Jacopo Tintoretto was recognized in his own lifetime as an extraordinarily prolific and bold painter, and his status as one of the great Renaissance painters is unchallenged. With Titian and Veronese, Tintoretto shared a new pictorial language characterized by bravura brushwork, but he went further by creating a style that synthesized Tuscan and Venetian techniques, combining Titian's very loose brushwork and Michelangelo's draftsmanship. Tintoretto perfected an extraordinarily efficient production system that enabled him to generate an impressive volume of paintings. The present book is based on a very thorough examination of fifty paintings and twenty drawings that enable readers to appreciate the originality and true artistic personality of one of the most outstanding painters in the history of art. Beautifully produced, it is a landmark publiciaton on Tintoretto, attempting to explain how and why he painted in the way he did--both unsettling and fascinating his contemporaries. It investigates particularly his "model theatres."