Shown from the shins up, a pale-skinned, balding, bearded man wearing a voluminous rust-red robe lined with black-speckled white fur looks out at us in this vertical portrait painting. The man sits in a wood-framed chair with a curving seat. His body angled slightly to our left, but his face turns to us. He looks out with dark gray eyes under a lined forehead, one eyebrow slightly cocked. He has a rounded nose, thin lips, and paunchy cheeks. A few wisps of gray hair are suggested across the top of his mostly bald head, and his gray beard is trimmed. His left hand, to our right, rests on the terminus of the chair’s arm, and his other hand rests in front of his belly, presumably with that elbow on the other arm. His robe falls heavily in deep folds, and the wide openings of the sleeves continue down and off the bottom edge of the canvas. The front of the robe and the insides of the sleeves are lined with white fur dotted with black. A scarf-like band of fabric brocaded with dark red-on-red drapes over one shoulder. The background is charcoal gray except for a dark, olive-green shape suggesting a doorway over the man’s left shoulder.

A Procurator of Saint Mark's

Jacopo Tintoretto

Shown from the shins up, a pale-skinned, balding, bearded man wearing a voluminous rust-red robe lined with black-speckled white fur looks out at us in this vertical portrait painting. The man sits in a wood-framed chair with a curving seat. His body angled slightly to our left, but his face turns to us. He looks out with dark gray eyes under a lined forehead, one eyebrow slightly cocked. He has a rounded nose, thin lips, and paunchy cheeks. A few wisps of gray hair are suggested across the top of his mostly bald head, and his gray beard is trimmed. His left hand, to our right, rests on the terminus of the chair’s arm, and his other hand rests in front of his belly, presumably with that elbow on the other arm. His robe falls heavily in deep folds, and the wide openings of the sleeves continue down and off the bottom edge of the canvas. The front of the robe and the insides of the sleeves are lined with white fur dotted with black. A scarf-like band of fabric brocaded with dark red-on-red drapes over one shoulder. The background is charcoal gray except for a dark, olive-green shape suggesting a doorway over the man’s left shoulder.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Jacopo Tintoretto
Date
c. 1575/1585
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 138.7 x 101.3 cm (54 5/8 x 39 7/8 in.) framed: 167 x 128.9 x 9.8 cm (65 3/4 x 50 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.)
Department
CIS-R
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Samuel H. Kress Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

7 tags

Subject Matter

  • Individual Portrait Both · 99%

    The image centers on one individualized seated sitter, and the National Gallery of Art title identifies the subject by the office of procurator of Saint Mark's.

Visual Qualities

  • Dark Colors Visual · 97%

    Charcoal, brown, and deep rust-red tones dominate the composition, with lighter accents concentrated on the face, hands, and fur.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The museum record specifies oil on canvas, directly supporting the oil-painting category.

  • Chiaroscuro Visual · 86%

    The sitter is illuminated against a substantially darker background, producing clear tonal separation around the face, hands, and robe.

  • Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Visual · 85%

    The robe, fur, beard, and background are rendered with visible broad, loose strokes rather than uniformly hard-edged contours.

Time Periods

  • 16th Century Art Metadata · 98%

    The work is dated c. 1575/1585 in the canonical museum metadata, placing it within the sixteenth century.

Furniture and Lighting

  • Chair Visual · 99%

    A substantial wood-framed chair with curved arms and decorative circular details is visible around the sitter.

Source & rights

Jacopo Tintoretto. A Procurator of Saint Mark's. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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