Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto “Portrait of Der Dodge Nicolo da Ponte” Etching


Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto (real name Jacopo Comin), 1518—1594,was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance. In his youth he was also called Jacopo Robusti, as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a rather robust way against the imperial troops. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso, and his dramatic use of perspective space and special lighting effects make him a precursor of baroque art.


For the Scuola della Trinity he painted four subjects from Genesis. Two of these, are “Adam and Eve” and the “Death of Abel”, both noble works of high mastery, which leave us in no doubt that Tintoretto was by this time a consummate painter - one of the few who have attained to the highest eminence in the absence of any formal training.


Towards 1546 Tintoretto painted for the church of the Madonna dell’Orto three of his leading works: “Worship of the Golden Calf”, the “Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple”, and the “Last Judgment”.


In 1548 he was commissioned for four pictures in the Scuola di S. Marco: the “Finding of the body of St Mark in Alexandria”, the “Saint’s Body brought to Venice, a Votary of the Saint delivered by invoking him from an Unclean Spirit”, and the highly and justly celebrated “Miracle of the Slave”. The last presents one of the chief glories of the Venetian Academy.


Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto “Portrait of Der Dodge Nicolo da Ponte” Etching. First executed in oil by Tintoretto and etched by the Master Etcher William Unger. This is a rare impression on Japon paper before the regular edition (usually 100 impressions from what was considered a deluxe edition before the larger edition was printed on regular paper. The etched work measure 8.50 by 13.25 inches (plate mark). This has been professionally cleaned and is a great impression with full margins as originally published in Viena (Wein) at the turn of the 19th Century.


William Unger The long-lived William Unger is important not only as an etcher but as an influential scholar and teacher. Serving as professor of graphic arts at the Vienna Academy he taught etching techniques to many of the finest Austrian, German and French artists of the early twentieth century. He was also a founder of Zeitschrift fur Bildendekunst (1866), an important journal which promoted etching, engraving and lithography. Unger’s autobiography, Aus meinen leben, was published in Vienna in 1928.



William Unger began his formal art studies in 1854 as a student of Joseph Keller, in Dusseldorf. He then finished his studies at the Academy in Leipzig. During his successful career as an etcher Unger received numerous awards including medals from expositions in Paris (1878), Vienna (1888) and Berlin (1891). Unger became most famous for his etchings after the paintings of both old masters and contemporary artists, and these reproductive works occupied most of his career.

Art (paintings, prints, frames)