Jacopo Robusti called Tintoretto Venice, 1518 - Venice, 1594 Born in Venice of a family originally from Lucca, he took the nickname Tintoretto from his father's trade as a dyer (tintore). In the absence of documentary evidence, his apprenticeship has beeen much discussed. Ridolfi affirms that he worked in the workshop of Titian. We know for sure that he was in Mantua in 1580. After executing the Last Supper for the Church of San Marcuola in 1545, he painted two mythological scenes for Pietro Aretino and in 1548 he executed the Miracle of the Slave for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. After the organ doors for the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto (1552-1553) and the Church of Santa Maria del Giglio (1557-1558), he undertook the large scale scenes from the life of St. Mark for the Scuola Grande di San Marco (1562-1566), and he started the decoration of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (The Sala dell'Albergo, 1564-1567; Sala Grande, 1575-1587) and of the Doge's Palace (1559-1567; 1576;1578-1584 and 1588). In the meantime he continued to work for other churches in Venice (the church of Santo Stefano, the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Santa Maria del Giglio etc). In 1550 he married the daughter of the Guardian Grando of the Scuola di San Marco. Many artists worked in his bottega: besides his children, Marietta and Domenico, painters came from the south (Antonio Vassillacchi, called the Aliense) and the north of Europe (Paolo Fiammingo, Ludovico Toeput, called Pozzoserrato, and Martin De Vos).