La conversione di san Paolo (c.1544)

Tintoretto, Jacopo (1518-1594)

La conversione di san Paolo (The Conversion of Saint Paul)
c.1544
Oil on canvas, 152.7 x 236.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Before he became known as Saint Paul, Saul was a persecutor of Christians. This early painting by the Venetian master Jacopo Tintoretto depicts the moment that led to Saul’s conversion. As described in Acts 9:3–7, he traveled from Jerusalem to Damascus to destroy the churches there. As Saul and his troops approached the city, he saw a flash of light around him and, falling to the ground, heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Tintoretto portrayed the scene as utter chaos. Frightened men and horses tangle and crash to the ground. Their terror seems to reverberate around them as ominous clouds and a strong wind seize upon the landscape. In the artist’s time, the theme of Saint Paul’s conversion was a popular subject—one that provided painters an opportunity to show their skills. The ambitious young Tintoretto had studied works by masters including Raphael (Marchigian, 1483-1520) and Titian (Venetian, 1488/1490-1576), and his own bold treatment seems to challenge them. But while referring to their works, Tintoretto’s painting resets them within a broader, more dynamic scene. Also contributing to the energy of the picture is the artist’s varied brushwork, which in some areas is strikingly free. About two dozen, light-skinned men and more than a dozen horses tumble across a rocky shore along a body of water, all against a deep landscape in this horizontal painting. At the bottom center of the canvas, a bearded man, Saint Paul, wears a teal-blue tunic and coral-pink cape, and he lies sprawled across a short set of gray, stone steps, perhaps a fragment from a building. With his head to our left, his body is tipped toward us and his arms are raised, palms facing out, as he looks back and up. He wears a thick gold chain around his neck, and the gold hilt of a sword hangs from his gold belt. A round gold shield is propped on the steps, and other pieces of armor, including a silver helmet and sleeve, are strewn in the grass nearby. To our left, a man wearing a mustard-yellow tunic and teal-blue cape rides a rearing white horse. The rider clutches his own head with both hands. Behind this horse and rider, men wearing emerald green, butter yellow, peach, or blue and metal helmets struggle around brown or white horses. To the right of Saint Paul, a chestnut-brown horse crouches near the edge of a river, and several men and more horses flail in the water. A pebbled path running behind Saint Paul leads to a low, arched bridge that spans the river and extends off the right edge of the composition. Carrying billowing, triangular flags in pale peach, pink, and yellow, men ride and push at a pair of rearing horses on the bridge. To our right, the river winds through a deep, mountainous landscape. To our left, yet more men and horses spill down a flight of stone stairs leading up to a bank of parchment-white clouds that span the sky in the top third of the painting. A bearded, blond man at the upper left corner, wearing rose pink and royal blue, stretches out across the clouds to gesture with an open palm to the landscape below. (NGA)