Newsweek’s Peter Plagens narrates the story behind the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’s “Rivals in Renaissance Venice” show:
Tintoretto promised that with him “the color of Titian” would be improved with “the draftsmanship of Michelangelo.” Sometimes he made his preliminary sketches with long, languorous brushstrokes, directly in paint on canvas, and gave away paintings to select patrons as samples. (Very modern, no?) Veronese was already fairly famous when, in his early 20s, he relocated to the more major market of Venice. His lighter, somewhat more pastel colors became favorites of important religious and civic groups. With his quickly gained reputation as “master of the grand gesture,” Veronese snagged a commission to paint canvases for the ceiling of the Room of the Council of Ten in the Palazzo Ducale. When Titian left town in 1548 to meet Philip II, the future king of Spain—and art patron to die for—Tintoretto (who hardly ever left Venice) unveiled his stunning “Miracle of the Slave” and became, temporarily, the hottest artist in town. Meanwhile, Veronese—who figured Titian was an unmovable No. 1—declared himself a Titian fan and openly aped the master’s compositions and figures. Back in the city, Titian made it a point to praise Veronese in order to undercut Tintoretto. The upshot of this frantic competition was that the three artists often didn’t have to sign their paintings: their individual styles spoke for themselves. And that, of course—we’d call it “branding”—is as modern as you can get. “Venice was a small city,” Ilchman says, “and these guys couldn’t walk down the street without seeing one another’s work.”
The Merchants of Venice Art (Newsweek)
