel at in Venice.
Editor’s tip: The old heart of Venice.
Corte di Gabriela is located in the center of Venice, tucked away between the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge to the north; between San Marco Square and the La Fenice Theater. Corte di Gabriela is located between Palazzo Grassi and Fortuny Museum, and not far from Academy and Guggenheim Museum. There is no better location to start discovering Venice. High water? No problem! The special watertight tub, placed with steel bulkheads in every external access, guarantees a dry stay at the Corte di Gabriela, protecting the guest from the high water, an everlasting phenomenon. In any case, rubber boots and umbrella are available for guests. Vénitien oblige.
