Paradise

The Venetian government, the Signoria, created a contest to see who would create a painting modeled after Dante’s Paradise on the wall of the Great Council Hall after the destruction of the fire of 1577. At first, Veronese was chosen to create the new artwork, but as a result of his death, Tintoretto was placed in charge of the commission. Tintoretto, a Venice native, was born into a family of textile workers. It is unclear who he trained under, however, it is noted that his techniques draw inspiration from Michelangelo and Titian [1]. While creating Paradise, Tintoretto suddenly died from a fever, leading to his son Domenico to continue the painting his father started along with the rest of the workshop.

As mentioned previously, Paradise was modeled after Dante’s work and depicts over 800 figures, including the Four Evangelists, Archangels Michael and Gabriel, the Four Doctors of the Church, Old Testament figures, Saints, and Jesus and the Virgin Mary on top. Tintoretto and his son composed the piece to draw the viewer’s attention to Mary and Christ at the top. The painting curves with the center focusing on the two figures. As Kinga Lipinska points out, Tintoretto designed Paradise in a linear fashion, with rows of biblical figures forming an arc [2]. The characters are painted as if they are floating in midair, like they are in heaven. The painting is composed to be chaotic with free space only existing around Mary and Christ in order to focus on them. The father and son utilized a dark and subdued color palette for the painting in order to draw the viewer’s attention to the source of light at the top radiating from the two figures’ heads.

Tintoretto and his son aimed to depict the ideal state of heaven, or in other words, paradise. They utilize light, an arc structure, and a busy composition to create the feeling as if one is in heaven. He creates this painting with the idea of inviting the viewer to this ideal state. As Tom Nichols puts it, Paradise fuses the concepts of government and heaven to create the sense that the Venetian Senate was created under divine forces [3]. Venice, in the eyes of Tintoretto, is a result of God and heaven above.

[1] "Cavallini to Veronese - Italian Renaissance Art",  Accessed September 10, 2020, https://cavallinitoveronese.co.uk/general/view_artist/79. 

[2] Kinga Lipinska, “Tintoretto's Vision of Paradise,” Liturgical Arts Journal, June 11, 2019, https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2019/06/tintorettos-vision-of-paradise.html 

[3] Tom Nichols, "Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity," London: Reaktion Books, 1999 

Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594) and Domenico Tintoretto (1560-1635)

Lipinska, Kinga. “Tintoretto's Vision of Paradise.” Liturgical Arts Journal, June 11, 2019. https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2019/06/tintorettos-vision-of-paradise.html.

Nichols, Tom. Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity. London: Reaktion Books, 1999. "Tintoretto.”

Cavallini to Veronese - Italian Renaissance Art. Accessed September 10, 2020. https://cavallinitoveronese.co.uk/general/view_artist/79.

Tietze, Hans. "The Tintoretto Exhibition at Venice." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 71, no. 414 (1937): 133-35.

Image Source:
Jacopo Tintoretto. After 1588. Paradise. painting. Place: Palazzo Ducale (Venice, Italy). https://library.artstor.org/asset/SCALA_ARCHIVES_10310195577.

Signoria of Venice
Image Source: Jacopo Tintoretto. After 1588. Paradise. painting. Place: Palazzo ducale (Venice, Italy). https://library.artstor.org/asset/SCALA_ARCHIVES_10310195577.

1588-1592

Carmel Falek

(c) 2006, SCALA, Florence / ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

Oil on canvas, 700.0 cm x 2200.0 cm

Painting

Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy