As the first born child of Jacopo Robusti, one of the late Renaissance’s most prolific and unpredictable artists, Marietta Robusti was destined to learn from her immensely talented father. Jacopo was called Il Furioso, and equally Tintoretto (his father was a fabric dyer, “tintore”); thus she became known as La Tintoretta, a diminutive of her father’s name. Her talent, however, was anything but diminutive and left behind an impact on the Venetian art world still recognized today.

Despite her talent, the story of Marietta’s life as an artist is not unlike attempts to truly understand Venice. You can visit this marvelous city numerous times and never truly touch or understand the authentic soul of this incongruous collection of palazzi afloat the sea. As we consider the life of Marietta, such is also the case.

Those who have visited Venice may believe they understand the beauty of Carnevale costumes, the flow of water, the ghostly path of a gondola late in the Venetian night languorously caressing the canals of the city, yet that represents only a superficial impression of a place where culture runs as deep as the Adriatic into which her lagoons flow.

Self Portrait

No matter how much we ‘dig’ to discover more, Marietta remains an enigma, a woman who made remarkable contributions to her father’s work, and an artist in her own right; yet few facts have been researched and verified that provide written evidence of her talents. Tracking the trajectory of Marietta’s life remains challenging as we have no record of what contributions she made to her father’s paintings. Though seven siblings followed her birth, none displayed more talent in the Robusti household than she. So said her father and many other artists of the day.

Her Self Portrait (c. 1580), now in the collection of the Uffizi, shows Marietta holding a musical score which expresses words of deep affection. She painted this work following her marriage (1578) to a successful Venetian jeweler, Jacopo Augusto.

Portrait of Ottavio Strada

Old Man and a Boy

Portrait of Ottavio Strada (c. 1567-68), showcases her deft hand at bringing life to canvas. A work originally attributed to her father, Old Man and a Boy, received proper attribution to Marietta only in 1920. Marietta most likely established the background of innumerable paintings by her father, blocking the scale and perspective of figures which made Tintoretto famous; yet, for as much conjecture as art experts surmise, they lack written proof. We rely on the trained eye of viewers and students who study the work of Il Furioso and have come to recognize Marietta’s touches.

She fought for recognition amidst the repressive environment among artists of her time, one that subjugated women to the roles of household work and childbearing. Despite those challenges, she established a reputation as a formidable talent. Through her father, fame spread first in Venice and eventually across the Renaissance Italian art world.

A long life was not Marietta’s destiny. She died at thirty years of age, in 1650, during childbirth. Her death nearly destroyed her father. Such was Tintoretto’s relationship with her that his biographer, Carlo Ridolfi, writes Tinoretto fell into a deep and unrecoverable depression upon Marietta’s death. He treasured his oldest daughter and, as you study the works of Tinoretto before and after the death, there are clearly shifts in the works of the master.

When you next find yourself in Venice, take time to separate from the crowds. Find a narrow, empty salizzada and stroll along the quiet trace of the canal. Stop for a moment and imagine a young woman, suppressed by society, yet carrying within her a great talent. Imagine the Renaissance, when Venice was a powerhouse of commerce, a fabulously wealthy city with a fleet of innumerable ships, and think of the struggle so many had to overcome to succeed.

I’ve often thought of Marietta during evening strolls in Venice. I do not so much consider the flamboyant excesses of Casanova nor the ruthless power of the Doges, but rather the female artists of the time, notably Marietta.

As water reflects candlelight from windows along the canals, I think of a young woman of incredible talent, who lived in the shadow of her father and who the world lost in her youth.

Ghosts…