In focus: Tintoretto and the Scuole of Venice

Tintoretto was an extremely versatile artist, well known for his dramatic and large-scale narrative paintings as well as for his insightful portraits, all produced with a distinctive style marked by rapid brushwork, bold composition and a masterful use of light and shadow.

In this two-hour online session, art historian Siân Walters introduces his life and work with a special focus on the Venetian ‘scuole’ - confraternities or guilds whose members were united by profession, nationality or devotion. Those dedicated to Saint Mark and Saint Roch stood out for their considerable wealth and prestige, allowing them to commission splendid headquarters adorned with important cycles of painting created by the leading artists of the day, including Tintoretto.

The vast canvases which still cover the walls and ceiling of the Scuola di San Rocco represent one of the artist’s most ambitious achievements, a project encompassing around sixty paintings to which he dedicated well over twenty years of his life. We examine how the artist was able to secure this celebrated commission (in part, following the success of those works made for the Scuola of Saint Mark), exploring the genesis and development of the series. We assess how these moving and dramatic paintings reflect the teachings and activities of their patrons, while considering their impact and influence on subsequent generations of artists including Rubens, Velázquez and El Greco, who famously praised Tintoretto’s ‘Crucifixion’ as being the greatest painting in the world.

Siân Walters is an art historian and the director of Art History in Focus. She studied at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, and has been a lecturer at the National Gallery for over 20 years. Her specialist areas of research are Italian painting, Spanish art and architecture, Flemish and Dutch painting and the relationship between dance and art. Siân also lectures for The Arts Society and leads specialist art tours abroad. She was a lecturer at University of Surrey for many years and has lived and worked in France and Venice. She is currently writing a book on still-life paintings in the National Gallery Collection.

Can't make the session but don't want to miss out? No problem, you can watch again.

The session is recorded and made available to you for 2 weeks.

A video of the week's lecture will be uploaded and available for you to watch via your National Gallery account on Monday.

This is an online ticketed course hosted on Zoom. Please book a ticket to access the course.

Only one ticket can be booked per account.

You will be emailed an E-ticket with instructions on how to access the course via your National Gallery account. All course information including your Zoom link, weekly handouts, and recordings will be available here.