Book excerpt: Born Jacopo Comin, Tintoretto (ca. 1519–1594) was one of the great painters of the late Renaissance. This book presents the first biographies of Tintoretto, by Giorgio Vasari and Carlo Ridolfi, as well as accounts from individuals who knew the artist personally. This volume also includes a translation of the marginal notes El Greco wrote in his copy of Vasari’s Life of Tintoretto, which have never before been published. Richly illustrated, with an introduction by the scholar Carlo Corsato that reconstructs Tintoretto’s career and contextualizes the contemporary sources, Lives of Tintoretto enhances our understanding of this influential Renaissance artist, who helped establish the Mannerist style.