Domenico Tintoretto - Lady revealing her breast

• Title: Lady revealing her breast
• Artist: Domenico Tintoretto (1560-1635)
• Date: c.1580-90
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 62 x 56 cm

Tintoretto's painting "Lady revealing her breast" is a portrait belonging to the Venetian beauty type, like Giorgione's "Portrait of a Young Woman" of 1506. The woman is turned sideways. She is wearing a neutral demeanor. She is pulling down her dress to reveal her breast.

Whatever her status, courtesan, wife or mistress, the image of the bare-breasted lady achieved considerable success in the Venetian art world, and became a model for the painting of flesh in a lifelike manner. The young woman’s alabaster skin is offset by her slight flush, her full lips, her copper-blond hair, and the sensuality of her nipples.

The rosy white complexion of the girl depicted was not always natural. The large amount of lead white in these pictures, apart from being a painterly convention, recalls the widespread use of this toxic substance in make-up – trucco – where it was tinged with mercury-based vermilion, while veins were highlighted with lapis lazuli; these customs led to ageing, hair loss, and sometimes death.