Adoration of the Shepherds

The museum bought this canvas in 1957, the year before the architect Carlo Scarpa began remaking its rooms, and it dates the painting to around 1550, early in Tintoretto's career. It is big, more than two and a half metres wide, and it is built on crossing diagonals. Saint Joseph closes one side, a young woman who has come with the shepherds closes the other, and between them the Virgin and the visitors lean and twist across each other. Out of the crowd, almost by surprise, come the heads of the animals, painted with a closeness to life the museum compares to Flemish realism. The faces stay calm, as they often do with Tintoretto. The energy of the scene comes from the poses, every figure caught slightly off balance.