Tintoretto, Jacopo (1518-1594)
Sant’Elena, Santa Barbara, Sant’Andrea, San Macario, un altro santo e un devoto adorano la croce (Saint Helen, Barbara, Andrew, Macarius, another Saint and a Devote in Adoration of the Cross)
1560–1561
Oil on canvas, 275 x 165 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
This altarpiece, which once graced the now destroyed church of Santa Croce, was one of the first works to enter Brera. We do not know why Milan ended up hosting a work by a Venetian painter whose links with the Lombard capital were tenuous at best, or indeed who the patron depicted on the right of the altarpiece was. The rather conventional composition is noteworthy chiefly for the meticulous, human portrayal of the patron and of his anonymous patron saint. (Brera)