Overview
Before he became known as Saint Paul, Saul was a persecutor of Christians. This early painting by the Venetian master Jacopo Tintoretto depicts the moment that led to Saul’s conversion. As described in Acts 9:3–7, he traveled from Jerusalem to Damascus to destroy the churches there. As Saul and his troops approached the city, he saw a flash of light around him and, falling to the ground, heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Tintoretto portrayed the scene as utter chaos. Frightened men and horses tangle and crash to the ground. Their terror seems to reverberate around them as ominous clouds and a strong wind seize upon the landscape.
In the artist’s time, the theme of Saint Paul’s conversion was a popular subject—one that provided painters an opportunity to show their skills. The ambitious young Tintoretto had studied works by masters including
Entry
The conversion of Saint Paul, known as Saul in his earlier life, is described in Acts 9:3–7. Saul, a persecutor of Christians, was sent from Jerusalem to Damascus to stamp out the churches there. As he neared the city with his troops, a great light flashed around him; he fell to the ground and heard a voice speak, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” The theme was a popular subject for artists in the 16th century. From a religious perspective, the image of Christ winning over Saul represented divine power and specifically the victory of the Church over its enemies. For artists, the story provided an opportunity to show off their skills in what often came to be treated as a battle scene, although the biblical text states only that Saul’s companions heard the sound but saw nothing.
In the Gallery’s painting, the high drama of the episode is raised to the level of pandemonium. In the moment immediately after the thunderous voice of the divinity has sounded, shock waves still reverberate through the scene. A mighty wind whips banners, sails, and trees; the waves roil; clouds roll down from the sky to hide the distant mountains. Horses plunge in terror, throwing their riders and trampling men underfoot. Three horses fall down a fantastic outdoor stairway, one upside down, his rider beneath him. On the far shore a riderless group gallops away in panic. A soldier holds his hands to his head. A ruptured drum lies on the ground.
The picture is unmistakably an early work by
As in other early paintings, the ambitious young artist sets up an implicit challenge to the great masters of the present and recent past through references to some of their most celebrated works.
Tintoretto’s picture also documents the relationship of his early works to the art of
Although the Gallery’s Conversion of Saint Paul is the only known surviving example of the subject by Tintoretto, he painted it a number of times: as a fresco on a Venetian palace facade (Palazzo Zen ai Crociferi, mentioned previously); on the outer doors of the organ shutters for Santa Maria del Giglio;
Robert Echols
March 21, 2019
Provenance
Probably Palazzo Pisani a Santo Stefano until c. 1809.[1] George William Fox, 9th baron Kinnaird [1807-1878], Rossie Priory, Perthshire, Scotland, by 1857.[2] Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Florence, by 1939;[3] sold June 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 2007
- Tintoretto, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007, no. 3, repro.
- 2017
- Tintoret: Naissance d'un génie, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne; Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2017-2018, no. 5, repro.
- 2018
- Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia and Palazzo Ducale, Venice; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018-2019, no. 70, repro.
Technical Summary
The support appears to be formed of at least two pieces of open, plain-weave fabric, joined with a horizontal seam. The seam is located approximately one-third from the bottom of the painting and stands slightly proud of the surface. The cusping along all four sides indicates that the picture probably retains its original dimensions. The x-radiographs indicate that the warm, off-white ground may have been applied with a spatula or knife in sweeping, arched lines. On top of this, the artist applied a dark layer, which he left visible in some areas. The lighter areas of the composition were then blocked in with light-colored paint. Fluid drawing is visible with the naked eye both on top of and under the paint. The increasing transparency of the paint allows us to see that the artist painted the figure of Paul first in the nude, then adding his armor, a technique that Tintoretto used throughout his career.
In places, the dark colors have deteriorated and darkened, making the highlights appear out of key. The paint surface is abraded, especially in the clouds and vegetation in the upper section and in the white horse on the left. There are numerous complex tears and areas of retouching, many of which have become discolored and have developed a glossier sheen than the surrounding areas. In 1955 Mario Modestini removed a discolored varnish, inpainted, and relined the picture.
Robert Echols and Joanna Dunn based on the examination report by Ann Hoenigswald
March 21, 2019
Bibliography
- 1857
- Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c., visited in 1854 and 1856, ..., forming a supplemental volume to the "Treasures of Art in Great Britain." London, 1857: 448.
- 1939
- Suida, Wilhelm. “Zwei unbekannte Werke Tintorettos.” Pantheon 23 (1939): 122, repro., 123-125.
- 1942
- Bercken, Erich von der. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942: 96, 100, fig. 46.
- 1950
- Pallucchini, Rodolfo. La giovinezza del Tintoretto. Milan, 1950: 86-87, figs. 113-115.
- 1952
- Morassi, Antonio. “Review of La giovinezza del Tintoretto, by Rodolfo Pallucchini.” Emporium 115 (1952): 240.
- 1956
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 174, no. 69, repro.
- 1956
- Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): color repro. 620-621, 631.
- 1957
- Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:176.
- 1959
- Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 200, repro.
- 1960
- Arslan, Edoardo. Le pitture del Duomo di Milano. Milan, 1960: 20, 32 n. 34.
- 1962
- Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 36, color repro.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
- 1966
- Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:192, color repro.
- 1967
- Ballarin, Alessandro. “Jacopo Bassano e lo studio del Rafaello e dei Salviati.” Arte Veneta 21 (1967): 98.
- 1968
- National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 115, repro.
- 1970
- De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 88-89, no. 27.
- 1971
- Freedberg, Sydney J. Painting in Italy 1500-1600. Harmondsworth, 1971, rev. ed. 1975: 519-520.
- 1972
- Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.
- 1972
- Pallucchini, Rodolfo. “Due nuove opere giovanili di Jacopo Tintoretto.” Arte Veneta 26 (1972): 57.
- 1973
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 49-50, fig. 91.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 342, repro.
- 1977
- Moretti, Lino. “I Pisani di Santo Stefano e le opere d’arte del loro palazzo.” In Il Conservatorio di musica Benedetto Marcello a Venezia, 1876–1976: centenario della fondazione. Edited by Pietro Verardo. Venice, 1977: 170.
- 1978
- Martone, Thomas. "The Theme of the Conversion of Saint Paul in Italian Paintings from the Earlier Christian Period to the High Renaissance." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1978. New York, 1985: 214-215.
- 1978
- Rossi, Paola. “Per il catalogo di Jacopo Tintoretto: nuove opere giovanili.” Arte Veneta 32 (1978): 202-203.
- 1979
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:468-470; 2:pl. 334.
- 1982
- Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:20-24, 26, 139, 140, 141, 142-143, 168, 229, no. 79; 2:figs. 97-99.
- 1984
- Rossi, Paola. “Andrea Schiavone e l’intoduzione del Parmigianino a Venezia.” In Cultura e società nel Rinascimento tra riforme e manierismi. Edited by Vittore Branca and Caralo Ossola. Florence, 1984: 198-199, 204-205.
- 1984
- Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 230, no. 291, color repro.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 393, repro.
- 1985
- Valcanover, Francesco, and Terisio Pignatti. Tintoretto. New York, 1985: 72.
- 1991
- Rearick, W. R. "Titian Drawings: A Progress Report." Artibus et Historiae 12, no. 23 (1991): 31-32.
- 1993
- Echols, Robert. "Jacopo Tintoretto and Venetian Painting, 1538-1548." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 1993. Ann Arbor, MI, 1994: 138-143.
- 1994
- Krischel, Roland. Tintoretto. Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1994: 16-18.
- 1996
- Cassegrain, Guillaume. “‘Ces choses ont été des figures de ce qui nous concerne’: une lecture de la ‘Conversion de Saint Paul’ du Tintoret.” Venezia Cinquecento 6 (1996): 55-85.
- 1999
- Nichols, Tom. Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity. London, 1999: 6, 28, 29-30 34, color fig. 8.
- 2000
- Krischel, Roland. Jacopo Tintoretto, 1519–1594. Cologne, 2000: 10-11, fig. 4.
- 2001
- Rearick, William R. Il disegno veneziano del Cinquecento. Milan, 2001: 118, 219.
- 2007
- Dunkerton, Jill. “Tintoretto’s Painting Technique.” In Tintoretto. Edited by Miguel Falomir. Exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007: 140.
- 2007
- Falomir, Miguel, ed. Tintoretto. Exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007: 33-36, 122, 184-185, 198, 297, 348.
- 2009
- Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 121, no. 32.
- 2009
- Goldberg, Jonathan. The Seeds of Things: Theorizing Sexuality and Materiality in Renaissance Representations. New York, 2009: pl. 2.
- 2009
- Ilchman, Frederick, et al. Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Musée du Louvre, Paris. Boston, 2009: 108.
- 2010
- Cassegrain, Guillaume. Tintoret. Paris, 2010: 12-14, 31, 34, fig. 1.
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