Tintoretto

June 26th, 2018

As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent part of Anna's last day here at the Tintoretto exhibit at the Musée du Luxembourg.  It's a lovely small museum with informative and well-curated temporary exhibits, just a two-minute walk from us, so we have made a point of visiting a few times.  This exhibit focused on Tintoretto's early work and how he established a career for himself in Rubens' shadow in Venice.  I learned a number of things, including that Tintoretto is not my favorite artist.  For instance, I had trouble with the painting shown below, struggling to find some unifying idea or principle or aesthetic. 

 I also don't like paintings that seem overly dramatic and fantastical.  Here's another that I found that I could grasp aesthetically but, again, fell short thematically.

 Details of other paintings appealed, however.  I like the palettes and textures in both, and find the perspective in the first very interesting.

I think it's instructive to think about artists in a broader context, so I want to offer a couple of comparisons.  Directly below is a study Tintoretto did of a sculpture, in a period when he was working on the representation of a third dimension in a two-dimensional medium.  Below that is a drawing by Michelangelo that I saw in New York in January.  Tintoretto's use of shading and hatching to create the depth and movement is effective.  Michelangelo's figure is more sober and less dramatic, of course, but I also feel like his style, in this drawing at least, is more dependent on flowing, organic lines to suggest shapes and images and less on shading.  (This simple Tintoretto piece might have been my favorite in the whole exhibit.)  

Finally, here are two courtyard scenes, the first painted by Tintoretto and the second by Delacroix.  

I think it's interesting how differently the two artists use the courtyard with balcony in their compositions.  Tintoretto wants to exploit the architecture to comment on the relationships and interactions among the subjects, in an almost allegorical manner.  Delacroix treats the architecture more like, well, architecture, allowing light to selectively illuminate certain features and subjects and activities.  Also, the perspective is closer and tighter in the Delacroix, essentially inviting the viewer into this intimate space.  In contrast, it feels like the Tintoretto is almost lecturing to us.  (Yea, Tintoretto is no Delacroix.)