Portrait of Procurator Jacopo Soranzo

The painting shows the procurator Jacopo Soranzo, although the catalogue entry also gives the name as Giacomo Soranzo, since the sources use both forms of his first name. The inscription along the upper edge of the canvas, partly faded according to one description, records the office he held, but the sources disagree on the year of his appointment: some give 1550 and others 1522, so both dates should be treated with caution.

The work has a broader history. According to the texts consulted, it was originally larger and conceived as a lunette, and it came from the Procuratorium de Supra. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Tintoretto and his son Domenico reworked it so that it would fit the newly rebuilt Procuratorium. Tintoretto had also taken Soranzo's likeness from a large canvas in which the procurator sat at the centre surrounded by his family. That group portrait survives today in three parts, all in Milan.

Compositionally, the painter follows the scheme he used for portraits of older sitters. The pose is ceremonial and static, yet the face carries a lively expression. That liveliness is heightened by the chiaroscuro of a beam of light entering from the right and falling on the aged features, white hair and beard. Tintoretto handles the face and hands with care, while the drapery and damask pattern of the costume are rendered with looser, more abbreviated strokes of colour. This contrast draws the eye to the face and shows the artist's skill as a portraitist, a reputation he already enjoyed in his own lifetime.

Painter

Jacopo Tintoretto

Date

1550

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

106 × 90 cm

Museum

Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Movement

Mannerism, Venetian school

Genre

portrait

Depicts

Giacomo Soranzo

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