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Jacopo Tintoretto (artist) Italian, 1518 - 1594 Christ at the Sea of Galilee, c. 1575/1580 oil on canvas Overall: 117.1 x 169.2 cm (46 1/8 x 66 5/8 in.) framed: 155.3 x 207 cm (61 1/8 x 81 1/2 in.) Samuel H. Kress Collection 1952.5.27 On View |
The Venetian master Tintoretto marshaled the unstable forces of nature to heighten the drama of this scene from John's Gospel; the wind that fills the sail and bends the mast also agitates the sea and sky, and the rocky waves meet the low clouds that blow onto the land. Christ's outstretched arm draws Peter like a magnet, the charge between them creating a dynamic link between the center of the picture and the left foreground. Tintoretto has broken all forms into multiple planes, splintering the light, and frosting the edges with a brush loaded with dry, lead-white oil paint. This use of a thick, white impasto to accent the highlights and as a ghostly shorthand, as in the grassy shore at Christ's feet, is a hallmark of Tintoretto's bravura style.
Too wild and improvisatory to find a real following among his compatriots in Venice, Tintoretto's bold expressions instead fired the imagination of one kindred temperament: El Greco, who studied there before moving to Spain. So close in style and spirit was El Greco's art that, earlier in this century, some experts believed that he, and not Tintoretto, had painted the Christ at the Sea of Galilee.