Scuola Grande di San Rocco

The scuola operated out of rented accommodation for many years, but at the beginning of the 16th century a permanent base was commissioned. The architecture, by Bartolomeo Bon and Scarpagnino, is far less impressive than the interior decoration, which was entrusted to Tintoretto in 1564 after a competition in which he stole a march on rivals Salviati, Zuccari and Veronese by presenting a finished painting rather than the required sketch.

In three intensive sessions over the following 23 years, Tintoretto began work on the larger upstairs room in 1575, with Old Testament stories on the ceiling and a Life of Christ cycle around the walls, in which the man who possessed what Vasari referred to as ‘the most extraordinary mind that the art of painting has produced’ experimented relentlessly with form, lighting and color.