CAM Presents: Jacopo Tintoretto’s Achievement

Thursday, April 17, 2025 from 7–8 p.m.

Members: Free
General public: $20
Students: $5

Tickets required. Ticket sales will open one month before the event. 

In the second half of the sixteenth century, Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594) was simultaneously Venice’s most admired and most controversial painter. Yearning to cover every wall in his hometown, he employed underhanded tactics to gain commissions and thwart competitors. His innovative painting technique created pictures that appeared unfinished to contemporaries but is regarded today as a key development in oil-on-canvas painting. Taking advantage of the special exhibition Tintoretto’s Genesis, this lecture offers an insider’s view of Tintoretto’s considerable skills as a painter—and as a storyteller. 

About the speaker: 
Frederick Ilchman is the Baker Curator of Paintings and Chair, Art of Europe, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A specialist in the art of Renaissance Venice, he holds a B.A. from Princeton and a Ph.D. from Columbia, both in art history. His exhibitions include Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice (2009) in partnership with the Louvre; Goya: Order and Disorder (2014), Casanova’s Europe (2018), and the principal Tintoretto retrospective held on the artist’s 500th birthday, shared by Venice’s Palazzo Ducale (autumn 2018) and Washington’s National Gallery of Art (spring 2019). Frederick is also the Chairman of Save Venice Inc., the American non-profit dedicated to conserving the art and architecture of Venice, Italy.  

If you need accessibility accommodations, please contact us in advance at [email protected] or fill out the accessibility request form.