MARY – A MASTERPIECE: ‘The Presentation of the Virgin’ by Tintoretto (1552 – 1553)

His art is a poetry of colour, a theatre of design and a canvas of stories!

Born Jacopo Comin, Tintoretto (the little dyer) took his name from his father’s profession of dyeing also known as tintore in Italian. Noticing the paint daubs on the dyer’s wall, his father apprenticed him to the studio of the great Titian. However as fate would have it, Titian sent the young chap home in a week, apparently ‘jealous’ of his ground-breaking approach and his extra-ordinary skills.

These spectacular skills suffused most of his paintings. He imitated the bold muscular style of the Mannerist school of art while emulating the colour and light of the Venetian school. Enamoured by his own technique, he proudly placed before his studio a plaque that read, ‘Il disegno di Michelangelo et il colorito di Tiziano’ (The design of Michelangelo and the colour of Titian). However, his motto failed to please his contemporary critics. They were exasperated by his radical lack of finish and his blazing bravura brushstrokes. And yet it is this unique treatment that moved and influenced the best of Baroque painters, inaugurating a path to modern painting. His phenomenal energy earned him the title ‘Il Furioso’.

The secret to his genius was his vision. Tintoretto, a run-riot of the Renaissance, staged his narratives as a theatre director. He employed light and dark, foreshortening and perspective in order to transform religious scenes into enthralling performances. The spirit of Counter Reformation reverberated through his art works. One such beat is ‘The Presentation of the Virgin’. Executed in oil on canvas, the painting is housed at the Church of Madonna dell’Orto in Venice, Italy.