Jacopo Tintoretto left an indelible mark on 16th-century Venetian painting and beyond. His unique approach to artmaking with rapid, loose brushstrokes and strong contrasts between light and dark deeply challenged the traditional style of the iconic master Titian, Paolo Veronese, and his Venetian contemporaries. His bold compositions offered an alternative style to the hierarchal staging of the traditional Renaissance paintings. Because of this, Tintoretto is often associated with the Mannerist painters of the later Renaissance period.
The Origin of the Milky Way
One of four paintings based on the myth of Hercules, Tintoretto’s The Origin of the Milky Way depicts the god Jupiter bringing his son, born of a mortal woman, to nurse from the breast of his wife, the goddess Juno. In a composition which anticipates the drama of Baroque painting, the artist creates a scene of flustered activity depicting the moment Juno awakens to discover Jupiter’s deceit. According to myth, the infant Heracles would obtain immortality through breastfeeding from the goddess. However, as she awakes, Juno draws away in anger causing her milk to spray across the sky, thus forming the Milky Way indicated by an array of stars. From her other breast, milk falls toward Earth resulting in the creation of beautiful lilies, believed to be part of the original composition (later trimmed down). Below the immortal couple, numerous cupids with bows drawn, symbolize the marital discord and its universal consequences.
The work provides visible proof of Tintoretto’s skill as both a draughtsman and colorist. The foreshortening of Jupiter is reminiscent of Giotto’s groundbreaking frescos in the Arena Chapel, the muscular Juno the influence of Michelangelo, but the rhythmic arrangement of figures is uniquely Tintoretto. Nichols describes how the expert use of color in both the figures and attire relates to Tintoretto’s childhood exposure to pigments in his father’s workshop as a cloth dyer. He writes, “immediately noticeable are the range and quality of the pigments used: the composition is built up from a carefully variegated palette which moves from intense blue to grey in the sky, and from white and gold through to orange, pink and scarlet in the draperies.”
While best remembered for his religious paintings, The Origin of the Milky Way is one of many mythological paintings Tintoretto created throughout his long career. This particular series of paintings, commissioned from Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, is an important indication of the progressive artist’s popularity beyond Italy. Interestingly, some mystery surrounds the original impetus for this painting. Some scholars believe it was first painted as a commission for the “grand guardian” of the Scuola Grande di San Marco, Tommaso Rangone, who had commissioned other notable works from the artist, including Finding the Body of Saint Mark. After Rangone’s death, the artist reconfigured this painting for the Emperor.
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker provide a description, historical perspective, and analysis of Jacopo Tintoretto’s The Origin of the Milky Way.
