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

The Crucifixion (detail)

1565
Oil on canvas
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice

The models for this monumental Crucifixion are to be sought outside Venice, in German graphic prints, and in the Paduan frescoes of Altichiero and Giusto de Menabuoi. In the good and bad thieves to the left and right of Christ, who is already crucified, Tintoretto depicts different phases of the execution. He shows the body of Christ surrounded by a great aureole, so that it seems to have separated from the Cross, thus giving the impression that Tintoretto is bringing the Redeemer out of the area of the picture itself and into the viewer's space. Hovering over the boardroom gallery of the charitable Confraternity of St Roch, Christ speaks as the representative of suffering mankind: "I thirst!"