up in the place destined to receive it. One morning, therefore, when the Brotherhood had assembled to see the designs and to determine the matter, they found that Tintoretto had entirely completed the work, nay, that he had fixed it in its place; whereupon, becoming very angry with him, and observing that they had required designs and had not commissioned him to do the work, Tintoretto replied that this was his method of preparing designs, that he did not know how to make them in any other manner; and that all designs and models for a work should be executed in that fashion, to the end that the persons interested might see what it was intended to offer them, and might not be deceived: he added, that if they did not think proper to pay for the work and remunerate him for his pains, he would make them a present of the same. At the last, therefore, though not without much opposition, he contrived so to manage matters, that the picture still retains its place.
The subject of this painting is the Almighty Father descending with bands of Angels from Heaven to embrace San Rocco;[1] and in the lowermost part of the picture are numerous figures, to represent or signify the other principal Schools[2] or Companies of Venice; the Carita for example, that of San Giovanni Evangelista, the Misericordia, San Marco, and San Teodoro; all which was executed after the usual manner of Tintoretto. But since it would lead us too far, were we to describe all the works performed by the artist here in question, this shall be the close, and we will content ourselves with having said thus much of Tintoretto, who is certainly a very clever man and highly commendable painter.
- ↑ This is in the ceiling of that room in San Rocco, called the "Albergo,” and in which is the Crucifixion mentioned above.— Ed. Venet.
- ↑ We have more than once remarked in previous notes that these Schools are not of necessity places of education, as indeed most of our readers well know; they are more usually charitable institutions for the tendance of the sick, the burial of the dead, the release of captives from the infidel, and other purposes of similar kind. It may be added, that the revenues of more than one among them have been appropriated by the Austrians to military purposes, and many of their spacious buildings have been turned into barracks.
