A critic of the New York Evening Post said of her pictures at Philadelphia:  “In the painting of the horses Mrs. Morrell has shown great knowledge of their action, and their finish is superb.  The work is painted with great strength throughout, and its solidity and forcible treatment will be admired by all who take an interest in Revolutionary history....  In the drawing of the figures of Standish and the chief at his side, and the dead and dying savages, there is a fine display of artistic power, and the grouping of the figures is masterly....  In color the works are exceedingly brilliant.”

ROBUSTI, MARIETTA. Born in Venice. 1560-1590.  The parentage of this artist would seem to promise her talent and insure its culture.  She was the daughter of Jacopo Robusti, better known as “Il Tintoretto,” who has been called “the thunder of art,” and who avowed his ambition to equal “the drawing of Michael Angelo and the coloring of Titian.”

The portrait of Marietta Robusti proves her to have been justly celebrated for her beauty.  Her face is sweet and gentle in expression.  She was sprightly in manner and full of enthusiasm for anything that interested and attracted her; she had a good talent for music and a charming voice in singing.

Her father’s fondness for her made him desire her constant companionship, and at times he permitted her to dress as a boy and share with him certain studies that she could only have made in this disguise.  Tintoretto carefully cultivated the talents of his daughter, and some of the portraits she painted did her honor.  That of Marco dei Vescovi first turned public attention to her artistic merits.  The beard was especially praised and it was even said by good judges that she equalled her father.  Indeed, her works were so enthusiastically esteemed by some critics that it is difficult to make a just estimate of her as an artist, but we are assured of her exquisite taste in the arrangement of her pictures and of the rare excellence of her coloring.

It soon became the fashion in the aristocratic circles of Venice to sit for portraits to this fascinating artist.  Her likeness of Jacopo Strada, the antiquarian, was considered a worthy gift for the Emperor Maximilian, and a portrait of Marietta was hung in the chamber of his Majesty.  Maximilian, Philip II. of Spain, and the Archduke Ferdinand, each in turn invited Marietta to be the painter of his Court.

Tintoretto could not be induced to be separated from his daughter, and the honors she received so alarmed him that he hastened to marry her to Mario Augusti, a wealthy German jeweller, upon the condition that she should remain at home.

But the Monarch who asks no consent and heeds no refusal claimed this daughter so beloved.  She died at thirty, and it is recorded that both her father and her husband mourned for her so long as they lived.  Marietta was buried in the Church of Santa Maria dell’ Orto, where, within sight of her tomb, are several of her father’s pictures.