Celebrating Tintoretto: Portrait Paintings and Studio Drawings
Jacopo Tintoretto. Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?), 1550s? Oil on canvas, private collectio
Exhibition Dates:
October 16, 2018 – January 27, 2019
Exhibition Location:
The Met Fifth Avenue, Floor 1, Gallery 955
Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/19–1594) was one of the preeminent Venetian painters of the 16th century, and was renowned for his dynamic narrative scenes and insightful portraits. In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the artist's birth, The Met will present Celebrating Tintoretto: Portrait Paintings and Studio Drawings, a focused exhibition that will explore an innovative aspect of his portraiture, and one that has been little studied: his small-scale, informal portrait heads characterized by their immediacy, intense observation, and startling modernity.
Seen together for the first time, these portrait studies will reveal Tintoretto's famous quickness as a painter—his "prestezza"—capturing both the spirit and appearance of the sitter. The exhibition will unite approximately 21 works from European and American museums and private collections, bringing them into a larger discussion of the artist's approach to portraiture and painting.