Das Paradies

When fire gutted the great council hall of the Doge's Palace, Venice needed a new image for the wall behind the throne, and it held a competition. Veronese won it. But Veronese died in 1588 before he could paint it, and the job fell instead to Tintoretto, who was already about 70. What he and his son Domenico produced over the next few years is often called the largest painting on canvas anywhere, stretching some 22 metres across the end of the room. More than 500 figures of the blessed swirl in tiers around Christ and the Virgin at the top. It is not a calm heaven. Tintoretto keeps the whole crowd in restless motion, so that from the floor of the hall the wall itself seems to open and turn.