Legend has it that when Jacopo Tintoretto was 12 years old, he was so good at drawing that he rattled Titian — the master artist of Venice, 30 years his senior. Young Tintoretto was an apprentice in Titian’s workshop and — as the story goes — the old master gone away for several days, and when he came back he found some of Tintoretto’s drawings.
“He saw these drawings and said, ‘Who did this?’ ” explains art expert Frederick Ilchman. “The young Tintoretto was nervous, thinking he’d done a bad job … and was going to be corrected. No, they were not bad — in fact, they were too good.”
Tintoretto was in his late 20s when he painted this self-portrait circa 1546/48. (Scroll down to compare this portrait to one he painted 40 years later.)
The Philadelphia Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY
Titian felt threatened and kicked the kid out. But Tintoretto got all the lessons he needed in ambition and toughness — and went on to have a long, successful life in the art world.
That career is the focus of Tintoretto’s very first U.S. retrospective, now on view at the National Gallery of Art, co-curated by Frederick Ilchman and Robert Echols. It marks the 500th anniversary of the 16th century Venetian artist’s birth.
Several of the artworks in the retrospective are coming to the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition is on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., until early July. More at NPR.com
