La Resurrezione di Cristo

While Tintoretto was at work on this hall, Venice was dying around him. A plague that struck in 1575 carried off something like a third of the city over the next two years, the old master Titian among them. The brotherhood who owned this building were sworn to Saint Roch, the saint people prayed to against plague, and their painted hall was as much a plea for deliverance as a decoration. In 1577, as the sickness finally eased, Tintoretto offered to paint everything still needed for a fixed sum each year for the rest of his life, and they agreed. Here the risen Christ breaks upward while four angels heave back the tomb slab and the guards lie stunned in the dark. Off to one side, two women climb toward the tomb at dawn, not yet knowing it is empty.