Art History Guide

Anyway, Tintoretto was scorned by his contemporaries because they argued that the hastiness of his work degraded the craft of painting and lowering the status of the artist. He painted for middle class locals as opposed to upscaled internationals like Titian.

The probable source for the subject was a Byzantine botanical text-book, ‘Geoponica’, in which it is related how Jupiter, wishing to immortalise the infant Hercules (whose mother was the mortal Alcmene), held him to the breasts of the sleeping Juno. The milk which spurted upwards formed the Milky Way, while some fell downwards giving rise to lilies.

Lilies were once present at the base of the painting, until a part of the original canvas was cut off.

Tintoretto, Titian, Milky Way