The Tintoretto at auction at Cambi!

The auction dedicated to the great masters of ancient art features an exclusive selection of masterpieces reflecting the best of European painting between the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Among the featured works is The Virtue Flogging Vice by Jacopo Robusti known as Tintoretto, created by the artist with the help of his collaborators between 1580 and 1588. This monumental canvas (193×233 cm), estimated between €40,000.00 and €50,000.00, is an outstanding example of Venetian teleri, large wall paintings conceived for prestigious public commissions.

Published as a work by Jacopo Robusti known as Tintoretto by von der Bercker in 1935, and dated between 1580 and 1588, the canvas presented here is a typical example of the production of large-scale works conceived by Venetian painters and called teleri (canvases), applied directly to walls and often conceived in groups as unitary decorative cycles. Often the object of important public commissions, such as large schools or local confraternities, this particular type of artistic production became typical for Venetians from the 15th century onwards, as it allowed them to create large decorative cycles without resorting to the fresco technique, which, due to the humid climate of the lagoon, was destined to inevitable and progressive deterioration.

Most of the leading protagonists of the artistic panorama of the Serenissima, assisted by their collaborators, devoted themselves during their careers to the realisation of these monumental undertakings, including Tintoretto himself, as is well testified by one of his most famous works, namely the decoration of the sixty large paintings for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice.

Although the provenance and original commissioning of this painting is unknown, it has been published in several volumes dedicated to the works of the Venetian master (not always, unfortunately, with the exact iconographic identification – in some cases, in fact, we find it described as Athena and Venus or as Archangel Michael driving out Lucifer).

Although some critics agree that the painting is to be attributed directly to Tintoretto, a possible intervention by his collaborators cannot be ruled out, who were certainly commissioned to assist the master in cases of such demanding commissions both in terms of size and number of works to be realised.

Description

oil on canvas, W. 233 – H. 193 cm, Published in the Zeri Photo Library (card no. 41754)

Provenance

Italico Brass Collection, Venice;
Donated to The St. Louis Art Museum by Morton D. May (1955) – no. 173.55;
Private collection, Milan