Tintoretto

Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, edited by Robert Echols and Fredrick Ilchman, 222 pages

Tintoretto seems to be one of those artists who needs to be rediscovered in every generation.  John Ruskin saw in him the perfect artist, Henry James claimed that he had reached the "uttermost limit of painting", yet he remains overshadowed by Titian, Veronese, and the Florentines.  The five hundredth anniversary of the artist's birth in 1518/9 gave a new generation their own opportunity to be surprised by Tintoretto's genius, with a joint exhibition in his native Venice and Washington, DC. 

For those of us unable to see the exhibition in person, there is the catalog, which is thoroughly excellent, with essays touching on every aspect of Tintoretto's life and art, demonstrating the remarkable degree to which he succeeded in his life's work of combining "the draftsmanship of Michelangelo and the coloring of Titian."