"For nearly four decades in the sixteenth century, the careers of Renaissance Venice's three greatest painters - Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese - overlapped, encouraging mutual influences and bitter rivalries that changed the course of art history. Venice was then among Europe's richest cities, and its plentiful commissions fostered an exceptionally fertile and innovative climate. In this environment, the three artists - brilliant, ambitious, and fiercely competitive - vied with each other for primacy, deploying the new combination of oil on canvas, with its unique expressive possibilities, and such new approaches as a personal and identifiable signature touch. They also pioneered the use of easel painting, a newly portable format that allowed for unprecedented fame in their lifetimes. With more than 160 stunning examples by the three masters and their contemporaries, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese elucidates the technical and aesthetic innovations that helped define the "Venetian style"--Characterized by loose technique. rich coloring, and often sensual subject matter - as well as the social, political, and economic context in which it flourished. Essays range from examinations of new approaches to studies of such crucial institutions as state commissions and the private patronage system. Most of all, by concentrating on the lives and careers of Venice's three greatest painters, the volume presents a vibrant human portrait - one brimming with intense competition, one-upmanship, humor, and passion."--Jacket.

Jacopo Tintoretto (1518–94) is an ambiguous figure in the history of art. His radically unorthodox paintings are not readily classifiable, and although he was a Venetian by birth, his standing as a member of the Venetian school is constantly contested. But he was also a formidable maverick, abandoning the humanist narratives and sensuous color palette typical of the great Venetian master, Titian, in favor of a renewed concentration on core Christian subjects painted in a rough and abbreviated chiaroscuro style. This generously illustrated book offers an extensive analysis of Tintoretto’s greatest paintings, charting his life and work in the context of Venetian art and the culture of the Cinquecento. Tom Nichols shows that Tintoretto was an extraordinarily innovative artist who created a new manner of painting, which, for all of its originality and sophistication, was still able to appeal to the shared emotions of the widest possible audience. This compact, pocket edition features sixteen additional illustrations and a new afterword by the author, and it will continue to be one of the definitive treatments of this once grossly overlooked master.

A beautifully illustrated volume which explores one of the central themes of Christian Art: Christ as the Man of Sorrows,Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese draws on works by some of the of the greatest names in Venetian painting including Veronese, Tintoretto, Crivelli, Giambono and the Bassano family. It creates a new and illuminating context for these great masters by considering their work alongside contemporary works in other media, and from other parts of Western Europe, including Tuscany, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. An essay by Catherine Puglisi and William Barcham explores the origins of the image of Christ as Man of Sorrows and its emergence as a distinct and central devotional image in the religious life of Venice from about 1300. The authors address the questions of who was the Man of Sorrows and why the figure grew significantly in Venice during the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Xavier Seubert's essay focuses on the appeal of the Man of Sorrows as an image expressing anguish, which encourages the viewer to identify with suffering, and offers hope for deliverance and redemption. The main catalogue section presents illuminated manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and liturgical objects from major American and European collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Canada, the J Paul Getty Center and the National Gallery, London, almost none of which have been linked before through the study of a common artistic theme.

This dazzling survey of 16th-century Venetian painting captures the striking colors and revolutionary characteristics of one of art history's greatest chapters. It is hard to imagine more profoundly influential artists than the Venetian painters of the 16th century. Whether creating sweeping devotional altarpieces or intimate portraits, the Venetian painters changed the way artists employed color and composition. These defining qualities are on brilliant display in this book that covers fascinating aspects of the work of Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Lorenzo Lotto, Jacopo Bassano, and many others. More than one hundred paintings, drawings, and prints are reproduced in stunning detail. Side-by-side comparisons draw readers into the conversations between Venetian artists as they tackled similar subjects and vied for commissions. The book opens with fascinating essays about the history of 16th-century Venice, the Venetian School of painting, and the techniques of the Venetian masters. As beautiful as it is informative, this book features all of the excitement and splendor of one of the most prolific and important chapters in the history of European art.

A study of sixteenth-century Venetian painting, concentrating on the work of Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto.