DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68745#0156
. A
A ARv*’ '
CHAPTER X
THE LOWER HALL
ONE of the chief architectural beauties of the interior of the
Scuola is the wide and ample stairway which leads from
one floor to the other. On the half-landing an ‘ Annun-
ciation,’ painted by Titian and bequeathed to the Confraternity by
Amelio Cortona in 1555, was doubtless already in position before
Tintoretto began to decorate the building, and he has evidently
painted the corresponding picture in emulation. The rich sweet-
ness and exquisite quality of Titian’s picture is in some degree
inimical to the wilder and more impassioned style with which it is
contrasted. We come upon it like a rich melody of Mozart when
the ear is waiting to catch a passage of Wagner, and for a
moment we may be enthralled by the restful completeness of the
older painter, and then we turn to Tintoretto’s ‘ Visitation,’ and we
are drawn once more to that fiery heart which appeals to the
deepest impulses of humanity, we see once more with that
piercing vision, which is not of the intellect but of the emotions ;
we admire, we bow down before Titian, but we feel intensely with
Tintoretto.
In the late evening, after long and weary travel, a woman,
hardly more than a child in years, but weighed down by a
tremendous destiny, at length meets the one other woman who
can understand and sympathize, and in whom she can place full
confidence. To her she has been hastening as to a well of refresh-
ment. Between them there is the common tie of approaching
motherhood, and at the first moment of meeting the elder woman
makes clear the fullness of her comprehension, and they clasp one
another in a passion of thanksgiving. The poignancy of mother-
love, developed and quickened in each of them, is felt all through
the appealing simplicity of these two figures. The golden glow
88
A ARv*’ '
CHAPTER X
THE LOWER HALL
ONE of the chief architectural beauties of the interior of the
Scuola is the wide and ample stairway which leads from
one floor to the other. On the half-landing an ‘ Annun-
ciation,’ painted by Titian and bequeathed to the Confraternity by
Amelio Cortona in 1555, was doubtless already in position before
Tintoretto began to decorate the building, and he has evidently
painted the corresponding picture in emulation. The rich sweet-
ness and exquisite quality of Titian’s picture is in some degree
inimical to the wilder and more impassioned style with which it is
contrasted. We come upon it like a rich melody of Mozart when
the ear is waiting to catch a passage of Wagner, and for a
moment we may be enthralled by the restful completeness of the
older painter, and then we turn to Tintoretto’s ‘ Visitation,’ and we
are drawn once more to that fiery heart which appeals to the
deepest impulses of humanity, we see once more with that
piercing vision, which is not of the intellect but of the emotions ;
we admire, we bow down before Titian, but we feel intensely with
Tintoretto.
In the late evening, after long and weary travel, a woman,
hardly more than a child in years, but weighed down by a
tremendous destiny, at length meets the one other woman who
can understand and sympathize, and in whom she can place full
confidence. To her she has been hastening as to a well of refresh-
ment. Between them there is the common tie of approaching
motherhood, and at the first moment of meeting the elder woman
makes clear the fullness of her comprehension, and they clasp one
another in a passion of thanksgiving. The poignancy of mother-
love, developed and quickened in each of them, is felt all through
the appealing simplicity of these two figures. The golden glow
88