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

Paradise (detail)

after 1588
Oil on canvas
Palazzo Ducale, Venice

In 1557 a serious fire in the Palazzo Ducale destroyed the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, originally the meeting place for the Venetian legislature. The ruined fresco by Guariento was replaced in 1594 by the immense canvas (reputedly the world's largest painting on canvas) planned and painted by Tintoretto and his workshop. Hung above the gilded throne, it depicts the image of Paradise with hundreds of figures placed according to a series of curved lines in concentric perspective with the representations of angels and saints. The movement builds up towards a brilliant central point on high dominated by the figures of Christ and the Virgin.