National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection – The exhibition at Palazzo Ducale
Photo by the PhotoPhore
This is a very special year for Art: 500 years have passed since the birth of Tintoretto!
And this deserves the right celebration for both “ancient” and “contemporary” art. Tintoretto was one of the most important artists of the late Italian Renaissance, and his work has been able to be fruitful in the centuries, even leaving important traces in contemporary art.
In Venice, his native city and the place where he worked the most, there are many great initiatives to commemorate this anniversary.
This is the first and the most important cycle of exhibitions and retrospectives in the city after the last one, made 80 years ago by now.
Let’s discover some of them!
Photo by the PhotoPhore
Tintoretto 500 – “The Young Tintoretto” at Gallerie dell’Accademia
We should start, in strict chronological order, with the splendid exhibition at Gallerie dell’Accademia, curated by Roberta Battaglia, Paola Marini and Vittoria Romani.
The exhibition, titled “Il Giovane Tintoretto” [“The Young Tintoretto“], is focused on the first 30 years of the artist’s life and on the first decade of his artistic activity.
“The Young Tintoretto” collects about 26 artworks by Tintoretto, retracing the story of his approach to art, through the comparison with the works by great Italian masters such as, among others, Tiziano, Giorgio Vasari and Jacopo Sansovino.
The exhibition starts from 1538, when Jacopo Robusti (the original name of Tintoretto) was not even 20 years old, and it arrives till one of his most grandiose and important works: The Miracle of the Slave, of 1548.
The enormous canvas (416 × 544 cm, over 22 square meters of pure oil painting), was painted for Tintoretto’s absolute masterpiece, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, unanimously considered the “Sistine Chapel” of Tintoretto, and it is now one of the most important paintings kept by the Gallerie dell’Accademia.
[San Marco libera lo schiavo dal supplizio della tortura (detto anche Miracolo dello schiavo)]
Venezia, Gallerie dell’Accademia
© Archivio fotografico G.A.VE, on concession of the Mibac
Tintoretto 500 – “TINTORETTO 1519-1594” at Palazzo Ducale
After this study on the early career of the (future) master, we move on to the great retrospective at Palazzo Ducale, curated by Robert Echols and Frederick Ilchman, with the scientific direction of Gabriella Belli, director of the Venice Civic Museums Foundation.
The exhibition, titled “TINTORETTO 1519-1594“, is hosted in the most extraordinary palace in the city. This palace was, for many centuries, the house of the political power, and now it is totally dedicated to host the marvelous power of art.
70 works by Tintoretto (50 paintings and 20 drawings) have been installed in what was the Doge’s Apartment. These works are added to the very important pictorial cycles originally created for Palazzo Ducale between 1564 and 1592 and left in the original location to allow the public an “authentic” view of the works.
There are many exceptional loans, which come from the most important museums in the world, such as, among others, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Prado in Madrid, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
Both these exhibitions, “Il Giovane Tintoretto” and “TINTORETTO 1519-1594” will travel, next spring, to the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., that collaborated to the whole project indeed, realizing the biggest exhibition ever made in the Americas on the Italian artist.
Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tintoretto 500 – “Contemporary Dialogues with Tintoretto”
After all this, we arrive at contemporary times.
What did the Art of Tintoretto leave to us? What can contemporary artists confront with?
How does his “extravagant painting” [as Vasari said] can be connected with what artists create today?
These are some of the questions and the themes that are faced in the exhibition “Dialoghi Contemporanei con Tintoretto” [“Contemporary Dialogues with Tintoretto“], organized by Zuecca Projects and which will open on October 19th, 2018.
This is a widespread exhibition, presented in several exhibition venues. It will put some works by Tintoretto in direct comparison with the works of different important contemporary artists.
At Palazzo Ducale there will then be a direct confrontation with another important Venetian painter, Emilio Vedova.
At the Galleria Franchetti alla Ca’ D’Oro there will be a section dedicated to portraits. A dialogue between the Portrait of the Procurator Nicolò Priuli and the works, among others, by Michael Borremans and Yan Ming-Pei.
Courtesy of Galleria Massimo De Carlo
Tintoretto 500 – “Tintoretto – Pombo, Passion and Justice” at Scuola Grande di San Rocco
The exhibition at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco must also be mentioned.
The beautiful rooms of the “scuola” should also be visited “only” for the extraordinary paintings that literally cover every usable centimeter, interspersed only by sumptuous golden frames.
In this wonderful context, there is the exhibition “Tintoretto – Pombo, Passione e Giustizia” [“Tintoretto – Pombo, Passion and Justice“], curated by Sandro Orlandi Stagl.
The Spanish painter Jorge R. Pombo underlines his admiration for the art of Tintoretto realizing a huge painting (4 x 5 meters), which reinterprets The slaughter of the innocents, a painting by Tintoretto made between 1582 and 1587, during his full artistic maturity.
The works are visible side by side, to highlight the dialogue between the artistic production over the centuries.
Image Courtesy of the Artist
Tintoretto 500 – Tintoretto Itineraries in Venice
All this and much, much more. Venice is full of Tintoretto’s paintings, and there are at least 30 venues, including museums, palaces, churches and “scuolas“, which retain at least one work by the master.
There is only one way to see them all: wandering the city far and wide, discovering it, palace by palace, church by church, to really get Tintoretto’s work, getting to know his city as well.
Because Tintoretto has marked the history of Venice so deeply, that we can consider his Art as an important part of the city itself.
Art and city that, from the late sixteenth century, arrive up to influence strongly the present day.
Museée du Luvre – The exhibition at Palazzo Ducale
Photo by the PhotoPhore
Text by Domenico Fallacara | the PhotoPhore
“Il Giovane Tintoretto” [“The Young Tintoretto“]
September 07, 2018 – Janueary 06, 2019
Gallerie dell’Accademia
Campo della Carità
Dorsoduro 1050
30123 Venice
Discover: www.gallerieaccademia.it
“TINTORETTO 1519-1594”
September 07, 2018 – Janueary 06, 2019
Palazzo Ducale – Appartamento del Doge (Doge’s Apartment)
Piazza San Marco, 1
30124 Venice
Discover: palazzoducale.visitmuve.it
“Dialoghi Contemporanei con Tintoretto” [“Contemporary Dialogues with Tintoretto“]
Opening: October 19, 2018
Dates: October 20, 2018 – January 07, 2019
Different locations: Palazzo Ducale, Galleria Franchetti alla Ca’ D’Oro
Discover: www.zueccaprojects.org
“Tintoretto – Pombo, Passione e Giustizia” [“Tintoretto – Pombo, Passion and Justice“]
September 04, 2018 – January 15, 2019
Scuola Grande di San Rocco
San Polo, 3054
30125 Venice
