DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68745#0206
TINTORETTO
blood, the arms are extended as the cross has left them, the halo
is very faint, but the face is perfectly calm and peaceful. At the
head is St. Joseph of Arimathea in a fur-trimmed robe, one of the
Marys stoops and gently kisses the dead hand, which she has
interlaced with her fingers. All is most reverently tender; there
are none of the wild contortions or gesticulations that afterwards
became so popular. The Magdalen, kneeling at the side, is most
touching and exquisite in her grief, so restrained, so solemn; she
does not even look at the corpse, but the tears drop fast and
softly. She might stand for many a woman who has watched by
her martyred dead, in whom the sense of loss is for the moment
blotted out by relief that his sufferings are over, that nothing can
hurt him now, no enemy can reach him, no brutality can trouble
‘that Eternal Peace and that Immortal Ease.’ On the hill, the
crosses stand out against the sky, half hidden by intervening
foliage, a figure comes down the hill to join the mourners, and
behind it the cold dawn is breaking.
This is painted with Tintoretto’s freshest and crispest brush;
little scraps of light which touch the shoulder of St. Joseph, or a
branch, or flash on the water, are hardly noticeable, yet each has
its intention and value. It is wonderfully moving and tender,
and one trusts that it may long remain in the mournful little
chapel for which it was executed, and from which it gains enhanced
significance.
The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore is decorated by a series
of great altarpieces, rather academic, and owing a great deal to
the hands of his assistants. In one 4 Doge Morosini and a donor con-
template the Resurrection.’ In another niche is the ‘ Martyrdom
of SS. Cosmo and Damian,’ shot to death by arrows, and in a
third the ‘ Death of St. Stephen.’ They are not particularly happy
in composition and balance, and have none of his intensity of
feeling. The 4 Cosmo and Damian,’ however, shows his hand very
distinctly and has fine effects of light, and the leaves of the book
of the old Law, torn and ruffled by the stones cast at St. Stephen,
is an incident very characteristic of the master’s fancy.
The 4 Invention of the Cross,’ in the Brera, is held by some
critics to be a very early work, but it appears to me to have more
affinity with some of his official portraits, notably with that of
118
blood, the arms are extended as the cross has left them, the halo
is very faint, but the face is perfectly calm and peaceful. At the
head is St. Joseph of Arimathea in a fur-trimmed robe, one of the
Marys stoops and gently kisses the dead hand, which she has
interlaced with her fingers. All is most reverently tender; there
are none of the wild contortions or gesticulations that afterwards
became so popular. The Magdalen, kneeling at the side, is most
touching and exquisite in her grief, so restrained, so solemn; she
does not even look at the corpse, but the tears drop fast and
softly. She might stand for many a woman who has watched by
her martyred dead, in whom the sense of loss is for the moment
blotted out by relief that his sufferings are over, that nothing can
hurt him now, no enemy can reach him, no brutality can trouble
‘that Eternal Peace and that Immortal Ease.’ On the hill, the
crosses stand out against the sky, half hidden by intervening
foliage, a figure comes down the hill to join the mourners, and
behind it the cold dawn is breaking.
This is painted with Tintoretto’s freshest and crispest brush;
little scraps of light which touch the shoulder of St. Joseph, or a
branch, or flash on the water, are hardly noticeable, yet each has
its intention and value. It is wonderfully moving and tender,
and one trusts that it may long remain in the mournful little
chapel for which it was executed, and from which it gains enhanced
significance.
The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore is decorated by a series
of great altarpieces, rather academic, and owing a great deal to
the hands of his assistants. In one 4 Doge Morosini and a donor con-
template the Resurrection.’ In another niche is the ‘ Martyrdom
of SS. Cosmo and Damian,’ shot to death by arrows, and in a
third the ‘ Death of St. Stephen.’ They are not particularly happy
in composition and balance, and have none of his intensity of
feeling. The 4 Cosmo and Damian,’ however, shows his hand very
distinctly and has fine effects of light, and the leaves of the book
of the old Law, torn and ruffled by the stones cast at St. Stephen,
is an incident very characteristic of the master’s fancy.
The 4 Invention of the Cross,’ in the Brera, is held by some
critics to be a very early work, but it appears to me to have more
affinity with some of his official portraits, notably with that of
118