Tintoretto and the St. Mark paintings

St. Mark's Body Brought to Venice
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

'Beautiful colours can be bought in the shops on the Riato, but good drawings can only be bought from the casket of the artist's talent with patient study and nights without sleep.'  Tintoretto.

Born Jacopo Robusti in Venice in 1518, and called Il Tintoretto because his father was a dyer by trade, Tintoretto was part of the triad of great 16th century Venetian artists, along with Titian and Veronese. 

Tintoretto trained in the workshop of Titian and was first mentioned as a master in 1539.

Between 1548 and 1563, he painted several large-scale pictures of the Miracle of St. Mark. According to the painter and engraver Marco Boschini, he would use small wax figures to create the scene that he envisaged in his mind, and then experiment with light sources.

The Miracle of St. Mark (also known as The Miracle of the Slave)
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This picture was one of four St. Mark subjects that Tintoretto was commissioned to paint in the Scuola de S. Marco, the others being St. Mark's Body Brought to Venice; Finding of the Body of St. Mark; St. Mark Rescuing a Saracen from a Shipwreck. 

Finding of the Body of St. Mark
Pinacoteca de Brera, Milan

St. Mark Rescuing a Saracen from a Shipwreck
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice