The Deposition of Christ by Jacopo Tintoretto

Thanks to a collaboration agreement between the Capitoline Superintendency and the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, the wonderful Deposition of Christ by Jacopo Tintoretto arrives in the Pinacoteca of the Capitoline Museums on September the 7th.

The exhibition is an important opportunity for visitors to admire the beauty and expressive power of the pictorial language of the great Venetian artist and to appreciate its evolution in the paintings of his son Domenico Tintoretto, exhibited in the Pinacoteca Capitolina as well.

Previously in the Church of Umiltà alle Zattere in Venice, the painting was assigned to the Academy before the church was demolished in 1821. The way in which the subject is presented, with the Virgin appearing to be seated, recalls the name and dedication of the church on the ground, in the attitude proper to Our Lady of Humility. Compared to the traditional way of representing the moment of Christ's deposition from the cross, the painter reduces the group of bystanders; the characters are imposing and larger than life. Mary Magdalene, who occupies a third of the upper part of the painting, extends her arms in a gesture of pain, while staring at Christ's face as if searching for a sign of life. The composition is very balanced: the elongated bodies of Christ and the Virgin overlap in the form of a cross and the diagonal made up of the two men on the left side finds an evident parallelism in the diagonal made up of the three women on the right. The sculptural nude of Christ, influenced by Michelangelo, and the intense chiaroscuro of some figurative elements, make this painting a masterpiece with a strong emotional impact. The painting can be dated between the early 1950s and the beginning of the following decade.

Photo credits: Jacopo Tintoretto, la Deposizione di Cristo about 1562 oil on linen canvas, cm. 227 x 294, Venezia, Gallerie dell'Accademia