DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68745#0104
TINTORETTO
been working under Vasari, Federigo Zuccaro, fresh from his
triumphs in the Villa d’Este; Giuseppe Salviati, Paolo Veronese,
and Tintoretto. They were asked to prepare drawings in com-
petition, and a day was appointed for their display. When they
reassembled, and the others had shown their designs, Tintoretto
swept aside a cartoon which he had fastened over the oval panel
in the middle of the ceiling of the refectory, and there was dis-
covered a finished picture, ‘ S. Roch in Glory,’ surrounded by
angels, painted in acute foreshortening. ‘ That was his drawing,’ he
said; he hoped they would not be offended, but he knew of no
other way. The other artists, amazed at such excellent work,
produced in so short a space of time, and annoyed besides at what
seemed so unconventional a desertion of the usual well-worn ways
of proceeding, rolled up their sketches and refused to take part
in any further competition. The brothers were more irritated
than pleased, saying they had not ordered a picture, but merely
asked to see designs. Tintoretto thereupon made them a present
of the picture, and a fresh difficulty arose, the rules of their order
not allowing them to refuse gifts made to the saint. By this time,
however, the excellence of the work had been recognized, and
finally the highest number of votes was recorded in favour of
Tintoretto, who, they agreed, should receive the commission to
decorate these walls, and should be worthily recompensed. About
two years later he was received into the confraternity as a member,
and assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (£50) a year for
life, being bound every year to furnish three completed pictures.
In spite of the greater value of money in those days, this does not
seem a very striking recompense, and the brothers may have been
biased by Tintoretto’s well-known low prices. As it was, Ridolfi
says he only drew the money as long as the work was still in hand.1
There is no building in all Italy more finely illustrative of those
powerful combinations which did honour to religion by works of
charity and art, than the huge and dignified Scuola di San Rocco.
With the church, it forms three sides of a tiny piazza close to the
Church of the Frari, with which it was no doubt in keen rivalry. It
is a building in which the early Renaissance is first passing into the
1 He drew it for seventeen years, and his receipts are preserved in the archives. See
Appendix ix.
54
been working under Vasari, Federigo Zuccaro, fresh from his
triumphs in the Villa d’Este; Giuseppe Salviati, Paolo Veronese,
and Tintoretto. They were asked to prepare drawings in com-
petition, and a day was appointed for their display. When they
reassembled, and the others had shown their designs, Tintoretto
swept aside a cartoon which he had fastened over the oval panel
in the middle of the ceiling of the refectory, and there was dis-
covered a finished picture, ‘ S. Roch in Glory,’ surrounded by
angels, painted in acute foreshortening. ‘ That was his drawing,’ he
said; he hoped they would not be offended, but he knew of no
other way. The other artists, amazed at such excellent work,
produced in so short a space of time, and annoyed besides at what
seemed so unconventional a desertion of the usual well-worn ways
of proceeding, rolled up their sketches and refused to take part
in any further competition. The brothers were more irritated
than pleased, saying they had not ordered a picture, but merely
asked to see designs. Tintoretto thereupon made them a present
of the picture, and a fresh difficulty arose, the rules of their order
not allowing them to refuse gifts made to the saint. By this time,
however, the excellence of the work had been recognized, and
finally the highest number of votes was recorded in favour of
Tintoretto, who, they agreed, should receive the commission to
decorate these walls, and should be worthily recompensed. About
two years later he was received into the confraternity as a member,
and assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (£50) a year for
life, being bound every year to furnish three completed pictures.
In spite of the greater value of money in those days, this does not
seem a very striking recompense, and the brothers may have been
biased by Tintoretto’s well-known low prices. As it was, Ridolfi
says he only drew the money as long as the work was still in hand.1
There is no building in all Italy more finely illustrative of those
powerful combinations which did honour to religion by works of
charity and art, than the huge and dignified Scuola di San Rocco.
With the church, it forms three sides of a tiny piazza close to the
Church of the Frari, with which it was no doubt in keen rivalry. It
is a building in which the early Renaissance is first passing into the
1 He drew it for seventeen years, and his receipts are preserved in the archives. See
Appendix ix.
54