Jacopo Tintoretto changed the face of Venetian painting. His fast and furious brushwork was likened to a thunderbolt. Combining the rich colors of Titian with the dramatic muscularity of Michelangelo’s figures, Tintoretto covered the walls of his native city with pictures that astounded his contemporaries; Vasari declared him “the most extraordinary brain that the art of painting has ever produced.” This documentary examines Tintoretto’s career with original footage of his works in the churches and palaces of Venice. This film is available to be licensed in digital format to affiliates.

This film was made possible by the HRH Foundation.

This film, made in conjunction with the exhibition Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, recounts the history of the relationship between the Venetian fraternal organization Scuola Grande di San Marco and the works of Tintoretto and his son that fill San Marco’s walls. This confraternity dedicated to Venice’s patron, Saint Mark, commissioned a cycle of four Tintoretto paintings to decorate the building’s interior. Take a tour of San Marco’s lavish chapter hall, which includes Tintoretto’s masterwork Miracle of the Slave and later additions by his son Domenico, and learn about the fate of these paintings after the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797.