What do you see when you look into those eyes? Perhaps determination with a touch of defiance? And that face, what does its expression say about its owner? One may see a strong will, seriousness, and shrewdness, but I think one can also see what has been called his “devouring ambition.” Even in this painting, rather than showing himself in a calm, dignified pose, like Titian, we see his right arm raised as if painting. He looks at us as though we are the mirror he is using as he paints his self-portrait. This man is always at work, always moving ahead, setting a standard, and beating the odds to carve out his space and fortune in the competitive arena of the 16th century’s Venetian painters.
Of course, amid the lavish wealth of Venice and the Venetian Republic, what was the son of a humble cloth dyer (il tintore) to do? Well, Jacopo Robusti (1518-1594) took his talent, and what his father’s workshop had taught him about colors and business, out into the wealthy world of Venice to make his mark. Not forgetting his roots, he focused his painting career on Venice and its wealthy patrons, using the name Tintoretto (the little dyer) as a sign of his authenticity.
There they are. The three greats of Renaissance painting in Venice. Titian, himself an ambitious man, who as a young painter, challenged his master Giorgioni’s talent as they painted the façade of Fondaco dei Tedeschi; Tintoretto, in an unusually candid, front-facing portrait he slyly called, Portrait of a Man, the man being himself in middle age; and Veronese, a charming, talented sophisticate, who when brought before the Holy Inquisition, claimed that artists like poets were divinely inspired, therefore, not completely responsible for what they did. (He changed the name of the painting in question to please the inquistors, but that story is TO BE CONTINUED…)
Tintoretto started at the age of twelve in the studio of Titian, a painter known for his wealthy clients, both locally and abroad, one of those foreign clients being the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles the Fifth. Tintoretto was such an irritant to Titian, that the older, highly regarded artist threw this upstart teenager out of his studio. Tintoretto immediately took up the mantle of Titian’s primary rival, Pondenone, who had just died, and proclaimed his focus to be on the style of Central Italy, one that pleased some of Titian’s clients, most notably Pietro Aretino, who then commissioned work from Tintoretto.
Pietro Aretino was a poet, racconteur, art dealer, promoter, and general man of many talents, one of which was the use of his acerbic wit. His tongue was so sharp that people paid him not to publicly assault them with his words. Here, in a portrait by Titian, he commented on his disappointment in how Titian had rendered his fine robes, saying that probably had he paid extra, the artist would have rendered the satin and velour in more elaborate detail. When he sat for Tintoretto, however, Tintoretto threathened him about making nasty comments about the painting, so there were none.
The painting of the 16th century Renaissance Bella Maniera (Mannerism) often featured the retelling of stories from the classics that had men ravishing women, who were then to do the appropriate thing, like commit suicide. The most commonly painted story with such an end was that of Tarquin and Lucretia. The thing that concerns us here is an innovation that Tintoretto makes in his telling of the story.
As the dastardly deed unfolds, Tintoretto uses what modern filmmakers call a “freeze frame.” Here the artist chose not to show the pearls from the broken necklace just lying on the floor, but to freeze the picture with the pearls falling through midair. This stylistic touch adds to the drama of the scene. In a film version, the camera might cut away from the violence at that moment and show just those pearls dropping to the floor to represent what was taking place off camera. Innovations like that in Tintoretto’s painting may have been one of the reasons why David Bowie called the artist “a proto-rock star.” Bowie was one of the few private collectors who owned a Tintoretto painting (Angel Fortelling St. Catherine of Alexandria of Her Martyrdom). The man who purchased the painting from the Bowie estate has placed it in the Rubens House Museum in Antwerp, as Rubens was also a great lover of Tintoretto’s work.
The stories of the naked ladies in distress had a number of versions, one of which is not only one of my favorite stories of that type, as the men get what they deserve for their evil actions, but it is also the subject of my favorite Tintoretto, Susanna and the Elders.
I saw this painting at a wonderful show in the Louvre called Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rivalries in Venice, 2009. I had always associated Tintoretto with those paintings of saints that come flying into scenes to save the day, supernatural supermen. However, this story was a more common one of two old men who spy on a beautiful young woman in the privacy of her garden. They try to proposition her for sex. When she flees to her house to get away, they say they are going to tell that they caught her, a married woman, having sex with a young man who was not her husband. By the laws of the time, adultery was punishable by death. They told their story, but the prophet Daniel had the wisdom to have the two accusers questioned individually about the details of what they had seen. They had two completely different stories, so it was they who were judged and sentenced to death.
When I saw this painting, I was captivated by how beautifully Tintoretto had painted the decorative elements in the painting. From the hedge of roses with its many blooms, to the faint reflection of Susanna’s leg in the crystal clear water, to the vanity items of her clothing, her pearls, the chalices and most of all the elaborate braids and ornaments in her hair style, this painting is such a joy to look at. The contrasts in light and dark make the garden scene magical as they at the same time hint at the evil intent of the two elders. Susanna is lit in quite a bright light, the source of which is hard to figure as she is sitting behind that dark hedge. However, the idea is to show her innocence, while the elders are shown literally as “creeps,” for one haunts the far end of the hedge like a spectre, as his companion pokes his bald head down around the hedge on the other end.
The other aspect that is so interesting in this painting is Tintoretto’s take on the subject of reflection. Giorgione in the early 1500s had worked with the idea of reflective surfaces as a way to show many sides of a painted 2D figure. The use of the mirror and other shiny surfaces began to appear in paintings of women looking at themselves in mirrors, their faces set in a mood of inner reflection as they saw their physical features reflected back to them. Many years later Tintoretto takes on the theme in his picture of Susanna, who does indeed gaze into her mirror, cast at such an angle that she would see herself face-on, but we only see part of her clothing reflected. One of her legs has a minimal reflection in the little pool of water on the edge of which she sits. However, her image would also be reflected in the cornea of the eyes of the two elders, who see her each from different sides. In a sense she is seen almost in the round though she is a 2D image.
One must admire the business acumen of Tintoretto, here seen in another self-portrait. He was a champion at “niche maketing” as he left the overseas, foreign commissions to Titian and others, concentrating instead on the local clientele of Venice. Circulating among those local clients, he was known for undercutting his competition in price. He painted fast and sold some 300 works during his career. He was certainly crafty when it came to outfoxing his competition for commissions.
One of the most amusing tales of sculduggery in terms of gaining a commission is that of the competition for the painted dome of the Scuola di San Rocco. Tintoretto had decided that San Rocco was his to paint. When the artists were called to bring in their sketches for the project, they came, as the elegant Veronese did, with wonderful designs and eloquent proposals. Tintoretto told the decision makers to just go up to the room and look up. There on the ceiling was his fully painted design for the dome. He’d used his contacts within the Scuola to get the measurements and had workers help him attach the finished canvas in place. Yes, he got the commission and most of the rest of the Scuola’s commissions as well.
Yet in all that he never forgot something he had learned in the studio of his master and rival, Titian. While he favored the drawing of central Italy and Michelangelo in particular, he remembered his old master, too. In Tintoretto’s studio was a sign that guided the artistic production of that studio. Loosely translated it read: “The drawing of Michelangelo and the colors of Titian.”
Source for this article: Titien, Tintoret, Veronese, Rivalités a Venise, the catalog from the 2009/10 exhibition of the same name, published by Musée Editions du Louvre.
For another look at the story of Susanna and the Elders in painting, go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com to “The Indecent Proposal:Susanna and the Elders, as seen by Tintoretto, Gentilleschi, and Benton.”
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com, her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
©marjorie vernelle 2021
Which glass, which wine? Help has arrived.
I know the picture above is confusing. It surely reinforces your anxieties over choosing the right glass in which to serve your guests their wine. However, it is a cherished photo of a fabulous lunch made of samples of different wines (see the bottles on the menu) and food pairings to go with them. This I experienced with friends in the village of Gigondas, in the Vaucluse, the heart of Provence’s wine country. Fond memories aside, and sorry for startling you all with this confusion of glasses, it is time to get down to sorting this all out. Let’s start with white wines.
Here white wine is simplified to the basics, focusing on the three main white wines most commonly drunk. You will notice the Chardonnay glass has a “bowl” with a wide opening. Chardonnay comes in three varieties, one of which is oaked, meaning it has matured in oak barrels, which gives it a buttery taste. To allow full appreciation of that taste, which has taken years to produce, the glass must allow more air to circulate when the wine is swirled in the glass, hence the larger more open bowl. The glass for Sauvignon Blanc has a more closed in rim and even a sturdier “stem,” which is one of the places one should hold a wine glass (or by the “base”) since holding it by the bowl warms the wine with the heat from your hands and robs some of the flavors. It also leaves icky-looking fingerprints. Sauvignon Blanc has fruit flavors of apple, peach and lime. A glass with a narrower opening allows those aromas to stay more in the glass so you can get the benefit of them. Riesling is a light, dry, crisp wine served in a similar glass for similar reasons. It is a bit smaller in size, but the wine-glass patrol will not write you a citation if you use the larger Sauvignon Blanc Glass.
While it is possible to go absolutely crazy choosing red wine glasses, these four do the trick for most occasions. The Cabernet/Merlot glasses often come in the biggest size for wine glasses. That has to do with the need to swirl the wine to aerate it to bring out the flavors. In fact it and Shiraz (notice the similarity in glasses) both need time to develop once poured, so the open mouth format allows the air to enter and mingle with the wine. Bordeaux has a bowl that is more flared at the bottom, which allows for the swirling that it needs to aerate.
Pinot Noir, the most drinkable of the red wines, as it is food friendly and can be drunk before dining as well, has a special glass that is a bit different from the one shown above. Notice that the bowl is sometimes almost squared at the botton. It fits nicely into the hands which benefits the wine, as having it a bit warm brings out its flavors.
Champagne, as always, is uncomplicated. It is all about the bubbles and the look. Above we have the classic “flute” for drinking sparkling wines. The idea there is to keep the bubbles in. After all it was the bubbles that made Dom Perignon think he was “drinking the stars.” On the other hand the open bowl champagne glass called a “coupe” is an elegant remnant from old Hollywood movies and a memoire from the life of King Louis XV’s mistress, Mme de Pompadour, for the shape is modeled on the size of her breast. (Whatever were they doing?) Photo credit to Alina Nichepurenko of Unsplash.com
Finally we have those nice, and often very pretty little glasses used for drinking sweet dessert wines or having an after dinner sherry, port, vin santo, etc. For this, one needs only a beautiful glass to hold just a tasteful amount of one of these fortified wines. To top a fine meal off, it would not be out of order to go full Venetian in your choice of glasses, in memory of Tintoretto.
Should you decide that you really want a deep dive into wine glasses, here is the website for you, homestratosphere.com, which has an article on 18 types of wine glasses! Should you want to explore the difference that crystal makes over plain glass or heaven forbid plastic, check out this video by Dini Vino on youtube.com
Of course, to experiment with all these choices of wine glasses, it is helpful to have a good source of wines. For that, a wine club comes in handy. Cellars Wine Club offers a variety of choices of clubs, free shipping, a “no bad bottle” return policy, and tasting notes on each wine. Click here CellarsWineClub.com or go to the Cellars page on this blogsite (right hand column).
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©marjorie vernelle 2021
Coming Soon: Veronese, the Elegant, Eloquent Sophisticate and Soave, a Still White Wine.
This detail from the Wedding Feast at Cana is a fascinating story in itself. This little scene centers on four of the famous painters of the mid-16th century in Venice, i.e. Veronese and his homies: Titian, Bassano, Tintoretto. (The one in white and gold, is Veronese, himself.) Veronese was a suave sophisicate and fabulous painter that rounded out the rough edges of Tintoretto, gracefully challenged the success of Titian, and here showed off both his mastery of color and his musical skills. Needless to say, the only Venetian wine that suits him would be Soave.
So much to learn, so little time! Thank you!
These painters really lived extraordinary lives, as well as having done great work we can all appreciate. Thank you for your comment.