TINTORETTO
(b. 1518, Venezia, d. 1594, Venezia)

The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (fragment)

c. 1538
Oil on panel, 138 x 218 cm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This early work by Tintoretto is the lower half of a picture originally some 3 meters high, a copy to scale of Vittore Carpaccio's The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice). Carpaccio's canvas was painted in 1515 to go above an altar donated by the Ottobon family in the side aisle of the church of Sant'Antonio di Castello. It shows an entire army which converted to Christianity after a victory over rebels, and was then executed by the Persian king Sapor on Mount Ararat by order of the Roman emperor Hadrian. As a kind of catalog of male nudes, this painting was a suitable object of study for aspiring painters of historical pictures like the young Tintoretto.