Tintoretto and Architecture

Jacopo Tintoretto (1519-1594) took an interest in architecture right from his formative years in a particularly lively period for Venetian painting, updated by exciting new Mannerist ideas introduced by Central Italian artists and writers who stayed in the city. Promoted by the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, this book has been published to mark the fifth centenary of Tintoretto’s Birth (2019). Its purpose is to explore some highly promising historiographical strands: the relationship between painted space in Tintoretto’s paintings and actual physical space; the role of architecture in shaping composition and its influence on narrative aspects; and the original relationship between the painting and the viewer in the various contexts in which the works were placed (ecclesiastical and confraternal settings or public buildings). The different kinds of scholars involved and the exchanges between the various disciplines were the necessary condition for a systematic investigation into a subject that is inherently interdisciplinary. The book thus brought together historians of architecture, art historians and experts in the history of architectural and urban representation.