The Descent into Hell

In 1568 Tintoretto was working for San Cassiano, a modest parish church in Venice, and he painted this Descent into Limbo to hang beside a Crucifixion he made for the same chancel. The subject is the Harrowing of Hell. After the Crucifixion and before the Resurrection, Christ goes down to free the righteous who died before him. Older painters had shown that moment as a solemn standing figure. Tintoretto sends Christ sweeping through a great vaulted hall in a rush of light, with two angels and the freed souls reaching up toward him. Down in the lower right, three small figures kneel apart from the sacred scene. They are the donors who paid for the canvas, folded quietly into the edge of the miracle. The paintings never left the church, so you can still stand in San Cassiano today and see this one where Tintoretto meant it to hang.