Jacopo Tintoretto, who took his last name from his fathers occupation as a cloth dyer, was born in Venice in 1518. It was originally thought that Tintoretto trained with the great master Titian, but now it is more likely regarded that he trained with the other great master of the Venetian school, Paolo Veronese.

Like both artists Tintoretto worked in oils. Unlike Titian, Tintoretto attracted a different type of patron, those from the middle rather then the upper class.

Tintoretto's style of painting was quite unlike any other. Tintoretto would paint his canvases with the darker colors first and would then add the lighter colors on top, causing them to appear to be illuminated from behind. Light and shadow were very important to the artist. Tintoretto had the odd practice of making small wax models of his composition's figures which he then arranged on a miniature stage. He would then spotlight these figures from different angles monitoring the shadows that were cast.

This interesting practice also gave Tintoretto's paintings the appearance of being enclosed in a space. The artist would bring his spectator right into the painting by employing an unusual viewpoint or tilted angle of vision.