The Origin of the Milky Way, 1570, National Gallery, London
Tintoretto: ‘The Origin of the Milky Way’ | Podcasts | The National Gallery, London
Other than Caravaggio’s today is also the birthday of Tintoretto and that of François Boucher !
Jacopo Comin, whom we know better as Tintoretto, was one of the most important painters of Venetian Renaissance and Mannerism; known also as Jacopo Robusti, because his father defended the city of Padua, and as Il Furioso, because of the very energetic way of painting. His most famous nick name, Tintoretto, comes from his father’s profession - he was a dyer, tintore and his son tintoretto was thus dyer’s boy :) this little dyer was taken to Titian’s studio to learn painting, but was sent home after only 10 days; however, as a young artist he had Il disegno di Michelangelo ed il colorito di Tiziano - Michelangelo’s design and Titian’s colour - inscribed as a credo above his door. He was of good temperament, played the lute and almost never left Venice.
Here are his three self portraits - one from youth (1547) and two from old age (1585 and 1588).
Jacopo Pontormo - Portrait of Maria Salviati with Giulia de Medici (1537)
Andrea del Sarto - Portrait of a Woman with a Basket of Spindles, c. 1517
Another exquisite portrait by del Sarto that holds a special interest : it was most probably finished by his pupil Pontormo :)
Great dignity and extreme tenderness can be seen in this superb portrait of Woman with a Basket of Spindles. For a long time it was thought to be by Pontormo and only recently attributed to Andrea del Sarto. This is possibly one of the paintings that Andrea del Sarto began and his assistant Jacopo Pontormo finished. Typical of Andrea, in fact, are the slightly rotating planes, aimed at defining a compact mass in movement, totally remote from the harsh, almost neo-Gothic line which distinguishes the portrait-painting of Pontormo. The heavy use of chiaroscuro takes nothing away from the chromatic richness of the clothes whose soft drapery confers to the woman a classic monumentality.
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