An Empty World Explodes With Life: Tintoretto’s ‘Creation of the Animals’

An Empty World Explodes With Life: Tintoretto’s ‘Creation of the Animals’
"Creation of the Animals," 1551, by Tintoretto. Oil on canvas, 5 feet by 8.5 feet. Academic Gallery, Venice. PD-US
Yvonne Marcotte
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It’s an immense task to try to capture the essence of God’s creation, although one artist made a powerful attempt.

Jacopo “Il Tintoretto” Robusti (1518–1594) apprenticed in the workshop of the leading Venetian artist at that time, Titian. A 2019 retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington marked the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto’s birth.