Italian Week Art History Talk - The battle of the giants: Tintoretto vs Titian

The battle of the giants: Tintoretto vs Titian 

Jacopo Tintoretto’s artistic identity evolved as a kind of conscious and continual revolution against the model for painting provided by Titian. During the middle decades of the sixteenth-century, Titian was the most influential and admired painter in Venice, and the work of many younger painters was indebted to him. Tintoretto however, worked self-consciously in defiance of the older master. Following Titian’s death in 1576, Tintoretto’s art developed in a more mature and individualistic manner which had few precursors or followers. 


This lecture will analyse the Cristo risorgente (The risen Christ) c1555 from the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, which shows Tintoretto’s mature style, and compare it other relevant Biblical subjects, such as the Presentation of the Virgin (c1553-56) in the Church of the Madonna dell’Orto in Venice, Christ carried to the Tomb (c.1560) in the National Gallery of Scotland, or Entombment (1592-94) in the Church of Saint Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, making reference also to works by Titian, such as the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (c.1534-38) in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, the Resurrection (c.1542-44) in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino and the Entombment (1559) in the Museo del Prado of Madrid.

Where: Australian Cinémathèque, Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema A

When: 12.00pm Wed 2 June 2010