Élisée multipliant les pains

This sits in the ceiling of the upper hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, part of a decorating job Tintoretto worked at, on and off, for more than 20 years. San Rocco was a lay brotherhood devoted to caring for the sick and the poor, and Tintoretto chose his scenes to match. The Old Testament prophet Elisha, in the story from the Book of Kings, feeds a hungry crowd from a small stock of bread that never runs out. Painted in 1577 and meant to be read far overhead, the figures are foreshortened and lit for a viewer craning up from the floor. It was set to rhyme with a scene of Christ feeding the multitude that the brotherhood knew well.