基督受洗

This hangs in the great upper hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, a Venetian charitable brotherhood, as one panel in the enormous cycle Tintoretto painted there through the late 1570s, dozens of scenes taken on for a modest fixed income rather than a grand fee. The hall's theme is sacrifice and the sacraments, and for the baptism he refused the quiet riverside most painters chose. Christ kneels to John in a rush of storm light, and behind them the banks are already crowded with more figures waiting their turn, a whole multitude pressing toward the water. Tintoretto worked fast and loose, letting the dark ground show through, so the light seems to tear across the canvas. The paintings have never left the room he made them for.