Art Essay on Paradise Painting by Tintoretto

The Doges palace was home to several iconic paintings in art history. One of the most outstanding paintings that grace the Doges palace is Paradise by Tintoretto (Keller and Cichy 12). To describe the painting as a masterpiece would be an understatement. As Rosand observes, Along the central axis of the painting, the luminosity of divine grace rains upon the doge of Venice enthroned below, a perpetual sign of the heavenly favor of the Republic represents (18).

Nichols (25) is of the opinion that Tintoretto was influenced by early Italian art at the beginning of his career.

Tintoretto is seen as the artist whose work is seen as the representation of the works of sixteenth-century Venice artists." Paradise is further described as the historical depiction of a heavenly Jerusalem, standard in the medieval visualizations of the celestial city, establishes its direct relevance for the description of thee city of man(Wolters 21).

History of Paradise

On December 20, 1577, part of the Doges Palace in Venice was destroyed by fire. Destroyed alongside the Grand Council Hall was an immense 14th-century fresco portraying the Coronation of the Virgin encircled by the celestial hierarchies. Venices ruling families were fond of surrounding themselves with allegories of paradise (Keller, and Cichy 45). The connection being La Serenissima was a heaven on earth sustained by a social hierarchy echoing the celestial one in Paradise.

The tournament was held to find an artist to replace the damaged mural. The entrants were such top names such as Veronese, Tintoretto, Palma the Younger, Francesco Bassano, and Federico Zuccaro. In spite of the constraining nature of the competition, all artists submitted sketches that varied from one another. Veronese was the first to be selected, but he passed away before the work began. The Venetian government declined to hand the project to Bassano, whom Veronese had chosen as an assistant. Tintoretto, who was the greatest Venetian painter alive after the death of Veronese, was handed the project (Norwich 34).

Tintoretto presented to the selecting committee two preliminary sketches, which are now in the Louvre and the Thyssen. However, both were very different from one another. As for the end version, this is considered by Eric Newton in his magisterial biography of Tintoretto as the biggest achievement of the Tintorettos career. Even though, he started working without delay to dodge the fate of Veronese, the 70-year old artist was weak, and the painting was finished mostly by his workshop under the course of his son, Domenico. The painting is impressive not just by its sheer scale, but also the detail, and artistic mastery that was put into it is amazing.