Jacopo Tintoretto · PD
The circumcision
Details
The story
The plague that ran through Venice from 1575 to 1577 killed perhaps a third of the city, and the confraternity of San Rocco, named for the saint people invoked against plague, came out of it wealthy. Donations poured in. A great deal of that money went to Tintoretto, who had been painting their building since 1564 and who from 1577 drew 100 ducats a year to keep supplying canvases.
The Circumcision was the last one he delivered, and critics have generally taken his son Domenico and the workshop to have had a hand in it. It was installed in the ground floor hall in August 1587, and with that the decoration of the rooms was finished. Tintoretto was about 68 and died seven years later.
It still hangs where it was put, in the first room you walk into.
