Scuola Grande San Rocco Venice - Tintoretto and Colour

Tintoretto, Three Apples

The Great Enemies of Colour

Before the intervention of Tintoretto, the chapter house was decorated with “canevazze” that is, paintings on canvas that were rented out on a yearly basis to decorate the hall for the great feast of San Rocco.

The Scuola di San Rocco had finally purchased these canvases in 1542, but they had deteriorated quite a bit over time... and by the light.

Incidentally, the works by Tintoretto that replaced them also suffered as a result; the small canvas of the Three Apples (58 cm x 25 cm) bears witness to this.

Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti, Moses gushing water from the rock at the Scuola Grande San Rocco in Venice

Moses gushing water This fragment of the frieze that runs around the Albergo under the wooden cornice of the ceiling was folded under another part of the frieze, and was only rediscovered in 1905...

These 340 years of “shelter” have preserved the intensity of the colours. The red is extraordinarily luminous, and we admire and marvel at the liveliness and ease of the brushwork, which could be that of a modern painter!

And we can't help but notice the alteration of the pigments when we see that the colours have lost their brilliance on the other canvases: the red has turned pink, the blue has turned grey, the green has turned brown...

All this changes the chromatic harmony of a painting.

Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti, The Probatic Pool at the Scuola Grande San Rocco in Venice

The Probatic Pool The shutters in the Albergo and the Chapter House are now down to protect them from natural light.

The Tintoretto absolutely wanting to continue decorating “his” Scuola, offers to paint free of charge the canvas that is to mark the centre of the ceiling of the great Chapter Room and to decorate the rest of the ceiling, charging only for the cost of materials...

Now that's what I call paying your own way, given the size of the room!

Tintoretto: Devoted Member and Official Painter of the Scuola di San Rocco

Tintoretto, Prayer in the Garden of Olives, Scuola Grande San Rocco in Venice

Prayer in the Garden of Olives On 6 May 1574, it was decided to undertake the renovation of the ceiling decoration in the Chapter House.

While the carpentry work had barely been completed, as early as 2 July 1575 The Tintoretto offered to create the large painting in the centre of the ceiling free of charge and deliver it by 16 August, the feast of San Rocco.

It was the Miracle of the Bronze Serpent. Then, in January 1577 the Scuola accepted his proposal to paint the other two large canvases on the ceiling in return for simple reimbursement of the cost of materials, to which would be added a salary freely decided by the treasurers of San Rocco.

Tintoretto, The Resurrection of Christ, Scuola Grande San Rocco in Venice

The Resurrection of Christ The Tintoretto was painting The Harvest of Manna and Moses Gushing Water from the Rock, when on 25 March 1577 he offered to paint all the other canvases that would decorate the ceiling under the same financial conditions... Deal done!

But his passion for this titanic work led him to devote himself to such an extent that in November 1577, The Tintoretto undertook:

- to decorate the entire Scuola San Rocco as well as the ceiling of the San Rocco church,

- to supply any other paintings they may require,

Tintoretto, The Annunciation, Scuola Grande San Rocco in Venice

The Annunciation - to deliver each year, on the feast of Saint Roch, three large canvases without charging the cost of the colours.

The only quid pro quo for this astonishing offer: The Tintoretto asked that, from the completion of the work on the chapter house, the Scuola would guarantee him an annual payment of 100 ducats for the rest of his life in case he fell ill.

Client and artist kept their promises: Tintoretto completed his work in 1588, and the Scuola paid the annuity of 100 ducats to his widow after his death on 31 May 1594, aged 75.

Visitors, follow the journey of Monsieur Tintoretto...

The Annunciation Following the chronological order of his work for San Rocco, The Tintoretto began with the Albergo in June 1564, then continued with the Chapter Room to finish with the Ground Floor Room in 1588.

It is advisable to visit San Rocco in this order, to better appreciate these 24 years of creation that reveal the existential anxiety of an artist who knew how to exploit the dramatic force of light and the catalytic role of colours and line.

We are transported into a world full of symbols and overflowing with power.

The Annunciation We are amazed and admire the restrained power of the poses, the dynamic gestures of figures full of life, whose plasticity reminds us of those of Michelangelo.

“Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Balzac, and I think of adding this Tintoretto to them, want to strike down with their foreheads (sublime ram's foreheads the walls that imprison human intelligence.

Eternal Ignorabimus! All of us will always remain imprisoned in our ignorance.

But within these high walls that encircle humanity, the genius suffers a worse solitude: thick partitions isolate him from his contemporaries.”