The Renaissance artist known as Tintoretto will receive his due on a commemorative 2018 €2 coin from San Marino. 

Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, was born in Venice in 1518. His father was a dyer, or tintore; hence the son got the nickname of Tintoretto, little dyer, or dyer’s boy.

Tintoretto’s painting technique mixed the colors of Titian, of whom he was an apprentice, and Michelangelo’s drawing. He was counted among the greatest representatives of the Venetian school and of the Italian Renaissance; he was a precursor of Baroque art for his dramatic use of light and his emphatic perspective effects.

Among the most prestigious works assigned, Tintoretto produced a large number of paintings for the walls and ceilings of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, an important Venetian religious confraternity.

The Republic of San Marino celebrates the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto’s birth with the €2 coin. 

The obverse of the coin, designed by Luciana De Simoni, depicts the embrace between the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, a detail of the painting Visitation, kept at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.

In total, 60,500 examples of the coin are being issued on April 5. The coin is available in Uncirculated condition for €16 from the Ufficio Filatelico e Numismatico, San Marino’s coin and stamp office. 

The ringed-bimetallic coin has a copper-nickel core and copper-aluminum-nickel ring.

The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag. The common reverse shows a map of the European Union.

The €2 coin weighs 8.5 grams and measures 25.75 millimeters in diameter. 

Each nation is allowed to issue up to two different circulating commemorative designs annually, with designs of their choosing, though few nations issue the maximum number of designs.

Joint euro programs like the 2015 coins honoring the 30th anniversary of flag of the European Union do not count toward this limit.

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