[DOC] Watauga County Revisited (Images of America) by Terry L. Harmon in Arts-Photography

Description

Jacopo Tintoretto (1518ndash;94) is an ambiguous figure in the history of art. His radically unorthodox paintings are not readily classifiable; and although he was Venetian by birth; his claim to be truly a member of the Venetian School has often been doubted. As a youth; he was rejected early on from the workshop of the great Titian; who was accepted then; as now; as the quintessential Venetian painter. In the long career that nonetheless followed; Tintoretto abandoned the humanist narratives and sensual colour values typical of Titianrsquo;s work in favour of a renewed concentration on core Christian subjects. He painted these in a chiaroscuro-based style using a rough and abbreviated technique.Writers such as Giorgio Vasari and John Ruskin interpreted Tintorettorsquo;s opposition to the artistic practice of his time as an aspect of personal eccentricity or spirituality. Jean-Paul Sartre saw the painter as lsquo;the son of an artisan . . . attacking the patrician aesthetics of fixity and being.rsquo; These oversimplified and a-historical interpretations mean that Tom Nicholsrsquo;s re-assessment of Tintorettorsquo;s place in the history of art is long overdue. Nichols shows how the artist created a new manner of painting; which for all its originality and sophistication made its first appeal to the shared emotions of the widest-possible viewing audience.This generously illustrated book; now available in a compact pocket format; and featuring 16 added illustrations and a new Afterword by the author; charts the artistrsquo;s life and work in the context of Venetian art and the culture of the Cinquecento. The book deals extensively with Tintorettorsquo;s greatest works; including the paintings at the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice.