La Décapitation de saint Paul

Tintoretto painted this for the organ of his own parish church, and he was in no hurry about it. The commitment dates from the late 1540s. The final payment reached him in 1556. The canvas was one of the two inner faces of the organ shutters, paired with the Apparition of the Cross to Saint Peter, so it stayed out of sight whenever the doors were shut and the congregation saw the Presentation of the Virgin on the outside instead. Both inner scenes hang flat on the chancel wall today, each of them about four metres across. Paul was a Roman citizen, and tradition held that this spared him the cross and gave him the sword. Tintoretto was buried a few steps away, in the chapel to the right of the chancel, in 1594.