Boschini, Tintoretto, der ›malerische Akt‹ (atto pittoresco) und die ›Erfindung‹ des ästhetischen Genusses in Venedig

Abstract

Abstract The ‘painterly act’, which becomes quasi-visible and relivable in the impasto brushstrokes of Tintoretto and his contemporaries, is reflected in a terminologically concise and theoretically ambitious way only about a hundred years after their works were created – i.e., in the Carta del navegar pitoresco of 1660. Its author, Marco Boschini, not only coined the term ‘atto pittoresco’ but also programmatically embedded it in his dialogical speech about art, in which the importance of rhetorical categories recedes in favor of aesthetic maxims. ‘Pleasure’ and ‘joy’ of the beauty of painting and the act of painting incorporated in it are enhanced by the perception of the beauty of the lagoon city, which offers the viewer multiple views (viste) of the water with light reflections against a blue sky, shapes their good taste (buon gusto) and even promises recreation (recreazione).