Jacopo Robusti, dit Tintoretto

Collection Guerlain, Neuilly-sur-Seine, probably since the beginning of the 19^th Century

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, 22 February 1986, lot 241

Collection Dr. Carlo Croce, Philadelphia

Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, 14 January 1993, lot 138

With Salander-O'Reilly, New York (as per a label on the reverse)

With Bob Haboldt, Paris

Where acquired by the present owner, in February 1993

Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Le Cabinet de L'Amateur, February - April 1956, no. 92 (as Attributed to Tintoretto, titled Le Parnasse)

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Portland Art Museum, Art and Music in Venice: From the Renaissance to the Baroque, October 2013 - May 2014, no. 92 (titled The Concert of the Muses for the Gods)

J. Dupont, 'Tintoret inédit', in Art et Style, December 1946, no. 6, pp. 80-81 and 83-84 (titled Le Concert)

R. Pallucchini and P. Rossi, Tintoretto, Le opere sacre e profane, Milan 1990 (2^nd ed.), vol. I, p. 148, no. 103 and vol. II, p. 345, fig. 130 (titled Concerto con le muse e altre divinita)

R. Echols and F. Ilchman, 'Toward a new Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of revised Attributions and a new Chronology', in Proceedings of the International Symposium Jacopo Tintoretto, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 26 y 27 de febrero de 2007, Madrid 2009, p. 107, fig. 6 (as Circle of Tintoretto, Northern Artist working in Venice, ca. late 1570s)

Executed with a confident and vibrant hand, and well preserved, the present panel constitutes a rarity within the sixteenth-century Venetian painting. It originally formed part of the interior decoration of the lid of a spinet or harpsichord, from which it was likely removed as early as the late sixteenth or seventeenth century. It was later completed with an additional panel in the right-hand corner depicting a landscape, in order to form a rectangular composition. An early copy of the work, sold at Sotheby’s Milan in 2010 (16 November 2010, lot 14), seems to confirm that this addition was made quite early on.

It was first attributed to Tintoretto by Jacques Dupont in 1946. His attribution was based on comparison with another spinet decoration, attributed to the artist by Berenson and now held at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, depicting the Contest between Muses and Piérides (oil on panel, 49 x 91 cm, inv. 1562-1B102; fig. 1). The portrayal of the Muses – embodiments of divine inspiration – reflects the Renaissance conception of Art as a sacred and universal language linking the human and divine realms, a theme frequently found in musical instruments decoration.

Following Dupont, the attribution to Tintoretto was notably confirmed by Rodolfo Pallucchini and Paola Rossi in their catalogue raisonné of the artist’s painted works, first published in 1982 and reissued in 1990. The painting continued to be listed under Tintoretto’s name in the major exhibition dedicated to the relationship between art and music in Venice, held jointly by the Montreal and Portland museums in 2014. In the meantime, it had appeared at auction under the same attribution at Sotheby’s in 1986 and at Christie’s in 1993.

In 2009, however, Frederick Ilchman and Robert Echols, in an article published following a symposium held in Madrid in 2007, rejected the attribution of the work to Tintoretto, based on photographs. They proposed that the painting was more likely executed by a collaborator or follower of the artist—perhaps Northern—active in the late 1570s.

Better known as Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti (1518-1594) was one of the leading painters of the 16^th century Venetian school and a major figure of Mannerism, whose influence extended deep into European Baroque painting. Likely trained in Titian’s workshop, his work reflects the influence of his master – visible in the use of colour and textural effects – as well as that of Michelangelo, particularly in his drawing and anatomical precision. He quickly gained renown for his rapid execution of monumental canvases depicting religious, allegorical, and mythological subjects, often animated with a multitude of dynamic figures. His compositions are dramatic and theatrical, exemplified by his Paradise for the Doge’s Palace and the famous cycle for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.

Drawing on Hesiod, Ovid and the iconographic tradition of the Renaissance, this composition presents the theme of the union of the Arts and Sciences through a concert performed by the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus, on Mount Helicon in Boeotia. The choice of such a subject appears to have its roots, within the Venetian artistic sphere, in the work of Giorgione, and was revisited on several occasions by Tintoretto himself throughout his career.

As mythical as it is symbolic, Mount Helicon is associated both with the home of the goddesses who inspire the arts and with Pegasus. A fountain surmounted by a statue of the winged horse – recalling the sacred spring said to have burst forth where his hoof struck the earth – appears in the upper left corner, setting the scene. Within this sacred landscape, the Muses, each accompanied by her respective attribute, play their instruments before a divine assembly. Among the figures, Mercury, god of commerce and travellers, can be seen on the right of the composition, while on the left appear Minerva, goddess of craftsmanship, Abundance, and a faun – possibly Pan, representing wild nature. These deities are traditionally regarded as protectors of Agriculture and Trade.

Both the style of the work and its comparison with the Verona version, allow us to date the execution of our panel around 1545.

Fig. 1 Jacopo Robusti called Tintoretto, Contest between Muses and Piérides © Verona, Musei Civici, Archivio fotografico (foto Gianluca Stradiotto, Verona).