MYSTICAL AND EVANGELICAL REFORM IN TINTORETTO'S SALA
DELL'ALBERGO
by
READ GODARD MCFADDIN
A THESIS
Presented to the Department of Art History
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts
June 2009
11
"Mystical and Evangelical Reform in Tintoretto's Sala dell'Albergo," a thesis prepared
by Read Godard McFaddin in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the Master of
Arts degree in the Department of Art History. This thesis has been approved and accepted
by:
Date
Committee in Charge:
Accepted by:
Dr. James Harper, Chair
Dr. Lauren Kilroy
Dr. Kate Mondloch
Dean of the Graduate School
© 2009 Read Godard McFaddin
III
IV
An Abstract of the Thesis of
Read Godard McFaddin
in the Department of Art History
for the degree of
to be taken
Master of Arts
June 2009
Title: MYSTICAL AND EVANGELICAL REFORM IN TINTORETTO'S SALA
DELL'ALBERGO
Tintoretto's four-painting Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo of the Scuola
Grande di San Rocco in Venice has generated dramatic and affective responses from artists
and critics since its completion in the late 1560s. While scholars have addressed the
cycle's formal qualities that stimulate such responses, the context surrounding the cycle has
not been fully explored. The city was a refuge for reformers and the printing center for
potentially heretical writing in the sixteenth century. Tintoretto maintained relationships to
members of the reformist poligrafi, and the Passion cycle responds to the mystical
theologies propagated in widely disseminated works from Ignatius of Loyola's officially
sanctioned treatise, Spiritual Exercises, to the more controversial work of Don Benedetto
and Marcantonio Flaminio, the Beneficio di Cristo. This thesis constructs a strong
relationship between Tintoretto' s work in the Sala dell'Albergo and contemporary mystical
and evangelical reformative theology and activity in the city.
CURRICULUM VITAE
NAME OF AUTHOR: Read Godard McFaddin
PLACE OF BIRTH: Portland, OR
DATE OF BIRTH: July 6,1984
GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Willamette University, Salem, OR
DEGREES AWARDED:
Master of Arts, Art History, June 2009, University of Oregon
Bachelor of Arts, Art History, May 2006, Willamette University
AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:
Venetian Renaissance Art
Colonial Mexican Art
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2006-2009
SORENG Intern, Jordan Schnitzer Museum ofArt, 2008-2009
v
GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS:
Architecture and Allied Arts Dean's Research Grant, "Mystical and Evangelical
Reform in the Sala dell Albergo," University of Oregon, 2008
Mary Donnelly Travel Grant, "Mystical and Evangelical Reform in the Sala dell
Albergo," University of Oregon, 2008
PUBLICATIONS:
McFaddin, Read. "Vasi's World: A Statistical Analysis of Giuseppe Vasi's
Itinerario." In Giuseppe Vasi's Rome: Lasting Impressionsjrom the Age oj
Grand Tour. Forthcoming, 2010.
VI
Vll
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank Professors James Harper, Lauren Kilroy, and Kate Mondloch for
their energy, assistance, and feedback in the preparation of this manuscript. In addition,
special thanks are due to Professor Roger Hull who first ignited my interest in Tintoretto
and the Sala dell'Albergo. I also wish to express my appreciation for the Department of
Art History and the Department of Architecture and the Allied Arts at the University of
Oregon for their financial support that made such onsite research possible. Finally, I would
like to thank my art history peers for their academic and emotional support throughout the
writing of this thesis.
This work is dedicated to my grandfather, Lauren F. Godard, who sparked my
desire to be a world traveler and a student ofpeople and cultures.
V111
IX
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. RECOGNIZING THE VISIONARY IN TINTORETTO'S PASSION CYCLE... 10
History of the Commission 10
The Compositional Layout of the Crucifixion 14
Perspectival and Temporal Manipulation in the Crucifixion 16
The Mystical Effect of Brushwork and Light in the Crucifixion 19
"Absorption" 21
The Compositional Relationship between the Eastern Wall and the
Crucifixion............................................................................................................. 23
Mechanical Iconography........................................................................................ 24
Christ before Pilate 25
Ecce Homo 27
Christ Carrying the Cross...................................................................................... 27
No Last Supper? 29
III. MYSTICAL AND EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY SURROUNDING
TINTORETTO AND THE SALA DELL'ALBERGO 31
Understanding Mystical Practice and Theology................................................... 32
Contarini and Pole in Sixteenth-Century Venice 38
Chapter
x
Page
Tintoretto and Contarini within the Madonna dell'Orto Church 41
Mysticism and the Venetian Public in a Time of Heresy 47
Tintoretto and the Venetian Interest in Apocalyptic Eschatology 52
Venetian Poligrafi 57
The Spanish Influence.................................... 64
Valdes and the Beneficia di Cristo 71
Mysticism and Evangelism in the Confraternity of San Rocco 78
IV. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................... 86
APPENDICES:
A. TINTORETTO'S ECCE HOMO: EUCHARISTIC AND SEXUAL
UNDERTONES 88
B. FIGURES 94
BIBLIOGRAPHY 124
Xl
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. Tintoretto - Crucifixion - 1565 - Oil on canvas - 536 X 1224 ern - Sala dell'
Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. 94
2. Tintoretto - Christ before Pilate - 1566-68 - Oil on canvas - 515 X 380 crn-
Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice... 95
3. Tintoretto - Ecce Homo - 1566-68 - Oil on canvas - 260 X 390 ern - Sala
dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice.................................. 96
4. Tintoretto - Christ Carrying the Cross - 1566-68 - Oil on canvas - 515 x 390
ern - Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. 97
5. Agostino Carracci - Copy of Tintoretto's Crucifixion - 1589. 98
6. El Greco -Agony in the Garden - 1597-1603 - Oil on canvas - 1020 x 1140
em - Toledo Cathedral, Toledo. . 98
7. Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the Chiesa di San Rocco (exterior view).......... 99
8. Layout of the Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco 100
9. Tintoretto - Saint Roch in Glory - 1564 - Oil on canvas - 240 x 360 cm-
Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice...................................... 101
10. Titian - La Assunta - 1516-1518 - Oil on panel - 690 x 390 ern - Basilica di
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. 102
11. Giovanni Bellini - Crucifixion - 1465 - Oil on canvas - 71 x 63 ern - Musee
du Louvre, Paris. 103
12. Andrea Mantegna- Crucifixion -1456-59 - wood panel-760 x 960 crn-
Musee du Louvre, Paris. 104
13. Masaccio - Holy Trinity - 1428 - Fresco - 667 x 317 em - Santa Maria
Novella, Florence 105
Figure
xii
Page
14. Andrea Mantegna-Dead Christ- c. 1501- Tempera on canvas - 68 x 81 cm
- Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.......... 106
15. Detail of figure 1 107
16. Tintoretto - Crucifixion - 1568 - Oil on canvas - 341 x 371 cm - San
Cassiano, Venice. 108
17. Detail (Far East) of figure 1. 108
18. Tintoretto - The Removal ofthe Body ofSaint Mark-1562-68 - Oil on
canvas - 398 x 315 cm - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. 109
19. East wall of Sala dell'Albergo. 110
20. Albrecht DUrer - Christ Before Herod, from the Small Passion cycle -
1511 - Woodcut. 111
21. Deesis (detail) - 12th century - Mosaic - Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. 114
22. Tintoretto - Allegory ofthe Scuola della Misercordia - c. 1564 - Oil on
canvas - 90 x 190 cm - Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco,
Venice 113
23. Titian - Christ Carrying the Cross - c. 1506 - Oil on canvas - 68 x 88 cm
- Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. 113
24. Tintoretto - Christ among the Doctors - c. 1541-42 - Oil on canvas - 197 x
319 cm - Museo del Duomo, Milan. 114
25. Tintoretto - The Miracle ofSaint Agnes - c.1563 - Oil on canvas - 400 x
200 cm - Madonna dell'Orto, Venice 115
26. Tintoretto - Miracle ofthe Slave - 1547-48 - Oil on canvas - 415 x 541 cm
- Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice........................................................................ 116
27. Tintoretto - Last Judgment - 1557-1563 - Oil on canvas - 1450 x 590 cm
- Madonna dell'Orto, Venice 117
28. Tintoretto - The Vision ofSaint Peter - c. 1552 - Oil on canvas - 420 x
240 cm - Madonna dell'Orto, Venice 118
Figure
Xlll
Page
29. Tintoretto - Saint George Fighting the Dragon - c.1553 - Oil on canvas-
158 x 100 cm - The National Gallery, London 119
30. Tintoretto - Venus, Vulcan, and Mars - c. 1551 - Oil on canvas - 135 x
198 cm - Alte Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlung, Munich 120
31. Tintoretto - Christ Washing His Disciples' Feet (left detail) - c. 1547-49-
Oil on canvas - 210 x 533 cm - Museo del Prado, Madrid 120
32. Tintoretto - Deposition ofChrist from the Cross - 1561 - Oil on canvas -
227 x 294 cm - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice 121
33. Anonymous - The Doge Francesco Dona Presented to the Virgin (detail)-
1545-53 - Engraving 122
34. Folio 331 from Psalter and Hours ofBonne ofLuxembourg- before 1349-
Tempera and gold leaf on vellum - Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York 123
1CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Tintoretto's four-painting Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo at the Scuola
Grande di San Rocco (figs. 1-4), highlighted by the monumental Crucifixion, has elicited
dramatically powerful responses from its viewers since its completion in 1567. In 1589,
Agostino Carracci was so taken with the Crucifixion that he produced an engraving of the
scene and is even said to have presented this work upon its completion to an aged
Tintoretto (fig. 5).1 Its affective power continued into the Baroque, as the Sala
dell'Albergo became a subject of study for developing artists like Peter Paul Rubens,
Anthony van Dyck, and Diego Velazquez in their visits to Italy in the seventeenth
century.2 In the nineteenth century, two young English writer-artists would reaffirm the
dramatic appeal of the works in the small sala in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. In his
visit to Venice in 1845, John Ruskin famously remarked that he could "not insult this
marvelous picture (the Crucifixion) by an effort at a verbal account of it." He then
continued for several paragraphs however, noting that Tintoretto's "enormous powers"
1 See Diane de Grazia Bohlin, Prints and Related Drawings by the Carracci Family: A Catalogue Raisonne
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979),254-255. According to Boschini, Tintoretto was said to
have thought so highly of the print that he considered it equal to the original.
2 Francesco Valcanover, Jacopo Tintoretto and the Scuola Grande ofSan Rocco (Venice: Storti, 1983), 31-
32. We do not have any extant examples of works from these artists that directly reflect the composition of
any of the works in the Sala dell'Albergo. The dramatic use of light and the emotional and expressive use
of figures characteristic of Tintoretto are prominent in certain works of these artists.
2had left him "quite overwhelmed.,,3 Two decades later, Henry James echoed Ruskin's
sentiments and observed of the Cruc(fixion that "no single picture contains more of
human life; there is everything in it, including the most exquisite beauty.,,4 In the
twentieth century, Tintoretto's biographers have unanimously concurred with these
effusive reactions, frequently identifying the artist's work in the Sala dell'Albergo as the
most affecting and effective set of paintings in the artist's entire oeuvre.s
While these responses certainly establish the dramatic and psychological
potentials of the paintings in the Sala dell'Albergo, Domenikos Theotokopoulos' (called
"El Greco") claim that the Cruc(fixion was "the best painting there is in the world," noted
during his short stay in Venice in 1567-68, triggers the following examination of the
relationship between Tintoretto's Passion cycle and mystical and evangelical reform in
sixteenth-century Venice. 6 Adhering to traditional historical approaches, Miguel Falomir
3 John Ruskin is one of the few art critics to consider Venetian Renaissance painting as being equal to or
surpassing the more universally heralded Roman and Tuscan painting styles. Ruskin favorably compared
the Venetians' characterization of nature to the work of the Romantics at the turn of the nineteenth century.
See John Ruskin, Modern Painters (1846), vol. 2, The Works ofJohn Ruskin, eds. Edward Tyas Cook and
Alexander Wedderburn (London, 1903),263.
4 Henry James, The Art ofTravel: Scenes and Journeys in America, England, France, and Italy from the
Travel Writings ofHenry James, ed. Morton Dauwen Zabel (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1958),405-
406. James continues: "It is one of the greatest things of art; it is always interesting. There are works of
the artist which contain touches more exquisite, revelations of beauty more radiant, but there is no other
vision of so intense a reality, an execution so splendid."
5 Hehman claims that the Crucifixion represents the "sheer ingenuity" of Tintoretto and is "exciting." See
Frederick Hehman, "Tintoretto as a Painter of Religious Narrative," in Tintoretto, ed. Miguel Falomir
(Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007), 64. Nichols defmes the painting as the artist's "imaginative
projection" of the event and speaks to a certain "spiritual essentialism" of the time period. See Tom
Nichols, Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity (London: Reaktion, 1999), 162-168. Valcanover responds
effusively, calling the painting both "climatic" and "tragic." See Valcanover, Jacopo Tintoretto, 28-33.
6 Although scholars note that E1 Greco studied with Titian during his Venetian sojourn, the Greek painter
reserved the utmost praise for Tintoretto. See Edward Sullivan, "EI Greco of Toledo," Art Journal 42
(1982): 239. El Greco recorded this quotation in his annotations to his edition of Vasari's lives. For
information on El Greco's relationship with Tintoretto and Titian, see Miguel Falomir, "Tintoretto and
3argues that EI Greco's response resulted from the several stylistic associations that one
could make between Tintoretto's work in the Sala dell'Albergo and the style that came to
define the mature EI Greco. The historian identifies the artists' shared interest in three-
dimensional representation, the treatment and application of anatomy to evoke emotion
and drama, formal and compositional simplicity, and the preparatory practice of using
wax figurines to formulate figural compositions.7 While these observations firmly
suggest that EI Greco drew upon Tintoretto for influence, constricting the association
between the two artists merely to style obscures this relationship's potential to reveal
novel connections between Tintoretto' s work and the religious and social context of
Venice in the 1560s. Although when historian Rodolfo Pallucchini claimed that EI Greco
was "the only disciple of Tintoretto's ideas" he might have only been referring to
Tintoretto's artistic conventions, it likely has broader applications. EI Greco, an artist
keenly attuned to spiritual matters, likely recognized the aesthetic and visionary power of
the older painter's work. 8
Scholars have traditionally considered EI Greco to be the archetypal mystical
painter of late sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century Spain. His works demonstrate the
imaginative projection that characterized visionary descriptions of sixteenth-century
Spain: From El Greco to Velazquez," in Tintorefto, ed. Miguel Falomir (Madrid: Museo Nacional del
Prado, 2007) 168; Lionello Puppi, "El Greco in Italy and Italian Art," in El Greco. Identity and
Transforation: Crete, Italy, Spain, ed. Jose Alvarez Lopera (Milan: Skira, 1999),94-113; Nicos
Hadjinicolaou, El Greco: Byzantium and Italy (Rethymno: Crete University Press, 1990); and Pal Kelemen,
El Greco Revisited: Candia, Venice, Toledo (New York: MacMillan, 1961),64 and 67.
7 Falomir, "Tintoretto and Spain," 168.
8 For Pallucchini's thoughts on the association between Tintoretto and El Greco, ibid., 169.
4Spanish mysticism.9 The manipulation of space, the illuminative lighting, and the
contorted poses, immediately evident in paintings such as his Agony in the Garden (c.
1595; fig. 6), maintain the visionary qualities and inspire the psychological and physical
reactions that define visionary experience. Curiously, despite Tintoretto's relationship to
El Greco, scholars have yet to adequately consider the relationship between the Venetian
painter's work and mystical trends in contemporary Venice.
The scholarly disregard of this association is either due to a misconception that
the Venetians were generally disinterested in mystical theology or the lack of confirmable
biographical evidence to suggest that Tintoretto maintained reformist beliefs. First of all,
as this thesis seeks to clarify, Venice was the heart of Catholic reform in Italy in the
sixteenth century, and several leading members of the reform movement living in Venice
promoted and circulated the principal tenets of Counter-Reformation mysticism
throughout the city. Secondly, while the dearth ofprimary or immediate secondary
sources on Tintoretto' s religious practices, inclinations, and convictions complicates this
discussion, it does not prevent the reasonable construction of a relationship between the
paintings and the mystical practices that came to be integral to the evangelical
reformation movement. Thirdly, while the byproduct of this argument suggests that
Tintoretto carried affinities for visionary contemplation and mid sixteenth-century
mystical exegesis, this essay, adhering to the example set forth by scholars in their
discussion ofEl Greco's relationship to mysticism, does not seek to necessarily identify
9 For an in-depth discussion on the relationship between Spanish art and contemporary mystical trends in
Spain, see Victor I. Stoichita, Visionary Experience in the Golden Age o/Spanish Art (London, Reaktion,
1995).
5Tintoretto as a mystic practitioner (though that possibility remains open). Instead, it
argues for a profound relationship between the artist's Passion cycle in the Sala
dell'Albergo and mystical doctrine as propagated by the Venetian evangelicals or
spirituali. 10
Until recently, this type of cultural contextual analysis has been absent from
scholarly discussions of Tintoretto. Tintoretto's prolific output and his disinclination or
inability to produce consistently psychologically and emotionally affective work have
created challenges for scholars. Annibale Carracci noted that "(he has) seen Tintoretto as
equal to Titian, and at other times as inferior to Tintoretto.,,11 Tintoretto is as elusive
stylistically as he is biographically, and as a result, those few scholars who have
addressed Tintoretto limited themselves to formal discussions of the artist's work (often
on a case by case basis) and dismissed the artistic persona of Jacopo Robusti as an
enigmatic individualist. 12
10 In his contribution to the catalogue, El Greco, David Davies does not consider El Greco to be a mystic,
but elaims that the painter's work cannot and should not evade analysis through the cultural lens of
mysticism. He claims that the paintings are as much products of the culture as they are of individual
artistic ingenuity. See David Davies, "El Greco's Religious Art: The Illumination and Quickening of the
Spirit," in El Greco, eds. David Davies and John H. Elliott (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 45-
71. Fernando Marias also discusses changing perceptions ofEI Greco from the crazed artist, the
philosopher, and the mystic. See Fernando Marias, El Greco (Madrid: Anaya, 1991).
II Miguel Falomir, "Jacopo Comin, alias Robusti, alias Tintoretto: An Exhibition and Catalogue." In
Tintoretto, ed. Miguel Falomir (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007), 17-18.
12 Until recently, even in comprehensive monographs most scholars have addressed Tintoretto's work in a
case-by-case basis. Additionally, scholarship prior to the mid-1990s tends not to consider the relationship
between Tintoretto and his cultural context. Traditionally, historians have contextualized Tintoretto in
terms of the Venetian artistic tradition. They frequently categorized him as functioning outside the
Venetian tradition and identify the artist's motifs as resulting from Tintoretto's desire to be Titian's
antithesis. Scholars have also understood Tintoretto as the Mannerist combination of Michelangelo and
Titian. See Hans Tietze, Tintoretto: The Paintings and Drawings, 1518-1594 (New York: Phaidon, 1948);
Charles de Tomay, "Interpretazione dei cieli pittorci del Tintoretto nella Scuola di San Rocco," Critica
6David Rosand is the first scholar to attempt to contextualize Tintoretto in his 1997
book concerning sixteenth-century Venetian painting, Painting in Sixteenth-Century
Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto. 13 He argues that Tintoretto's work appeals to "a
basic popular level of Christian imagination." The general legibility of his painting and
the "directness of his pictorial language" leads Rosand to suggest that "Tintoretto's own
religious vision is neither mystical nor exclusively personal" and that the artist's "piety
can be considered Counter Reformatory only in the most general way, if at a11.,,14
Rosand's conclusions about Tintoretto's piety are reached almost exclusively through
formal means. There is little consideration of the artist's social network, the nature of the
confraternity, or the Venetian atmosphere in the early to mid sixteenth century. While
Rosand accurately exhorts the accessibility of Tintoretto's work, he discounts the
provocational and physiognomic potentials of the painter's work specifically in the Sala
dell'Albergo. The cycle mayor may not represent Tintoretto's mystical vision of
Christ's Passion, but Rosand's admittance of the participatory role ofthe audience in the
interpretation of the cycle suggests that the paintings likely motivated mystical and
evangelical responses in Tintoretto's viewers. 15 Contrary to Rosand's assertion, the
d'Arte 7 (1960): 341-376; Rodo1fo Pallucchini and Paola Rossi, Tintoretto. Le Opera Sacre e Profane, 2
vo1s (Milan: E1ecta, 1982); and Roland Krische1, Jacopo Tintoretto, 1519-1594 (Ko1n: Konneman, 2000).
13 David Rosand, Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997).
14 Ibid., 159. It is important to note that Rosand's interests lie in the attempt to understand the sixteenth-
century Venetian painting tradition, as is clear in his title, rather than examining how Tintoretto's art might
have functioned in the broader cultural framework.
15 Ibid., 150. Rosand argues that the audience is intended to act as witness to the events of Christ's Passion.
Yet in Rosand's text, the witness remains passive and critically unaware the significance and personal
7Venetian painter's general de-emphasis of the visceral brutality of Christ's torture in
favor of triumphant humility further connects the cycle to the late fifteenth-and sixteenth-
century renovation of medieval mysticism, which suggests that beauty and realism are
more closely associated with the spiritual as opposed to the material. Rosand's
recognition of the physical process of painting as Tintoretto' s "gesture of piety" also
points to the functionality of visionary meditation and evangelism in Counter-
Reformation Venice, as active piety combined with traditional ascetic contemplation to
comprise sixteenth-century mystical practice. 16
Tom Nichols' 1999 monograph on Tintoretto continues where Rosand's
discussion concluded by reaffirming the artist's connection to his native city.17 Yet while
Rosand addresses the artist's association to the Venetian artistic tradition from a more
stylistic context, Nichols' argument relied on stronger historical methodology. While
Nichols arrives at a familiar result in his claim that Tintoretto was in fact a "maverick
individualist," the art historian introduces relevant new avenues ofexploration that
include cultural influences. Nichols discusses the existence and importance of the artist's
ties to Venice's artisan community and the contemporary poligraji. 18 The termpoligraji
literally means "publishers," but in the context of sixteenth-century Venice, the term
importance of the cycle. For him the viewer responds more didactically than emotionally or
psychologically.
16 Ibid., 161. Rosand is the first author since Ridolfi to recognize that the act of painting functions as a
gesture of piety on the part ofthe artist. However, Rosand prefers to read this gesture of orthodoxy rather
than an act of religious exploration.
17 Nichols begins his introduction with the phrase: "Jacopo Tintoretto was born and died in Venice." See
Nichols, Tintoretto, 13.
18 For Nichols' discussion of Tintoretto's relationship with the poligraji, see ibid., 69-100.
8specifically refers to an innovative literary culture that catered to popular rather than
classical taste and was frequently subversive. The few documented friends of Tintoretto
all held ties to this group, a group whose ties to the Venetian publishers made them
suspect in the eyes of the Venetian papalisti (those members of the patrician class that
supported the papacy) and the Venetian and Roman Inquisitions.19 However, Nichols
neglects to reveal the close association that the Venetian poligraji and artisan community,
a group with which scholars claim that Tintoretto identified, had with the reformist and
heretical activities in Venice, ensuring that Tintoretto would have, at the very least, been
conscious of reformist and mystical doctrine.2o
The claim of this thesis that there exists a significant and active dialogue between
Tintoretto's four-painting Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo and mystical and
evangelical reform in sixteenth-century Venice will be supported in three ways: 1)
through a close formal analysis of the Passion cycle (paying special attention to the
Crucifixion) that reveal the qualities ofthe Sala dell'Albergo that stimulate visionary
response; 2) through the examination of the culture surrounding Tintoretto and the Scuola
Grande di San Rocco supportive of mystical theology and evangelical reform; and 3)
through the consideration of the paintings' relationship to the mystical writings
19 As will be discussed later, the Roman and Venetian Inquisitions considered the Venetian publishers to be
a primary target of attack for their publishing of potential heretical literature.
20 Tintoretto's identification with the artisan community that inhabited the Canareggio region of Venice
(where Tintoretto lived and worked) rather than the Venetian patrician class is largely anecdotal. Ridolfi
stated, "with the encouragement of his wife who held the rank of citizen of Venice, he wore the Venetian
toga. Thus it was that that lady used to watch him from the window when he went out in order to observe
how well he looked in that dress. But he, instead, in order to annoy her, showed little regard for it." In his
Abecedario of 1713, P-J Mariette extends this anecdote, suggesting that the artist threw the patrician toga in
the mud. See Nichols, Tintoretto, 16.
9(specifically Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises [1522-24] and Don Benedetto
and Marcantonio Flaminio's Benejicio di Cristo [1543]) that were popular and widely
disseminated in mid sixteenth-century Venice.
10
CHAPTER II
RECOGNIZING THE VISIONARY IN TINTORETTO'S PASSION CYCLE
Tintoretto's representational strategies for depicting the four-painting Passion
cycle (Crucifixion, Christ before Pilate, Ecce Homo, and Christ Carrying the Cross)
provide the visual foundation for understanding the cycle in terms of mystical and
evangelical practice and reform. The following section examines the compositions of
each of the four paintings with specific consideration given to formal characteristics that
could potentially stimulate mystical or dramatic responses from viewers. While
examining these characteristics in isolation cannot confirm the cycle's relationship to
mystical and evangelical activities in the sixteenth century, this chapter will lay the
groundwork for the contextual approach in the following chapter.
History ofthe Commission
The Scuola Grande di San Rocco was dedicated to Roch, a fourteenth-century
saint who left France in 1315 to offer his assistance to plague ravaged Italy. While Saint
Roch's saintliness was more immediately recognized in France, and though he never
worked in Venice, the saint was an ideal fit for the disease infested, water-locked city.
The Council of Ten, the supreme legislative body in Venetian government, recognized
the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in 1478, and the entire body of the saint was
11
"transported" to Venice from France in 1485.21 The brotherhood of San Rocco held
confraternity meetings in other churches and meeting houses until they commissioned
Bartolomeo Bon to build them a large meeting house adjacent to the Church of Santa
Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. The economics of Venice after the War of the League of
Cambrai and the brothers' dissatisfaction with the architect's designs delayed the
construction of the building. The delay led to the hiring of Antonio Abbondi (called
Scarpagnino) in place of Bon and Sante Lombardo, Bon's ineffective successor. The
ornate and ostentatious building was for all intents and purposes completed by
Scarpagnino's death in 1549 (fig. 7).22
The interior decoration of the Sala dell'Albergo was the first decorative priority
for the confraternity after the construction of the building (fig. 8).23 The room functioned
as a refectory and hospitality room for the confraternity, and the brothers originally
awarded Titian the commission?4 Titian never fulfilled this commission, and in the
21 The body of the saint is said to have been surreptitiously transferred to Venice according to the traditions
ofjurta sacra (sacred theft), in which the will of the saint determines the location of his body. For the
seminal discussion on the translation of St. Mark and other sacred thefts, see Patrick 1. Geary, Furta Sacra:
Thefts ojRelics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978).
22 For a complete background to the foundation of the confraternity of San Rocco and the construction of
the scuola, see Franco Tonon, La Scuola Grande di San Rocco nel Cinquecento: Attraverso i Documenti
della sue Mariegola (Venice, Italy: Quaderni della Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, 1999);
and Franco Tonon, Devotissima Scuola e Fraternita del Glorioso Missier San Rocco 'Registro delle Parti'
1488-1549 (Venice, Italy: Quaderni della Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, 2003).
23 While this thesis only directly addresses the Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo, Tintoretto completed
nineteen other smaller paintings in the Sala dell'Albergo. While these paintings do not significantly
contribute to the discussion of stimulation of visionary response, paintings such Saint Roch in Glory and
the Allegory ojthe Scuola della Carita (school of charity) are certainly complementary to this mystical
reading as the saint rises to unite with God and, as will be discussed in chapter 2, mystical theology and
charity are intimately connected.
24 It should be noted that although "albergo" literally means "hotel" in modem Italian usage, in the
sixteenth century it referred more broadly to a place of hospitality. It remains unclear as to how the
12
Spring of 1564, the confraternity summoned Giuseppe Salviati, Federico Zuccaro, Paolo
Veronese, and Tintoretto to participate in a competition to decorate the Sala.25 The
confraternity asked each artist to offer a design of "Saint Roch in Glory" for the central
ceiling panel (1564; fig. 9). While Veronese would have been the favorite given his
rising reputation in the city and the involvement of his friend and mentor, Titian, with the
supervising board of the Scuola Grande, Vasari claims that Tintoretto's unusual business
practices ensured him the commission:
But while the other artists were giving themselves with all diligence to the preparation of
their designs, Tintoretto made an exact measurement of the space for which the picture
was required, and taking a large canvas, he painted it without saying a word to anyone
and with his usual celerity, putting it instantly up in the place destined to receive it. One
morning, therefore, when the Brotherhood had assembled to see the designs and to
determine the matter, they found that Tintoretto had entirely completed the work, nay,
that he had fixed it in its place; whereupon, becoming angry with him, and observing that
they had required designs and had not commissioned him to do the work, Tintoretto
replied that this was his method ofpreparing designs, that he did not know how to make
them in any other manner; and that all designs and models for a work should be executed
in that fashion, to the end that the persons interested might see what it was intended to
offer them, and might not be deceived: he added, that if they did not think proper to pay
for the work and remunerate him for his pains, he would make them a present of the
same. At the last ... the picture still retains its place.26
While the accuracy of Vasari' s anecdote is certainly questionable, the story
adheres to conventional accounts of Tintoretto's business practices. Nichols argues that
albergo room in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco functioned in the sixteenth century specifically. While
the confraternity brothers (women would have only been allowed into the confraternity on special
occasions) would have undoubtedly eaten in this room, the room may have also had additional functions.
25 For a brief discussion of Titian's role in this project, see Nichols, Tintoretto, 153.
26 Vasari's consideration of Tintoretto's work in the Scuola Grande also includes a description of the
newly-finished building itself, although, as is typical, Vasari's critique demonstrates his general disdain for
Venetian painting and craftsmanship. See Giorgio Vasari, Lives o/Seventy o/the Most Eminent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects, vol. 3, ed. and trans. E.H. Blashfield, E.W. Blashfield, and A.A. Hopkins (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926), 392-393. Carlo Ridolfi also reveals a similar story in his narration
ofthe commissioning process, and scholars have generally accepted this story as being relatively accurate.
See Carlo Ridolfi, Vita di Giacopo Robusti detto il Tintoretto, translated by Catherine Engass and Robert
Engass (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1984), 19-26.
13
Tintoretto may have had supporters within the Scuola Grande who notified him that the
confraternity must accept any gifts offered to the saint, thus all but forcing the brothers to
award him with the commission?7 Tintoretto's selection was not without opposition.
Zuan Maria Zignoni, a member of the selection board, stated that he would only offer
financial support to the decoration of the sala if Tintoretto did not receive the
commission. Yet, the Tintoretto supporters won out, and Girolamo Rota, guardian
grande, commissioned the artist for the enormous Crucifixion to decorate the entire west
wall of the Sala dell'Albergo in 1565. Tintoretto clearly regarded him as an ally because
in the lower left comer of the painting, the artist dedicated the work to Rota: "Made by
Jacopo Tintoretto in the Time of the Magnificent Girolamo Rota and Company.,,28
Tintoretto's gamble had won over the majority of leading bodies in the confraternity, but
Tintoretto's reputation and position as official painter in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco
remained tenuous throughout the following decades despite his acceptance into the
scuola as a brother in 1566 and the positive reception of the Crucifixion?9
27 Scholars remain vague in their discussion of Tintoretto's relationship to members in the confraternity of
San Rocco. While he had artistic supporters, it is unclear as to whether these members could be considered
friends (as Nichols implies). Given that twenty-five percent of the confraternity membership is comprised
of wool dyers from the Canareggio region where Tintoretto resided ("Tintoretto" literally meaning, the
"little dyer"), it is likely that he could have had friendly and familiar allies involved with the project. For a
more complete discussion ofthe commission and subsequent awarding of the project to Tintoretto, see
Pallucchini and Rossi, 189-191 and Nichols, Tintoretto, 153-156.
28 Translation by Nichols: Tempore Magnifici / Domini Hieronimi / Rotae, et Collegarum / Iacobus
Tintorectus Facebat. See Nichols, Tintoretto, 156.
29 Tintoretto applied for membership into the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in 1568, perhaps assuring the
scuola that he would decorate the Sala Superiore and the ground floor of the building for minimal cost (to
cover the cost of the materials; the labor was free). He received a yearly stipend from the confraternity,
although this stipend was a fraction of the actual market value of his work.
14
The Compositional Layout ofthe Crucifixion
The enormous and impressive scale is the most defining characteristic of the
Crucifixion (5.36 by 12.24 meters). Tintoretto experiments with dramatic lighting,
complicated composition, and the posing of figures on an extended horizontal canvas.
The painting completely fills the central register of the western wall of the Sala
dell'Albergo, thereby heightening the tension between real and fictive space and
suggesting that the viewer participates in the narrative action.
The composition's angular components, which frequently appear in the works of
Tintoretto, complicate the relationship between real and fictive space further. The artist
raised the landscape in both the upper left and right of the painting in order to create a v-
shaped triangle. The triangle's apex is the base of Christ's cross on the stage-like plateau
and effectively confronts the viewer in real space. A downtumed V-shape formed
through clever figural composition only moderately eases this tension. Tintoretto forms
this secondary triangle through various figures in red, a compositional tool that the artist
likely borrowed from Titian's famous Assunta (1518; fig. 10) located in the neighboring
Frari church. The torqued executioner pulling up the good thief in the lower left
represents one corner. The rope he is pulling guides the eye of the viewer up to the
equestrian onlooker in red who tilts his torso in the direction of Christ's head. Likewise,
to the right of Christ another equestrian figure adopts the reverse pose and directs the
viewer through the digging figure to the seated onlooker in the lower right. The
reflective triangles reaffirm the central subjects ofthe narrative by guiding the viewer to
Christ on the cross and the group of mourning figures at the cross' base.
15
The circular composition of the crowd of onlookers partially obscures this
angularity and implicates the viewer in the scene. Tintoretto abandoned the classical
frieze-like placement of the onlookers that had defined the High Renaissance approach to
composing the Crucifixion, including those of both Bellini (1465; fig. 11) and Andrea
Mantegna (1457-59; fig. 12). This departure from artistic tradition infused the painting
with an organic naturalism that draws the viewers into the work. The witnesses form a
flattened arc around Christ, only interrupted by the picture plane. This interruption
implies that the completion of the circle occurs in real space. In that sense, the
inhabitants of the Sala dell'Albergo become active participants in the compositional
formation of the scene. The artist blurred the distinction between fictive onlookers and
the viewers. The witnesses, who are presumably focused on the execution, utterly
disregard the viewers, suggesting their participatory presence is not unusual. That said,
the circle of figures around Christ only further complicates the turbulent composition, as
the disharmonic relationship between the circular and the angular heighten the drama and
intensity of the scene.
Tintoretto ingeniously established the iconic image of Christ on the cross as the
compositional exception. The Christ figure provides the painting's only vertical and
horizontal stability. The central location of the long shaft of Christ's cross not only
divides the composition, but also steadies the viewer's focus on the image. Similarly, the
slightly elongated arms of Christ echo the upper horizontal edge of the picture plane,
reaffirming the inherent rectilinear format of the work. By using Christ as the
compositional exception, the artist effectively isolated the figure from its setting.
16
Perspectival and Temporal Manipulation in the Crucifixion
The artist carefully manipulated depth and traditional perspective to create the
effect of Christ protruding into the viewer's space. Spatial manipulation is not unusual in
Renaissance art. Masaccio employed a similar technique in his Holy Trinity (1428; fig.
13), projecting God the Father forward in space, and Mantegna pushed the feet of Christ
forward in his Dead Christ (1501; fig. 14).30 Tintoretto employed this technique for a
more visual than symbolic effect. The base of Christ's cross appears to lie further back in
space than the actual figure of Christ (fig. 15). While at its base the cross is behind the
throng of mourners, Christ appears to hover over the crowd. The scale and proportion of
Christ does not correspond to his accurate spatial position. Ifhis body were taut and
upright, he would be significantly larger than any foreground figure. Although his hands
may exhibit the nails, his torso is leaning so far forward as to suggest that the figure is
separated from the wooden crossbeam.
This spatial manipulation forms a relationship between the iconic figure of the
crucified Christ and the viewer. This relationship, in the midst of all else, makes the
scene both chaotic and tranquil, both foreign and intimate. Without physically or visually
addressing the viewer, Christ is the only figure to actually address the world beyond the
picture plane. Tintoretto likely recognized the intimate, mystical power contained in the
image of the crucified Christ. He would have agreed with his influential predecessor,
30 Masaccio's God the Father is not projected into the viewer's space. In Masaccio's work, God's feet
stand on a platfonn deep within the fictive chapel, while his torso and anns extend forward to hold the anns
of the crucifix that is located much closer to the picture plane.
17
Michelangelo, who wrote that "no brush or chisel will quiet the soul, once it is turned to
the divine love of Him who, upon the Cross, outstretched His arms to take us to
Himself. ,,31
Tintoretto's allusion to three different stages of Christ's crucifixion complicates
the relationship between the iconic figure of Christ and the viewer. The artist chose to
represent the two thieves still in the process of being crucified in order to reinforce the
stages of Christ's own crucifixion process. This presentation designates a significant
shift in the traditional Italian Renaissance representation of the two thieves in Crucifixion
images, although northern Renaissance printmakers had frequently depicted Christ in the
process of crucifixion?2 Typically, as is the case in Tintoretto's later Crucifixion for the
Church of San Cassiano (1568; fig. 16), the thieves are depicted already upright, one to
each side of Christ. The representation of the thieves at different stages of the crucifixion
process produces several results. The most immediate result of this subrogation is to
remind viewers of Christ's own process. While this might reinforce the Crucifixion as an
actual historical event, more importantly, it asks viewers to envision Christ being
crucified before them, thereby suggesting that the vision of the Crucifixion is unfolding
31 This excerpt, from a letter of Michelangelo, was extracted from Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy,
1450-1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962),80.
32 Northern examples of Christ in the process ofbeing crucified include Albrecht Diirer's woodcut Nailing
Christ to the Cross (1509-1511) as part of his Small Passion series and Hans Baldung Grien's The Erection
o/the Cross (1507) from his series, Speculum passionis domini nostril Ihesu christi. Images of these prints
are available in Giorgio Zampa, L 'opera completa di Durer (Milano: Rizzoli, 1968). Northern Renaissance
prints were ubiquitous in Venice during the sixteenth century, and it is rumored that Tintoretto may have
carried special ties to the German community in Venice. See Robert Echols, "The Decisive Years: 1547-
1555" in Tintoretto, ed. Miguel Falomir (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007), 150-157. For a more
in-depth discussion of Tintoretto's relationship to northern prints of the early sixteenth-century see
Krischel, Jacopo Tintoretto, 108-111.
18
in the sixteenth-century confines of the Sala dell'Albergo. In this sense, Christ is both an
historical figure and an iconic figure that exists as much in the contemporary
environment of the Sala dell'Albergo as he does in the painted representation of the hill
of Golgotha.
The various figures in the crowd of witnesses suggest that Tintoretto wanted to
separate this painting from historical reality further. The inclusion of an impressive
crowd ofonlookers, several of whom are dressed in contemporary Venetian garb, was not
unusual for sixteenth-century Venetian representations of the Crucifixion. Yet the scene
is no longer restricted to the pious, Christian viewer or the persecuting Roman soldier,
but also turbaned easterners entering on oversized camels in front of an obelisk in the
upper left and visitors apparently from the Far East approaching the scene in the upper
right (fig. 17). The inclusion of an obelisk in a depiction of the crucifixion of Saint Peter
is more standard, given that during the Renaissance it was believed that the Vatican
obelisk marked the spot of his crucifixion in Rome. It has no immediate precedent in
depictions of Christ's crucifixion, and perhaps points to the foreign nature of the setting.
In apocalyptic thinking that was present throughout the period, and will be discussed at
greater detail later in this essay, this Christ towering over this obelisk may also refer to
the ultimate triumph of Christianity over paganism. The fantastic vision of the
Crucifixion might also point to a temporally ambiguous interpretation of the event, as the
bystanders' costumes are not appropriate for the historical moment and location.
Tintoretto appears to have been more interested in representing the dramatic and
universal potentials of the event rather than the event itself.
19
The Mystical Effect ofBrushwork and Light in the Cruc(fixion
Tintoretto's characteristic loose and expressionistic brushwork in the Cruc(fixion
reinforces the temporally ambiguous nature of the scene by creating a dynamic scene that
seems to unfold before the viewer. This style of brushwork and its effects are evident in
the musculature and drapery of the foreground figures. Additionally, the foreign-dressed
figures that enter the scene in the upper right and upper left are composed loosely and
highlighted by white accents. Tintoretto most notably applied this technique shortly
before painting the Cruc(fixion in his Removal ofthe Body ofSaint Mark (c. 1563; fig.
18) for the Scuola Grande di San Marco. While this pictorial technique undoubtedly
implies distance (as it does in the Cruc(fixion), it might also function as religious
commentary. While the artist clearly represented the primary foreground figures, the
citizens of Alexandria dissolve into the tempestuous background in this earlier work.
Nichols argues that this physical and spatial dissolution of the setting of the Removal of
the Body ofSaint Mark reflects the "moral disintegration" of the Alexandrians.33 If one
applies this argument to his subsequent Crucifixion painting, the relative impermanence
and ghostly nature of these alien figures, in stark contrast to the firm forms of the figures
visually focusing on Christ's crucifixion, suggests that they are morally and spiritually
33 Nichols' discussion of Tintoretto's characteristic technique confmes itself to the works the painter
completed for the Scuola di San Marco shortly prior to his work for the confraternity of San Rocco.
Nichols, Tintoretto, 142.
20
inept.34 While the standard argument that this technique signifies depth is certainly valid
and in play, Tintoretto's decision to include these distant background figures who ignore
the Crucifixion seems to suggest that although the promise of redemption of lies in front
of them, these figures do not actually partake in the witnessing of Christ's crucifixion and
remain ignorant bystanders to this act of ultimate charity. Therefore, this painting not
only behaves as a conduit for pious worship, but also implicitly condemns those who do
not participate in visionary and contemplative meditation on Christ's sacrifice.
The intense chiaroscuro heightens the drama, most notably in the presentation of
the executioner and the upturned faces of John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene, and
draws attention to the active and frequently contorted poses of the human body,
enhancing the viewer's visceral response to the event. Tintoretto adhered to the
architecture of the Sala dell'Albergo and identified the northern windows (the side
bordering the Frari church and the Church of San Rocco) as his source of light. Christ is
the sole figure that partly escapes the restrictions of this system. While his left side is
fully illuminated according to this system and in a manner that is similar to that used in
his Crucifixion in the Scuola del Sacramento, the aureole surrounding Christ extends
beyond the traditional halo format to backlight the figure. This lighting has the spatial
effect of further projecting the figure beyond the picture plane. Tintoretto's decision to
obscure Christ's face in shadow not only isolates the figure from its dramatic setting, but
also helps to forge a quiet relationship between the viewer and the icon. This Christ does
34 Tintoretto used this technique later in his Baptism afChrist (1578-81) in the Sala Superiore of the Scuola
Grande di San Rocco, in which a line of ghostly figures seems to wait to be baptized by JohnThe modality
suggests that they are, in essence, morally inept until they undergo this spiritually cleansing process.
21
not exhibit the pain of being crucified, nor does he remain lifeless on the cross. Instead,
the figure functions as a dynamic Eucharistic offering that intimately and unwaveringly
confronts the viewer, thereby provoking visionary, meditative response.
"Absorption"
Though Michael Fried develops the theoretical category of "absorption" for
another period, one could argue that something parallel is operative in the Crucifixion.35
Fried defines absorption with regard to painting as the effect of engaging the viewer in
the narrative by virtue of stylistic and compositional elements without visually referring
to the viewer.36 The boundaries between real and fictive space, observation and
participation, and intellect and emotion are ambiguous, as either the viewer joins the
historical world of the Crucifixion or Christ enters ours. As Brian Robb noted, Tintoretto
was meticulous in the study of his paintings' surroundings, and he was surely aware that
the relatively small size of the Sala dell'Albergo possessed tremendous potential for a
dramatic, sweeping Crucifixion scene.37 In this sense, the Crucifixion functions more
3S Michael Fried's discussion ofDiderot's approach to high art primarily focuses on those paintings and
artists that Diderot himself examined; Tintoretto was thus not directly referenced. See Michael Fried,
Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and the Beholder in the Age ofDiderot (Berkeley, CA: University
of California Press, 1980), 107-160.
36 Frequently in Italian Renaissance art, artists engage the viewer by including a figure that looks out to the
audience or by formulating a scene in which the setting essentially "stages" a performance of a scene.
Fried would categorize these approaches as being overtly theatrical, or antithetical to absorption.
Tintoretto's Crucifixion is an example of absorptive painting, while the Ecce Homo is somewhat more
theatrical, given the manner in which the figures present Christ to the viewing audience within the real
space of the Sala dell' Albergo.
37 See Brian Robb, Brian Robb on Tintoretto's San Rocco "Crucifixion" (London: Cassell, 1969), 19.
22
similarly to a Tuscan Cenacolo or Renaissance tapestry.38 Given Tintoretto's origins as
the son of a Venetian dyer, he was likely familiar with the encompassing nature of such
large-scale fabrics. The monumental canvas literally becomes the western wall of the
meal room, and the narrowness of the space forces the viewers to address the work at
close proximity. The overwhelming presence of the work even assails the inhabitants of
the sala when they are not directly facing the painting; viewers have no choice but to
become absorbed into the painting as long as they are present in the room.
The concept of absorption was not foreign to art theory of the later Renaissance,
as fifteenth-century Dominican Fra Michele da Carcano stated that "images were
introduced on account of our emotional sluggishness; so that men who are not aroused to
devotion when they hear about the histories of the Saints may at least be moved when
they see them, as if actually present in the pictures.,,39 The friar's comment suggests that
there existed a close relationship between artists as "professional visualizers" and their
audiences.4o The painter must present the subject matter in a visually logical way, and
more importantly, the artist's vision should not contradict the individual beholder's
created mental picture of the scene and its figures. The Council of Trent met for its
38 Cenacolo describes an Italian refectory decorated with the Last Supper scene in which the entire frescoed
image covers the wall (although usually the painting is on the short wall). Examples of this include
Leonardo's Last Supper for Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan and Andrea del Castagno's Last Supper for
the Church ofSant'Apollonia in Florence. Also, I do not wish to assume that frescoed paintings and
tapestries function identically. While frescoes and tapestries obviously differ in many regards (portability,
material richness, etc.), they frequently share the wall-sized scale.
39 Fra Michele da Carcano offered these thoughts in the fourteenth century, but they remain especially
applicable in the Tridentine era of Italy. See Michael Baxandall, Patterns ofIntention: on the Historical
Explanation ofPictures (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985),41-42.
40 One result of the Tridentine Counter Reformation was the reaffirmation of the religious artist as an
artisan working as much in theological terms as creative terms. Ibid., 45-47.
23
twenty-fifth and final session in 1563 and argued that religious imagery should inspire
the pious worshipper to devotion.41 Tintoretto was likely working in response to the
Tridentine doctrinal framework when he approached his Crucifixion. His Christ is
relatively idealized, non-descript, and generic, thereby allowing the viewer's
reconstructive and interpretative nature the freedom to mold the figure into his chosen
image of Christ.
The Compositional Relationship between the Eastern Wall and the Crucifixion
The three paintings on the opposing wall of the Sala dell'Albergo (Christ before
Pilate, Ecce Homo, and Christ Carrying the Cross) complement and contribute to the
dramatic and visionary qualities of the Crucifixion (see fig. 19). Tintoretto completed
these paintings in 1566-67 and intended for them to prepare the viewer for the climax of
the Crucifixion. There is significant dialogue between the artist's depictions of the events
leading up to the Crucifixion and the culmination of Christ's sacrifice.
The physical organization of the three paintings on the eastern wall of the sala
reflects the fresco-like spatial quality of the Crucifixion. Only small frames prevent the
wall from being viewed as a single unit containing three distinct scenes (figural scale is
comparable in each painting). The result ofthis placement is a strong narrative fluidity,
albeit in a reverse direction, and it enables the subsidiary paintings to function as a
relatively cohesive unit in response to the Crucifixion. Furthermore, if one were to view
41 The Council of Trent also argued that religious works of art should represent the chosen subject more
clearly (at odds with the contemporary Mannerist tendencies) and reflect official church doctrine. See
Canons and Decrees ofthe Council ofTrent, ed. and trans. H.I. Schroeder (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1941),
214-278.
24
the scenes as a single unit, the compositional qualities of the trio also mirror those of the
Crucifixion. The beaten Christ of the Ecce Homo provides the apex of the triangle that is
continued through the flanking figures in the same image and down through the two
thieves en route to Calvary and the Christ and scribe adorned in white in the presence of
Pilate. This triangle mirrors the triangle of figures in red with Christ at the apex in the
Crucifixion as well as echoes the pediment above the room's entrance.42 The secondary
inverted triangle of the Crucifixion, whose apex encroaches on the viewer's space, is also
reflected in the two images flanking the entrance of the room. Christ's uphill (or
upstairs) climb in both Christ Carrying the Cross and Christ before Pilate creates an
inverted triangle, the apex of which is the viewer entering the room, enhancing the
cycle's absorptive effect. In each case, Christ bows his head in humble awareness of his
fate and faces outward in order to redirect viewers to the Crucifixion.
Mechanical Iconography
While the iconography of each painting, for the most part, is specific to the
Passion scene depicted, Tintoretto's unusual inclusion of elements that specifically and
explicitly refer to the mechanical process of binding, pulling, and raising Christ to the
42 Given the frequency that Tintoretto employs the color red throughout the cycle, the symbolic
connotations that the color carried in Renaissance Venice should be considered. Red maintains its most
immediate connections to Eucharistic sacrifice and offerings, while simultaneously reaffirming the
physicality of the Passion narrative- Christ is bound, beaten, and driven to his death. The blood-stained
marks on the columns in Christ before Pilate foreshadow those found on the robe in the Ecce Homo and
allude to the intermediate event when the Romans tied Christ to a pole to be beaten, but they also reinforce
the concept of sacrifice through his trial and execution. In the Ecce Homo, Tintoretto presented this same
garment stained with blood as if to simultaneously indict the viewer and offer salvation. Certainly, the
blood-stained robe heightens the confrontational nature of the cycle and immediately portends the fate of
the Christ opposite.
25
cross might refer to the scuola and its constituency. Nichols' argument that the motifof
the rope, most prominent in Christ Carrying the Cross, could refer to the flagellant
functions of the scuola is attractive, and it is likely that the motif also refers to the
physical process of Christ's crucifixion, an argument strengthened by Tintoretto's
inclusions of hammers, nails, ladders, and other artisan's tools in his depictions of Christ
on his way to Calvary and his crucifixion.43 The connection between the spiritual and
mechanical processes of the crucifixion would have carried strong meaning for a
confraternity whose membership largely consisted of upper middle-class artisans. This
association would have intensified the narrative action, and the mechanical motif would
have emphasized the physicality of the process, thereby heightening the cycle's sensorial
engagement of viewers. The ascending Christ is portrayed neither in agony, nor in
triumph. This Christ suffers the physical torment of his execution with quiet dignity that
suggests that he already accepted his fate. The shared position ofthose who help him
bear this burden accentuates the charitable aspects of Christ and calls the viewer to
emulate the behavior.
Christ before Pilate
Despite postdating the creation of the Crucifixion, Tintoretto's Christ before
Pilate represents the opening biblical event in this Passion cycle. It is unknown the
extent to which Tintoretto was involved in the selection of the three supporting Passion
43 Nichols, Tintoretto, 172. The association between the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and penitent
practices during the sixteenth century will be discussed in further detai11ater.
26
scenes; yet, by choosing the trial of Christ as the first scene depicted (as opposed to the
entrance into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, or the Betrayal of Judas), this Passion cycle
emphatically foreshadows the story's fatal conclusion, as the destiny of Christ is already
clear when Pilate washes his hands. From a judicial perspective, this scene represents the
first clear step toward Christ's sacrifice.
Tintoretto's depiction of the protagonist in Christ before Pilate suggests that the
fate of Christ is already sealed. Nichols has compared the elongated and profile view of
Christ to Albrecht Durer's woodcut of Christ before Herod (1507; fig. 20).44 While
Durer is a likely source, the ethereal and illuminated figure shares much in common with
Byzantine mosaics of Christ in which the reflective quality of the tessarae comprising
Christ's garment creates a figure bathed in 'holy' light (see fig. 21). Tintoretto clearly
drew upon the abundant Byzantine sources in Venice at this point in his career, as is
evident in his portrayal of Madonna with the Christ child in her breastplate directly above
the Crucifixion (fig. 22). This motif is a descendent of the Virgin Blachernitissa image
that developed in Byzantium several centuries earlier. To a certain degree, this Byzantine
ethereality disconnects Christ from his historical context. Tintoretto further enhanced
this effect through the relationship between the painted setting and the physical
constructions of the Sala dell'Albergo. Although the pictorial recession does not
precisely correspond to the recession of the southern wall of the sala, the oblique angle
from which the viewer approaches the scene creates the illusion that the wall extends into
44 Both Nichols and Krischel discuss Tintoretto's compositional interest in German woodcuts, but Nichols
is the only scholar to identify the DUrer woodcut as a direct source. Ibid., 172; and Krischel, Jacopo
Tintoretto, 108-111.
27
the panting. Furthennore, the painted capitals neatly replicate the columns that frame the
windows on the northern and southern walls of the sala. The Sala dell'Albergo itself
becomes the setting for the event and the contemporary viewers become absorbed
witnesses.
Ecce Homo
The setting of the Ecce Homo also hannonizes with the physical space of the
room. Not only does the triangular composition of the three primary figures repeat the
shape of the pediment directly beneath, but also the two figures flanking Christ appear to
be descending the staircase into real space. Tintoretto presented Christ as a symbolic
offering to the viewer. The luminescence of the figure corresponds to the ethereality that
the painter previously established in both the Crucifixion and Christ before Pilate. Yet,
simultaneously, Pilate descends the staircase toward real space and gestures toward the
picture plane. The actions of Pilate reaffinn the narrative basis for the scene and suggest
that the visitors of the Sala dell'Albergo are among those that comprise the mass of
witnesses. This enables the painting to become more confrontational as Tintoretto
demanded that the viewers share in the burden of responsibility for this sacrifice.
Christ Carrying the Cross
The final painting of the Passion cycle, Christ Carrying the Cross, is perhaps the
most compositionally intriguing of the three subsidiary scenes. Tintoretto opted for the
more narrative representation of the scene as opposed to the more iconic depictions that
28
had become more popular in the sixteenth century, an example of which is the Giorgione
version also owned by the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (fig. 23). Peculiarly, Tintoretto
decided to decentralize the Christ figure in this painting in favor of the two thieves who
struggle up the hill in the foreground. This technique is strongly characteristic of his
religious painting and is first explored in Christ among the Doctors (1542; fig. 24). The
shift of attention to the two thieves signifies the artist's desire to highlight the charitable
aspects of those men, in contemporary dress, who are providing assistance. This
representation directly references the charitable achievements of the confraternity during
a period in which the scuole were frequently criticized for reckless spending.
The painting's atypical spatial construction only enhances the immediacy of the
scene for the viewer. Tintoretto composed the scene based on two strong diagonals that
either continue or neatly complement the pediment above the entrance (in fact, the
diagonals meet at the lower left comer of the pediment). This construction not only
established a fluid composition and allowed for the opportunity to explore dramatic
potentials of light and dark contrasts, but also blurred the distinctions between real and
fictive space. The artist manipulates physical realism of the hill as the two thieves ascend
and walk further from the picture plane while Christ unfeasibly encroaches on real space.
In this sense, Christ is literally walking to his own crucifixion on the opposite wall,
reminding viewers of the powerful image that hovers over their shoulders.
29
No Last Supper?
The absence of a Last Supper image in the refectory is unusual. While Tintoretto
did position a depiction of the Last Supper near the main altar in the Sala Superiore
nearly a decade later, the convergence ofthe Passion theme with the alimentary function
ofthe Sala dell'Albergo and Tintoretto's fondness for depicting the event would argue
for the inclusion of the Last Supper.45 There are two plausible reasons the confraternity
of San Rocco may have chosen not to include the Last Supper. Firstly, the offertory
nature of the Christ figure in the Ecce Homo suggests that eucharistic undertones might
be implicitly present. In addition, the donkey eating palm leaves immediately to the left
of Christ on the cross not only refers to Christ's entrance into Jerusalem signaling the
beginning of the Passion, but also metaphorically reaffirms the analogous relationship
between the sacrifice and spiritual sustenance, as the sacrifice of Christ's body provides
nourishment for the pious soul. Secondly, Eucharistic undertones would have imbued
mystical significance into the otherwise mundane purpose of the room. Implicitly and
mysteriously, each meal in the Sala dell'Albergo functioned as a mystical reenactment of
the Last Supper. It is reasonable to believe that given the symbolic capabilities of both
the decoration and activities of the Sala dell'Albergo, the confraternity felt that the
inclusion of the Last Supper would have been redundant.
45 It is possible, but very unlikely, that the Scuola Grande di San Rocco had always planned for the Last
Supper to decorate the Sala Superiore as opposed to the Sala dell'Albergo. The Last Supper was painted a
decade and a half after Tintoretto secured the commission for the Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo.
Yet, even if the confraternity had indeed originally planned for the Last Supper in the Sala Superiore, it still
begs the question as to why choose this room rather than the traditional refectory?
30
The close relationship between the three subsidiary paintings to the Crucifixion
and the implied reenactment of the Last Supper reinforce the cycle's specific emphasis on
the participatory role of the viewer. Tintoretto asks the viewer to envision the scenes as
if unfolding before them in the Sala dell'Albergo. As the next chapter illustrates, this
cycle's focus on the dramatic and visionary potentials ofthe Passion narrative echoes the
mystical practices and doctrines of the evangelical reformers in the contemporary period.
31
CHAPTER III
MYSTICAL AND EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY SURROUNDU\fG TINTORETTO
AND THE SALA DELL'ALBERGO
While the previous chapter visually examined Tintoretto's Passion cycle in the
Sala dell'Albergo, this chapter investigates a mystically and evangelically-charged
cultural milieu surrounding the cycle's construction and reception. The first part of this
chapter defines and describes the specific mystical and evangelical currents in sixteenth-
century Venice. The latter sections of this chapter consider both Tintoretto's place within
this reformist context with respect to the artist's personal relationships and the cycle's
relationship to the contemporary evangelical and mystical doctrine, with the paintings'
relationship to the heretical Benejicio di Cristo (1543), written by the followers of Juan
de Valdes, forming the strongest link.46 It is my intent to provide compelling connections
that prove that Tintoretto's cycle participates in the contemporary dialogue of social and
religious reformation.
46 It should be noted that although this thesis only considers the cultural context surrounding Tintoretto, the
same examination could be done surrounding the confraternity of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco; the
sheer magnitude of information and participants in the confraternity during the sixteenth century made such
an in-depth study too extensive for my current project.
32
Understanding Mystical Practice and Theology
Before specifically addressing the religious context of sixteenth-century Venice, it
is necessary to establish an applicable framework for understanding the term
"mysticism." In common usage, "mysticism" has functioned as an umbrella term for
Christian studies and practices that deviate from officially sanctioned activities in their
focus on establishing direct and personal relationships between the practitioner and the
divine. While scholars generally accept this definition, it is not particularly informative
because its broadness does not directly address the actual application of mystical
thinking. As in Bernard McGinn emphasizes in his introduction to his extensive four-part
series on the foundation and development of Western Christian mysticism, the term
"mysticism" defines both mystical behaviors and mystical theology.47 While one is able
to define easily mystical practice as the participation in a divine vision or joining in union
with God, the definition of mystical theology is far more slippery. McGinn appropriately
argues that mystical theology extends beyond the traditional definition as that which
addresses or interprets mystical experience. Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) would
have agreed by noting that, while reading, "I used unexpectedly to experience a
consciousness of the presence of God of such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that
he was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in him. This was in no sense a vision: I
47 McGinn emphasizes the differences between mystical practice and mystical theology in part to establish
the basis for the development of later mystical behaviors. He argues that the roots of mysticism were
inherent to Greco-Roman philosophy and culture at the tum of the century. See Bernard McGinn, The
Foundations ofMysticism (New York: Crossroad, 1994), xiii-xvi.
33
believe that is called mystical theology.,,48 Teresa's emphasis on the "consciousness of
the presence of God" as the basis for mysticism and mystical theology completely alters
the historical understanding of the ways in which mysticism functioned in the larger, lay
cultural setting. Mystical theology stretches beyond experiences of rapture and union and
inevitably permeates any discussion of divine involvement with the individual.
The controversy surrounding the scholarly labeling of certain Christian figures as
"mystic" obscures the actual implications of such thinking and activities. McGinn
carefully reminds his readers that these labeled "mystics" did not practice mysticism in as
much as they practiced Christianity, a religion consisting of mystical elements.49 The
historiographical tendency to identify (absolutely) Christian theologians and saints as
mystics (or non-mystics) negates the impact of mystical theology on the religious climate
of society at large. Despite emphasizing the individual's personal relationship with God,
mystical movements largely function as reoccurring and adaptive cultural phenomena.
The defining conditions of mysticism are innately connected to the culture and time
period in which they are present.
The growing dissatisfaction among religious reformers with the behaviors of the
papacy in sixteenth-century Europe facilitated the development of a social and religious
48 Teresa of Avila, The Life ofTeresa ofJesus: The Autobiography ofTeresa ofAvila, trans. and ed. E.
Allison Peers (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1960), 119. While Teresa may have used the term
"theology" in its most literal sense ("knowledge of God"), by virtue of providing a response to her mystical
experience, she engaged in the broader theological realm of mystical theology. In other words, the moment
one analyzes mystical experience is the moment that one contributes to mystical theology.
49 McGinn adheres to the scholarly tradition in his identification of Christianity as a mystic religion. This
exegetical approach to mysticism would come to characterize "true" mystical practice of the sixteenth
century. The separation between heretical pretention of holiness and authorized mystical experience was in
part dependent on the defendant's ability to return to biblical texts. See McGinn, Foundations, xiv.
34
culture hospitable to mystical theology. While the role of Christ as mediator was always
controversial in discussions of mystical Christianity, the emphasis of mystical practice on
the purification of the interior of the individual, at its most basic level, certainly
threatened to bypass the role of the Church and its rituals in the quest for salvation.50 The
development of mystical theology and practice in late Renaissance Italy correlates to the
renewed emphasis Italian reformers placed on pious behavior and purity of the individual
in hopes of stimulating change on a societal level.
At first glance, the development of sixteenth-century mysticism in Italy resembled
the various forms of mysticism propagated in the previous few centuries. The renewed
concentration of Franciscan piety among the religious fused with a resurgent rise in
Neoplatonic thought in the fifteenth century.51 The new wave of religious fervor
emphasized the meditation on and the imitation of Christ. The medieval religious stress
on humility, piety, and the contemplation of Christ's life resonated with late fifteenth-and
sixteenth-century theologians concerned with the humanist curiosities that defined the
previous century. The major Florentine predecessor to the later Venetian reformers, Fra
50 The traditional religious chain-of-command stressed the role of the Church as the intermediary between
the individual worshipper and the divine. The increasing advocation for the ability of the individual to
approach Christ directly diminished Church authority on behavioral governance. For a more complete
discussion of orthodox theologies during the Reformation, see Michael A. Mullett, The Catholic
Reformation (London: Routledge, 1999),29-68 and 111-142.
51 Scholars have in part attributed the cultural and popular renewal of Neoplatonism in the fifteenth-century
to the contact between Cosimo d'Medici and Neoplatonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon during the
meetings of the Council of Ferrara-Florence, a council called to heal the schism in the Church, in 1438-45.
For the relationship between the Medici and Neoplatonism, see James Hankins' discussion of
Neoplatonism and its cultural functionality in Florence. James Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance
(New York: E.J. Brill, 1990),27-102. For an in-depth perspective on the fifteenth-century Florentine,
Marsilio Ficino and his dissemination of the Neoplatonist philosophy throughout Europe, see ibid., 265-
359.
35
Girolamo Savonarola, reestablished the focus of Christian piety on the individual and
thereby set the tone for certain aspects of the following century. In his criticism of the
papal and Medici administrations, he encouraged the pious worshipper to return to the
Bible, and "you who cannot read, go to his paintings and contemplate the life of
Christ. ,,52 Savonarola's recognition of the didactic function of religious paintings not
only alludes to the friar's inclusion of the arts in his attack on late fifteenth-century
immoral behavior, but it also establishes the visual arts as an important critical medium in
the reformist actions of the early-to-mid 1500s.53 Michelangelo, who was introduced to
Savonarola's theories as a young artist in Florence, became more receptive to the friar's
emphasis on individual piety in his later years. The Florentine artist noted in 1554 that to
be a good religious painter one must lead a pious life and that he felt that "(he) had let the
vanities of the world rob (him) of the time (he) had for the contemplation of God.,,54 In
his old age, Michelangelo believed that true beauty extended beyond nature and into the
realm of imagination. Contemplation of the divine motivated his later works that scholars
have traditionally recognized as being more mystically and spiritually infused.55
52 Savonarola's quote was extracted from Blunt, Artistic Theory, 46.
53 While indelibly impacting the art of the following century, Savonarola remains a controversial figure for
art historians. His attack on representations in humanist Florence instigated several burnings of notable
literary works and paintings, including several works by Sandro Botticelli. For a more complete reading of
Savonarola's influence on Michelangelo, see Ronald Steinberg, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, Florentine Art,
and Renaissance Historiography (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1977), 39-42. For the friar's relationship
to Botticelli, see ibid., 69-81.
54 Michelangelo's quote was taken from Blunt, Artistic Theory, 77. For a closer examination of
Michelangelo's relationship with Fra Girolamo Savonarola, see Edgar Wind, The Religious Symbolism of
Michelangelo: The Sistine Ceiling, ed. Elizabeth Sears (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 1-33.
55 Scholars have cemented Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel as the representative work
for the spiritual transformation of the artist's style. See Bernadine Barnes, "Metaphorical Painting:
36
Ironically, several sixteenth-century mystical and evangelical movements fused
Savonarola's propagation of contemplative piety with the Neoplatonic beliefs of those
Florentines whom he was attacking. The Medici-supported Neoplatonic academy in
Florence, not a mystical group in itself, examined and applied Plato's theories about
divine knowledge. While the group's pursuit of supreme knowledge, and therefore
knowledge of a perfect and ethereal reality (a pre-Christian gnosis, or knowledge of
God), tended to be more classically than Christian oriented, the academy's emphasis on
contemplation and the mystical theory of God as illuminative light were key
characteristics that defined mystical and evangelical theology and practice of the
sixteenth century.56
The writings of Saint Augustine supplied the more Christian directed application
ofNeoplatonism for later theologians and reformers. Augustine's mystical theology and
his response to fourth-century Neoplatonism manifested itself in three forms: his
description of ecstatic experience with God through contemplative or meditative
ascension, his explanation of the relationship between the human person and the image of
God as the Trinity, and the importance of Christ and the Christian Church in attaining
gnosis.57 Augustine incorporated Neoplatonic theory in his first description of ecstatic
Michelangelo, Dante, and the Last Judgment," Art Bulletin 77 (1995): 65-81; Marcia Hall, Color and
Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992),
95-112; Valerie Shrimplin, Sun Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment' (Kirksville,
MO: Truman State University Press, 2000); and Alexander Nagel, "Gifts for Michelangelo and Vittoria
Colonna," Art Bulletin 79 (1997): 647-668.
56 For more information on the Neoplatonic Academy in Florence under the patronage of the Medici, see
Hankins' discussion of Marsilio Ficino and his interaction with the Medici. Hankins, Plato, 265-359.
57 When referring to the image of God, Augustine is not directly referring to pictures of God, but rather the
abstract "image" of God. See McGinn, Foundations, 231.
37
experience as being introduced to God in the form of light. The theologian noted that
ecstasy and divine light are interrelated, while emphasizing that the worshippers'
response to visionary experience is not a result of human action, but is God's action
within them. Augustine argued that human nature granted pious Christians the possibility
of such an experience and that the dual nature of Christ (both human and divine) acts
both as a conduit as well as the goal of the visionary journey.58
Augustine's reliance on the Aristotelian aspects of the Epistles for the basis of his
mystical theology established the theologian as the primary early Christian influence for
the mystical and evangelical reform movements of the sixteenth century. 59 Unlike his
direct mystic predecessors and contemporaries, like Saint Ambrose, John Cassian, and,
most notably, Saint Jerome, Augustine de-emphasized the importance of mystical union
with the divine presence and stressed the functionality of mystical theology on the
societal level through Paul's biblical writings on the importance of charity in pious life.6o
Augustine separated himself from the Neoplatonists in that his version of the vita
contemplativa does not represent sufficient Christian behavior, but must be
complemented with the vita activa.61 The theologian wrote in his Homilies on the
58 Ibid., 240-252.
59 Augustine adopts the Aristotelian method of examining the societal implications of philosophy and
religious discourse in his approach to the texts of Apostle Paul. For a closer examination of the ties
between the Pauline texts and mysticism, see Frederick C. Grant, "Saint Paul's Mysticism," The Biblical
World 44 (1914): 385-387. Grant's article also provides strong support for the Greco-Roman foundations
of Christian mysticism.
60 Deems details Augustine's uses of Paul as an example to speak to pious Christian behavior. See Mervin
Monroe Deems, "Augustine's Use of Scripture," Church History 14 (1945): 194.
61 Saint Augustine first established the terms vita contemplativa and vita activa in his City a/God (De
Civiatate Dei). See Augustine, The City a/God, trans. Marcus Dods (New York: Modem Library, 2000).
38
Psalms, "Charity (caritas) both finds him through faith and seeks to have him through the
appearance (speciem), where he is found in such a way that he satisfies us and is not
sought any more.,,62 Augustine's imagery suggested that the partial knowledge of God
caused the soul to emit a beam of life and light that manifested itself in charity. The
Augustinian argument that charity prepares one for the mystical vision and is also the
result of ecstatic experience became a central point for late Renaissance theologians. The
relationship between mystical faith and charity gave impetus to the widespread social
reformist movements in Venice during the sixteenth century and, as will be explored,
may have provided the theological foundation for understanding Christ's Passion cycle in
the Sala dell'Albergo.
Contarini and Pole in Sixteenth-Century Venice
The Italian reformers of the sixteenth-century concurred with Augustine's
association of faith with charity. In response to his readings of Paul and Augustine,
Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, the leading native Venetian reformer of the period, wrote in
his Scholia in epistolas divi Pauli shortly before his death in 1542 that these theologians
tried to emphasize that "we are grafted into Christ through faith and charity.,,63 If one
considers the argument of faith versus good works to be the primary disagreement
between the northern European reformers and proponents of Catholic orthodoxy,
62 Augustine, Saint Augustine on the Psalms, trans. by Scholastica Hebgin and Felicitas Corrigan
(Westminster: Newman, 1960), 104.3.
63 Emily Gleason notes a renewed interest for Contarini in Pauline and Augustinian texts in the years
preceding his death, most notably in the Scholia. See Emily Gleason, Gasparo Contarini: Venice, Rome,
and Reform (Berkeley: University of Califomia Press, 1993),284.
39
mystical theology highlighting the connection between faith and charity became crucial
doctrine for Catholic reformers. The English cardinal, Reginald Pole, who wished to
reconcile the theologies of the growing Lutheranism movement in the north with the
orthodoxy propagated by the papacy in the 1540s and 1550s, concurred with Contarini
when suggesting that "the house of God is ruled by charity... inflamed by the spirit of
God.,,64 The two most prominent reforming theologians in Italy carefully claimed that
although they agreed with the Lutheran understanding that faith was in fact a basis for
salvation, good works and charity through the vehicle of the Catholic Church was
representative and the result of such faith. 65
This argument generated significant criticism from the papalisti in Venice and
Rome. Giovanni Pietro Carafa led the conservative efforts in Rome to eradicate potential
heresy.66 The sharp dichotomy between the orthodoxpapalisti and the growing group of
reforming spirituali and evangelicals increased the pressure on reformers to unify the
divisive factions. Contarini chastised the Lutherans for their harsh verbal attacks that
64 The Pole quotation was acquired from Thomas F. Mayer, Reginald Pole: Prince and Prophet
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 18. Scholars have argued that the death of Contarini in
1543 coupled with the rise of hardliner Giovanni Pietro Carafa (who was to be elected Pope Paul IV over
Cardinal Reginald Pole in 1555) signaled the end of any hopes of reconciliation. For more in depth
discussion, see John Jeffries Martin, "Renovatio and Reform in Early Modem Italy" in Heresy, Culture,
and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations, eds. Ronald K. Delph, Michelle Fontaine,
and John Jeffries Martin (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2006), 3-10. For a thorough
discussion of Cardinal Pole's association between faith and charity and his influence on the Venetian
religious climate, see Dermot Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the
Counter Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).
65 Both Contarini and Pole were careful to affirm the role of the Catholic Church in the connection offaith
and charity. The theologians argued that the Church was responsible for providing the basis for true faith
and was also the ideal outlet for charitable behavior.
66 For a more in-depth discussion of Carafa and his papacy as Paul IV, see Graham William Searle, The
Counter Reformation (London: University of London Press, 1974),91-92.
40
"radically damaged" the Christian Church, while concurrently informing the outspoken
papalisti that in their attempts to contradict Luther, "they contradict Saints Augustine,
Ambrose, Bernard, Jerome, and Thomas.,,67 The Catholic reformers turned toward
mystical theology to appease both parties. They employed the Pauline texts as proof that
knowledge of God could be gained and the presence of God achieved through the careful
study and contemplation on the logos (the word of God), made manifest in the life and
Passion of Jesus Christ.68 They complemented this interpretation in their return to the
teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas who spoke of the Church as the mystical body of
Christ, thereby reaffirming the Church's earthly authority.69 While the polarities of
religious discord in sixteenth-century Italy have attracted more historical attention, this
moderate approach to Catholic reform described the majority of religiously-conscious
citizens in Venice, including Tintoretto and the majority of members of the confraternity
of San Rocco. Under these circumstances, the mystical and evangelical ideologies
present in the Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo do not usurp the power of the
Church, but rather emphasize the viewer's direct relationship to the divine within the
traditional framework of the Church.
67 Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 253, 265.
68 The Gospel of John did not separate the logos from the life the Christ. In mystical terms, the historical
Jesus was the physical embodiment of the word of God.
69 Contarini invokes both Paul and Thomas Aquinas in his discussion of the Eucharist and its ritual
implications in his Catechesis sire Christiana instructio (a compiled set of Contarini works first published
in 1571). Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 286-288.
41
Tintoretto and Contarini within the Madonna dell 'Grto Church
While Contarini never considered himself sufficiently qualified to be a reformer,
his success in the role of international diplomat and honorary cardinal made him the most
vital player in the shaping of the Venetian religious landscape. Contarini' s belief that
humanity could only be saved through grace and that one cannot "purge the spirit from
the soul of emotions" more closely aligned the cardinal to Lutheran reformers than the
traditionalpapalisti in Venice's patrician class.7o Yet, the native-born Venetian's fervent
stance as a unificationist as well as his established diplomatic relations with Spain,
France, and the papacy ensured that Contarini was never a target of the Venetian
Inquisition. He largely functioned outside the realm of religious law until Pope Paul III
made the layman a cardinal in 1535, most likely a political maneuver to gamer support in
an ever-rebellious Venice. Contarini presided over a papal commission in 1536 and was
the papal ambassador to several conferences at the Council of Regensburg in hopes of
restoring religious unity to the divided German states.
Contarini's engagement in mystical meditation remains questionable, and clearly
the cardinal could not be classified a mystic. However, there is sufficient evidence that
he supported mystical doctrine in the restructuring of Catholic dogma and maintained
close friends that carried ties to mystical practice. James Bruce Ross notes that the letters
between a young Contarini and Vicenzo Querini reveal that the cardinal attempted to
"apply Pauline precepts to his own way of life" and "(integrate) classical ethics with a
70 Patricia Meilman, Titian and the Altarpiece in Renaissance Venice (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2000), 54.
42
mystical-contemplative approach to life ... by bringing together. .. two essentially diverse
elements, Latin mysticism and German evangelical impulses.,,71 In his final years,
Contarini gathered with reforming figures like Reginald Pole, Marcantonio Flaminio, and
Alvise Priuli in Venice to discuss evangelical and mystically contemplative ideas that
were not to be considered heretical until the 1550s and as such, enhanced the city's
growing position as the center of evangelical propaganda. The issues of mystical practice
and visionary meditation that the Beneficia di Cristo introduced were widely discussed
within this circle, and most scholars identifY Flaminio as a contributor to the text. In fact,
the support from such prominent spirituali in the patrician class likely motivated the first
printing of the book shortly after Contarini's death in 1542.
Considering Contarini's important and celebrated role as Venice's leading
theologian and religious diplomat, his mystical theology may have influenced a young
Tintoretto. While the artist's relationship with Contarini cannot be firmly established and
Tintoretto certainly lacked the clout in the late 1530s and early 1540s to maintain familiar
relations with the elder statesmen, the two men called the same neighborhood home, and
Tintoretto may have held some affection for Contarini as a result of communal pride.
Both figures grew up along the Fondamenta dei Mori in the Canareggio region of
northern Venice. Tintoretto rented property along the Fondamenta dei Mori in 1554 just
71 The associations between Contarini and mystical theology are revealed in letters five through nine, as
originally published by Hubert Jedin, Contarini und Camaldoli (Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratuta,
1953),3-67. Ross is perhaps the most outspoken supporter ofContarini's mystical and evangelical
tendencies. See James Bruce Ross, "The Emergence of Gasparo Contarini: A Bibliographical Essay,"
Church History 41 (1972): 26.
43
a few blocks from the Madonna dell'Orto church in order to facilitate his growing
bottega.72
Madonna dell' Orto, lying just off the fondamenta, enriches this regional
connection between Tintoretto and Contarini because the church contains both the
Contarini and Robusti family chapels where Gasparo Contarini and Jacopo Tintoretto are
buried. It is unknown whether the diplomat was an active member of the church's parish,
but Alvise Contarini's (a distant cousin of Gasparo's father) position as a secular canon
for the church in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and the actions taken by
the Contarini family following the death of Gasparo seem to suggest that the church of
the Madonna dell'Orto and the Contarini del Zaffo (Gasparo's branch) family were
familiar.?3 Additionally, the Contarini family commissioned Tintoretto to depict the
Miracle of Saint Agnes (fig. 25) for the chapel's altar in the early l560s, thereby
guaranteeing that in the years immediately preceding his work in the Scuola Grande di
San Rocco, Tintoretto had developed a relationship with the Contarini family (first noted
in the commissioning of Tintoretto to complete a portrait of Tommaso Contarini in
72 See Michael Douglas-Scott, "Jacopo Tintoretto's Altarpiece of Saint Agnes at the Madonna dell'Orto in
Venice and the Memorialisation of Cardinal Contarini," Journal ofthe Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
60 (1997): 140.
73 Ibid., 133-142. No documentation exists to suggest that Contarini requested a specific burial site, and,
thus, his body remained in Bologna at San Petronio. In the year following his death, his nephew, Tommaso
Contarini, arranged a 400 ducat endowment for masses for his soul to be said at the Madonna dell'Orto. At
some point between 1557 and the late 1560s (Douglas-Scott convincingly argues for the earliest possible
date of 1557) the Contarini del Zaffo family purchased the chapel that the Colti family had previously
ceded to the Secular Canons of San Giorgio in Alga. The earlier date conforms to the suggested
transportation date of 1563 for the cardinal's body to the grounds of Madonna dell'Orto as well as the dates
traditionally given to Cardinal Contarini's sculptural bust (1561-62) that decorates the chapel.
44
1557).74 The Contarini family asked Tintoretto to represent an early Christian virgin who
refused to marry the Roman prefect's son on the account that she was already mystically
betrothed to Christ. The mystical nature of the Agnes biography may not have appealed
to the members of the Contarini family who were papalist in their loyalties, but Giulio
Contarini, the cardinal's illegitimate nephew who adhered to the principles of the
Benejicio di Cristo and was largely responsible for the transportation of Contarini' s body
to Madonna dell'Orto in 1563, would have appreciated the importance of the mystical
relationship and interaction between the saint and the divine.75
Tintoretto's relationship with the Contarini family and the church extended
beyond his work for the Contarini chapel; Madonna dell'Orto was Tintoretto's parish
church and a frequent place of worship for the artist. Frederick Hchman noted that
Ridolfi's characterization of Tintoretto as the pious artist who used his art to realize his
inner religious dilemmas is significant because the Ridolfi biographies do not typically
address the religious behaviors of the artist.76 According to Ridolfi, Tintoretto "spent
74 Ibid., 142. There exists no evidence to indicate that the chapel was dedicated to Saint Agnes before the
Contarini's purchase; the commissioning of Tintoretto to depict the Miracle of Saint Agnes for the chapel's
altar is the fIrst defmitive evidence suggesting such. There is much debate regarding the dating of
Tintoretto's Miracle o/Saint Agnes. Pallucchini and Rossi followed Henry Thode's preliminary dating of
the altarpiece to 1577-78 shortly before Tommaso Contarini's death, and the church of Madonna dell'Orto
still considers this date accurate. DouglaS-Scott questions this date, preferring an earlier date that
corresponds to the reconstruction of the chapel from 1557-1563. Considering the strong compositional
relationship between the Miracle o/Saint Agnes and his earlier Miracle o/Saint Mark (1548; fIg. 26) and
the contemporary Removal o/Saint Mark's Body, I am inclined to date Saint Agnes to 1563.
75 Douglas-Scott identifIes Giulio Contarini as the closest disciple of Cardinal Contarini in regard to
mystical theology. See Ibid., 154.
76 Hehman, "Religious Narrative," 85.
45
much time in pious meditation in the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto and in
conversation on moral themes with those fathers who were his intimates.',77
While it is safe to assume that Tintoretto was religiously active and spiritually
guided, there exists no documentary evidence to determine the artist's religious
convictions. Hchman argues that Tintoretto's Last Judgment (1557; fig. 27), which
flanks the altar at the Church of Madonna dell'Orto, reflects the artist's desire "to
proclaim his own orthodoxy.',78 Yet, his Apparition ofthe Cross to Saint Peter (1556;
fig. 28), also at the altar of Madonna dell'Orto, suggests the artist's beliefs were less
papalist. Peter is dressed in formal papal garb, holds the holy book with his left hand,
and turns to see the vision of his martyrdom. The key to the Church, and sign of papal
authority, rests in a limp, phallic position in between his legs, leading several scholars to
suggest that Tintoretto intended the placement as pictorial joke to criticize the papacy. 79
Undoubtedly, the artist's comfort with the organizational and religious hierarchy of his
local church allowed him to offer this daring critique of the Roman Church.
Furthermore, the church's immediate acceptance of the work and placement of the work
at the altar imply that at the very least, the hierarchy of Madonna dell'Orto was equally
not averse to disparaging the behavior and decision-making of the papacy.
77 Ridolfi, Tintoretto, 22.
78 Hehman points to the inherent orthodoxy and apocalyptic nature of the Last Judgment story during a
period in which heresy was widespread and public. llchman, "Religious Narrative," 88.
79 Krischel is among the scholars who have claimed this interpretation. Krischel also notes that Tintoretto's
close poet and writer friend, Anton Francesco Doni (who will be discussed at greater length later), wrote a
satirical piece on the conditions of the papacy entitled La Chiave ("The Key") during the 1550s. See
Krischel, Jacopo Tintoretto, 54.
46
Ridolfi's suggestion that Tintoretto's relationship with the church of Madonna
dell'Orto extended beyond the significant commissions that the artist garnered in the
1550s and early 1560s is confirmed with the Robusti family's acquisition ofa chapel to
the right of the main altar. Marco Episcopi, Tintoretto's father-in-law, purchased the
chapel for the Robusti family in 1555 (the concession of the chapel corresponds to the
artist's acquisition of property along the fondamenta, reaffirming Tintoretto's desire to
associate himself with the Canareggio neighborhood).8o The chapel, which now
celebrates Tintoretto's tomb, includes a painting of Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome by
Girolamo Santacroce, an active artist in Venice from 1503-1556. The details of the
commission are unclear, but it is likely that Tintoretto held significant responsibility in
determining the subject matter. Augustine and Jerome represent two of the primary four
early Christian church doctors (Ambrose and Gregory the Great being the others). The
contemporary theologians maintained frequent correspondence with each other, and
Augustine, considered to be the founder of Latin mysticism, frequently used Jerome as a
sounding board for his theological struggles. Assuming Tintoretto is the pious Christian
figure that art historians intend him to be, he would have been fully conscious of the
relationship Augustine and Jerome had with mystical theology. The dedication of the
chapel to these figures suggests that the Venetian artist identified not only with the saints'
theological explorations, but also perhaps with the visionary and mystical tendencies
outlined by them.
80 See Douglas-Scott, "Tintoretto," 140.
47
Mysticism and the Venetian Public in a Time ofHeresy
If Tintoretto is undeniably a Venetian painter, as appears to be the case, the Sala
dell'Albergo likely responds to Venice's rapidly deteriorating relationship with the
papacy and changing social climate in the sixteenth century. While the "Myth of Venice"
propagated the belief that the city represented the ideal Christian community, it became
the home to Counter Reformers and religious dissension.8l The turbulent relationship
between Venice and the papacy was perhaps in its most strained state as the reformation
movement took hold in the 1520s and 1530s. Venetian geopolitical prominence had
already been diminished through the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in the east and the
increasing Turkish control of trading on the Mediterranean Sea when the Papal States,
accompanied by the French, Spanish, and Germanic coalition, formed the League of
Cambrai in 1508 as a military alliance aimed at reclaiming lands held by the Venetian
Republic.82 Although Venice would eventually overcome the League in 1515, the war
and resulting political instability fostered societal unease and tarnished the already fragile
relationship with the papacy and Rome. The Venetian public's strong reaction against
81 The "Myth of Venice" refers to the Venetian self-fashioning of a pious and just identity based on
supposed mythical origins (rising miraculously out of the lagoon). Venice was proclaimed the "New
Jerusalem," and its citizens understood that they held special favor with the divine (namely through the
Virgin and Saint Mark), and acted accordingly. For a complete discussion of the myth of Venice, see
David Rosand, Myths a/Venice (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
82 Gilbert discusses the relations between the papacy and Venice in the early stages of the sixteenth-
century. He identifies Agostino Chigi, a wealthy Sienese resident in Rome, as a banker that acted as an
intercessor between the two parties. See Felix Gilbert, The Pope, His Banker, and Venice (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), 1-15.
48
Rome did little to jeopardize Venice's self-fashioning, as in the minds of its citizenry, the
"papacy and church were separate bodies necessitating different policies.,,83
While Venice still considered itselfthe ideal Christian community, the massive
influx of foreigners into the city in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century sparked
new concerns among the populace and ensured that the city would become the sixteenth-
century Italian center for religious dissent. Citizens of La Serenissima (or "the most
serene Republic"), a state that fashioned itself as the "New Jerusalem" and beneficiary of
divine favor, grew concerned that beneath its pious fayade there existed a sinful
underbelly. Immoral activities and behaviors certainly existed in Venice prior to the tum
of the century, but the growing instability of Venice's population in the sixteenth century
worsened the problem.84 Ethnic and religious diversity combined with this societal
impropriety to increase concern. Venice had become home to over 14,000 Greeks exiled
after the collapse of Byzantine Constantinople and had become a place of refuge for
Florentine religious and political exiles.85 The Greeks brought elements of Eastern
Orthodoxy, including the emphasis on the mystical meditation on icons (perhaps
83 Paul Grendler's commentary was primarily intended to describe the Venetian printers' reaction to the
papal indexes of prohibited books in the mid-sixteenth century, but the remark also eloquently describes the
mood and opinions of the general populace. See Paul Grendler, The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian
Press (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977),29.
84 There were, for instance, over six hundred cases of rape or sodomy tried in Venice from 1326 to 1500.
Guido Ruggiero, Binding Passions: Tales ofMagic, Marriage, and Power at the End ofthe Renaissance
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993),94 and 128.
85 For more information on the Greek immigration to Venice, see William Bouwsma, Venice and the
Defense ofRepublican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Counter Reformation (Berkeley: California
University Press, 1968),350. For more information on the Florentine immigration to the city, see Paolo
Simoncelli, "The Turbulent Life of the Florentine Community in Venice," in Heresy, Culture, and Religion
in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations, eds. Ronald K. Delph, Michelle Fontaine, and John
Jeffries Martin (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2006), 114-118.
49
influencing Tintoretto's approach to the Sala dell'Albergo), to an already diverse and
religiously independent republic. These external contributions only fueled the
ideological separation between the greater Venetian community and the papacy, and by
the 1540s, the city became the retreat and safe haven for most Italian reformist activities.
The Venetian Signory and patrician classes did little immediately to quiet the
fervor of religious dissent that was rising among the younger generations of the
intellectual and middle classes. 86 As Marino Sanuto, a sixteenth-century Venetian
historian, noted in his diary in 1530, the republic refused to prosecute Lutherans and
other possible heretics because "our state and dominion is free and thus we cannot forbid
them.,,87 Certainly, the elder members of the patrician class were mildly concerned about
the ramifications of the growing mystical and evangelical movements, but given that the
concentration of the reformist efforts sought to overhaul social and religious morality
rather than challenge the political establishment, the movements remained relatively
unthreatened.
Letters to the Signory from Venetian ambassadors suggest that the republic
begrudgingly accepted if not welcomed the arguments of Counter Reformers and
Lutherans. Carlo Contarini, of distant relationship to Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, wrote
in 1525 that in the Germanic regions "the Lutheran peasants say they merely require
86 Although the evangelical movement was primarily composed of the younger generations, they received
significant support from older reformers like Gasparo Contarini.
87 Sanuto was officially a Venetian senator. The Venetian Republic praised the senator for his insider
accounts of the state's political activities shortly before his death. See Marino Sanuto, I diarii, eds.,
Rinaldo Fulin, et. aI, 53 (Venice: Deputazione R. Veneta di Storia Patria, 1879-1903; Bologna; Forni
Editore, 1970),65-68, quoted in Massimo Firpo, "Lorenzo Lotto and the Reformation in Venice," in
Heresy, Culture, and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations, eds. Ronald K. Delph,
Michelle Fontaine, and John Jeffries Martin (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2006), 26.
50
freedom for their property and persons, such as is enjoyed by the subjects ofthe Venetian
Signory... apparently they are in the right.,,88 Another Contarini ambassador, Francesco
Contarini, confirmed the appeal of the Lutheran arguments and presentation in a letter to
the Signory March 26, 1541, written from the Diet at Ratisbon:
I for myself believe and maintain what Holy Mother Church believes, in which belief!
shall persist until death, and I have the extreme satisfaction in hearing the right reverend
Legate (Gasparo Contarini) discourse, it seeming to me that no one understands these
matters better than he does; but really afterwards, when talking with these Lutherans -
for I am compelled to associate with them likewise - they adduce so many arguments and
have such a flow of language that I confess ingenuously to your serenity that I know not
how to answer them.,,89
The polite and conservative language in response to the Lutherans and to the reform-
minded Gasparo Contarini, who was in fact representing the Church at the Diet, seems to
reinforce Counter-Reformation historian John Jeffries Martin's suggestion that many
Venetians offered an orthodox fa<;ade of Catholicism to the public while "inwardly
continuing to hold Protestant beliefs in their hearts.',9o As religious dissent continued to
grow in popularity among the Venetian nobles, most notably Giovanni Grimani, Pietro
Cocco, and the Dona family, the fashioning of a conservative public identity became a
necessity for the leaders of the state.91
88 This letter from Carlo Contarini to the Venetian Signory is also part of Marino Sanuto's diaries that are
housed in the Venetian archives. Carlo Contarini to Venetian Signory, 5 April 1525, in Calendar o/State
Papers and Manuscripts Existing in the Archives and Collections o/Venice and in Other Libraries 0/
Northern Italy, 1520-1526, ed. Rawdon Brown, vol. 3 (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1869),4.
89 Francesco Contarini to Venetian Signory, Ratisbon, 26 March 1541, in Calendar o/State Papers and
Manuscripts Existing in the Archives and Collections o/Venice and in Other Libraries o/Northern Italy,
1534-1554, ed. Rawdon Brown, vol. 5 (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1873),95.
90 John Jeffries Martin, Renovatio, 12-13.
91 Martin recognized that the growing popularity of the reformist movements in the patrician class
complicated the future prosecution of heretics. The Council ofTen, at times concerned with self-
indictment, was inconsistent in its support of Rome's counter-reform movements. John Jeffries Martin,
51
Rome responded to the laxity in the prosecution of heresy by establishing a
Venetian Inquisition in 1547 that was to be overseen by a papal appointed inquisitor.
Although the Inquisition remained relatively active in its early years, with a yearly
average of thirty-three defendants on trial annually from 1547-1630 and fourteen
executions on record between 1555-1593, it never received significant support from the
republic itself until the 1580s when the organization largely shifted its focus to cases of
witchcraft.92 The lack of Venetian support caused the Inquisition to focus more
frequently on mediation rather than prosecution. Fra Marino, the appointed
commissioner in the early 1550s, was eventually reassigned because he too often
established bonds with those accused and covered up potential heresies of the Venetian
elite.93
Venice's Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1993), xii, 74-75.
92 John A. Tedeschi, The Prosecution ofHeresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy
(Binghamton, NY: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1991),92-103. Tedeschi's book,
Prosecution ofHeresy, essentially acts as a statistical analysis of the inquisitorial activity in Italy, providing
statistics by region, time period, and accused crime.
93 Silvana Seidel Menchi, "The Inquisitor as Mediator," in Heresy, Culture, and Religion in Early Modern
Italy: Contexts and Contestations, eds. Ronald K. Delph, Michelle Fontaine, and John Jeffries Martin
(Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2006), 186. Menchi's article identifies Fra Marino as
inquisitor-mediator caught between the desires of Rome and the reality of Venice, and Schutte discusses
Marino mediatory role in the trial of Pier Paolo Vergerio. Anne Schutte notes those overseeing the
proceedings facilitated in providing Vergerio with favorable testimony. Schutte writes in a footnote:
"Supporting Vergerio, allegedly in return for a consideration, was one of the charges made against Fra
Marino when he was tried for heresy in aprocesso begun in 1551 and concluded with his acquittal ten
years later. Fra Marino denied having accepted any gifts or favors from the friends of Vergerio or any
other heretic, and he claimed that Vergerio must have forged the letter to Gonzaga (speaking of such gifts).
See Anne Jacobsen Schutte, Pier Paolo Vergerio: The Making ofan Italian Reformer (Geneva: Droz,
1977),222-226.
52
Tintoretto and the Venetian Interest in Apocalyptic Eschatology
In a recent essay, Benjamin Paul identifies key Tintoretto works in the 1570s and
1580s as proof of the flourishing of millenarianism, or more specifically "apocalyptic
eschatology," in Venice following the victory over the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto in
1571. Paul defines "apocalyptic eschatology" as that which is "concerned with God's
active and visible rectification (putting right) of the created world ('cosmos'), which has
somehow gone astray and become alienated from God.,,94 The historian convincingly
proposes that this millenarianist approach defined Venice's social theology in the late
sixteenth century. While Paul uses Tintoretto's portraits ofSebastiano Venier (1571) and
Pietro Loredan (1582) as supporting objects as opposed to primary subjects of study, his
claim that "Tintoretto, like many Venetians, assigned a religious dimension to the conflict
with Ottomans" is relevant to understanding his work done less than a decade prior to the
Battle of Lepanto.95
The danger in Paul's argument is to assume that the Venetian interest in
"apocalyptic eschatology" did not appear until the triumph at Lepanto. The historian's
stipulation that this theological concept only concerns those visible events "that are
considered cosmic in scope and implication" belies the political and economic decline of
Venice earlier in the century.96 If, as previously argued, the intensity of the religious
94 Benjamin Paul, "Apocalypticism and Religious Refonn in Venetian Art at the time of the Battle of
Lepanto," in The Turk and Islam in the Western Eye (1450-1750): Visual Imagery before Orientalism, ed.
James Harper (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming 2009). Thank you to Professor James Harper for access to
the (unpaginated) manuscript.
95 Ibid.
96 Ibid.
53
reform of individual piety reflects a growing communal fear in the instability and
fragility of the republic, apocalyptic eschatology is certainly applicable. The hardships
did not affect the Venetians' belief that the republic held divine favor, but instead further
inspired social reform. Guillaume Postel (1510-1581), the French humanist and religious
reformer, argued that Venice must be the center of reform because "God loved Venice
more than all other cities in the world.,,97 He stressed to the Venetians the inevitability of
triumph as God's chosen community, and that it was the responsibility of the citizens to
ensure its salvation through reform.
Tintoretto's belief in the inevitability of Venetian triumph through God's divine
favor manifested itself over a decade before the Battle of Lepanto in his symbolically
prophetic painting, Saint George and the Dragon (1555-58; fig. 29). Tintoretto depicted
the apocryphal event for the Cornaro family, a family that held ties to the Giovanni
Grimani, Alessandro Caravia, and the poligraji. It remains unclear whether Tintoretto or
the Cornaro family was responsible for determining the composition, but the painting's
disregard for the traditional representation of the Saint George story stimulates significant
interpretations. Scholar Jill Dunkerton argues that the miraculous and mystical presence
of God the Father above the diminished George intentionally emphasizes the "delivery
97 Marion Leathers Kuntz argued that religious and political reformers in Venice during the mid-fifteenth
century stressed that the Venetians reemphasize their associations with their community's patron saints as
these saints represented divine favor. See Marion Leathers Kuntz, "Venice and Justice: Saint Mark and
Moses," in Heresy, Culture, and Religion in Early Modern Italy: Contexts and Contestations, eds. Ronald
K. Delph, Michelle Fontaine, and John Jeffries Martin (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press,
2006), 153.
54
from danger by the hand of God, rather than by a knight in armour.,,98 Dunkerton's
compelling assertion also changes one's understanding ofthe prominent position ofthe
princess. Artistic tradition removed the princess to the background in favor of the
narrative action. Scholars have argued that Tintoretto's foreground placement reflects the
artist's desire to infuse the scene with drama.99 While Tintoretto' s de-emphasis of the
primary narrative activity is not overly unusual (see Christ Carrying the Cross, Christ
among the Doctors, and the San Rocco Nativity), the artist may have altered the position
of the princess to instill more symbolic meaning in the figure.
In traditional iconography, Venice is typically personified as being the royal
female in both terminology (ex. La Serenissima, La Venezia) and art (see Veronese's
Venice Enthroned [1562]). The princess in Tintoretto's painting could function as such a
personification. Saint George, who Venetians consider a secondary patron and honor
with the Basilica of San Giorgio and a prominent statue in the San Marco piazza, saves
Venice through God's divine favor and intervention. Accordingly, the dragon in the
painting symbolizes the threat of the Turks. Paul sites the dragon as the most popular
personification of the Turks in the sixteenth century due to the relationship between the
crescent moon, the Turkish symbol, and the apocalyptic dragon in John the Evangelist's
Revelation. lOo In correlation to the story in Revelation, Paul argues that the Venetians
98 Jill Dunkerton, Susan Foister, and Nicholas Penny, Durer to Veronese: Sixteenth-Century Painting in the
National Gallery (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), 67.
99 Ibid., 67.
100 Saint Michael chases off the dragon that attacked a pregnant woman on the crescent moon. See Paul,
"Apocalypticism."
55
believed the Turks functioned as an apocalyptic weapon for divine punishment. The
millenarians in Venice used this mystical symbolism to highlight a renewed focus on
individual piety as the harbinger of the republic's salvation.
Tintoretto's cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo subtly reflects these contemporaneous
millenarian ideologies and interests. The millenarians, like the evangelicals, recognized
the transcendent capabilities of contemplation of Christ's sacrifice. This theology,
however, emphasized the sharp dichotomy between good and evil, light and dark, in the
Passion story. Tintoretto used light and dark to separate good and evil in his paintings:
Christ stands against a dark background in his luminescent white robe; both Christ of the
Crucifixion and the Ecce Homo are flooded with radiant light against dark surroundings;
and the good thief glows while the bad thief is cast in shadow in both Christ Carrying the
Cross and the Crucifixion.
This binary reading of good and evil and potential visual references to the Turks
may also apply to the compositional organization of figures surrounding the Crucifixion.
Traditional apocalyptic and Passion imagery mandates that those saved be placed to
Christ's right and those damned or condemned to his left, hence the identifications of the
good and bad thieves. Directly adjacent to those Roman soldiers gambling for Christ's
clothes in the right foreground, several turbaned figures witness the event astride their
horses. Turbans might function as a multivalent symbol for Tintorerto in that they would
not only reinforce the foreign or exotic nature of Jerusalem and its habitants, but also
refer to the threatening presence of the Turks in the sixteenth century, frequently
56
identified with a turban in Venetian Renaissance iconography.lol Their placement on the
left side of Christ and so closely juxtaposed to the immoral activity of the soldiers alludes
to their fate. In contrast, the left foreground includes a representation of the good
Christian, and perhaps Venetian, soldier on a white horse perhaps (the armor is
characteristic of sixteenth-century Venetian military apparel). He directs his companion
toward Christ on the cross as if to indicate the path for their salvation. Christ's Passion
and sacrifice stand as the ultimate examples of God's divine intervention, redeeming the
Venetians. Given the Venetian self-identification as God's chosen people, the
Crucifixion might have functioned as a reassuring testimony for the republic's survival.
This interpretation is not without its potential counter arguments, as the left side
of Christ also contains a figure thought to be a self-portrait of Tintoretto (the dark
bearded figure in burgundy immediately to the right of the Crucifixion) and a figure
wearing the ceremonial bishopric cap in the deep background. lo2 First of all, assuming
that the self-portrait identification is accurate, Tintoretto's placement on the damned side
could readily be explained as an effort in suggested humility. The figure leans far
forward as if to reenergize his focus on Christ's ultimate act of charity. Of course, this
suggestion of unworthiness in reality would have had the opposite effect, as viewers
would have praised Tintoretto for his apparent humility. Secondly, the representation of
a high-ranking religious figure in this context is not surprising considering Tintoretto's
distaste for the behavior and/or ideology of the papacy (see Tintoretto's witty placement
101 See Paul, "Apocalypticism."
102 The bearded figure is identified as Tintoretto by Valcanover, among others. See Valcanover, Jacopo
Tintoretto, 33.
57
of the keys of Saint Peter in fig. 28). The figure's attention is not focused on Christ's
Crucifixion, but rather on the contorted bad thief, as if to allude to the fallacies and
irrepentance of the papal government.
Venetian Poligrafi
The 1555 election of Pope Paul IV (Giovanni Pietro Carafa), who had an abrasive
relationship to Venice prior to his election, signaled a harsher stance in Rome on heresy,
and much of the papacy's attention was directed to Venice. 103 Venice was the foremost
print center in Italy and was primarily responsible for the dissemination of reformist
literature in the sixteenth century. Paul IV was dissatisfied with the Venetian censorship
of heretical literature and published the first prohibited book index in 1558. 104 This index
prohibited all potential Lutheran literature, including the popular Beneficio di Cristo. The
Venetian publishers met the Roman censorship with disdain, while an evangelical group
focused on religious and social reform formed around the printing community. While the
term poligrafi primarily refers to evangelically-minded writers, poets, and publishers
such as Vincenzo Valgrisi, the leading Venetian publisher in the 1540s, the term also
came to describe a broader reformist network comprised of members of the elite artisan
community in the Canareggio district in northern Venice.
103 The turbulent relationship between Carafa and Venice is detailed in the report of the Venetian
ambassador to Rome to the Venetian Signory, Rome, 1557, in Calendar a/State Papers and Manuscripts
Existing in the Archives and Collections a/Venice and in Other Libraries a/Northern Italy, 1555-56, ed.
Rawdon Brown, vol. 6 (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1875), 694.
104 In his discussion of the "correcting" the works of Gasparo Contarini, Fragnito notes that Contarini' s
ideas were considered heretical shortly following the death of the theologian. Fragnito, Expurgatory, 194.
For a more complete discussion and listing of the books included on the prohibitive index, see Grendler,
Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press.
58
This growing group became especially attractive to younger generations, as was
the case internationally with evangelism and Lutheranism. The poligraji would have
surrounded a young Tintoretto, a native of the Canareggio region. While scholars remain
relatively hesitant in defining the artist's social circle, two of Tintoretto's friends, Anton
Francesco Doni and Andrea Calmo, were active, vocal members of the poligraji. As
Nichols suggests, Tintoretto also likely associated with goldsmith Alessandro Caravia, an
outspoken evangelical who emphasized pious, contemplative worship in his attack of the
decadence of late fifteenth-and early sixteenth-century religious institutions, most notably
the Venetian scuole. 105
Anton Francesco Doni (1513-1574) was a late arrival to the poligraji group when
he arrived to Venice from Florence in 1547.106 Doni was a humanist poet, writer,
humorist, and social critic who addressed wide-ranging topics including theatre, politics,
art, religion, and society. The Florentine expatriate first made his literary mark with his
Dialogo della Musica, a collection and commentary on popular contemporary madrigals,
written in 1544 and published in Venice by Girolamo Scotto shortly after his arrival. 107
He became a prominent member ofthe poligraji circle in the 1550s, during the most
intense decade of sixteenth-century Venetian publishing, becoming friends with such
105 For a more in-depth discussion of Tintoretto's association with members of the poligraji, see Nichols,
Tintoretto, 75-79. For Nichols proposal a possible connection between Caravia and Tintoretto, see ibid.,
148-152.
106 A. Longo and G. Romei, "Doni, Anton Francesco," in Dizionario Biograjico degli Italiani 59 (Roma:
Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2002), 158-165.
107 Jane A. Bernstein, Music Printing in Renaissance Venice: The Scotto Press (1539-1572) (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1998), 176-178 and 303. For the most part, Bernstein restrains her discussion of
Doni's Dialogo della Musica to the details surrounding its publication, although she did note that Doni
"bridged the gap between the worlds of vernacular discourse and music.
59
notable figures as Pietro Aretino and Ludovico Dolce. los His first collection of Lettere
on art was published in Venice in 1547, and Doni called Tintoretto a major Venetian
figure in his 1552 book, I Marmi. I09 The friendship between artist and writer was firmly
established by 1553 when Tintoretto painted a portrait of Doni, and the social critic
honored Tintoretto as the dedicatee of the new edition of Rime del Burchiello. llo The two
figures connected in their artisan roots, and Doni remained an ardent supporter of
Tintoretto throughout the 1550s and 1560s. Doni praised Tintoretto'spreslezza delfatto
and propagated the idea that the artist's work reflected "divine speculation" and an
appropriate vision of divine events. III Doni's 1562 edition of Dichiartione sopra il XIII
capitolo dell'Apocalisse (first published in 1552-53) emphasized the individual's role in
the coming Apocalypse, complementing his previous critiques of the opulence and lack
of humility in contemporary Venetian culture. Tintoretto's emphasis on the humility of
Christ in Christ before Pilate and Christ Carrying the Cross and the cataclysmic
undertones in the monumental portrayal of Christ on the opposite wall reverberate with
Doni's critiques, albeit in more dramatic and confrontational terms.
Andrea Calmo (1510-1571) was another significant member of the poligraji
group and maintained a close relationship to both Tintoretto and Doni. 112 While little is
108 Longo and Romei, "Doni," 162.
109 Nichols, Tintoretto, 19n.
110 Ibid., 76.
11l Longo and Romei, "Doni," 161.
112 Calmo likely knew of Tintoretto from childhood, as the poet's father Tadio ran a dyeing business in the
Canareggio region. It is also possible that Tintoretto executed a mural of the Abduction o/Ganymede for a
building owned by Calmo's father. See Krischel, Jacopo Tintoretto, 6.
60
known about Calmo outside of a few extant plays and letters, the Venetian playwright
was, like Doni, one of Tintoretto's greatest advocates during his formative years, calling
the artist the "adoptive son of Apelles" and praising his ability to "portray a figure from
nature in half an hour.,,1l3 Calmo likely recognized Tintoretto's prestezza as the artistic
equivalent ofthe literary prestezza, naturalism, and improvisation that was reminiscent of
the poligrafi's literary production during this period. Calmo's satirical style of drama and
social critique, characteristics that became the hallmark of the sixteenth-century Venetian
theatre, is reflected in much of Tintoretto's work ofthe 1550s and l560s. Tintoretto
adopts this satirical spin on sexual affairs in his Venus, Vulcan, and Mars (1550-1551;
fig. 30), as the barking dog in the foreground alerts Vulcan to Venus' deceit. The use of
satire also pervades Tintoretto's religious work as in Christ Washing the Feet (1547-49;
fig. 31) in the adj acent Chuch of San Rocco in which the disciples' absurd preparation
distracts from Christ's humble gesture of piety. 114
Tintoretto's relationship with Calmo must have also relied on their shared interest
in theatricality and the close connection each had to Venetian theatre. 115 The base of
Christ's cross functions as the apex to the elevated stage-like platform on which the
drama unfolds. Furthermore, in a manner similar to an actor breaking character to
113 Ibid., 6; and Nichols, Tintoretto, 77. Calmo's preference for Tintoretto's prestezza was likely influenced
by the increasingly spontaneous nature of the theatrical scene in Venice in the mid-sixteenth-century. This
was a period in which playwrights and theaters would frequently and quickly produce one-act plays. There
was an appreciation for the rawness of the material and the acting.
114 The satire is clearly evident in that the disciples that struggle to remove their boots and pants, while
others sit around in what is an oddly casual atmosphere.
115 Calmo paid special interest to the presence of the Spanish in the Veneto region, highlighted by his play,
Las Spagnolas. See L. Zorzi, "Calmo, Andrea," in Dizionario Biografico degli ltaliani 16 (Roma: Istituto
della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2002), 778-780.
61
address the audience directly, Tintoretto detaches Christ from his temporal setting to
forge a personal relationship to the viewer in the Sala dell'Albergo. In addition to the
artist's relationship with Calmo, Tintoretto's construction and decoration of stage sets as
a young artist in the 1530s and 1540s likely enhanced the theatricality of his style. I 16
Perhaps the most notable reforming figure of the poligraji group was Alessandro
Caravia (1503-1568), an outspoken goldsmith and poet who championed a return to
piety, humility, and charity. 117 Caravia, who lived and worked in the Canareggio region
Venice, used his shop near the Rialto Bridge as a major distribution center for evangelical
and social reformist ideals and literature. As Nichols notes, his primary target of
criticism were the Venetian scou1e grandi whose increasing interest in ostentatiousness
decoration and "elaborate devices and banquets" had separated these confraternities from
their original function as fraternal charitable organizations. I IS Caravia especially took
exception to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, as the rapid growth in membership in the
early sixteenth century afforded the confraternity the opportunity to construct a new
meeting house near the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. The reformer
criticized the lavish decoration and significant expenditures in his poem, 11 sogno di
Caravia (1541),
116 Ridolfi notes that Tintoretto spent the early part ofhis career doing work for the theatre. It is unlikely
that he worked on anything specifically for Andrea Calmo, as Tintoretto was fairly well established during
the playwright's most prolific period. See Ridolfi, Tintoretto, 19-25.
117 Krischel confirms the relationship between Tintoretto and Caravia by suggesting that the artist did a
portrait of Caravia for art dealer Hans Jakob Konig after 1541. Krischel, Jacopo Tintoretto, 102.
118 Nichols restricts his discussion of Caravia to his direct interaction with the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.
For the Caravia quotation, see Nichols, Tintoretto, 150. For a more complete discussion of Caravia' s
approach to the scoule, see Manfredo Tafuri, Venice and the Renaissance, trans. Jessica Levine
(Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press, 1995),76-84.
62
They have spent 80,000 ducats when 6,000 would have been enough
The rest which was spent in vain
Could have been spent for the barefoot and naked who cry "alas"
Each one unhealthy and hungry 119
Nichols highlights this exaggerative account to argue effectively that the confraternity
hired Tintoretto in response to Caravia's critique because the artist had agreed to decorate
the meeting house at minimal cost. 120 The impact of charity is immediately evident in the
artist's construction of Christ Carrying the Cross in which two figures, dressed in
Renaissance garb, assist the two thieves in carrying their crosses. Caravia agreed with his
evangelical and reforming predecessors that there existed a direct relationship with the
pious worshipper and God and that this faith demanded charity. He declared that the
scoule grandi "should have an affection for Christ / And for the love of him these ill-
spent ducats / Should clothe the naked and feed the hungry."l2l Caravia's use of the
phrases "affection for Christ" and "for the love of Christ" recalls the traditional mystical
teachings in which love of and affection for Christ signify a partial attainment ofgnosis
and the presence of God. 122
Caravia was called to testify before an inquisitional tribunal in 1561 when a
heresy charge was brought against Giovanni Grimani (1506-1593), Patriarch of
119 Excerpt taken from Nichols, Tintoretto, 149.
120 Nichols' interest in Caravia and the representation of charity in Tintoretto's work, however, only
extends to social reform and does not consider Caravia's evangelism.
121 Tafuri, Venice, 81.
122 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) discusses "love" as union in more ecstatic terms, which was to
set up the basis of female mysticism for the following several centuries. See McGinn, Foundations, 210-
238.
63
Aquileia. 123 The tribunal found Grimani's association with Caravia less troublesome than
his intimate connection to more prominent reforming Italians like Pier Paolo Vergerio
and Bernardino Ochino, both key supporters of the Beneficio di Cristo. 124 In 1549,
Grimani was accused for being a "crypto-Lutheran," and he was forced to relinquish his
position. He was acquitted in 1552, but was unable to restore his religious reputation
until 1561 when he began the initiation process to become a cardinal. Anticipating his
elevation, he commissioned Tintoretto for a "portrait in cardinal vestments" in 1561 (now
thought to be lost).125 Grimani must have been satisfied with Tintoretto's work because
the cardinal commissioned the artist to paint the Deposition ofChrist (1561; fig. 32) for
the Church of San Francesco della Vigna in Venice. 126 It is inconclusive as to whether
Tintoretto's association with Grimani, Caravia, Calmo, and Doni reveals the artist's
theological leanings, yet considering the strength of these associations it is likely that he
was aware and open to such reformist concepts and ideologies.
123 See L. Zorzi, "Caravia, Alessandro," in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 19 (Roma: Istituto della
Enciclopedia Italiana, 2002), 670.
124 Nichols claims Giovanni Grimani to be one of the papalisti despite the significant evidence that he
supported the reformist movements of Venice. See Nichols, Tintoretto, 137.
125 "ritratto in veste cardinalizia." See G. Benzoni and L. Bortolotti. "Grimani, Giovanni." In Dizionario
Biografico degli Italiani 19 (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2002), 617-618. Falomir also notes
that Tintoretto continued his work with the Grimani family in the late 1570s in two portraits of Marco
Grimani. See Miguel Falomir, "Tintoretto's Portraiture," in Tintoretto, ed. Miguel Falomir (Madrid: Museo
Nacional del Prado, 2007), 105-108.
126 Benzoni and Bortolotti, "Grimani," 615.
64
The Spanish Influence
The evangelical aims of the poligraji extended beyond the publication and
promotion of Venetian works to include the dissemination of evangelical ideals and
literature of foreigners as well. The most influential doctrines of Catholic mystical and
evangelical reform in the sixteenth century arrived in Italy from Spain. As a result of its
long and fraught "reconquering" of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims and its close ties
to both northern and southern Europe, Spain became a hotbed of religious reform in the
sixteenth century. The Hapsburg Empire's attempts to eradicate religious diversity in an
area historically filled with various Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sects sparked a
diffusion of religious theologies throughout Europe.
The most notable of these groups were the alumbrados (illuminists), whose
emphasis on the benefits of contemplative worship and the attaining the presence of God
inspired Catholic mystics and reformers like Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Juan de Valdes,
and Saint Teresa of Avila. The direct Christian roots of the alumbrado movement reside
in the early Gnostic tradition, Franciscan "affective spirituality," and Germanic
mysticism. 127 The movement also contains elements of Arabic Sufism.128 The
alumbrados practiced mystical, visionary meditation in their attempts to achieve interior
enlightenment. While the Church initially ignored the alumbrados, the cult-like
127 The specific elements of Gennanic mysticism that most heavily impacted the alumbrado movement
were its renewed emphasis on the individual (as opposed to the clergy), its Neoplatonic interests, and the
focus on Christ rather than the church. See Steven E. Ozment, Mysticism and Dissent: Religious Ideology
and Social Protest in the Sixteenth Century (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973),39-133.
128 For a discussion of the alumbrado movement and the important life and trial of Maria de Santo
Domingo, almost universally known as "La Beata de Piedrahita," see Alison Weber, "Counter-Refonnation
Misogyny" in The Counter-Reformation, ed. David M. Luebke (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999), 143-162.
65
following of some of the major leaders of the movement threatened Church authority.
The daughter of a laborer born in Salamanca, known as "La Beata de Piedrahita," was the
first prominent member to be prosecuted by the Inquisition in 1511. The woman claimed
that she had frequently communicated with God and the Virgin Mary, and the Church
charged her with the pretense of holiness (she was eventually acquitted). This trial
sparked the heavy prosecution of the alumbrados and potential sympathizers for the
following century. 129
The differences between the heretical alumbrado movement and accepted
mystical theology were slight and largely depended on the ability of the accused to
provide a thorough exegetical defense and to supply significant and high-ranking
supporters. Those that escaped persecution were careful to reaffirm the connection
between this intimate faith and the Church. 130 Notable inquisitional suspects like Ignatius
and Teresa also reaffirmed crucial elements of Catholic doctrine: the innate sinfulness of
humanity, the connection between faith and charity, the importance in performing all
Catholic rites, and the Christocentric approach in attaining salvation. l3I They explicitly
129 Venetian ambassadors note the frequency, especially during the 1550s and 1560s, of the burning of the
alumbrados in Spain. See, for instance, the report of Paolo Tiepolo to Venetian Doge and Senate, Spain,
16 June 1559, in Calendar ofState Papers and Manuscripts Existing in the Archives and Collections of
Venice and in Other Libraries ofNorthern Italy, 1558-80, ed. Rawdon Brown, vol. 8 (London: Longmans,
Green, and Company, 1890), 159.
130 This connection became especially important in Spain where Charles II relied on the uniting capabilities
of Christianity to bring several factions under one rule. For a discussion of the later reconquest of southern
Spain and the continuous presence of the Jewish and Muslim traditions, see Derek W. Lomax, The
Reconquest ofSpain (New York: Longman, 1978),160-178; and Edward D. English and Mark D.
Meyerson, eds., Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain: Interaction and
Cultural Exchange (Notre Dame, IN: University ofNotre Dame Press, 1999), 197-308.
13l Slade discusses Teresa's inquisitional defense effectively by noting the key distinctions between the
nun's religious philosophy and that of the alumbrados. See Carol Slade, Saint Teresa ofAvila: Author ofa
66
argued in both writing and practice that their direct relationship with God led them to
reform the Church, not in terms of doctrine but rather in terms of behavior and practices.
Ignatius' association with the alumbrado movement began after a cannonball
shattered his leg during a French siege at the fortress in Pamplona. In his recovery,
Ignatius (still at this time known as Ifiigo L6pez de Loyola) wrote on the life of Christ
and the life of saints. After leading a life of austerity in France, he was struck "in a wave
of ecstatic illumination one day at the River Cardoner.,,132 The mystical experience
inspired Loyola to make a pilgrimage through Italy and Jerusalem, whereupon his return
to Spain he began preaching a return to piety through the establishment of a direct
relationship with God. During this period in Salamanca, Ignatius established an
association with the alumbrado movement and the practice of mystical contemplation.
While the extent to which Ignatius identified himself with the movement is unclear, his
appreciation for the practices led to his inquisitional arrest in 1527.133 When heresy
charges against him were rescinded, Loyola began his religious studies at the University
of Paris where he and a small group of fellow students, including Saint Francis Xavier,
Heroic Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995),35-40. To understand the significant
exegetical approach of the saint in her defense, see Teresa of Avila, The Life ofTeresa ofJesus.
132 For an effective synthesis of the early, pre-illumination life ofIgnatius of Loyola, see Bruce L. Shelley,
"The Impact of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Council of Trent," in The Reformation, edited by Stephen
P. Thompson (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1999),178-180.
133 Ibid., 181. Ignatius was officially arrested under the charge of preaching potential heresy in a public
space but was quickly released.
67
founded the Society of Jesus, familiarly known as the Jesuits, a missionary order that
immediately began to disseminate Catholic doctrine throughout the world. 134
Ignatius' imprint on Italian religious culture and sixteenth-century piety first
occurred during his sojourn through Italy from 1522-24. While in Venice, Ignatius
passed out thousands of copies of his reforming meditational guide, Spiritual Exercises
(1522-24).135 This book became the seminal work for the advocation of mystical,
contemplative prayer. 136 It ignited a publishing wave of treatises, dialogues, and books in
Venice in which "the readers were instructed to meditate systematically on the events of
Christ's life, as ifthey were present themselves" and feel themselves "present in those
places as if the things were done in your presence, as it comes directly to you soul in
thinking them.,,137 In his spiritual guide, Loyola sought to discipline the human
imaginative capabilities in order to achieve a more affective Christological focus in
prayer.
One key theme running throughout the meditational guide was the importance of
"suffering love." Ignatius dedicated an entire week of his four-week guide to this theme,
as he asked his readers to contemplate Christ's Passion and Crucifixion. In the more
134 For a closer reading of Loyola's schooling and the fonnation of the Jesuit order, see Philip Caraman,
Saint Ignatius ofLoyola: A Biography ofthe Founder ofthe Jesuits (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990).
135 For Ignatius' early influence on Italian religious society, see Terence O'Reilly, From Ignatius Loyola to
John ofthe Cross: Spirituality and Literature in Sixteenth Century Spain (Brookfield, VT: Variorum,
1995),445.
136 While the Church initially recognized the potential heretical results of Spiritual Exercises, given the
increasing support for Ignatius' Jesuit movement and Pope Paul Ill's commendation of the Society of
Jesus, the Church considered the book acceptable.
137 Ilchman provides a brief discussion of these new religious texts and associates them to the
overwhelmingly pious quality of Tintoretto's works. See Hehman, "Religious Narrative," 83, 93.
68
literal and extremist interpretation, and when associated with the renewed sixteenth-
century interest in the imitation of Christ, "suffering love" supported the Christian
tradition of penitential flagellation, a tradition that was a central and constitutional
practice of several confraternities, including the Scuola Grande di San ROCCO. 138
Loyola's Christ emphasizes to the practitioner that "whoever wishes to come with me
must labor with me, so that through following me in the pain he or she may follow me
also in the glory. ,,139 In sixteenth-century Venice, "suffering love" described the
experience of God's presence through empathetic contemplation of Christ's Passion.
Before having his readers reenact the events of Christ's Passion, Loyola instructed
his readers to envision the setting for each event, calling upon the viewers' imaginative
projection. 140 According to the reformer, the re-creation of the setting more easily
enabled the practitioner to participate in the event. 141 Here Ignatius further departs from
the alumbrados in his recognition of the efficacy of images for contemplative worship.
Tintoretto's dramatic, monumental, and original manipulation of the traditional
Renaissance Crucifixion image suggests that the artist intended is his Crucifixion to both
138 See Christopher F. Black, Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989), 100-105. Nichols associates the prominent use of rope in Tintoretto's Passion
cycle with the flagellant tradition of San Rocco. See Nichols, Tintoretto, 170-172, 224. Franco Tonon
discusses the specific flagellant practices of San Rocco in his book on the early bylaws of the confraternity.
See Tonon, La Scuola Grande, 11-15.
139 See Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises ofSaint Ignatius, trans. George E. Ganss (Chicago:
Loyola University Press, 1992), 54.
140 Ignatius asked the reader to envision the setting for each of the meditations on historical events in the
life of Christ or Mary. Yet, in general, his text focuses on historical action more than physical description.
141 Joseph F. Chorpenning provides the best discussion of the manner in which IgnatiUS' emphasis on the
"composition of place" and the "application of the senses" correlates to religious art of the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries. See Joseph F. Chorpenning, "Another Look at Caravaggio and Religion,"
Artibus et Historiae 8 (1987): 149-158.
69
stimulate contemplation and perhaps represent the results of his own meditative practices.
While the painting includes the standard Crucifixion elements, the artist's addition of
witnesses who remain relatively oblivious to the chaos that surrounds them reinforces the
theme of empathetic, contemplative participation. Furthermore, in his discussion of the
mysteries of the cross, Loyola noted that the sky was "darkened, the rocks were split"
when Christ commended himself to God the Father. 142 Tintoretto' s painting perhaps
speaks to this crucial moment in the story as Christ's commendation occurred while the
executioners prepared the vinegar for his wound. The artist's sky is dark and ominous,
and the vertically posed Christ splits the composition, pushing the landscape to either
side. If the traditional reading ofthe offering of Jesus' spirit to God speaks to the union
or reunion of Christ with God the Father, then Tintoretto's painting depicting this
mystical union has the transformative function of uniting the witness to God through the
mystical "Body of Christ" on the cross; Ignatius contended that as Christ ascends to God,
so might the pious worshipper.
Sixteenth-century Venetian theologians recognized the unifying capabilities of
Christ's sacrifice propagated by Ignatius. Contarini viewed the contemplation on Christ's
Passion as the appropriate response to theological questions, and believed that Christians
"must attempt merely to unite (themselves) with (Christ's sacrifice).,,143 Contarini's
emphasis on the imitatio Christi highlights his reliance on Saint Augustine, who claimed
142 Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 115.
143 For a brief discussion of Contarini's views on the role of the sacrifice in Christian salvation, see Fenlon,
Heresy, 7-10.
70
that "Christ's Passion is mystical and his mystical setting (jixio) of his cross in our hearts
points out the wounds of our sins.,,144
Contarini's interest in Augustinian theology and familiarity with the alumbrado
movement made him an ardent supporter of Ignatius' teachings. 145 Scholars have argued
that the Venetian spirituali, led by Cardinal Contarini, had received "vital impetus" from
Spain and was a "direct descendent" of this alumbrado movement. 146 While generally
refraining from involving himself in inquisitional matters, Contarini did note that he
carried an affinity for the new Spanish religiosity. 147 Historian Peter Matheson argued
that Contarini's interest in Spanish mystical theology manifested itself at the Conference
of Regensburg in 1541 when he employed the teachings ofIgnatius' movement. 148 The
cardinal's position as the unofficial leader of Venetian religious reform as well as his
strong relationship with like-minded evangelical spirituali in Venice such as Reginald
Pole, Marcantonio Flaminio, and Alvise Priuli supported the spread of Ignatian theology
throughout the city's reforming circles and the Canareggio district surrounding
Tintoretto.
144 Augustine, Augustine. Later Works, edited by John Burnaby (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1955),33:1;
32.7,19.
145 The cardinal was introduced to the alumbrados and mystical theology and practice on a cultural level
through his work as the Venetian ambassador to Spain from 1520-1525.
146 See Fenlon, Heresy, 69; and Eva-Maria Jung, "On the Nature ofitalian Evangelism in Sixteenth-
Century Italy," Journal a/the History a/Ideas 14 (1953): 514.
147 The diplomat's direct relationship with Ignatius began during the late 1530s after Pope Paul III elevated
the secular Gasparo Contarini to the Cardinalate. The cardinal offered his recommendation for the
approbation ofthe Society of Jesus in 1540. See Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 35-48.
148 See Peter Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg(Oxford: Clarendon, 1972),164. Matheson's
claim that Contarini spoke in the "language of Ignatius" is somewhat controversial.
71
Valdes and the Beneficio di Cristo
It is perhaps the Venetian reformers' fondness for Ignatius' teachings that primed
their quick acceptance of the culminating ideas of Juan de Valdes and his followers for
the subsequent three decades. 149 Juan de Valdes, born in Castile in 1509, was a follower
of the alumbrado movement during his studies in the 1520s. 15o His 1528 political and
religious critique, Diidogo de Mercurio y Caron, attacked the corruptions ofthe papacy
and Spanish religious administration. In fear of inquisitional proceedings, Valdes fled to
Naples in 1531 where he began preaching on the importance of the interior conversion of
the soul and the benefits of Christ's death. His shared ideology with Ignatius was
confirmed in his 1537 treatise, Alfabeto Cristiano, when he emphasized that the pious
Christian should "experience for himself every event of Christ's life.,,151 His teachings
and treatises attracted a widespread Italian following including Bernardino Ochino, Pier
Paolo Vergerio, and Marcantonio Flaminio, all of whom resided in Venice shortly
following Valdes' death in 1541. 152 The Valdesian philosophy was not restricted to the
religious. Its mysticism and individuality attracted Vittoria Colonna in Naples, Venetian
149 This author considers the significant influence of Juan de Valdes and his movement to comprise the
culminating period (1530s-1560s) of the evangelical movement in sixteenth-century Venice. Certainly,
reformist activities continued in the city after the 1560s, but no organized movement received comparable
widespread public response for the duration of the century.
150 For historical background on Valdes, see Ruth Prelowski, introduction to "The Beneficio di Cristo," in
Italian Reformation Studies in Honor ofLaelius Socinus, ed. John A. Tedeschi (Firenze: Felice Le
Monnier: 1965),21-43.
151 Ibid., 2n.
152 For a complete discussion of the influence ofOchino, Vergerio, and Flaminio in Venice, see John
Jeffries Martin, Hidden Enemies, 74-84.
72
noblemen Donato Rullo, Vittore Soranzo, Tommaso Sanfelice, and Ercole and Giulia
Gonzaga in Mantua. 153
The followers of Juan de Valdes ensured the legacy and the influence of the
Valdesian philosophy through the writing, publishing, and dissemination of the Benejicio
di Cristo. Scholars agree that the book was written around 1540 by an anonymous
Mantuan friar (commonly referred to as Don Benedetto) and revised by Marcantonio
Flaminio shortly thereafter. 154 Both men were intimate associates of Valdes. The
treatise on the benefit of Christ did not receive significant attention until leaders of the
Venetian poligraji published the first edition of the work in 1543. 155 Two more editions
were printed within the following decade, and the Benejicio became the primary text on
reforming theology of the sixteenth century. 156 Due to the cosmopolitan nature of Venice
and the high literacy rate, Vergerio reported that the book remarkably sold over 40,000
copies in the city alone. I5? This number does not take into account the distribution of the
book among friends and artisan shops and its frequent reselling by hawkers, who did
"thrust" the books into the arms of those passing at prices that were equal to only two or
153 Tintoretto completed portraits and a Turkish battle scene for the Gonzaga family in the early 1560s. He
was later commissioned by Ercole Gonzaga's nephew, Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, in the late 1570s, to
paint eight large battle scenes. Nichols, Tintoretto, 133.
154 The authors remained anonymous until 1566. Fenlon, Heresy, 74. Pre10wski, "Beneficio," 26.
155 Bouwsma, Venice, 127.
156 John Jeffries Martin, Hidden Enemies, 84,
157 Prelowski, "Beneficio," 23.
73
three days wages. 15S Martin describes the Beneficia as ubiquitous in Venice from 1540-
1570. The book's immediate appearance on the prohibited book index in 1549 did little
to stop its circulation or the spread of its reformist ideals. In the inquisitional trials of
those accused of owning heretical literature, the Beneficia appeared in most
collections. 159 The arrival of the work signaled the popularization of the evangelical
movement that was previously limited to a select group of religious reformers.
The book, likewise, became the standard of Italian evangelism. Historian Ruth
Prelowski argues that the book functioned as the quintessential amalgam of international
and pre-Tridentine religious reform, combining Catholic tradition with Spanish
mysticism, Erasmian humanism, and Lutheran interest in the justification of salvation
through faith. 160 As historian Frederick Church noted in his seminal discussion on mid-
century Italian reform, at its most basic level, the book relays Valdes' "mystical
conception of the individual conscience as man's highest spiritual guide.,,161 The
Beneficia finds its strength in the return to traditional mystical theology. The authors
reestablished the connection between faith and charity in the third chapter: "for our works
cannot be good, unless we ourselves are made good and just through faith before we do
158 Martin provides the primary account of how these books circulated within popular society, and he is
most effective describing the reformist movements as a widespread cultural phenomenon rather than the
activity of an elite few. See John Jeffries Martin, Hidden Enemies, 29,80-93.
159 For an examination of the Venetian prohibited index as well the transcripts from some of these
inquisitional hearings, see Grendler, Rome and the Venetian Press, 295-324.
160 For a discussion of influences on the Beneficia di Cristo, see Prelowski, "Beneficia," 29-31.
161 See Frederick C. Church, The Italian Reformers: 1534-1564 (New York: Columbia University Press,
1932),47-54.
74
them, as Saint Augustine also affirms, for the spirit of Christ is the spirit of charity."162
The Beneficia also recalls the works of Saint Jerome and John Cassian in its emphasis on
mystical union and mystical marriage imagery: "every faithful soul is the bride of Christ,
and Christ is her spouse.,,163 The treatise applies the Neoplatonic theory of gnosis as
light, quoting and emphasizing the gospel of Saint John: "I came into the world as a light,
so that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness" (John 10:46).164
Finally, it renews the emphasis of individual, mystical contemplation on Christ's Passion
and Crucifixion: "we are reconciled with God through his most precious blood," and "it
is this divine faith which inserts us in the death and resurrection of Christ, and
consequently mortifies our flesh with its affections and concupiscences.,,165
Tintoretto's relationship to the Beneficia cannot be established biographically, but
given the proliferation of copies in Venice, the popularity of the work in the artisanal
district ofCanareggio, the artist's ties to the Venetianpaligrafi, and his documented
interest in religious matters, it is almost certain that the artist was familiar with the work
and its ideals and possibly had read the book before embarking on the Passion cycle in
the SaIa dell'Albergo. The subject matter of the cycle alone suggests its engagement
with the Beneficia. Tintoretto's depiction of the tribulations of Christ's Passion shares
162 Don Benedetto and Marcantonio Flaminio, Trattato utilissimo del beneficio di Giesu Christo crocijisso,
verso i Christiani, translated by Ruth Prelowski, in Italian Reformation Studies in Honor ofLaelius
Socinus, edited by John A. Tedeschi (Firenze: Felice Ie Monnier: 1965),52-53,68.
163 Ibid., 57.
164 Ibid., 59.
165 Ibid., 67, 78.
75
the Beneficia's emphasis on Jesus' physical suffering and the inherent meaning in this
sacrifice. The authors remind the reader,
He should contemplate, on one hand, Christ on the cross, burdened with all our sins, and
on the other, God who chastises him, beating his most-beloved Son instead of us. Oh,
happy is he who closes his eyes to all other sights, and wants to see and understand only
Jesus Christ crucified, in whom all the graces and treasures of wisdom are stored! Happy
is he who always feeds his mind with such divine food and makes his soul drunk with the
love of God by means of such a sweet and saving liqueur! 166
The juxtaposition of Tintoretto's Christ on the cross and the beaten Christ of the Ecce
Hama immediately opposite the cross seems to speak to the Beneficia's dual
contemplative emphasis. The spatial correlation between the central figures of the two
paintings reinforces the cycle's sacrificial undertones. The morose poses of the mourning
figures at the base of the cross alludes to the treatise's Augustinian claim that those who
envision the Crucifixion and "take up the cross daily" have mystically "died with
Christ."167
The Christ that projects from the cross reflects the Beneficia's specific
employment of light. The treatise combines the two mystical theories of God as light and
Christ as charity to create a new transitive association: charity as light. The Beneficia
argues for the interrelationship between faith and charity in stating,
Justifying faith then is like a flame of fire, which cannot help but to shine forth. It is true
that the flame alone bums the wood without the aid of light, and yet the flame cannot
exist without light. In the same way, it is true that faith alone bums and extinguishes sins
without the aid of good works, and yet faith cannot exist without good works. Ifwe see a
flame of fire with no light, we know it is painted and unreal, and similarly, if we do not
see the light of good works in someone, it is a sign that he does not have the true, inspired
faith that God gives to his elect to justify and glorify them. 168
166 Ibid., 82.
167 Ibid., 76, 67.
168 Ibid., 69.
76
If Nichols is to be believed and Tintoretto intended for his work in the Scuola Grande to
emphasize charity, then the absence of symbolic images of charity in his defining
painting in the scuola is peculiar. Christ before Pilate and Ecce Homo illustrate charity
in Christ's quiet and humble resignation to his fate, and Christ Carrying the Cross
highlights those figures in contemporary garb assisting with the thieves' crosses.
Tintoretto might have intended for the ideal of charity to be more subtle visually in the
Crucifixion, but the Crucifixion scene itself is symbolic of Christ's ultimate act of
charity. In Augustinian and Valdesian terms, Christ is symbolically flooded with radiant
light. The painter's savior manifests the Beneficio's emphasis on the recommendation of
Saint Paul that Christians should "cast off the works of darkness and put on weapons of
light.,,169
The Beneficio might also be responsible for Tintoretto's decision to break away
from the Renaissance tradition of portraying Christ before Pilate in red or burgundy
attire. l7O The lavishly decorated white robe of the artist's elongated protagonist, which
stands out against the dark and obscured sea of denouncers, reflects the mystical focus of
169 Ibid., 74.
170 It was traditional to clothe Christ before Pilate in the color red as a symbol of his future sacrifice. This
is evident in Duccio's Christ before Pilate (1311), Pietro Lorenzetti's Christ before Pilate (fourteenth
century), Jean Fouquet's Christ before Pilate (1445), and Hans Multscher's version (1437). In the early
sixteenth century, artists tended to lighten the red; see Albrecht Altdorfer's San Sebastian Altarpiece (1509-
16). Jacopo Pontormo's Christ in his unfmished version of the scene (1523-26) is the closest relative to
Tintoretto's work, but his tonal selection lacks the brilliant emphasis (at least given its unfinished state) of
Tintoretto's version.
77
the fifth chapter, entitled, "How the Christian Clothes Himselfwith ChriSt.,,171 The
authors write based on Revelation,
I advise you to buy from God some gold made red-hot with fire, namely true faith
inflamed with good works, so that you may become rich and clothe yourself in white
garments, that is, in the innocence of Christ, and that the shame of your nakedness,
namely the ugliness of your sins, may not be apparent. 172
Tintoretto's adoption of this color symbolism propagates the mystical belief that through
the adornment of Christ's garments one becomes "pure and free from all stains.,,173
Furthermore, the Beneficio suggests that Christians clothe themselves in the innocence of
Christ when coming before the Lord. 174 Accordingly, Tintoretto's Christ submits himself
before Pilate's political authority and, in tum, the will of God to purify the sinfulness of
mankind. In addition, the humble and charitable connotations filling the entire Passion
cycle reminds the viewer of the Beneficio's discussion of the Passion of Christ "in whose
imitation we should clothe ourselves.,,175 Therefore, the effect of Tintoretto's white-clad
figure not only redeems our sins, but also inherently instructs the viewer to emulate
Christ by wearing a garment of innocence.
171 Benedetto and Flaminio, Beneficia, 75.
172 Revelation 3: 17-18. Ibid., 69. It is important to note that the concept of imitating Christ's innocence
would not have been unfamiliar to the sixteenth-century Venetian lay audience, regardless of the viewer's
familiarity with the Beneficia. Likewise, the Beneficia'S emphasis on wearing the clothes of purity only
emphasized the ideas present in Revelations, and thus, does not require knowledge of the Beneficia. That
said, given the book's ubiquitous presence among the non-religious in Venice, its dedication ofan entire
chapter to wearing the clothes of Christ, and Tintoretto's decision to break with tradition in draping Christ
in white (as the Beneficia suggests), the Beneficia is influential. Familiarity with the book would enrich the
sixteenth-century viewer's experience of the work, and Tintoretto may have had the teachings of the
Beneficia in mind when painting the scene.
173 Ibid., 75.
174 The authors of the Beneficia noted that the wearing the "clothes of innocence" when visiting a lord was
traditional in the political sphere. Ibid., 73.
175 Ibid., 76.
78
The authors dedicated a significant portion of the Beneficio's final chapter to the
mystical significance of the Eucharist. They claimed that only pious practice could
ensure the effectiveness of the Eucharist by arguing that "whoever usurps the Lord's
meal without faith and charity, does not recognize the Lord's body" and cannot unite
himself with the body of Christ. 176 As was discussed in the previous chapter, the Sala
dell'Albergo is loaded with eucharistic symbolism considering the room's function. Each
meal mystically unites the participant with Christ, and in this act, the Scuola Grande di
San Rocco member is reminded of the confraternity's call to charity.
Mysticism and Evangelism in the Confraternity ofSan Rocco
As is clear in the introduction of this paper, the discussion of mystical and
evangelical elements in Tintoretto's Passion cycle in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco is
heavily contingent on the work's reception and cannot be disassociated from its intended
and actual audiences. My reluctance to address this audience, the mid-sixteenth-century
members of the confraternity of San Rocco, thus far is not due to their lack of interest in
these reformist movements, but rather to the unavailability of first-person responses to
the cycle. It is clear that the cycle produced positive and affective reactions from its early
viewers through the testimonies of sixteenth-century art critics like Vasari or in the
preserved diaries of visiting artists like EI Greco, but the confraternity's archives do not
contain any documents addressing the local reception of the work. Membership support
for Tintoretto as the official artist of the scuola increased following the unveiling of the
176 Ibid., 80.
79
Sala dell'Albergo, but the confraternity does not explain the reasons for this increase. 177
Due to the lack of confirmable evidence, this section will not attempt to describe specific
reactions to the cycle, but rather reveal a community that would willingly accommodate
mystical and evangelical practices and doctrine.
On the whole, confraternities in the sixteenth century intended to focus on the
social branches of Christianity rather than debate theology. The foundation of the
confraternities and their respective mariegole (treatise of bylaws) addressed theology
only in the loosest sense. They needed to appeal to a variety of viewpoints in the upper
artisan and elite classes, and therefore, publicly took an ambivalent stance to the
reformist movements around them. However, considering that the confraternity of San
Rocco drew upon the same artisanal class that had given rise to social and religious
reform in Venice, it is probable that evangelical and mystical theology found adherents
within the San Rocco membership. The confraternity's artisanal membership was
substantial and, by the conclusion ofthe sixteenth century, included forty-two textile
dyers, comprising twenty-five percent of its membership. 178 The textile industry was
especially active in the Canareggio region of Venice where the scuola sponsored a
botteghe and was among the largest groups that the Inquisition targeted for possible
heretical activity. 179
177 Tintoretto's willingness to work for low wages ensured him the support of the confraternity that was
frequently attacked (including by Caravia) for excessive expenditure on the construction and decoration of
the Scuola Grande. Nichols, Tintoretto, 175-180.
178 Tonon, Devotissima, 93.
1791bid., 58.
80
More specifically, two of the more important families with ties to reformist
activities in Venice also maintained relationships to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco: the
Contarini and Dona families. Neither family was among the membership of the
confraternity of San Rocco, as it was unusual and unbecoming of elite families to directly
participate. That being said, these families frequently functioned as patrons and
unofficial guardians over the scuole. While participating in the Council ofTen in the mid
1530s, Tommaso Contarini, the brother of Cardinal Contarini, considered himself as an
overseer of the newly developing confraternity. In September 1538, he helped the
brothers resolve a dispute with local friars about the construction of a bell tower on the
church fa<;ade. I80 He sided in favor of the confraternity of San Rocco, although admitted
understanding the friars' perspective. A similar situation occurred ten years later with a
relative of Tommaso, Francesco Contarini, who also supported the charitable activities of
the Scuola Grande di San ROCCO. I8I He commended the scuola for its charitable
contributions and authorized their distribution of funds. 182
This ruling was authorized under the guise of the Commissaria Dona, a
commission established and originally funded by Maffeo Dona to help govern the scuola
and its charitable donations. While the family did not necessarily take part in the
everyday activities of this commission, they remained sponsors of the governing body
180 See Tonon, La Scuola Grande, 15.
181 See Tonon, La Scuola Grande, 63-65.
182 Francesco Contarini was also selected to participate on the lay tribunal for heresy in Venice. This
tribunal only responded to specific accusations of the most serious heretical offenses and frequently
ignored general concerns of heresy.
81
until late in the sixteenth century. The confraternity considered Francesco Dona, one of
the most sympathetic doges to the evangelical movement during his reign from 1545-
1553, a major hero of the school and one of its brethren. 183 The school was so enamored
with Francesco that it commissioned a print of Francesco Dona presented to the Virgin to
celebrate the election ofthe doge in 1545 (fig. 33). He also was among those who
authorized the continuation of the annual donation to the Church of San Francesco della
Vigna, the parish church of Giovanni Grimani and carried several ties to the evangelical
movement. 184
The influence of the Dona and Contarini families on the general membership's
religious ideologies is unclear. However, an archival document suggests that at the very
least some members were beginning to understand their spirituality in evangelical terms.
In one entry in the Commissaria Constantin de Todero Marcora in March 1544, an
anonymous writer establishes a direct relationship to the divine. He writes that it is his
"voglia" (wish) to "entrust his soul to our Omnipotent Creator God, the Virgin Mary, and
the entire Celestial Heart.,,185 The final emphasis on the Celestial Heart corresponds to
the mystical Augustinian concept of the invisible, Universal Church or communion of the
elect. While in the sixteenth century the Catholic Church emphasized the external or
terrestrial aspects of the Universal Church, Luther and the reformers sought to reinstate
183 See Tonon, Devotissima, 132.
184 Ibid., 66.
185 "raccomendo l'anima mia al omnipotente Creator Iddio Nu6 et aHa sua gloriosa Madre Vergene Maria,
et a tutta la Cuore Celestial." See Commissarla Dona, 1552, fol. 18, busta 270-6, Scuola Grande di San
Rocco, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Venice.
82
its ethereal and invisible nature, returning closer to the Universal Church's Augustinian
origins. 186 The Catholic Church's claim to its earthly authority and its decisive role as
intercessor is significantly devalued, as the pious Christian's participation in the
community of elect is no longer bound to its subordinate participation in the external
Catholic Church.
The writer's emphasis on his unmediated relationship with the divine is further
demonstrated in his claim that he will donate a hundred ducas to local hospitals because
"the Omnipotent God calls me from this life.,,187 It is significant that he receives
instruction directly from the divine as opposed to the Church "calling him." The
implication of this distinction is that his donation does not directly function to support his
salvation. He has already entrusted his soul to the grace of God, but suggests that God
calls him to demonstrate his faith through this good work. This belief recalls our earlier
discussion of the ideas that Gasparo Contarini and Pole propagated at this time: the
performance of charity is the direct result of the inflammation of the spirit sparked by
intimate interaction with the divine.
In 1996 the confraternity of San Rocco guided, commissioned, and published
Bruno Bertoli's book on the theological function of Tintoretto's art for the cult of San
Rocco that argues that members of the confraternity responded to Tintoretto's cycle in
186 Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman Publishing, 1969),236.
187 "I Omnipotente Iddio me chiama da questo vita." See Commissarla Dona, 1552, fo1. 18, busta 270-6,
Scoula Grande di San Rocco, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Venice. Due to San Rocco's association with
the plague, hospitals were frequent recipients of the confraternity's charity.
83
such mystical and evangelical terms. 188 The author suggests that the confraternity would
have maintained an evangelical and mystical understanding of the paintings (Bertoli
speaks to the entirety of Tintoretto's works in both the scuola and the church) due to its
close relationship with practice of prayer; the confraternity recognized the potential of
prayer to promote the "elevation of the soul to God.,,189 As Bertoli argues, the paintings
were meant to guide and accompany prayer, and the confraternity claimed that "the
highest form (of prayer) was mystical contemplation, as a detachment from any personal
interest and desire or as a moment of union with God.,,190
This interest in mystical elevation to the divine also seems to have corresponded
to musical performance within the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in the late sixteenth and
early seventeenth century. 191 English traveler Thomas Coryat noted in August 1608
during a musical performance at the scuola that he (and likely others) "was for the time
even rapt up with Saint Paul into the third heaven.,,192 Historian Denis Arnold suggests
that the Tintoretto-decorated setting for these often extravagant musical performances
would have only enhanced the affective response to these musical pieces. While
188 Bruno Bertoli, Arte e Teologia nel Culto di San Rocco (Venice: Quaderni della Scoula Grande
Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, 1996). It is important to note that my use of Bertoli's book is carefully
selective as the author often reveals his bias, celebrating the paintings in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.
189 See Bertoli, Arte, 14.
190 "La forma piu alta divenne la contemplazione mistica, intesa come distacco da ogni interesse e desiderio
personale 0 come momento di unione con Dio." Ibid., 13-14.
191 Denis Arnold notes that the San Rocco confraternity was one of the largest and wealthiest of the
confraternities in Venice during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Furthermore, they were
considered to be the foremost patrons of the musical arts. See Denis Arnold, "Music at the Scuola Grande
di San Rocco," Music and Letters 40 (1959): 229-230.
192 Ibid., 236.
84
Tintoretto cannot be considered a musical or lyrical painter in relation to the poetic
Venetian tradition, the intensity of his works would have highlighted orchestral
crescendos and dramatic melodies.
Bertoli concludes his discussion of Tintoretto's work in the scuola by suggesting
that it inspires "the contemplation of the great mystery, the contemplation of the story of
salvation.,,193 Yet, this interpretation is not complete. The Passion cycle not only
illustrates the confraternity's interest in "lives lived in union with God," but also speaks
to the importance of charitable activities as a result of such a union. Bertoli claims that
the confraternity recognized charity as "the light of the evangelical message.,,194 This
metaphor conforms to the Augustinian understanding of charity as expressed in the
Beneficio di Cristo, charity as the "light" of faith. Charitable activity, therefore, is
inextricably linked to worship in the minds of the members of the confraternity, as the
good Christian "prays while working and works while praying, knowing that he is invited
to ask for the gift of mystical contemplation.,,195
The understanding of charity as the manifestation of mystical practices and
beliefs, a reoccurring theme throughout this chapter, functions as the strongest link
between mystical doctrine and evangelical reform in sixteenth-century Venice. Whether
or not each member of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco would have understood the
theological foundations of charity, the average confraternity member would have
193 Bertoli, Arle, 42.
194 "esistenze vissute in unione con Dio" and "Ia luce del messaggio evangelico." Ibid., 18-21.
195 "prega operando e opera pregando, sa di essere invitato sia a domandare sia a tenersi disponibile al dono
mistico del contemplare." Ibid., 15.
85
recognized that pious, visionary worship leads to pious, charitable behavior. Through its
close relationships to popular mystical texts, Tintoretto's Passion cycle in the Sala
dell'Albergo functioned as the stimulus for such visionary meditation.
86
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
In March 2009, the show "Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance
Venice" opened at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition followed closely on
the heels of the 2007 feature show at the Prado dedicated to Tintoretto (and aptly titled,
"Tintoretto"), as sixteenth-century Venetian painting has become a popular geme in both
scholarly and more mainstream art circles. While both exhibitions and their respective
catalogues impressively describe Tintoretto and his art in relationship to the Venetian
artistic tradition, in general, they disregard cultural context, a deficiency present in the
majority of Tintoretto scholarship.196 If one agrees with Nichols' claim that Tintoretto,
above all else, was a "Venetian" painter, then the artist's personal and professional
identities, as well as the works he produced, must be responsive to his community
environment. This thesis sought to understand Tintoretto as functioning within a broader
cultural and civic history as well as within the Venetian artistic narrative.
It is clear that the underlying cultural milieu in Venice during the early-to-mid
sixteenth century was one of religious and social reform, with the Canareggio region of
the city as the center of activity. Mystical and evangelical ideas swelled within this
196 Works that specifically depict historical events in Venetian history are exceptions to this statement.
Nichols' monograph is the only notable published exception that examines cultural context more
thoroughly.
87
setting that produced not only Tintoretto, but also the majority of his audience in the
Scuola Grande di San Rocco. These Venetians turned to a mystical and personal
understanding of their relationship with God as the strain of papal religious prosecution,
rapid immigration to the city, and their instable political and economic position in the
Mediterranean bore down on the city.
Tintoretto introduced his Passion cycle to the confraternity in this context,
significantly altering the traditional understanding of these paintings. The Crucifixion is
more than a dramatic visual spectacle; it is a panoramic image that might engage the
viewer in contemplative activity. The three paintings on the eastern wall serve to
reinforce the visionary potential of the Crucifixion and reflect mystical theology and
complementary social reform propagated by Gasparo Contarini and in texts like Ignatius'
Spiritual Exercises and Don Benedetto and Marcantonio Flaminio's Beneficio di Cristo.
Tintoretto's Passion cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo should no longer function primarily as
an impressive display of artistic genius and innovation whose atypical style and
iconography make it difficult to situate within the Venetian artistic tradition. Scholars
should recognize that the paintings are deeply embedded in, and contributors to, the
reformist attitude that took hold of Venice in the mid sixteenth century when reformers
emphasized the need for Venetian citizens to return to the pious practice of meditative
contemplation on Christ's sacrifice, thereby guaranteeing their spiritual salvation as well
as to re-stabilizing Venice's mythical position as God's chosen city.
88
APPENDIX A
TINTORETTO'S ECCE HOMO: EUCHARISTIC AND SEXUAL UNDERTONES
The Ecce Homo is perhaps the most iconographically and theologically complex
painting in the cycle in the Sala dell'Albergo. While the following argument is
speculative and bears a loose relationship to the thesis, it is necessary to identify and
consider possible interpretations of the sexual imagery in the Ecce Homo. 197
Tintoretto's intimate portrayal ofPilate's presentation of Christ stands in stark
contrast to the more monumental (in terms of figural composition and setting, not
physical size) scenes flanking the picture. The artist unusually emphasized the tactile
carnality of Christ and embedded sexual imagery into his representations of the scene's
three primary figures. 198 This section will examine possible Eucharistic and mystical
understandings ofthe painting's erotic undertones. Whether or not the lay sixteenth-
century viewer would have consciously agreed with these interpretations is debatable
(although I would argue that frequent viewers would have recognized the hidden sexual
197 Tintoretto scholars have yet to even identify the sexual symbols in this painting, which alone makes this
appendix a significant contribution to the field. Scholars such as Nichols and Krischel have subtly noted
the "rod" to which Christ is tied, but the "rod" of the soldier placed conspicuously and the hidden-in-plain-
sight female genitalia in Pontius Pilate's robe have yet to be addressed.
198 While Tintoretto excelled at using the body to relay emotion and psychological affectations, he rarely
displayed especially in religious works an interest in tangible musculature or the glimmering sweat of the
body.
89
symbols), the erotic charges of this image would have subliminally resonated with
sixteenth-century viewers.
The placement of the rod to which Christ is bound generates possible controversy
in the reading of the Ecce Homo. While the figure's pudenda, or "shameful parts,"
remains covered, the rod's phallic functionality identifies and highlights the sexuality of
the Christian savior. Leo Steinberg asserts in his controversial book, The Sexuality of
Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, that the erotic, sacrificial Christ is
rich in symbolism. 199 Traditionally, the naked adult Christ has carried important
meanings visually within the mystical branch of "incarnational theology" as the redeemer
of Adam. Unlike Adam who covered his body in shame, Christ heading toward the cross
is shameless, confirming that although he was human, he was not conceived in flesh as
fallen man. The body in the Ecce Homo functions as an offering of forgiveness rather
than as the motivator and symbol of sin.
Inevitably, the general reading of the disrobed adult Christ as sacrificial redeemer
lends itself to the Eucharistic theologies propagated by the Beneficio di Cristo. The
Beneficio emphasizes the unifying importance of the physical body of Christ in arguing
that Christians are "enlivened by that immortal flesh, and in a certain way, (come) to
share in its immortality.,,200 The revealing of Christ's sexuality "participates in a mystic
or tragic vision" and indulges the viewer in a mystical, "erotic communion," a theory that
199 Leo Steinberg, The Sexuality ofChrist in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1996). I must note that this section is not intended to defend Steinberg's controversial
theories on the meanings of the naked Christ figure. This section's reliance on Steinberg's controversial
text is based more on his research rather than his conclusions.
200 Benedetto and Flaminio, Beneficia, 80.
-------------- --
90
recalls Augustine's writings on the Trinity, in which the theologian identifies the
consecration of the Eucharist as a "mystical prayer.,,201 Historian Caroline Walker
Bynum argues in her book, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality ofthe High
Middle Ages, that medieval monks and nuns understood Christ's sacrifice and the
consecration of the Eucharist in mystically feminine terms?02 Just as a woman sacrifices
her breast and body to sustain the life of an infant, Jesus offers the pious his body to
renew the life of mankind through the Eucharist. As an infant might suckle from her
mother's breast, a pious Christian would mystically eat or suck from Christ's wounds to
be spiritually renewed (see fig. 34).203
The phallic surrogate for Christ's penis complicates the symbolic reading of the
central figure in the Ecce Homo, as Christ is not only exposed but also implicitly
aroused.204 Steinberg suggests that the erect penis on the dead Christ might mysteriously
symbolize "flesh vivified," citing the orthodox understanding of the Resurrection story in
201 Steinberg, Sexuality, 5,41. For the quote from Saint Augustine, see Augustine, Saint Augustine: The
Trinity, translated by Stephen McKenna (Washington D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1963), 3.4.10.
202 The very nature of understanding Christ and his redeeming capabilities in feminine terms recalls the
Song of Songs' understanding of Christ as bridegroom and worshipper as the bride, a relationship in which
the pious Christian behaves as both a lover and child ofChrist. Bynum cites Anselm of Canterbury, a
twelfth-century Cistercian monk indebted to the theology of the Song of Songs: "But you, Jesus, good lord,
are you not also a mother? Are you not that mother who, like a hen, collects her chickens under her wings?
Truly, master, you are a mother. For what others have conceived and given birth to, they have received
from you... You are the author, others are the ministers. It is then you, above all, Lord God, who are
mother." See Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality a/the High Middle
Ages (Berkeley: University of Califomia Press, 1982), 114.
203 Ibid., 119, 123.
204 Depictions of sexual arousal are rare in Tintoretto' s oeuvre. Unlike his Venetian predecessors and
contemporaries, the artist did not consider the naked human form as a primary subject of exploration (this,
in part, may be due to Tintoretto's focus on portraiture and religious subjects- neither geme conducive to
the naked, aroused human form).
91
which Christ's body ascends as well as his soul. In Ecce Homo images, or in the iconic
images of the Man of Sorrows that functioned as forerunners to the Ecce Homo, the
activated sexual organ foreshadows the resurrection. The witty and provocative
connotation appeared to be present in popular culture. Boccaccio's Decameron describes
a character's sexual arousal as "the resurrection of the flesh.,,205 Boccaccio's humor
appears to function more as a lighthearted pun than a theological critique and alludes to
the suggestive etymology of the term "resurrezion" or "Anastasis" (the Greek term for
the Resurrection)?06 Sexual activation and spiritual rebirth were intertwined during the
Renaissance. Sixteenth-century mystics recognized that to be "engulfed in (God)" was to
be spiritually and physically resurrected, and physical affectivity often accompanied that
process?07
The sexual undertones in Tintoretto's Ecce Homo are not restricted to the Christ
figure, as the two flanking figures intensify the painting's connection to mystical spiritual
rebirth. The soldier in his descent of the stairs turns back toward the center in an
awkward pose as his left hand, holding a bastion, crosses his torso to support his body
weight. The physical plausibility of such a maneuver appears to have been a secondary
concern for Tintoretto. The artist placed the firmly erect and downward-directed bastion
in a conspicuous position that counters the phallus of Christ. Similarly, Pontius Pilate
puzzling pose on the right functions to subtly reveal another sexual symbol. Tintoretto
205 "la resurrezion della came." Steinberg, Sexuality, 84.
206 Anastasis: "ana" meaning "up" and "stasi" meaning "to stand."
207 Teresa of Avila, Life, 119.
92
did not strive for naturalism in the drapery, but instead wittingly represents the female
genitalia within the clothing. It is possible to understand the two flanking erotic images
as support for reading of the Ecce Homo as portending Christ's Resurrection. These
hidden depictions, while certainly demonstrating the humor that frequently accompanies
Tintoretto's mature works (see Venus, Vulcan, and Mars), serve to emasculate Pilate and
the soldier.2os In this mystical interpretation, Christ's sexual fortitude counters their
sexual inferiority. Christ's phallus represents the spiritual power of the resurrection that
even death and degradation cannot overcome.
The physical layout of the Passion cycle generates another plausible and
complementary interpretation of the erotic imagery within the Ecce Homo. Given the
painting's position facing the Crucifixion (only twelve meters apart), the gaze of the
battered Christ extends beyond the picture plane to himself on the cross, thereby
confirming the fatal undertones of the cycle and suggesting a reactive role for Ecce
Homo. 209 While this explanation is largely speculative, the sensual presentation of Christ
and the inherent sexuality in the poses of the subsidiary figures might function as an
erotic physical response to the event on the opposing wall. The gender-inclusive
symbols, as well as the bow and curtsy poses of the soldier and Pilate respectively, argue
208 For a discussion of the wit and humor in Tintoretto's early to mature works (like Venus, Vulcan, and
Mars, Leda and the Swan, and Susanna and the Elders), see Paul Barolsky, I11finite Jest: Wit and Humor in
Italian Renaissance Art (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1978): 175-179. Barolsky also includes
poligraji Andrea Calmo and Anton Francesco Doni in his analysis of sixteenth-century Venetian critical
humor (ibid., 167-169).
209 The impact that the small space of the Sala dell'Albergo has on the process and approach to viewing this
cycle cannot be understated. When seated in the center of the room facing the southern wall, with the
CruciflXion and the Ecce Homo to each side, it is impossible to ignore the visual and contextual interplay
between the two paintings.
93
for the naturality and universality of visceral response. In essence, spiritual, and thus
physical, stimulation is inevitable when one chooses to become engulfed in God.
Furthermore, the painting's placement directly over the entrance to the Sala dell'Albergo
might cleverly suggest that Christ's response echoes the viewer's response to the
Crucifixion when entering the room.210 The viewer reacts as the triumvirate of the Ecce
Homo symbolically reacts, suggesting that Tintoretto might have intended the
confrontational potency of the western wall to stimulate a physically affecting
relationship between the viewer and the divine.
210 It is unclear whether this sexual imagery would have appealed to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco more
so than another Venetian confraternity. It is important to remember that outside of their religious and
charitable functions confraternities functioned as social communities for gentlemen in which one could
explore pleasurable activities such as music, art, food, and elite social engagements. In other words, sexual
imagery should not be considered all that surprising given the intended, limited audience.
APPENDIXB
FIGURES
94
Figure 1 - Tintoretto - Crucifixion - 1565 - Oil on canvas - 536 x 1224 cm - Sala
dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From Nichols, Tintoretto, 163.
95
Figure 2 - Tintoretto - Christ before Pilate - 1566-68 - Oil on canvas - 515 x 380 cm -
Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From Nichols, Tintoretto, 171.
96
Figure 3 - Tintoretto - Ecce Homo - 1566-68 - Oil on canvas - 260 x 390 em - Sala
dell'Albergo, Scuo1a Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From Nichols, Tintoretto, 170.
97
Figure 4 - Tintoretto - Christ Carrying the Cross - 1566-68 - Oil on canvas - 515 x 390
em - Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From Nichols, Tintoretto,
148.
98
Figure 5 - Agostino Carracci - Copy of Tintoretto's Crucifixion - 1589 - Engraving.
From ArtStor.
Figure 6 - El Greco - Agony in the Garden - 1597-1603 - Oil on canvas - 1020 x 1140
cm - Toledo Cathedral, Toledo. From ArtStor.
99
Figure 7 - Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the Chiesa di San Rocco (exterior view).
From Valcanover, Jacopo Tintoretto, 3.
22
? S@ ? 11 S ( 12 ) 13 @
0 B
21 8 1 8 23
G B
? S ®® 5 ( 4 ) ~ 3 S
20 19 18
.....
1 Sf. Roch in Glory 11 Allegory ofthe 16 Allegory ofthe
2 Winter Scuola di San Scuola di San
3 Female Figure Giovanni Teodoro
4 Happiness Evangelista 17 Faith
5 Female Figure 12 Allegory ofthe 18 Way to Calvary
6 Autumn Scuola della 19 Ecce Homo
7 Goodness Misericordia 20 Christ Before
8 Allegory ofthe 13 Allegory ofthe Pilate
Scuola della Carita Scuola di San 21 Prophet
9 Truth Marco 22 Crucifixion
10 Summer 14 Spring 23 Prophet
15 Hope
Figure 8 - Layout of the Sa1a dell'Albergo, Scuo1a Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From
Nichols, Tintoretto, 158.
100
101
Figure 9 - Tintoretto - Saint Roch in Glory - 1564 - Oil on canvas - 240 x 360 em -
Sa1a dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From Valcanover, Jacopo
Tintoretto, 15.
102
Figure 10 - Titian - La Assunta - 1516-1518 - Oil on panel - 690 x 390 cm - Basilica di
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. From ArtStor.
103
Figure 11 - Giovanni Bellini - Crucifixion - 1465 - Oil on canvas - 71 x 63 cm - Musee
du Louvre, Paris. From ArtStor.
104
Figure 12 - Andrea Mantegna - Crucifixion - 1456-59 - wood panel-760 x 960 em-
Musee du Louvre, Paris. From ArtStor.
105
Figure 13 - Masaccio - Holy Trinity - 1428 - Fresco - 667 x 317 cm - Santa Maria
Novella, Florence. From ArtStor.
106
Figure 14 - Andrea Mantegna - Dead Christ - c. 1501 - Tempera on canvas - 68 x 81 cm
- Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. From ArtStor.
107
Figure 15 - Detail of figure 1.
Figure 16 - Tintoretto - Crucifixion - 1568 - Oil on canvas - 341 x 371 cm - San
Cassiano, Venice. From Krischel, 74.
Figure 17 - Detail (Far East) of figure 1. From ArtStor.
108
109
Figure 18 - Tintoretto - The Removal ofthe Body ofSaint Mark- 1562-68 - Oil on
canvas - 398 x 315 cm - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. From Krischel, 70.
110
Figure 19 - East wall of Sala dell'Albergo. From Valcanover, Jacopo Tintoretto, 12.
111
Figure 20 - Albrecht Durer - Christ Before Herod, from the Small Passion cycle - 1511
- Woodcut. From Nichols, 172.
112
Figure 21 - Deesis (detail) - 12th century - Mosaic - Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. From
ArtStor.
113
Figure 22 - Tintoretto - Allegory ofthe Scuola della Misercordia - c; 1564 - Oil on
canvas - 90 x 190 cm - Sala dell'Albergo, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. From
Va1canover, Jacopo Tintoretto, 17.
Figure 23 - Titian - Christ Carrying the Cross - c. 1506 - Oil on canvas - 68 x 88 cm -
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. Va1canover, Jacopo Tintoretto, 36.
114
Figure 24 - Tintoretto - Christ among the Doctors - c. 1541-42 - Oil on canvas - 197 x
319 cm - Museo del Duomo, Milan. From Nichols, 32.
115
Figure 25 - Tintoretto - The Miracle ofSaint Agnes - c.1563 - Oil on canvas - 400 x 200
cm - Madonna dell'Orto, Venice. From Krischel, 60.
116
Figure 26 - Tintoretto - Miracle ofthe Slave - 1547-48 - Oil on canvas - 415 x 541 cm-
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. From Krischel, 32.
117
Figure 27 - Tintoretto - Last Judgment- 1557-1563 - Oil on canvas -1450 x 590 cm-
Madonna dell'Orto, Venice. From Krischel, 67.
118
Figure 28 - Tintoretto - The Vision ofSaint Peter - c. 1552 - Oil on canvas - 420 x 240
cm - Madonna dell'Orto, Venice. From Krischel, 54.
119
Figure 29 - Tintoretto - Saint George Fighting the Dragon - c.1553 - Oil on canvas -
158 x lOa cm - The National Gallery, London. From Krische1, 97.
120
Figure 30 - Tintoretto - Venus, Vulcan, and Mars - c. 1551 - Oil on canvas - 135 x 198
cm - Alte Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlung, Munich. From Krischel, 94.
Figure 31 - Tintoretto - Christ Washing His Disciples' Feet (left detail) - c. 1547-49-
Oil on canvas - 210 x 533 cm - Museo del Prado, Madrid. From Nichols, Tintoretto, 80.
121
Figure 32 - Tintoretto - Deposition ofChrist from the Cross - 1561 - Oil on canvas -
227 x 294 cm - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. From Nichols, 144.
122
Figure 33 - Anonymous - The Doge Francesco Dona Presented to the Virgin (detail)-
1545-53 - Engraving. From Tonon, Devotissima, 132.
123
Figure 34 - Folio 331 from Psalter and Hours ofBonne ofLuxembourg - before 1349 -
Tempera and gold leaf on vellum - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. From
ArtStor.
124
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