Le Paradis

Around five hundred figures crowd a single canvas that fills the wall behind the Doge's throne in Venice. John Ruskin called Tintoretto's Paradise the most precious work of art of any kind then existing in the world.

The story behind the painting

In 1577 a fire destroyed part of the Doge's Palace in Venice, including a fourteenth-century fresco by Guariento of the Coronation of the Virgin, behind the throne where the doge sat with the Great Council. A competition was held to replace it. Paolo Veronese and Francesco Bassano were chosen to paint it together, but Veronese died before work began and the commission passed to Tintoretto. He presented two sketches, both unlike the final version. It became his last major work, painted in sections in the main hall of the Scuola della Misericordia.

What to look for

Wikipedia gives the size as 22 by 9 metres, and elsewhere calls it almost 25 metres long; either way it is among the largest paintings on canvas in the world. At the top, the Virgin intercedes with Christ beneath the dove of the Holy Spirit, above a dense semicircle of cherubim and seraphim. The divine light comes from Christ the Judge, holding a globe topped by a cross, with the Archangel Michael holding the scales of justice. The evangelists form a semicircle below, and saints line up in the order of church litanies, among them Justina, patron of Padua.

Meaning and intent

From the centre a path of light opens toward the Empyrean, so that the souls of the just rise with the help of angels and God's grace descends upon the doge. A radiant, half-veiled archangel stands at the centre of that path. Christ is the main subject, with Mary secondary, though both had to appear to stay faithful to Guariento's theme. The crowds of angels and saints deliberately recall a Last Judgment, reminding council members that their actions would have consequences. Justina's feast day, 7 October, is also the date of the Battle of Lepanto.

Legacy

Tintoretto was old when he took on the commission. As Echols and Ilchman explain, he lacked the strength to climb the scaffolding for the final touches, so he passed the task to his son Domenico, and the work was completed mostly by his workshop under Domenico's direction. Because of its size, it remains in the hall of the Great Council in the Doge's Palace. Ruskin's praise made it famous, and the painting is the subject of The Prisoner of Paradise, a 2021 thriller by Rob Samborn.