Did Tintoretto's Madonna Say OK to Doge Nicolo Priuli?

• In Event: Complexities of Rhetoric in Italy and Beyond

Abstract

In 1581 Tintoretto carried out The Adoration of the Magi for the Fraternity of Saint Roch in Venice. The artist was keen to insert in the painting the image of doge Nicolò da Ponte, who was supposed to visit the confraternity on the yearly celebration of Saint Roch. The most appropriate scene that could be used to represent the image of the doge was The Adoration of the Magi. The aim of this paper is to show that Tintoretto, by including the image of the doge, did not only want to commemorate Nicolò da Ponte. Mary’s gesture, which is a hapax in the works of Tintoretto, who often makes use of rhetoric gestures in his paintings, allows us to presume that the artist was especially keen to express his and the confraternity’s members’ support in Nicolò da Ponte’s cultural and political program.

Author

• Ewa Rybalt, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University