Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto Venice 1519 - 1594

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Description

Jacopo Robusti, called Jacopo Tintoretto
Portrait of a bearded gentleman, head and shoulders, wearing an ermine-lined black coat
oil on canvas

Literature

R. Pallucchini & P. Rossi, Tintoretto. Le opere sacre e profane, Milan 1982, under "Appendice A. Ritratti Autografi", vol. I, p. 237, cat. no. R 14, reproduced vol. II, p. 617, fig. 612 (as "Jacopo Tintoretto e aiuto").

Catalogue Note

This bust portrait is a reduced autograph replica of Tintoretto's three-quarter length portrait in the Pinacoteca Civica Tosio Martinengo, Brescia (reproduced in P. Rossi, Jacopo Tintoretto. I Ritratti, Venice 1974, pp. 70-71, 100-101, fig. 172). The Brescian picture, which is inscribed "ANO R LXVIII" and thus indicates that the sitter was sixty-eight years old when he sat for the portrait, has been dated by scholars to the mid-1570s and this bust portrait was presumably executed at around the same time.

Pallucchini and Rossi (see Literature) consider the head in this version to be entirely autograph - "particolarmente vivace appare la caratterizzazione del volto dell'anziano personaggio, dalle tonalità caldo rosate, definito morbidamente da una pennellata leggera" - whereas the brushwork on the drapery appears less accomplished, thus raising the question of possible studio intervention in this area. The warm tonalities of the head, so typical of Tintoretto's late works (compare also his Portrait of an old man in the Pinacoteca Comunale, Bologna; reproduced in Rossi, op. cit., fig. 171), shows the influence of Leandro Bassano's portraits though Tintoretto's figures tend to demonstrate a greater psychological intensity than those of his contemporary.