Lamentation of Christ

Tintoretto ran one of the busiest workshops in Venice, and he is best known for huge, stormy religious scenes lit as if by a lightning flash. This one, from around 1560, is quieter. It holds the still moment after Christ has been taken down from the cross and before he is carried to the tomb, his body cradled and mourned by the small group closest to him. Behind them the sky is not dark but flooded with a warm sunset, and the whole picture is worked in ochres, reds and soft gold instead of his usual cold glitter. The light behind the figures is a low evening sun, and it leaves the mourners in the warm colours of an ordinary dusk out of doors.