DISEGNARECON volume 11/ n. 21 - december 2018 ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR HISTORICAL CITIES VISUALIZATION ISSN 1828-5961 Gianmario Guidarelli Ph.D Architectural History, is adjunct professor in Architectural History at the University of Padua. He has edited four books (2005, 2009, 2013, 2018) and he has published four monographies on the architecture of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice (2003, 2005), on the cathedral of Venice (2015) and on Tintoretto and architecture (with Marsel Grosso, 2018). Gabriella Liva Ph.D in "Theory and History of Representation" is adjunct professor on representation disciplines at the University IUAV, University of Padua and University of Udine. She has edited two books (2010, 2017). She is registered in Architects Association in Udine and concerned with 3d modeling, rendering, video editing. Isabella Friso Ph.D. in Architectural Composition (specializing in Representation and Survey) and Research fellow in Architectural Representation. She is adjunct professor in Representation at the University of Padua. The “ideal” city and the “real” city painted by Tintoretto This essay aims to investigate the role that the perspective of a selection of nine important representation of urban spaces plays in the paintings, using a method never before adopted paintings of Jacopo Tintoretto and the use of in such an extensive way for Tintoretto’s works. perspective adopted by the painter in their In this essay, in particular, we shall focus on a configuration. [1] The study conducted by the specific type of space, i.e. the urban space, which team made it possible to systematically examine the painter adopts in a few of his paintings, but Tintoretto’s work for the first time, with always in a significant manner, especially particular focus on his use of space, architecture regarding the role it plays in the narrative, and and perspective. This was also made possible by the relationship with the model represented by Keywords: a research campaign aimed at restoring the the architectural theory of Sebastiano Serlio. Perspective restitution; Jacopo Tintoretto; Sebastiano Serlio. http://disegnarecon.univaq.it DISEGNARECON volume 11/ n. 21 - december 2018 ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR HISTORICAL CITIES VISUALIZATION GUIDARELLI - LIVA - FRISO 6.2 ISSN 1828-5961 The “ideal” city and the “real” city painted by Tintoretto TINTORETTO AND THE URBAN SPACE: STORY early signs of a linguistic revolution continually began to publish his Libri dell’Architettura in 1537. In AND BACKGROUND (G. Guidarelli) awaiting to be carried out throughout the city – can be fact, Tintoretto replicates Serlio’s models in many of read as one of the themes of the two urban views that his early paintings such as the church in the Sebastiano Serlio published in 1545 in the Secondo background of Sant’Agostino risana gli sciancati (1549 Libro dell’Architettura. [3] In fact, the Scena Tragica ca, Vicenza, Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati) or the (Tragic Scene) and Scena Comica (Comic Scene) Bramante-style temple in the Trafugamento del corpo seemed to depict a visual metaphor – in the form of an di San Marco (1547 ca, Bruxelles, Musees Royaux des ideal city – of Venice in the early sixteenth century, Beaux-Arts de Belgique) (fig. 2), but they are always where the ideology of a rational order (imposed from architectural fragments pieced together to form urban above) is realised in the fabric of the city only at the environments. This is not the case with the “Cassoni” cost of countless compromises and adaptations. The (marriage chest) paintings depicting the Predizione a result is a mosaic of fragments of antiquity associated David and L’incontro di Salomone con la regina di Saba, with medieval buildings and spaces that Serlio preserved in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) and proposes as a theatrical backdrop. dated 1542-1543, where Tintoretto establishes This is the political and cultural context faced by the rational spatial relationships between the interior and young Tintoretto. The beginning of his activity can be exterior, painting realistic urban scenes not resulting chronologically placed in a period between the end of from a sum of buildings. This effort at synthesis seems Fig. 1 - Venezia, Piazza San Marco. the fourth and the beginning of the fifth decade of the to have been dictated not only by a greater linguistic sixteenth century. [4] In a recent critical review of the maturity, but also by a more refined conception of Architectural representation is one of the main themes painter’s beginnings and training, in fact, paintings painted space obtained through the use of papier- of Venetian painting between the 15th and 16th such as Prado’s Adorazione dei Magi, Washington’s mâché models. According to Carlo Ridolfi’s late centuries. Giovanni e Jacopo Bellini and Vittore Conversione di San Paolo and, above all, the sixteen testimony, Tintoretto placed wax statuettes to verify Carpaccio, in particular, demonstrate a passionate paintings on the ceiling of Palazzo Pisani were the position of characters and illuminated them with attention to the spatial and ideological possibilities identified as important steps to understanding the candles to simulate the different points of light that he that Venetian architecture – renewed by the genesis of his language and the formation of the client. would adopt in the painting. [6] The use of a typical generation of Mauro Codussi and Pietro Lombardo – In these first trials, Tintoretto immediately showed a stagecraft technique shows how much interest can express in the pictorial narrative. This is especially great interest in architecture which, however, is still Tintoretto had in the theatre, also thanks to his true with Paris Bordon and the oil-on-canvas painting confined to acting as the background of the narrative. friendship and constant acquaintance with Pietro Consegna dell’anello al Doge (Venezia, Gallerie In fact, we had to wait until the second half of the Aretino and Andrea Calmo. [7] dell’Accademia) created for the Brotherhood of San 1540s to see a painter who began to exploit the This expedient also allowed the painter to control the Marco in 1534. Here, the painter inserts the narrative architectural space as an essential part of the narrative painted space in a safer way and to experience the in an urban space conceived as a collage of medieval in paintings such as Disputa di Gesù nel Tempio (1545- perspective deformations that would play a significant Venetian architecture (the bell tower) and Byzantine 1546, Milano, Museo del Duomo) and, above all, Cristo role in his later works, especially in the composition of architecture (the quincunx space where the doge e l’adultera (Roma, Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, very long paintings, where the multiplication of escape governs) alongside very modern ancient buildings. It is Palazzo Barberini) whose dating and patronage are still points requires a dynamic vision by the observer. an effective testimony to the dynamics that in those in doubt but nevertheless fundamental for our Works such as Miracolo dello Schiavo (1548) and the years helped to revolutionise the Venetian imago purposes due to the composition of groups of Trafugamento del corpo di San Marco (1562-1566) (fig. urbis, particularly under the rule of the doge of Gritti. characters distributed between the naves, marked by 3) created for the Scuola Grande di San Marco and The renovatio urbis entrusted to Jacopo Sansovino by rows of iconic columns. On the other hand, today preserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in the Doge led to profound transformations in the investigations conducted by scholars such as Sergio Venice can be read only the light of these observations. Marciana piazza, i.e. the political and institutional Marinelli, Erasmus Weddigen, Cecil Gould, Erik In both cases, the narrative takes place in the context centre of Venice, with the construction of the Zecca Forssman e Martina Frank, [5] showed with increasing of piazzas, defined by buildings that constitute just as (Mint), the Loggetta and Marciana Library (fig. 1). [2] certainty how much Tintoretto’s use of architectural many references to minor constructions coming from The appearance of “Roman-style” architectural space is based on a careful knowledge of constructed the treatise or reality: Venetian, in the first case (the fragments in an urban context of medieval origin – as architecture, but, especially in this first phase, on the Loggia of Sansovino), and Paduan in the second (the models (mainly Roman) illustrated by Serlio, who Clocktower and Loggia of Piazza dei Signori). In these http://disegnarecon.univaq.it DISEGNARECON volume 11/ n. 21 - december 2018 ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR HISTORICAL CITIES VISUALIZATION GUIDARELLI - LIVA - FRISO 6.3 ISSN 1828-5961 The “ideal” city and the “real” city painted by Tintoretto paintings, Tintoretto uses the piazza as the best type of the feet described in the New Testament is in reality completes the superimposition, as suggested by Serlio of space to effectively place the characters only an episode of the narration that ends with the Last in the form of an analogy, of an ideal city with the real (individually or in groups) and to depict their complex Supper, which in turn is divided into several scenes. city, populated by people and immersed in the reciprocal relationships based on his narrative intent, The coexistence of all these narrative planes in a single territory. Venice, which was reduced to being an “old” just like on a theatre stage. representation is underlined by the close-up view that city by the renovation and restoration of the Gritti In Tintoretto’s painting, however, there is a forces the observer to continuously change focus; but Palace, can thus become the scenario of the Gospel progressive transition from an urban space conceived is made possible, above all, by the architectural space narrative, which in turn is renewed in the Sacrament of as the backdrop of the narrative (and designed as a that houses the different links of the narrative chain.