Il miracolo dei pani e dei pesci (1545-1550)

Tintoretto, Jacopo (1518-1594)

Il miracolo dei pani e dei pesci (The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes)
c.15451550
Oil on canvas, 154.9 x 407.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A crowd gathers in Tintoretto’s sprawling depiction of one of the miracles of Christ: when he is said to have fed five thousand people with just five barley loaves and two fish. Its broad, horizontal composition is typical of Venetian paintings designed to decorate the lateral wall of a chapel, confraternity hall, or the long, central hall (called the portego) of a palace. Tintoretto collaborated with assistants to produce these vast works. In the early nineteenth century, this painting and Tintoretto’s Christ Washing His Disciples’ Feet (Art Gallery of OntarioToronto) were in the Farnham Collection, Ireland, and may have been pendants. (MET)