Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (1518 – 1594)

A Portrait of a Young Man

Venice, 1554

Oil on canvas

121 x 93.3 cm

The inscription records that this portrait was painted ‘in the year 1554 in the month of May [or March], in the 22nd year of his age’. 

Unfortunately, the identity of the young man has been lost.  However, the three-quarter-length format, with the man’s hand resting on a sword, indicates a person of rank and importance. Tintoretto is best known for the large colourful religious subjects he painted for the churches of his native Venice.  His portraits are more sober with the restricted palette conveying the nobility of the subjects.

Purchased 1937 (No.37.13)