The most exhilarating painter of the Renaissance and arguablyof the whole of western art, Tintoretto was known as Il Furiosobecause of the attack and energy of his style. His vaunting ambitionis recorded in the inscription he placed in his studio: l disegno diMichelangelo ed il colorito di Tiziano ("Michelangelo's drawing andTitian's colour"). The Florentines Vasari and Borghini, and the Venetians Ridolfiand Boschini wrote the earliest biographies of the artist.
The fouraccounts are related each other and form the backbone of thecritical success of Tintoretto. Borghini is the first one to give someinformation about Marietta Tintoretto, also an artist, and Ridolfiis the richest in anecdotes about the artist's life and personality -including the one about the inscription which he may, however,have invented. Boschini, a witty Venetian nationalist, wrote hisaccount in dialect verse.
El Greco, whose marginal notes to Vasariare included for the first time in English, Calmo and Franco knewTintoretto personally and their writings give a real flavour of thiscomplicated man. Unavailable in any form for many years, these biographies havebeen newly edited for this edition. They are introduced by thescholar Carlo Corsato, who places each in its artistic and literarycontext.
Approximately 50 pages of colour illustrations cover thefull range of Tintoretto's astonishing output.
