On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P00378
- Author
- Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti (Italian)
- Title
- Gentleman with a Gold Chain
- Chronology
- Ca. 1555
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 103,7 cm x 76,7 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
Tintoretto painted portraits from
the beginning of his career, and it
was the genre that allowed him to
make a place for himself on the
competitive Venetian art scene.
Unlike Titian, with his elegant
distance, Tintoretto rarely
idealized his sitters, showing them
with the attributes of their social
standing, but without hiding the
wrinkles on their faces.
For four decades, Tintoretto
remained faithful to a few models
and formulas. One of the
distinctive traits of his
portraiture technique is the
importance he assigned to the face,
which he shaped with brilliant
highlights that make it stand out
over the dark background.
This is the finest of the
Tintoretto portraits at the Prado
Museum and one of the most
outstanding ever painted by that
artist. It is probably one of the
ones which, according to Palomino,
Velasquez acquired in Venice during
his second trip to Italy.
Location on the map
