Tintoretto was one of the leading painters in Venice between the 15th and 16th centuries – he spent almost his entire life in Venice, where he was born in 1518 or 1519. His family name was Robusti; he took the name Tintoretto from his father's profession of dyer (tintore in Italian). He was also nicknamed ‘Il Furioso,’ (the furious) for his energy and determination.

Influenced by Titian and Michelangelo (“he wanted to combine Titian's use of color with the energized forms of Michelangelo,” writes London’s National Gallery, which houses seven paintings by Tintoretto), Tintoretto became the most influential Venetian painter after Titian’s death, along with Veronese; he was in charge of a large workshop, designed and worked on a number of commissions for churches, the Doge's Palace, and the Scuola di San Rocco; many of his paintings are still in their original location, so you get to see them in the original place for which they were conceived.