Jacopo Tintoretto

Unlike the other two master Renaissance painters associated with Venice, Titian and Veronese, Tintoretto (1519–94) alone was born in Venice and he left his mark there more than either artist. His paintings can still be found everywhere in the city: not only in museums, but as part of the original decorative cycles in public buildings such as the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, the Doge's Palace and the Liberia Marciana, and serving as altarpieces or chapel decorations in Venetian churches. Over one hundred and twenty of Tintoretto's breathtaking paintings spill out of the pages, divided into sections that correspond to the Venetian Sestieri or districts. Each painting is accompanied by entries written by an international team of art historians covering major issues and placing them in their artistic and cultural context.

There is no overstating the long shadow of influence that Jacopo Tintoretto (1519–94) has exerted on the history of Western art. However, in the long historiography devoted to his work, the Venetian master lacks a comprehensive and systematic study of the fundamental question of his relationship with architecture. On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his birth, Tintoretto and Architecture draws on the most up-to-date writings on Tintoretto's work and on the history of Renaissance architecture to present a picture of the connection between the space painted in his pictures and the physical space in which they are located; to investigate the role of architecture as an organizing element of the composition; and to understand the original relationship between the viewer and the space in which the work was seen.

This volume includes reproductions of Tintoretto's works in comparison with reproductions of the works of painter and architect contemporaries such as Paolo Veronese, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari and Andrea Palladio. In addition, Tintoretto and Architecture draws on emerging technology to present digitally rendered 3-D models of the architecture the figures in Tintoretto's paintings inhabit, underlining the emphasis the Venetian master placed on space and structure. The authors submit such masterworks as The Finding of the Body of St. Mark to this innovative treatment, offering new perspectives on well-loved works.