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

Allegory of Goodness

c. 1564
Oil on canvas, 90 x 190 cm
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice

The sixteen allegorical figures around the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell'Albergo are portrayed in forced and artificial poses and attitudes of truly Mannerist origin. They were particularly studied by Tintoretto in preliminary drawings. In these allegories, the perspective-illusionistic effect presents the figures in formal solutions of flowing complexity.

In the Uffizi in Florence there is also a preliminary drawing with writing on it for Goodness. This permits an exact identification of the iconography of the allegory. The figure seems to draw back in a gesture of trusting piety while the legs, holding the large volume, stretch out along the edge of the oval.