The visible & invisible evidence in Tintoretto’s ‘The risen Christ’

Sun 18 Aug 2024

The collaborative research of curator and conservator can deeply enhance our understanding and evaluation of works of art. The curator seeks to define a works’ art historical and other contexts, provide a reading of its iconography and a description of its stylistic character, while the conservator focuses on the material analysis of the work, interpreting both the seen and unseen evidence of its physical development.

Cristo risorgente (The risen Christ) (illustrated) by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-94) depicts Christ rising from his tomb, triumphant over death and illuminated by a rising sun. The staff in Christ’s left hand holds up a banner celebrating the resurrection, while his right hand delivers a gesture of blessing or benediction to the awakening soldier.

In its original church setting — likely as an altarpiece placed above the faithful — the foreshortened figure of Christ would have delivered an even more dramatic sense of the miracle of life defeating death.

Tintoretto is one of the masters of the Venetian Renaissance, although he painted portraits of eminent Venetians, he was best known for his religious works, many of which were commissioned by churches.

Tintoretto ‘Cristo risorgente’ c.1555

Tintoretto is a prominent figure within the history of sixteenth-century art. Principally self-taught, he is said to have spent a short time under Titian (1488–1576) and, later, Schiavone (1510/15–1563). One of the earliest critical commentaries on Tintoretto occurs in a letter from Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). Aretino admonished Tintoretto for his fa presto (his speed of execution) and his lack of ‘finish’. The biographer, Ridolfi (1594–1658), who published a life of Tintoretto in 1642, described the artist’s working method in considerable detail, noting that he kept a motto fixed to his easel: II disegno di Michaelangelo ed il colorito di Tiziano (The design of Michaelangelo and the colour of Titian), one to which he evidently held fast as he worked on Cristo risorgente (The risen Christ).

We know from Ridolfi that Tintoretto:

‘trained himself also by concocting in wax and clay small figures which he dressed in scraps of cloth, attentively studying the folds of the cloth on the outlines of the limbs. He also placed some of the figures in little houses, and in perspective scenes made of wood and cardboard, and, by means of little lamps, he contrived for the windows he introduced therein lights and shadows.’

Tintoretto chose to work in a studio that admitted little natural light studying, drawing and painting from these small and dramatically illuminated modellos. Ridolfi continues:

‘He also hung some models by threads to the roof beams to study the appearance they made when seen from below, and, to get the foreshortening of figures for ceilings, creating by such methods bizarre effects, or capricci (capricious effects).

Through such means Tintoretto was able to build the dramatic narrative and theatrical force of his paintings.

The original size of the composition can be reconstructed by closely examining an X-radiograph of the painting (illustrated). The structure of the current wooden stretcher can be seen in the X-radiograph, which probably dates from when the painting was last lined during the nineteenth century. Two sets of handmade tacks suggests that the painting has been lined twice on this stretcher. A row of 1cm diameter holes, spaced about every 10-12cm down the left edge of the painting, relate to the original method of stretching, probably by means of lacing.

X-radiograph of ‘Cristo risorgente’

An impression of the original stretcher can also be seen from the X- radiograph, showing a structure with corner braces. Extrapolating from these impressions assists conjecture on the original size of the painting. It seems apparent that the work has been trimmed, losing approximately 2cm from the left and bottom edges (about the amount one might expect to lose in the course of a glue lining), approximately 4 to 5cm from the top edge and as much as 8 to 9cm from the right. The painting’s original dimensions would, therefore, have been approximately 206cm high x 148cm wide.

Ridolfi also delineates the role of drawing in Tintoretto’s work:

‘He set himself to draw the living model in all sorts of attitudes which he endowed with the grace of movement, drawing from them an endless variety of foreshortenings. Sometimes he dissected corpses in order to study the arrangement of the muscles, so as to combine his observation of sculpture with his study of nature. Taking from the first its formal beauty and from the second unity and delicacy.’

X-radiography, infrared examination and cross-sectional analysis have revealed that Cristo risorgente underwent numerous changes in its compositional structure. Drawing played an important role throughout, from charcoal drawing on white gesso, lead white on brown imprimatura, to lines drawn in the final surface.

Pigments bound in (presumably) linseed oil were also used inventively. For example, very large clusters of lead white were bound in the azurite and ultramarine blues of the sky. These would catch the flickering candlelight in the painting’s chapel setting, to create a shimmering, silvery dawn sky. Pigments used in The Resurrection were consistent with the sixteenth-century palette and included lead white, azurite, ultramarine, (probably) ultramarine ash, copper resinate-type green glazes, green earth, various red lake pigments such as cochineal, red lead, red and yellow ochres, charcoal black and bone black. From the six cross- sections analysed, no lead-tin yellow was found.

Evidence of the initial idea for the composition can be seen in infrared where the charcoal drawing on gesso suggests an initial tomb position in the mid-ground, perhaps similar to a version of this theme by Domenico Tintoretto (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice). This original tomb position was actually painted in brown before having the background landscape painted over it, and this shows through in many areas. The brown used in this area is comprised of palette scrapings. It is suggested that this general brown underpaint is the imprimatura on some of Tintoretto’s later works, produced by scraping off the residues that remained on the palette and boiling them with ochre and oil.

The X-radiograph suggests that the tomb position was then roughly drawn again, in lead white over imprimatura, nearer to the foreground. Later it was moved forward even further, into its present position, its facing edge serving to define the picture plane. The pose and contrapposto of the figure of Christ was also changed, as was the two-tailed banner and Christ’s crimson drapery. This drapery and the lower loin cloth area were the last sections to be painted and contribute to a poorly resolved passage in the composition.

Reconstruction of Christ’s upper torso and gesture of benediction

Some changes are evident without these technical aids and can be seen as pentimenti in the painting, as seen in the changes in position of the lower hand and staff of the banner. The staff has been drawn in closer to Christ’s body and the lower hand repositioned. From being silhouetted against the dawn sky, the hand has been moved down to form almost a continuation of the horizon line. Although not evident as pentimenti, the upper hand was originally higher and adjacent to Christ’s face, and his gesture of benediction was slightly more vertical (illustrated). The overall result serves to accentuate Christ’s dramatic moment of Resurrection, funnelling the eye from Christ and his gesture of blessing toward the rising sun. All of these changes indicate a tendency for Tintoretto to work through the compositional elements on the canvas and to struggle directly with the dramatic effects he wished to convey.

If we consider the symbolism of light in this work it is quickly evident that, as with Tintoretto’s use of perspective, he has sought to combine a number of visual effects. The time of day, dawn, represents eternal salvation. It symbolises the blood of Christ and His sacrifice. As Tintoretto creates a lyrical tension between the calm of an early morning dawn and the explosive force of Christ’s Resurrection, light is made a symbolic and a chromatic force within the image. A further light source emanates from the radiance of Christ, signifying the divinity of Christ at the moment of His Resurrection, triumphant over death, while the afterglow emanating from the tomb creates a luminous reference to His recent presence there. The chromo-luminist rendering of the buildings in the middle distance is at once ethereal and poetic, carrying perhaps the continuing influence of Tintoretto’s early training under Schiavone.

Reconstruction of a conjectured installation

Tintoretto, in the way in which he has arranged his principal figure, creates a momentary ‘suspension’ in Christ’s rapid ascent from the tomb. He steps out of, and slightly forward of, the tomb. Reconstructed, Christ’s trajectory indicates that he is leaning forward in space. It would, otherwise, be impossible for the back leg to be placed as it is and for him to retain balance without the torso being projected forward. The appropriate viewing height (as defined by the central vanishing point beneath Christ’s right elbow) to ‘correct’ this foreshortening scheme, is to position the base edge of the work slightly above a standing viewer’s head height (illustrated).

There are seven versions of The Resurrection attributed to Tintoretto and a further five known workshop versions on the theme dated between 1544 and 1581.

‘Cristo risorgente (The risen Christ)’ in the Conservation studio

Edited extract from ‘Tintoretto’s The Resurrection: The Visible and invisible Evidence’ by John Hook & Chris Saines from The Articulate Surface: Dialogues on paintings between conservators, curators and art historians, The Humanities Research Centre, ANU and the NGA, 1996

Cristo risorgente (The risen Christ) is on display within the Queensland Art Gallery’s International Art Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries (7-9).