Tintoretto Painting His Dead Daughter

Description: During Victorian times it was fashionable to represent men in the role of the loving family man. They would be portrayed as soldiers coming home to their families or as lovers and providers. The French artist Lon Cognet first undertook the idea of Tintoretto, the famous Venetian painter, painting his daughter when he exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1843. O'Neill must have heard of Cognet's work or saw similar examples that inspired him to paint the subject. The story tells how Tintoretto's daughter, Maria Robusti, who was also his student died at the age of thirty. Her father loved her very much and when she died he chose to paint her one last time so he could remember her always. By painting her, Tintoretto is able to grant his daughter artistic immortality. The female body was seen as being more fragile than the male. It was believed that the female body would succumb to illness more readily. The dying woman becomes a spiritual being, when watched over by a male who can not save her.