Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Last Supper by Jacopo Tinteretto

File:Tintosoup.jpg 


This is the Last Supper painted by Jacopo Tinteretto, in 1594.  Inspired by Albrecht Dürer's woodcut The Last Supper (1523) and most importantly Leonardo da Vinci's late 1490s mural painting of the Last Supper in Milan, Italy, this painting was created using oil on canvas and is 12’ x 18’ 8”.  Tintoretto’s painting although makes use of Mannerist devices, and depicts the Last Supper in an asymmetrical fashion set inside what seems to be a restaurant. This Baroque style painting, made in the Counter- Reformation period of the late 1500’s depicts the radical change in how Biblical parables where experienced.  It currently resides in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

The one aspect about this painting that sets it apart from all of depictions of the Last Supper is the setting and frame of how Jacopo captured the Last Supper.  Not only does the asymmetrical view of the last supper differ from all depictions before it but the wider view allows the viewer to see the servants serve the food.  The servants are important because they are shown as joyful and almost dancing in rejoice of having the opportunity to bear witness to an event as substantial as the Last Supper.  This joyous view of a biblical event is a product of the Counter-Reformation’s views of calibrating the bible and its stories instead of the traditional straight faced churchgoer.       



Jacopo Tinteretto Biography:

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