São Cristóvão

For centuries this Saint Christopher has carried the name of Jacopo Tintoretto, the Venetian master known for painting fast, with slashing light and dramatic movement, and you can see why: the powerful figure, the charged sky and the loose, energetic brush all point to his late manner, around 1575. But the attribution is not settled. Tintoretto ran a large family workshop, and some scholars now hear the hand of his son Domenico, one of the many painters trained at his father's side. The saint is the giant of legend who carried travellers, and the Christ child, across a dangerous river. Kneeling in fine court dress are the two donors who paid for the picture and kept their own likenesses inside the holy scene, in the small parish church near Bergamo where it still hangs.