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

Probatica Piscina

1579-81
Oil on canvas, 533 x 529 cm
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice

This canvas is the least well preserved of all Tintoretto's paintings in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco because of repeated restoration works long ago. Two of these were carried out in the 17th century: one by Tintoretto's son, Domenico (1602) who redid the lower part from the young woman to the old woman turned towards Christ, and one by Lelio Bonetti (1696) and they were not removed during the restoration work in 1947 for methodological reasons.

Under the thick curtain of a vine pergola, Christ, depicted in light and shadow on the right, bends over the paralysed man and frees him from all ills, while around the big pool of water the large crowd of sick people sit trustingly.