DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68745#0044
TINTORETTO
and his own in middle life. The ‘ Presentation ’ may date from
that time, the ‘St. Agnes’ is incontestably much later. There
is really nothing to oblige us to believe that the whole decoration
must be assigned to any one period; it is more likely that it
stretched over some fourteen years, being taken up at the painter’s
convenience.
We have a definite date at which the great opportunity
he had waited for came to the young man of thirty. The
Confraternity of St. Mark was decorating its walls in 1548,
and ‘ several of the governours ’ combined to engage Tintoretto
to execute a painting. With the ‘ Miracle of the Slave,’ he
sprang at once to the highest place. It was not unalloyed
pleasure; the new style was not at once appreciated by the
Brothers, but they soon followed the verdict of the public, which
was unmistakable and ungrudging, and Tintoretto was never
again short of work.
At the end of his fourth decade the even course of his artistic
career was varied by great events. He married Faustina, the
daughter of Marco dei Vescovi, a gentleman of noble family, who
is believed to have belonged to the mainland, as his name does
not appear in the Golden Book. Tintoretto must at this time, if
we judge by the portraits introduced by himself and his contem-
poraries into many of their compositions, have been an extremely
handsome man, tall and finely formed, with a small head, good
features, and dark eyes. Faustina was young and beautiful. She
was also perhaps something of an heiress, as her father afterwards
came to Venice and cast in his lot with his son-in-law, which
points to her being an only daughter. The family was evidently
in easy circumstances, though the whereabouts of the home at
this time is not precisely known. It was, however, in the Par-
rocchia dell’ Orto, and there, during the next fourteen years, eight
sons and daughters were born, the eldest being named Marietta.
The other great event which henceforth powerfully influenced
his life was the beginning of his connexion in 1560 with the
Scuola di San Rocco.
One journey of which we are told was paid to Mantua some
time in the sixties, when, after having painted a frieze of the
victory of Taro and a series of Triumphs of the Venetian Republic
18
and his own in middle life. The ‘ Presentation ’ may date from
that time, the ‘St. Agnes’ is incontestably much later. There
is really nothing to oblige us to believe that the whole decoration
must be assigned to any one period; it is more likely that it
stretched over some fourteen years, being taken up at the painter’s
convenience.
We have a definite date at which the great opportunity
he had waited for came to the young man of thirty. The
Confraternity of St. Mark was decorating its walls in 1548,
and ‘ several of the governours ’ combined to engage Tintoretto
to execute a painting. With the ‘ Miracle of the Slave,’ he
sprang at once to the highest place. It was not unalloyed
pleasure; the new style was not at once appreciated by the
Brothers, but they soon followed the verdict of the public, which
was unmistakable and ungrudging, and Tintoretto was never
again short of work.
At the end of his fourth decade the even course of his artistic
career was varied by great events. He married Faustina, the
daughter of Marco dei Vescovi, a gentleman of noble family, who
is believed to have belonged to the mainland, as his name does
not appear in the Golden Book. Tintoretto must at this time, if
we judge by the portraits introduced by himself and his contem-
poraries into many of their compositions, have been an extremely
handsome man, tall and finely formed, with a small head, good
features, and dark eyes. Faustina was young and beautiful. She
was also perhaps something of an heiress, as her father afterwards
came to Venice and cast in his lot with his son-in-law, which
points to her being an only daughter. The family was evidently
in easy circumstances, though the whereabouts of the home at
this time is not precisely known. It was, however, in the Par-
rocchia dell’ Orto, and there, during the next fourteen years, eight
sons and daughters were born, the eldest being named Marietta.
The other great event which henceforth powerfully influenced
his life was the beginning of his connexion in 1560 with the
Scuola di San Rocco.
One journey of which we are told was paid to Mantua some
time in the sixties, when, after having painted a frieze of the
victory of Taro and a series of Triumphs of the Venetian Republic
18