A - Plague - Saint - For - Venice - Tintoretto - at The Chiesa Di San Rocco

A Plague Saint for Venice: Tintoretto at the Chiesa di San Rocco
Author(s): Louise Marshall

Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 33, No. 66 (2012), pp. 153-187
Published by: IRSA s.c.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23509749
Accessed: 18-07-2017 02:16 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae
This content downloaded from 129.78.139.29 on Tue, 18 Jul 2017 02:16:25 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Louise Marshall
A Plague Saint for Venice:

Tintoretto at the Chiesa di San
Rocco
Tintoretto's extraordinary achievement in the Scuola Grande

di San Rocco has compelled the attention of all subsequent
viewers. Decorated in a series of campaigns stretching over
decades, covered with more than fifty canvases of outstanding
drama and bravura, the magnificent rooms of the confraternity
building inevitably dominate any discussion of the artist and
his achievements.1 However, this article will resist their siren
call in favour of the adjoining confraternity church of San Rocco
[Fig. 1], where, between 1549 and the 1580s, Tintoretto paint
ed four lateral canvases celebrating the patron saint's life and
miracles in the main chapel.2 As recent exhibitions in Madrid
and Boston have reminded us, Tintoretto was above all else
a supremely inventive and prolific painter of sacred narratives,
the vast majority for churches and public buildings in his native
Venice.3 Religious episodes dominate his oeuvre, remaining
throughout his life the principal focus of patrons' desires for
commissions and the artist's chosen arena of contest with pred
ecessors and contemporaries. Yet even in the wake of renewed
attention to the artist's innovative reimagining of the conven
tions of sacred story, the narratives in the church of San Rocco
remain little studied.
In addition to the lure of the neighbouring Scuola, chron
ological disjunctions, perceived variations in quality due to
increased workshop involvement and later changes to the
original arrangement have all played a part in deflecting schol
Louise Marshall
ALTRA VEDVTA DELLA SOVOLA DI S ROCCO

con la Chiefa in proipetto
Luca CarUeuarys c/d,: et inc :
1. Luca Carlevaris, «Altra Veduta della Scuola di S. Rocco, con la chiesa in prospetto», from Le fabriche e vedute di Ven
British Museum, inv. no. 1928,1016.62. Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum
arly attention. Since most discussions of Tintoretto's oeuvre in response to their original physical
are chronologically organised and stylistically focused, works articulating the commissioning confrater
painted so far apart are not usually discussed together, even heavenly patron and shaping worship
though this is how they were intended to be viewed. Moreover, powers of the saint, whose relics were
Tintoretto's Roch narratives are generally presented as if existing protection against the scourge of b
ing in a vacuum, the product of the artist's idiosyncratic tern- Investigation of the ways in which Roc
perament. However, my researches have identified an extensive were visualised at the church where hi
corpus of earlier monumental cycles of Roch across northern particularly timely in the light of curren
Italy, which provides an essential comparative framework by origins and development of his cult. Over
which to interpret patronal and artistic choices at San Rocco. nologies, recent scholarship, most notably
The present study thus aims to reintegrate the four laterali as launched by Belgian hagiographer
a coherent, planned quartet framing worshippers' approach to strated that veneration of Roch as a plag
the tomb of the saint at the high altar. Such an analysis sheds fifteenth-century novelty, documented fi
new light on the ways in which the paintings were designed em Italy in the 1460s and 1470s, the
154
-ti
11
2. Bartolomeo Bon (attrib.), Scuoletta, Venice, 1489-1509
ishing speed throughout Europe in the succeeding decades.4 tive powers against the plague only revealed by miraculous
For worshippers, the key to Roch's appeal was the belief that signs after his death.5
he was both healer and victim of the plague. According to his The crux of the problem surrounding Roch's cult is the
fifteenth-century biographers, the new saint was a French noble- complete absence of any independent documentation of his
man who gave away his goods before setting out on pilgrimage existence outside the written vite - no family records, no first
to Rome. Curing plague sufferers in hospitals throughout Italy, hand accounts, no canonisation enquiry of the kind so fruitfully
including a cardinal in Rome who gratefully presented him to the analysed by André Vauchez.6 Instead, Roch seems to spring
pope, he was himself infected at Piacenza. There he retreated forth full grown, like Athena from Zeus' forehead, appealed to
to the 'wilderness' to endure his sufferings with saintly fortitude, by cities and individuals and vigorously promoted as a plague
was miraculously sustained by daily canine delivery service of a protector by a number of late fifteenth-century biographies, all
loaf of bread in the manner of the desert fathers, and ultimately originating in northern Italy. The first and most influential of these
cured by divine fiat. Taking up his travels again, he was arrested was composed by Venetian humanist Francesco Diedo, spurred
as a spy in a city where his own uncle was governor and died by the spectacle of Brescia wracked by the plague during his
neglected and alone in prison, his identity, sanctity and protec- tenure as governor.7 Cannily published in concurrent Latin and
155
Louise Marshall
. Bartolomeo Bon (attrib.),

San Rocco, Venice,
1489-1508.
Photo: Scuoia Grande
Arciconfraternita di San Rocco
156
A Vñ1
74
1" ""il
VU §,JMIH^ \ 111 ■ < H

WSgsmm
f- ÎÊBÊK^ÊÊ iBLj
fl| fl
HMtj> --Jra
iífflii "JÉ1"' 11* i*/
I
til
J'-fptya?»; i|W* W-c»y
III } s \\[
• v ■ «'
4.4.Cappella
Cappella
maggiore,maggiore, 5. Venturino
San Rocco, VeniceSan Rocco, Venice 5. Venturino Fantoni, GiammariaFantoni,
Mosca and Giammaria
Bartolomeo Mosca
Berga and Bartolo
masco,
masco, «Tomb-altarpiece of St Roch»,
«Tomb-altarpiece of St 1517-1524,
Roch», cappella
1517-1524,
maggiore,
magglore, SanSan
Rocco,
Rocco,
VeniceVenice
Italian editions In Milan in 1479, towards the end of two harrow- It was an unnatural state of affairs quickly explo
ing years of severe pan-European plague outbreaks, Diedo's Venetian confraternity. In 1485, only a handful of ye
vita was an Immediate bestseller, reprinted in both universalising 1479 foundation in the same plague epidemic tha
Latin and particularised vernaculars in all major European print- publish his vita, the Scuola di San Rocco triumpha
ing centres over the following decades and inspiring multiple Roch's body. The specific circumstances by which
adaptations, retellings and summaries.8 Yet Diedo's vita post- was achieved were unclear, a lacuna which the
dates the earliest invocations to the saint and is distinguished later attempted to redress with the creation of a f
by its lack of specificity and profusion of hagiographie topo/.9 rative following the celebrated civic model of the
The spread of devotion to Roch, to which Diedo both attests Mark's relics.11 Venetian claim to the saint's body w
and strongly contributes, is also extraordinary for the absence of a function of Roch's popularity than a cause,
any of the expected indices of a nascent cult, namely miracles deposited in the city it provided a new locus from
and invocations generated by possession of a venerated body fame could be disseminated, particularly via Germa
in a specific locality. Instead, Diedo's vita and all those that fol- resident in Venice, as Heinrich Dormeier has dem
lowed him are full of confusions and evasions regarding such Yet the primary engines driving the incredibly rapid
basic information as the place of Roch's death or the location Roch's worship throughout Europe in the years around 1500
of his body.10 were not localised in Venice or anywhere else, but lay rather in
157
Louise Marshall
158
7. Right wall of cappella maggiore, San Rocco, Venice
the conjunction of the new technologies of mass communica- from Renaissance plague saint still requires interrogation and
tion with the urgency of need for saintly intercessors generated explanation.15 That such uncertainties were not entirely ignored
by the plague. Not without reason has Roch been dubbed the during the Renaissance is indicated by the worried comments
first saint of the printing press.13 of the Venetian ambassador to Rome in 1590, not long after
For some hagiographers, most notably Bolle, the resolution the last of Tintoretto's paintings was most likely installed in S
to the anomalies swirling around Roch has been to propose that Rocco, informing the Doge that he had been repeatedly urg
he never existed, but was created by homonymie confusion to beg the Venetian government to "send soon the witnes
with another saint, the bishop and martyr Rochus or Rachus and public documents of the life and miracles of the blessed
of Autun, venerated in the south of France on the same feast Roch, because our Lord [Pope Sixtus V] is strong in his opinion
day and appealed to for protection against tempests (which either to canonize him or else to remove him from the ranks of
by linguistic slippage and meteorological association is sug- the saints".16 The history of the Venetian confraternity and of
gested as the source of Roch's powers against the plague).14 the narratives Tintoretto painted for its church need to be inte
Yet even if this were so, the enormous distance in terms of char- preted with this peculiarly elusive saintly history in mind,
acter and narrative imaginary separating Merovingian bishop The acquisition of Roch's body was the making of the Venetian
confraternity, propelling it into the ranks of the Scuole Grandi in
6. Cupola,
6. Cupola,drum
drum and
and apse
apse of cappella
of cappella maggiore,
maggiore, San Rocco,
San Rocco, Venice. Venice. 1489- onlV a decade after its foundation, swelling the numbe
Photo:Scuola
Photo: Scuola Grande
Grande Arciconfraternita
Arciconfraternita di San
dl San Rocco Rocco of its members and attracting generous donations that quickly
159
Louise Marshall
ï:
?
8. Left wall of cappella maggiore, San Rocco, Venice
transformed its early impoverished status to one of extraordi- Although the nave and façade were demolished and
nary wealth.17 Possession of an undivided sacred corpse set the rebuilt in the eighteenth century, the original façade is record
Scuola di San Rocco apart from almost every other confraternity ed in prints [Fig. 1] and the new nave adhered to the origina
in the city, including the other four Scuole Grandi.18 To display Quattrocento dimensions and architectural vocabulary. In its
the body with appropriate dignity and honour, the Scuola began architectural patronage, the Scuola di San Rocco consistently
construction of the church of San Rocco in 1489.19 Work pro- sought to position itself within venerable local tradition.22 The
ceeded quickly, with the east end completed within a year, allow- façade of the new church continued existing Venetian formal
ing placement of the saint's body in the left apse, and the façade types in the emphatically vertical tripartite arrangement and
erected by 1494; the church was consecrated in 1508 20 Tucked characteristic curving silhouette.23 Dominating its small campo
away behind the apse of the much larger Franciscan church of the church provided a clear goal for the intending visitor. Within
Santa Maria dei Frari and in an area of the city then still peripheral a single nave culminated in a raised east end (still preserved
to the centres of civic power, this was nevertheless a major state- from the original building, due to the presence of the holy body
ment of the confraternity's arrival in the Venetian ritual landscape.
Where other confraternities owned patronage rights over chapels9.9Titian,

Titian«St
<<st Roch
Roch andand Eight
Eight Scenes
Scenes ofLife»,
of his his Life>> c. 1517_1518,
c. 1517-1518,
in neighbouring churches, the Scuola di San Rocco possessed woodcut, British
woodcut, British Museum,
Museum, inv.1860,0414.140.
inv. no. no. 1860,0414.140.
an entire church, built ex nuovo and under its sole jurisdiction.21 Photo:
Photo: © Trustees
© The The Trustees of theMuseum
of the British British Museum
160
D £VS oyi ES GLORIO SV S IK GLORIA SANC TO R-ET CVNCTIS AD CO&TATRO

CINIA CÔFVGIENTIB.VS SVE PET IT! ON IS SALVTjvRË PRESTAS IfFECTVM. CONCE
DEPLEBI TVE VT INTERCEDENTE BEATO ROCHO CONEE5SORETVO QVEIN
EIVSCEIEBRI TATE SE DEVOTA EXIBET.AIÂCORE EE! DIM IE QVÂ IN SVO CORPORE PRONO
MINISOiORlAPASSVsEST-Srr.IIBERATAET.sfPEE NOMIHI TV" OEVOTA, P • D- N
9.
161
Louise Marshall
W,, r
¿tT * :
10. Giovan Pietro da Cemmo, «Gothard Discovering Roch in the Wilderness», 1505, Cappella del Comune, Berzo
Interiore (Lombardy)
at the high altar) with a main chapel capped by a dome and to present the saint to his devotees in all t
flanked by two smaller apses. The light from the drum of the [Figs 4-5].24 As Peter Humfrey has obs
dome and the high, grandiose arch framing the main chapel altarpiece, designed by Venturino Fantoni
draw the visitor forward to the high altar and the relics [Fig. 3]. by Giammaria Mosca and Bartolomeo
Concern to create an appropriately striking public set- 1517-1524, created a new standard of grandiose architectural
ting for the holy body in direct competition with the other altarpieces that few if any other commissioners could match
saintly corpses on display in Venice is evident in the Scuola's for either sumptuousness or expense - 'opera maraviglioso',
sequence of interventions regarding the arrangement of the in the words of contemporary diarist Marin Sañudo. With great
cappella maggiore and was frequently articulated in the accom- pomp and circumstance, the saint's body was formally trans
panying debates. These moved in an increasing crescendo lated to the new tomb-altar in March 1520, the date inscribed
of competitive magnificence, from an altarpiece and casket below the sarcophagus upheld by putti.25
to an extravagantly splendid polychrome marble structure Once the last of the high altar sculptures were completed in
above the high altar that combined both tomb and altarpiece the mid 1520s, the confraternity turned its attention to the further
162
'
II
Mitt ^ 1 ' Í-Y
H ■'•-,W * 1»
nr m >•
r r
' ^ \
t
"i--.. \ It.
«H1H
-
11. Tintoretto and Paolo Fiammingo, «St Roch in the Wilderness», 1580s, San Rocco, Venice.
Photo: Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco
enrichment of the main chapel. Thanks to its possession of not whose talents the Scuola had already tested in a dram
one but multiple highly charismatic miracle-working objects position for the wooden doors of a cupboard for liturg
that drew very large crowds and attracted substantial dona- in the nave in 1527, was commissioned some months la
tions - a flowering thorn from the crown of thorns, a miracu- completed the frescoes of the apsidal walls, conch,
lous processional cross and, most celebrated of all, Giorgione's cupola within the year.28 Venetian damp has destroy
painting of Christ Carrying the Cross (c. 1510) - the Scuola was all of these except for the superbly illusionistic fresco
in an enviable financial position and enjoyed high standing as holding up Roch's attributes as sacred trophies at eith
a destination for pilgrims and locals alike.26 As a document of the altar, but the ensemble was greatly admired by
March 1528 indicates, four large paintings on the side walls raries and later viewers. As a result, the iconographie s
narrating the life of the patron were planned from the start, in if not Pordenone's heroic visual idiom was largely
addition to decorations in the apse and dome: "four canvases in the eighteenth-century repainting. Since this is the
at the two levels of the chapel, that is, two above and two below, ble that Tintoretto's paintings were designed to com
painted with the stories of messer Saint Roch".27 Pordenone, worth pausing briefly to consider the way in which t
163
Louise Marshall
responded to and amplified the impact of the tomb, with the

sculpted figure of Roch standing on the sarcophagus.
Most evident is the sense of communication between
sculpted and painted protagonists, crossing and energis
ing the space of the chapel [Figs 3-6].29 The patron saint's
upward gaze and demonstrative self-exposure is given specific
motive and direction, as he looks up to the transfigured Christ
in the conch of the apse directly above him and beyond to
God the Father gazing down and blessing from the cupola.
Roch's display of his plague bubo is his characteristic gesture
in Renaissance art, testifying to his patient endurance of suf
fering and offering a model of hoped-for cure for worshippers
that is here acted out before their own eyes in the benevolent
interchange between Triune God and saint.30 The theme of rev
elation evident in the Transfiguration, when Christ's divinity was
first revealed to his followers in a blaze of glory almost beyond
the strength of mortal eyes to bear, creates a heavenly parallel
for the orchestrated rituals of concealment and revelation of s
1
the holy body enacted at the tomb below, where the relics of V Ja L.
the saint were normally hidden behind a cover and were only
displayed at certain feasts and special occasions.31 Looking
up at Christ, Roch is celebrated as a privileged 'friend of God',
already enjoying the beatific vision of the elect prefigured at
the Transfiguration. The reiteration of divine authority created
by the presence of Christ in the apse and God the Father in
the dome perhaps speaks to lingering uncertainties associated
with Roch's cult.32 Father and Son collaborate in proclaiming
Roch a saint, validating the body in the tomb and endorsing
his veneration. The unfolding of the divine plan through history,
evoked in the traditional iconography of the four evangelists in
the pendentives and the paired church fathers in the lunettes
of the side walls, the topmost tier of the two lower registers
destined to be occupied by the saint's narratives [Figs 6, 7],
takes on new resonance as a result of proximity to the relics,
which become the nexus linking heaven and earth. The glories
of the celestial realm are refracted through the tomb out to the
devotees; Christ's promise of salvation is proclaimed by the
thaumaturgie power of his saint, made available to all comers.
Although the paintings on the side walls were mentioned
in the deliberations of 1528, and perhaps their subjects already
chosen, it was to be another two decades before any effort
was made to realise the scheme. The most likely reason for the
delay is a decision to channel the confraternity's rapidly increas
ing finances into the erection of a splendid new residence (the
current Scuola, 1515-1549), opposite the by-now too small and
unassuming earlier confraternal meeting house, known as the
Scuoletta [Figs 1, 2].33 In particular, the extraordinary saga of
the new residence's stair provoked heated disputes, not just in
confraternal meetings but also publicly, in the form of architects
rebuked, dismissed or refusing to continue, and external com- 12. Giovanni
12. Giovanni Buora
Buora (attrib.), (attrib.),
«St Roch», «St Roch», before 1508,
before 1508,
mittees and adjudicators appointed by the Council of Ten. These Scuola
Scuola di di San
San Rocco, Rocco, Venice
Venice
164
13. Tintoretto, «St Roch Healing Plague Victims», 1549, San Rocco, Venice.
Photo: Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco
wranglings went on for years and were only finally resolved after confraternity - care for the sick and the poor, as proclaimed in the
1545, when It was formally agreed to demolish the staircase gigantic canvas depicting Roch Healing Plague Victims [Fig. 13].36
built only a few years before and erect an entirely new design, The choice of Tintoretto as painter of the projected four
at a stroke radically eclipsing all existing Venetian monumental canvases was most likely due to emulation and rivalry with the
stairs and creating a whole new typology of magnificence. other Scuole Grandi. The San Rocco commission followed hard
The ostentation, pride and architectural pretensions of San on the heels of the artist's triumphant vindication at the Scuola
Rocco's building program was explicitly denounced as waste- Grande di San Marco the previous year, when the Miracle of
ful extravagance and an illegitimate misuse of funds that should the Slave was first rejected and then accepted by the patrons
be devoted to charity by the evangelically-minded jeweller and in the face of great public acclaim.37 Yet at San Rocco too con
writer Alessandro Caravia in a scathing satire of 1541 directed troversy was to ensue. The date of 1549 for Tintoretto's first
against all the Scuole Grandi.34 Although the confraternity con- painting in the church is provided by the record of the artist's
tinued its building program undeterred through the 1540s, the later acceptance into the Scuola in March 1565, following his
depth of acrimony over the stair indicates a certain level of con- audacious outmanoeuvring of his rivals to win the commission
cern amongst at least some of the membership over what one for the ceiling of the San Rocco Albergo (boardroom). The pre
mlght call image or reputation management, with the nature of amble to the vote stated that Tintoretto had made "the painting
the confraternity's architectural self-fashioning precisely the issue of the main chapel of [our] church" in 1549 and had then been
under dispute. As Tom Nichols has persuasively argued, cer- promised membership, but this agreement had subsequently
tain aspects of Tintoretto's later decorative program in the new "been forgotten".38
meeting house can be interpreted as a concerted rebuttal of The confraternity's failure to continue with the other three
Caravia's critiques.35 In that sense the decision to return to the laterali or to admit the artist to membership in 1549 indicates
projected laterali in 1549, once the tumult over the stair had that at this date Tintoretto was still a controversial if also highly
subsided and building works were virtually complete, could celebrated artist, attracting criticism for his freedom of execution
also be seen as a counter to Caravia's denunciations, repre- and lack of finish. Opposition to the artist at San Rocco is well
senting as it does a much less controversial use of confraternal documented in later years, when one member offered to pay for
funds, an act of devotion and piety towards the patron saint and a paintings only if the commission was not awarded to Tintoretto
public affirmation of the saint's-and by extension, that of his titular and a substantial minority voted against his membership and,
165
Louise Marshall
later still, against accepting his proposal of an annual salary in

return for a seemingly endless supply of paintings.39 As schol
ars have suggested, in 1549 the hostile intervention of Titian,
a member of longstanding, may have been particularly decisive
in blocking any further commissions at San Rocco to his rival.40
Strikingly, even a decade later, when supporters of Tintoretto
within the Scuola were able to secure him the commission for
the doors of a second cupboard for liturgical objects in the
nave, to match that painted by Pordenone thirty years earlier,
the choir project was not renewed.41 Whatever the reasons,
nothing further was done for two more decades, until April 1567,
when the confraternity executive passed a resolution calling
for the completion of the remaining three pictures.42 Payment
records indicate that two at least were finished in this year by
Tintoretto, now strongly ensconced at the Scuola and, with the
imminent completion of the decoration of the Albergo, available
for further commissions.43 The date of the fourth canvas is not
recorded in any extant confraternal documents.
None of the documents specify the subject matter of any
of the four narratives. However, later descriptions of the church
from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries indicate that the
current arrangement of paintings in the main chapel [Figs 7-8]
is not original. From Marco Boschini's eloquent and evocative
ekphrasis in La carta del navegar pitoresco of 1660, we learn
that Roch Healing Animals was originally above the scene of the
saint healing plague victims, and that his death in prison was
surmounted by his Arrest.44 Boschini does not specify the wall
occupied by each pair, but a few years later, in 1664, a French
visitor to the church recorded the location of Roch healing
plague victims on the right wall: 'Je fus à la Messe à Saint Roch,
où je vis ces admirables ouvrages du Tintoret, principalment la
Peste qu'il a peint au costé droit du choeur".45 Later viewers,
from Antonio Zanetti in the early-eighteenth century to John
Ruskin in the mid-nineteenth, corroborate this arrangement.46
The explicit descriptions of these visitors thus confirm the
reconstruction of the original locations of Tintoretto's paintings COME -S-ROCflO
y
put forward by Luigi Coletti in 1940 and accepted by most later
scholars, until the recent publications of Maria Agnese Chiari VISITA LINFERMI
Wiel suggested a different arrangement.47 Coletti's arguments ^
took into account the somewhat cryptic references to location
in the documents of 1567, along with the fact that Roch Healing
14. Titian, «St14.
Plague Victims is the only one of the four described in any detail Roch and Eight Scenes of his Life»,«St
Titian, detail: «St Roch
Roch and Eight Scenes of his Life», detail: «St Roch
in Vasari's second edition of 1568, presumably on the basis Healing Healing Plague Victims»Plague
(Come S[an] Flocho visitaVictims»
linfermi), (Come S[an] Rocho visita linfermí),
~k.;c wioit + ~ hccc c. 1517-1518, woodcut, British Museum,
c. 1517-1518, inv.Museum,
woodcut, British no. 1860,0414.140.
inv. no. 1860,0414.140.
of notes made during his visit to Venice in 1566, thus identi- _. ^ _ _. _ . ' .
, . . , , . , ... Photo: © The Trustees ofPhoto: the British
© The Museum
Trustees of the British Museum
tying it as the first of the laterals, painted in 1549.4B The cur
rent arrangement is therefore correct at the lower level - Roch
Healing Plague Victims at the right and Death of Roch at the anothe
left - but the narratives of the upper level are not. Roch Healing with
Animals, now placed at the upper left [Fig. 8], was originally Porden
at the upper right. The Arrest of Roch, originally at the upper [Figs
left, has been arbitrarily isolated on the right nave wall, and a clear
166
Í-W^'
wmmÈmÊmÊi
1$ wmmmâ
M
B*8
fc I3P ; -' SrçJ !il«!

WrW&M'ï" S?
§Í¡|gfK ÉÉlI »!
'■- ' N '
^ -y..
'-* * «g»»» v* • • a'v's •■ ï - •■ v «. ase a >•*••,: •. »
• ^ -■> v > ,r- ^
¡¡gp 5 ^
S". .„; .»«!& -
À
psv », ■• - ■ ív^íShí ■ Vk:
ÜÜ
15. Antonio Boselli, «St Roch Healing Plague Victims», 1515, chapel of Sts Anthony Abbot and Roch, S. Maria della Cons
Almenno San Salvatore (Lombardy)
167
Louise Marshall
•->*
v ■
[_ Jr ÊfPI
16. Pascale Oddone (attrib.), «St Roch Healing Plague Victims», 1530, San Rocco, Brossasco (Piedmont)
his compositions in relation to their physical placement. This is revived in 1567 and two pictur
hardly surprising - the artist's calculated engagement with lines that year. One of these was ce
of sight and lighting conditions elsewhere has often been noted lower left wall; the second is m
- but has not so far been sufficiently recognised at San Rocco.50 diagonally opposite, on the up
In view of the long genesis of the commission, it may be absence of documents, the last c
helpful at this point to briefly summarise the chronology, as has Roch, destined for the upper
now been reconstructed. The choice of subjects for the four later- to 1567/68, the 1570s or, the
ali may have been made as early as 1528, as part of the planned the 1580s.52 Such variety indica
decoration of the entire chancel area. The first painting to be com- determine Tintoretto's chr
pleted was, not surprisingly, one of the two larger canvases at the recent scholarship has recog
lower level. Roch Healing Plague Victims was painted in 1549 and followed the opinions of those
was hung on the lower right wall, where it was admired by Vasari connoisseurship than the pres
in 1566. After languishing for nearly two decades, the project was 1580s for the Arrest, I would
168
QA/ESTOHE-COMO
«¿•ROCHO PERVIVA- Lll
lAMORBATHN* EL
HOSPJttALE
iCu
17. Battista da Legnano, «St Roch Healing Plague Victims», 1534, Oratorio di San Rocco, Crana (Piedmont)
bility that this canvas was also completed around 1567 or shortly final completion and the extent of workshop involvement (much
thereafter. This would certainly be the most logical possibility in greater in works after 1580) in the last painting of the series is
terms of both the confraternity's priorities and the lack of any fur- less relevant than recognition of the cycle's thematic and visual
ther commissions for the artist from the Scuola until 1575, when cohesiveness.
his offer to paint the central panel of the ceiling of the chapter It is often said that when painting scenes such as Roch
hall was accepted. Nevertheless, for my purposes, the date of healing plague victims Tintoretto was inventing subject matter
169
Louise Marshall
ed his first canvas In 1549.56 The Venetian Scuola's own ear

production of Roch narratives, in the form of a fund-raising pr
particularly targeted to pilgrims en route to the Holy Land, c
missioned from Titian around 1517-1518 [Fig. 9], also needs
be brought into consideration.57 This visual corpus is a fun
mental point of departure for an analysis of Tintoretto's late
Exploration of the ways in which this existing narrative tradi
was adopted, adapted, ignored or radically reworked can p
vide a new context within which to evaluate the strategic cho
of both patrons and artist.
Such decisions can tell us a great deal about the devoti
al and self-presentational aims of the commissioning confr
nity. When compared to earlier cycles, the Scuola's progr
is seen to be in some senses traditional and in others high
unusual. At San Rocco, the choice and placement of scene
across the two walls coheres around the twin themes of Roch's
healing powers on the right and the events leading to his death
in prison on the left. This binocular focus is not matched in
any previous cycle, even those similarly abbreviated, which
tend to include a more evenly distributed, traditional saintly
biographical arc, or to concentrate on aspects of Roch's life not
presented here.58 Instead, the unusual shape of the Venetian
cycle responds to the distinctive demands of the commission,
not shared by any other - namely, proximity to the saint's rel
ics. Tintoretto's canvases had to introduce and enhance the
worshipper's encounter with the sacred corpse, which took
place immediately after he or she gained the space of the m
chapel and passed through the painterly vanguard, as it wer
to meet the saint himself, residing in his relics.59 Insistence
Roch's powers as healer during his lifetime, seen on the rig
JIP» wall, held out the promise of cure so fervently sought by tho
crowding the church and making vows at his tomb. Conversely
;i;|r •%$; . "..r; T '. 'Ipgl the chain of natural and supernatural events around Roch'
death elaborated on the left wall endorsed his saintly status a
18.Tintoretto,
18. Tintoretto, «St
«St Roch Roch
Healing Healing
Plague Plague
Victims», Victims»,
detail: «Plague focuseddetail: «Plague
attention on the subsequent fate of the h
Victim Displaying his Bubo», 1549, San Rocco, Venice
Victim Displaying his Bubo», 1549, San Rocco, Venice disp|ay at ,he nearby a,tar
Most striking when comparing Tintoretto's pictures wit
ex nuovo.54 However this is incorrect. In fact, Roch's life and earlier retellings is the conspicuous absenc
miracles were quite often represented in monumental cycles sode that appears in every previous cycle. Th
across northern Italy, from the late-fifteenth through to the mid- tion of Roch as a victim of the plague in the w
sixteenth century.55 These earlier cycles are for the most part Piacenza, sustained in his retreat by a miraculous
not well known, since they are often in rural or isolated loca- providential daily gift of bread by a dog stealing a
tions, are the work of minor local artists and have not previously table of a nearby nobleman, who one day follow
been analysed as a group. Although each is inflected differently, covered the saint and became his disciple.60 F
such cycles demonstrate significant convergences, articulating worshippers, the spectacle of Roch's suffer
shared assumptions regarding Roch's cult. Moreover, some of victim lay at the heart of his appeal [Fig. 10]. Lik
the more prominently sited instances or other now lost exam- endurance of physical torment was redemptive,
pies may have been known in Venice, such as the extensive which he gained his final reward from God, the po
cycle decorating the walls of the lower hall of the meeting house others from the disease he himself had endured
of the Paduan confraternity of St Roch, underway in the 1530s buboes so familiar to worshippers from their
and completed by 1544, only five years before Tintoretto paint- Roch's suffering body was the charismatic fo
170
19. Tintoretto, «St Roch Healing Plague Victims» (detail), 1549, San Rocco, Venice
than his subsequent cure. Yet this crucial and invariably repre- Scuola's domain and roused anticipation in the visitor entering
sented episode is exactly not what the confraternity chose to the church. Within, the encounter between saint and devotee
present in any of their four canvases. takes place in real time along the distance of the nave and
A number of possible explanations suggest themselves. across the space of the main chapel as he or she moves forward
It may be that this scene was felt to be redundant in view of [Figs 3, 5]. The sculpted figure rising from the lid of the sarcoph
the existence of no less than three sculpted renditions of Roch agus vivifies the exchange as a permanently visible manifesta
exposing his bubo in the near vicinity: on the façade of the origi- tion of the saint, even when the relics remained concealed from
nal meeting house, to the right of the church [Fig. 2]; crowning view. Yet despite the high prestige accorded to sculpture, par
the apex of the church façade [Figs 1, 12]61; and as the central ticularly in Venice, for its qualities of three-dimensional actuality
figure of the magnificent tomb-altarpiece [Fig. 5]. Such tangible, and antique associations, the relatively small scale of Mosca's
three-dimensional evocations Identified the Scuola with their sculpted saint (108 cm), as well as its elevated position, limits its
patron saint in his most characteristic moment of self-exposure, impact in terms of physical presence and immediacy. Moreover,
soliciting devotion from his worshippers at the same time as he all of these figures are isolated and timeless, the saint in eternity,
offers up the tokens of his suffering as his intercessory creden- detached from the specific historic narrative of Roch suffering
tials to the deity he seeks to influence on their behalf. Externally, in the wilderness that every other pictorial cycle deemed an
the two figures stressed the homogeneity of the campo as the essential element in the recounting of his life.
171
Louise Marshall
i j without his customary exposed bubo on the thigh; instead, his

i jfijá hose is resolutely rolled up and his body shows no signs of the
' ¿S-. disease.62 Although the Scuola did in fact later order a small
version of the popular subject of Roch in the Wilderness from
Tintoretto, for an unknown but perhaps not very prominent site
in the church, since it is never mentioned in later descriptions,
there too Roch's bubo was discreetly veiled in shadow almost
to the point of invisibility [Fig. 11].63
Notably, Roch is plague-free in the triumphant vision of his
glorification in the ceiling of the Scuola's Albergo, where he is
welcomed into heaven by God the Father in what was surely
a deliberate reminiscence of the program of the San Rocco
cappella maggiore, but with the suffering saint of the tomb now
replaced by the disease-free saint of paradisal bliss. Even when
Roch does expose his bubo, on the end wall of the enormous
chapter hall of the Scuola, one has to look very close to discover
the swelling on his left thigh, which almost blends into the colour
of his skin.64 Along with the surprisingly fugitive presence of the
patron saint from the entire program of the new confraternal resi
dence as it unfolds over two stories and dozens of paintings (an
absence that strongly contrasts with the extended cycle of Roch's
life arrayed on the walls of the lower meeting room of the Paduan
Scuola di San Rocco, as well as with the biographical cycles of
their patron saints commissioned by the other Venetian Scuole
Grandi for their residences65), such elisions may be indicative
of a certain level of confraternal ambivalence vis-à-vis Roch's
status as a plague sufferer. During the sixteenth century, plagu

J ¡4 had come to be seen much more exclusively as a disease of the
"""*,11 • f T flr Ani poor and wretched rather than the elite.66 Avoidan
\ . plague victim may thus signal a certain unwillingness by Scuola
- members to recognise any such signs of social stigma in their
«r: -í— f;,, own patron. In both church and residence, it is as if the saint
f¡ 'SW
•' -M' - ií MlímfíñÉÉk. being remade in a more socially acceptable image.
- '¡SBv./**
By contrast, buboes - though of sufferers rather than of saint
20.
20. Giovanni
Giovanni diNicholas
di Paolo, «St Paolo, «St Nicholas
of Tolentino Liberating of Tolentino Liberating t a h
_ . _i » •. r- i r> ., ^ - are dramatically on display in the opening episode of Roch
aa Town
Town from
from Plague»,
Plague», detail: Procession»,
detail: «Funeral «Funeral Procession»,
1456, 1456, .... ... . rJT , , , ,
Gemaldegalerie
Gemàldegalerie der Akademie
der Akademie der bildenden
der bildenden Künste, Vienna. Healln9 Pla9ue Vlctlms [R9- 1
Künste, Vienna.
Photo:
Photo: Akademie
Akademie derVienna
der bildenden Künste, bildenden Künste, Vienna to be painted, this was an obviou
the saint's relics, spelling out as it does the mot
devotees to visit the tomb. Scholarly assertions to
All this is highly suggestive for what it reveals of confra- representations of Roch he
ternal identification with their saintly patron. The choice of of Acquapendente (where he
scenes mean that three of the four Venetian narratives show the many later stops on his
Roch unmarked by plague, since they take place either before unknown iconography, in
he contracted the disease (when he devoted himself to curing prisingly, one of the most
plague victims at a number of sites throughout Italy) or after scenes in all earlier cycles
his miraculous cure and departure from Piacenza to continue extent to which Tintoretto
his travels (when he was arrested and imprisoned). That such ing conventions helps clarif
avoidance is deliberate appears to be confirmed by the fact in what is often seen as a piv
that the one episode which does take place while Roch was 'breakthrough' picture after th
stricken with plague, during his retreat in the woods outside Notwithstanding its
Piacenza, Roch Healing Animals [Fig. 22], represents the saint light, Tintoretto's canvas sh
172
21. Tintoretto, «St Roch Healing Animals», 1567, San Rocco, Venice. Photo: Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco
tion to particularised setting that clearly locates the event in the head of the woman at the far left) could recall the "four
a contemporary hospital. In a period when many communities good women" employed by the Scuola to visit and care for sick
built lazarettos - Venice most well known among them - and members (albeit in their own homes, not at the lazaretto) dur
even the smallest settlement contained at least one civic hos- ing plague epidemics.72 At the same time, the women function
pital, this episode would have resonated directly with viewers' as guides through the picture for the approaching devotees. At
own experience. Beds are ranged in neat rows along the walls, the right, the woman standing in the doorway is closest to the
usually underneath a window for the circulation of healthy air. beholder and is the tallest figure in the composition. Her inward
A male official (spedalingo or rector) presides and the sick are gaze and focused attention ushers the visitor over the threshold,
attended by female carers.69 These details give these healing Inside, the older female attendant at the right, assisting a plague
scenes a veracity and immediacy which speak directly to wor- victim to rise, and the younger woman at the left bandaging
shippers. The only departure from contemporary practice, in the buboes of a plague victim frame the central miracle and
Tintoretto as in earlier examples, is the combination of male lead the eye through the composition. At the far left edge, the
and female plague victims within a single shared space, com- inward lean of the woman craning to view the action funnels the
pared to the strict segregation of the sexes characteristic of eye inward again to the miraculous cure, even as she gesture
most Renaissance hospitals.70 Such artistic license maximised behind her, directing beholders out of the picture itself and on to
Roch's appeal to both male and female supplicants. the ultimate goal of the tomb in the apse.
With its dramatic chiaroscuro, Tintoretto's picture veils but In Tintoretto's painting, as in earlier versions, naturalist
does not discard these details, placing beds along both walls, elements of setting and personnel climax in demonstrative dis
under a bank of windows at the right, and including female plays of the patients' buboes [Figs 14-18]. Although not clini
attendants caring for victims without fear of physical contact. cally accurate, these are nevertheless immediately recognis
These women are strategically sited along the diagonal vectors able, magnetising the gaze by their inflamed colour as dreaded
leading in and out of the enormous canvas and their presence signs of inevitable death imprinted on otherwise healthy male
is charged with meaning for visitors and members alike. Their and female bodies.73 Here, as earlier, the pathos of the victims'
solicitude in ministering to the sick - bringing food and drink, bared and disfigured flesh calls upon the saint for cure and
lifting them up, bandaging their sores - idealises the Scuola as plays on contemporary fears to Insist upon Roch's proven ability
a provider of charity, in direct refutation of Caravia's attacks of to heal the disease. Hence the outward orientation of the three
a few years earlier.71 Confraternity members might find a more brightly lit plague victims at the left, whose deliberately staged
specific message of comfort in the reflection that the Scuola ostentatio vulnerum presents their buboes to the contemporary
takes care of Its own in times of plague, since the women's viewer as much as to Roch. Yet Tintoretto's suffering bodies are
presence and even perhaps their numbers (in that there are also removed from reality by their idealising nudity - a strong
four figures wholly on view, although there are five if one counts contrast with the contemporary clothing and nightshirts of ear
173
Louise Marshall
f^fí
7t
C>
m
22. Tintoretto, «St Roch Healing Animais», 1567, San Rocco, Venice (viewed from below and from the right)
lier versions74 - and heroic poses derived from admired High of light leading the eye inwards encourage an empathetic pro
Renaissance and antique prototypes. As Nichols has argued, jection further facilitated by the huge scale of the canvas. Awe
such strategies create a socially acceptable fiction of what is increased by the quality of the light, whose golden glow is
was a much more messy and contested reality.75 The disrepu- hardly explained by the row of windows in the upper right cor
table and infected poor are recast as generic types of suffering ner. Irradiating the darkened interior with warmth, caressing the
humanity, worthy and appropriately grateful recipients of confra- morbidly unhealthy flesh of the victims, dramatically spotlight
ternal largesse and saintly healing. ing the central moment of saintly cure and seemingly gathering
Not accidentally, it is only by traversing the stricken bod- itself to greatest intensity in the halo outlining Roch's
ies of the plague victims that the viewer arrives at the saint: the light is heavenly rather than natural. As its concentra
inward motion also maps a sequence from affliction to hoped for Roch suggests, it is created by the presence of the sa
cure. Tintoretto's novel spatial construction not only responds relics in the apse could be seen as the ultimate source
to the lateral placement of the painting in the main chapel and ling the darkness of the sickroom with the promise of
the resulting diagonal view, but also forces beholders to make The saint himself is intent on his task, leaning
an active effort to discover the object of their desire - in this afflicted youth, whose naked torso is a highpoint of
case Roch performing an act of healing that they too hope to concentration unerringly drawing the gaze [Fig. 19]. W
experience.76 The carefully arranged figurai chains and pools earlier versions, Roch often stands at some distan
174
23. Tintoretto, «St Roch Healing Animais», detail: «St Roch», 1567, San Rocco, Venice. Photo: Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco
the sign of the cross [Figs 14, 16, 17], here the cure is intimate per could imagine themselves under the healing hands of the
and intense, the hand of the saint hovering close above the saint. The man in sober black bending forward over the young
young man's chest, moving towards the inflamed bubo on the man from behind, his left arm outflung in a gesture of amaze
sufferer's extended leg. Roch's forward tilt and outstretched arm ment, is probably to be identified as the prior, Vincenzo, whom
also move towards the visitor progressing down the nave, fur- Diedo described as attempting to dissuade Roch from commit
thering the empathetic projection by which the desiring worship- ting what he saw as deliberate suicide in his determination to
175
Louise Marshall
24. Tintoretto, «Arrest of St Roch», 1580s?, San Rocco, Venice. Photo: Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco
care for plague victims [Figs 14, 15, 17],77 His relegation to the The choice of a rarely-shown second hea
shadows focuses attention on the moment of cure, while his Roch cures both animal and human supplicants from
transformation from guardian to witness is amplified by another ness retreat, reiterates the healing to be derive
man at his side, thereby inserting men of clear social stand- of the saint [Fig. 21 ].80 Reimagined in its origin
ing and trustworthy repute into the narrative to authenticate the upper level of the right wall of the main cha
the saint's curative abilities. In a visual conceit occasionally composition takes on new relevance and coherence. The direc
encountered elsewhere, Tintoretto also prefigures the faithful tion of the figures in the canvas from right to left can now be
hound who later feeds the saint in his affliction by including seen to relate directly to the movement of the worshipper along
a dog here, on the floor before the bed, directly underneath the nave, continuing their forward motion toward the goal of the
the saint.78 Placidly resting, the dog takes no part in the action, saint at the far end. This orientation explains the size of the man
as if to signal that its time has not yet come, but its presence at the far right, closest to the approaching viewer, picked out in
is a reminder of Roch's future providential rescue and saintly eye-catching red. Seen from behind and below, his back foot
status. balances on the very edge of the lower frame, as if he has just
Behind and to the left of Roch, at the deepest point of the stepped into t
perspectival recession, tellingly bracketed by the foreshortened encouraged
corpse laid out on the floor, so admired by Vasari, two attend- with the oth
ants wrestle a dead body head-first into its shroud [Figs 13, persuasive forc
19], The abbreviated funeral procession common to plague epi- acting out of t
demies, seen for example in Giovanni di Paolo's St Nicholas of tomb to beg fo
Tolentino Delivering a City from Plague [Fig. 20] stands by ready As the pil
to accompany the corpse to burial: a priest with a processional ics in the aps
cross and another figure holding a single candle.79 Shrouded in a strong dia
darkness, lit only by the flickering light of a torch whose feeble to the tomb
glow cannot compete with the supernatural radiance flooding has materialis
the dark interior, the burial group is placed directly behind and dust to take on visible form. More, he appears in response
the healing miracle of the saint. Death is juxtaposed with life, to the appeals of his worshippers, and his gesture and pose is
threat with cure. A vividly naturalistic detail grounded in con- one of compassionate readiness to answer their requests. Seen
temporary experience, the vignette acts as a warning and spur head-on, as the canvas is invariably reproduced in modern publi
to the beholder, a stark reminder of plague mortality and the cations, Roch's figure appears somewhat squat and misshapen,
threat of death, which only Roch can relieve. Seen from the viewpoint of the approaching devotee, however,
176
'f&fM I
IN
7 Jl iT g wnT rcTuV ?- T^ jXj i^hlS

m. t;-ri - lin. Jim.rm tua^in'rar- dmímn?'
25. Francesco di Corrado, «Arrest of St Roch», 1516, San Rocco, Borgo Valsugana (Trentino)
diagonally from below and to the right, the saint's pose is both translation of his remains to Venice, the plague saint has becom
more elegant and more eloquent, leaning forward to meet the the city's loyal patron and defender, energetically responding
petitioners, his outstretched arm with its promise of healing mov- all those who invoke his aid.
ing through the space of the chapel to encompass worshippers The original companion picture on the upper left wall w
both painted and actual. At the head of the animal cavalcade, the the Arrest of Roch [Fig. 24], After he had been cured of plagu
lion of St Mark stands directly beneath the saint's hand, the first by divine decree, Roch left Piacenza to continue his trave
and most privileged recipient of his curative powers. The propa- Arriving in a region at war (topographic specificities are murk
gandistic overtones are readily apparent: thanks to the efforts in the original vite), he was arrested as a spy and thrown int
of the Scuola, Venice is now under Roch's protection. With the prison, where he died five years later.81 As a means of high
177
Louise Marshall
26. Tintoretto, «Arrest of St Roch», detail: «Horsemen», 1567, San Rocco, Venice
lighting the saint's patient endurance of trials, the Arrest was approaching worshipper. In the far corner, a horse an
reasonably frequent in earlier cycles [Fig. 25].82 Tintoretto's about to crash heavily down over the edge of the pict
version is, however, unique in its inclusion of a battle. Yet this the chapel itself [Fig. 26].83 Such a bravura evocation
is not an arbitrary decision, as is sometimes implied, but an and mayhem grabs the visitor by the throat, overwhe
effective dramatisation of the reasons why Roch was arrested its ferocious energy and dramatic projections into t
in a climate of fear and suspicion. Here the direction of the path. Against this background of controlled cha
picture is the exact opposite of its counterpart on the opposite diagonals of galloping horses, falling bodies and str
wall. Instead of moving inward to the saint and his tomb, the placed branches lead the eye back to Roch's arrest. T
canvas bursts outwards with extraordinary force. The compo- place at the very forefront of the picture, so that as h
sition is once again keyed to the viewer in the nave, with all off by the soldiers, the saint moves towards his devo
the pictorial energies originating in the corner farthest away the space of the church itself.
and rushing headlong to meet those moving down the nave In its original location on the upper left wall of
towards the main chapel and the tomb. Under the impact of the Arrest was placed above Roch's death in prison in
a fiery explosion, bodies hurtle through the air, their vectors register [Fig. 27]. Where on the right wall the narra
carefully calculated to set them on a collision course with the ment is upward, with all the positive associations tha
178
27. Tintoretto, «Death of St Roch in Prison», San Rocco, Venice, 1567. Photo: Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, Venice
the descending sequence of the left wall brings the viewer earth- might make any request of God and it would be answered.87
ward to contemplate Roch's Passion-like progress towards suf- Roch's choice was to ask that all those afflicted by plague who
fering and death. Almost never represented in earlier narratives petitioned God in his name would be healed. His request grant
(with the significant exception of the confraternity's own earlier ed, the saint was taken living up to heaven for a taste of the
print, Fig. 28), Roch's death was a logical choice for a church beatific vision, after which he composed himself neatly on the
holding the body of the saint, representing as it were the rel- ground and quietly expired - as is seen in the confraternity's ear
ics in the making: it is this expiring body which will one day lier print [Fig. 28]. Communication of his intercessory powers to
come to rest in this very chapel. Perhaps in keeping with the the outside world was effected through a miraculous tablet dis
emphasis on lay control of confraternal matters characteristic covered by his body, which proclaimed that any plague victims
of Venetian scuole, where priests were only rarely admitted as who appealed to Roch would be cured. The celestial apparition
members and were rigorously excluded from any governing so dramatically realised in this enormous canvas thus spells out
role, the episode of Roch making his confession, described in in the clearest possible terms divine guarantee of the efficacy
the vite and occasionally represented in earlier cycles, is passed of the saint's relics: God himself has endorsed the saint's cult
over.84 Also suppressed is the traditional motif of the ascension and promised that all who invoked him will be healed. As in the
of the saint's soul, lifted heavenwards in the arms of one or plague scene opposite, the brilliant light flooding the stygian
more angels.85 Instead, Tintoretto represents Roch's death as gloom of the prison is supernatural in origin, and the angel has
an incredibly dramatic event, as an angel wreathed in clouds even brought the heavens with him, to which he will shortly take
and radiating light like a star hurtles towards the saint from the the saint in a foretaste of eternal glory.
direction of the altar. The heavenly messenger's eruption into In comparison to earlier depictions of the imprisoned saint,
the fetid gloom of Roch's cell indicates that this is not merely the most unprecedented feature of Tintoretto's version is the
a visit of angelic consolation, as is sometimes suggested (for host of prisoners sharing Roch's cell. This contradicts all earlier
example by the customary title Roch in Prison Comforted by an accounts, written and pictorial, where a central feature of the
Angel), but the very moment when the saint's sufferings receive saint's biography is his expiry alone and unrecognised in a town
their heavenly reward.86 governed by his own uncle [Figs 28, 29]. Although the addition
According to Roch's vite, as he was preparing for death, of a large supporting cast is characteristic of Tintoretto
a voice spoke to him, informing him that before he died, he tive retelling of sacred narrative, it seems to me that i
179
Louise Marshall
WÈËÊBB^m
29.
29. Gualtiero
Gualtierodall'Arzere,
dall'Arzere,
«St«St
Roch
Roch
in Prison»,
in Prison»,
c. 1536,
c. 1536,
, ■ Oratorio di San Rocco,
Oratorio Padua
di San Rocco, Padua
C OWLE
COM.E • S»'S» ROCHO III could function as models and exemplar
ROCHO
v*r\nT'rt III massing before the tomb, who are likewise m
ï XOKTQ
just to the moment of the saint's death but to his in
-mn oijjil natural encounters, here externalised and dra
up the viewer as if it is occurring before their very
mmmmmmmrn' \ The seconcj notable feature is the consideration and, in
» ** ' '&■ some cases, devotion, paid to Roch by his fellow prisoners. In
oo TV o» □ u «St
Jr- Roch
U.O «u'and
i x .Eight
. .. _ ..Scenes
, the Scuola canvas, thedetail:
saint dies not alone and unrecognised,
28. Titian,
28. Titian, «St Roch and Eight Scenes of hisofLife»,
his Life», detail:
«Death «Death
of of , . , a .
St Roch
Roch in
in Prison»
Prison»(Come
(ComeS[an]
S[an]Rocho e morto),
flocho c. 1517-1518,
e morto), but surrounded by an alterna
c. 1517-1518,
woodcut,
woodcut, British Museum,
British inv. no. 1860,0414.140.
Museum, recognises his sanctity. In the companionship and reverence
inv. no. 1860,0414.140.
Photo:
Photo: © The
© The Trustees
Trustees of the
of the British British Museum they offer the dying saint, the prisoners are surrogates for the
Museum
members of the confraternity, who often spoke of themselves

as the "sons" of their beloved patron.88 This solicitous care of
there may be more specific reasons related to the commission. the saint lies at the heart of the picture, in the central pyramidal
One effect is to authenticate Roch's divinely-bestowed curative group of the dying Roch and his attendants [Fig. 30]. This cen
powers - the reason for recourse to the relics in the church - tral group is carefully positioned to respond to both contempo
beyond any possibility of dispute. Almost all the prisoners see rary visitor and heavenly apparition. Strategically lit to draw the
and respond to the angel, so that what was previously a private eye, the white loincloth and body of the man at the left, leaning
mystical experience is now shared by multiple witnesses. Even inwards to support Roch on the bed, inscribes a rising diagonal
the dog resting before Roch's bed, whose presence defies strict from knee to head that aligns with the oncoming direction of the
chronology to once again pay homage to the faithful canine pro- worshipper. Gazing at the angel, his arms opening in welcome
vider who had come to be seen as Roch's near invariable com- as a sign of his readiness to surrender his spirit, Roch is also
panion (as previously at Padua, Fig. 29), lifts its head to gaze turning like a sunflower towards the source of his existence,
at the onrushing angel. The gathered congregation of prisoners towards the altar, to the presence of Christ in the sacrament -
180
since 1561, the confraternity had been permitted to display the

consecrated host in a tabernacle above the high altar89 - and to
the Father and Son represented in the dome and conch of the
apse. At the same time, he is deliberately arranged to be visible
to worshippers in the nave, his legs and torso pointing left, his
body near frontal, and his arms spread wide in the sign of the
cross which is also, as was often said of the crucified whom
he here emulates, a loving embrace, directed outward to the
approaching devotee [Fig. 8].
The exposition of the dying saint to the faithful in the nave
by the two helpers who surround him invokes the Scuola's cer
emonial revelation of the saint's body for privileged visitors and
on important feast days. Roch's presence in the relics is thus
made reassuringly immediate. Touching, holding and displaying
the holy body, the attendants act out the privileged role of the
confraternity as possessors and guardians of the holy corpse.
This sense of ownership is most evident in the man dressed 30-30. Tintoretto, «Death
Tintoretto, «Deathof St
ofRoch in Prison»,
St Roch detail: «Roch
in Prison», and «Roch and
detail:
Attendants», 1567, San Rocco, Venice
in white who stands behind Roch, cradling him protectively, Attendants», 1567, San Rocco, Venice
almost jealously encircling him with his arms. He is also the
most decorously dressed, the only one of all the prisoners who favoured as the saint's resting place and his curative powers
is not partially or wholly bare-chested. All these details make it could be accessed by all.
tempting to suggest that this figure might be a portrait, literal or In conclusion, this article has argued that despite their
guise, of the current Guardian Grando, Benedetto Ferro, identi- chronological disjunctions, Tintoretto's four laterali constitute a
fied by Massimi as one of the pro-Tintoretto faction within the coherent cycle focused around the saint's relics. In a sophisti
Scuola.90 The faces of the other two members of this privileged cated interplay between visual imagery and embodied presence,
trio, one of whom crosses his arms in devotion whilst the other the narratives validated the sacred body, assured worshippers of
helps support the expiring saint, also appear somewhat more its authenticity and efficacy and visually proselytised on Roch's
individualised than their fellow prisoners, again raising the pos- behalf. Mediating and orchestrating the devotional experience,
sibility of contemporary portraits, perhaps of the two other most they drew visitors forward by the lure of their grandiose forms,
senior members of the confraternity executive (Banca), the Vicar so forcefully calculated in terms of lines of sight and movement
and the Guardian da Matin.91 In any event, whether or not one through space. Recast in a more socially acceptable image,
recognises these three as portraits or as generic types, their as beneficent healer rather than disreputable victim, Roch also
privileged access to the saint's body strongly articulates the reached out to his sons in the Scuola, endorsing their care of his
confraternity's sense of ownership of their saint, whose relics body after his death. As the guardians of his relics, the confrater
they had located and brought in triumph to Venice. In this way, nity was glorified as the essential broker in the curative exchange
Tintoretto's canvas celebrates the Scuola's history and mis- between devotee and saint. One may thus affirm that, in every
sion, as the ones who brought Roch out of obscurity and gave respect, Tintoretto's narratives successfully fulfilled the charge
him the honour he deserved, so that Venice is now especially laid upon him by the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.
181
Louise Marshall
Research in Venice for this article was supported by a grant from the text of the earliest vita by Francesco Diedo in Acta Sanctorum
5 Latin
[AASS], Augusti, III, ed. J. Pinius, Antwerp, 1735, pp. 399-410; Acta
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, UK. An earlier version was delivered
at the Annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America in Sanctorum:
Ven the full text database, Cambridge, 2003; English transla
tion, I. Vaslef, "The Role of St Roch as a Plague Saint: A Late Medieval
ice in April 2010.1 am deeply grateful to Sig. Franco Posocco, Guardian
Grando, Sig. Enrico Zane and other members of the Scuola Grande Hagiographie Tradition", PhD, Catholic University of America, 1984, pp.
179-218. For inaccuracies in AASS texts, see Bolle 2006, pp. 11-12, 34.
Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, for generously facilitating my research.
Paolo Ascagni provided invaluable assistance in obtaining permissionsEdited transcriptions by Bolle and other scholars of nine fifteenth-cen
and photographs. Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel kindly shared with tury vite, including both Latin and Italian versions of Diedo (on which,
me her extensive knowledge of the Scuola's history. Warm thankssee to below), are published in the hagiographical archive section of the
website of the Italian Association of St Roch: <http://www.sanroccodi
Patricia Simons for her meticulous reading of the final draft and Nerida
montpellier.it/italiano/archivio_agiografie.htm>. In this article, all refer
Newbigin for assistance with knotty translations. All photographs by the
author unless otherwise noted.
ences to Roch's vita will be to Diedo's Italian text, La vita de sancto
Rocco, Milan, 1479, transcribed by Bolle in 2001 and downloadable
1 See J. Grabski, "The Group of Paintings by Tintoretto in the Sala Ter as a PDF from this website (hereafter cited as Diedo/Bolle, with folio
rena in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice and their Relationship tonumbers to the original incunable in brackets and page references to
the Architectural Structure", Artibus et Historiae, 1, 1980, pp. 115-131; the PDF).
R. Pallucchini and R Rossi, Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane, 2 vols,
6 A. Vauchez, La sainteté en Occident aux derniers siècles du moyen age,
Venice, 1982 (all references hereafter are to volume 1); D. Rosand,
d'après les procès des canonisation et les documents hagiographiques
Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, 1st pub.
(Bibliothèque des Écoles Française d'Athènes et de Rome, 241), Rome,
1982, 2nd rev. ed., Cambridge, 1997, pp. 134-164; G. Romanelli, Tin1981.
toretto: la Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Milan, 1994; idem, "Tintoretto
7 G. Tournoy, "Francesco Diedo: Venetian Humanist and Politician of the
a San Rocco: committenza, teología, iconografía", in Jacopo Tintoretto
Quattrocento", Humanística Lovaniensia, 19, 1970, pp. 201-234.
net quarto centenario délia morte: Atti del convegno internazionale di
studi, Padua, 1996, pp. 91-95; B. Aikema, "Santa povertà e pietas vene 8 Five Latin and two Italian editions were published between 1479-1495;
tiana: osservazioni sul significato della decorazione della Sala Terrena the most accurate list is in Bolle 2005, pp. 538-541. As Alison Frazier
della Scuola di San Rocco", ibid., pp. 185-190; T. Nichols, Tintoretto,has noted, Diedo's vita was the sole bestseller in the genre of humanist
Tradition and Identity, London, 1999, pp. 148-229; V. Sapienza, "Miti,hagiography, a direct function of the prophylactic powers of his subject:
metafore e profezle: le storie di Maria di Jacopo Tintoretto nella SalaA. Frazier, Possible Lives. Authors and Saints in Renaissance Italy, New
Terrena della Scuola Grande di San Rocco", Venezia Cinquecento, 17,York, 2005, pp. 38-39, 322-323. The complex history of later derivations
2007, pp. 49-139. from Diedo (including the Acta Breviora, previously regarded as record
ing an independent early fifteenth-century vita) is most thoroughly ana
2 St Roch Healing Plague Victims, 1549; Death of St Roch in Prison, 1567;
lysed in Bolle 2006, pp. 9-42. Several other early vite from Northern
St Roch Healing Animals, 1567; Arrest of St Roch, 1580s?: PallucchiniItaly have recently come to light, most clearly postdating and depend
and Rossi, cat. nos 134, 300, 301, 415. ent upon Diedo. However one, by Domenico da Vicenza, has been
dated c. 1478-1480 and its precise relationship to Diedo's text remains
3 Tintoretto, ed. M. Falomir, exh. cat., Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado,
2007 (esp. F. Ilchman, "Tintoretto as Painter of Religious Narrative", pp. the subject of discussion. See Bolle 2006, pp. 89-90; F. Lomastro, "Di
63-94, and idem, "The major pictorial cycles, 1555-75", pp. 287-293);una Vita manoscritta e della prima diffusione del culto di san Rocco
Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice, ed. idem, exh. a Vicenza", in San Rocco. Genesi e prima espansione..., pp. 99-116;
cat., Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2009. P Ascagni, "Le più antiche fonti scritte su san Rocco di Montpellier. Un
excursus comparativo e sistemático delle agiografie rocchiane", Vita
4 H. Dormeier, "Nuovi culti di santi intorno al 1500 nelle città della GerSancti Rochi, 1, 2006, pp. 19-57.
mania méridionale. Circonstanze religiose, sociali e materiali della loro
9 Vaslef, pp. 99-137; Bolle 2005, pp. 534, 562, where Diedo's vita is
introduzione e affermazlone", In Strutture ecclesiastiche in Italia e in Ger
characterised as a hagiographie novel ("un roman hagiographique"),
mania prima della Riforma, ed. R Prodi and R Joanek, Bologna, 1984, pp.
following the distinctions of hagiographie genres first defined by Hippol
317-352; R Bolle, "Saint Roch de Montpellier, doublet hagiographique
yte Delehaye in his classic study, Les legendes hagiographique, 4th ed.,
de saint Raco d'Autun. Un apport décisif de l'examen approfondi des Brussells, 1955.
incunables et imprimés anciens", In Scribere sanctorum gesta. Recueil
10 These divergences are clearly summarised in atable of the various early
d'études d'hagiographie médiévale offert à Guy Philippart, ed. E. Rénard
et al., Turnhout, 2005, pp. 525-572; idem, "Saint Roch, une question deeditions in Bolle 2005, pp. 550-551, and analysed 554ff; idem 2006,
p. 16.
méthodologie", in San Rocco. Genesi e prima espansione di un culto.
11 On such narratives, see R J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the
Incontro di studio, ed. A. Rigon and A. Vauchez (Subsidia Hagiographi
ca, 87), Brussels, 2006, pp. 9-56; H. Dormeier, "Un santo nuovo controCentral Middle Ages, 1st pub. 1978, rev. ed. Princeton, 1990; for Roch's
la peste: cause del successo del culto di san Rocco e promotori della relics, R Bolle and R Ascagni, Rocco di Montpellier, Voghera e il suo
sua diffusione al Nord delle Alpi", ibid., pp. 225-243. The classic earsanto, Voghera, 2001, pp. 31-41; Bolle 2006, pp. 49-51.
lier study is A. Vauchez, "Rocco", Bibliotheca Sanctorum, Rome, 1968, 12 Dormeier 1984; idem, "St. Rochus, die Pest und die Imhoffs in Niirnberg
vol. 11, pp. 264-273; cf. idem, "San Rocco: tradizionl agiografiche e stovor und wàhrend der Reformation. Ein spâtgotischer Altar in seinem
ria del culto", in San Rocco nell'arte: un pellegrino sulla Via Francigena,religiôs-liturgischen, wirtschaflich-rechtlichen und sozialen Umfeld",
exh. cat., Milan, 2000, pp. 13-19; idem, "Un modèle hagiographique
Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1985, pp. 7-72; idem,
et cultuel en Italie avant saint Roch: le pèlerin mort en chemin", in San
"Venedig als Zentrum des Rochuskultes", in Niirnberg und Italien.
Rocco. Genesi e prima espansione..., pp. 57-70. Begegnungen, Einflüsse und Ideen, ed. V. Kapp and F. R. Haussmann
182
(Erlanger romanistiche Dokumente und Arbeiten, 6), Tubingen, 1991, 19 For the 1489 agreement with the Franciscans to lease land on which to
pp. 105-127; idem, "Der Rochusaltar in seinem religiôsen, wirtschafli build the planned church and meeting house, and the long history of
chen und sozialen Umfeld", in St. Lorenz. Hundert Jahre Verein zur subsequent disputes over the confraternity's failure to observe all the
Erhaltung 1903-2003, Nuremberg, 2004, pp. 27-34; idem 2006. conditions of the original agreement, particularly the prohibition against
a free-standing campanile, see Pulían 1971, p. 49; Tonon 1999, pp.
13 Bolle 2005, pp. 560-561 ; idem 2006, p. 34.
10-17, 39-44; idem 2003, pp. 26-29.
14 Bolle 2005, pp. 563-572; idem 2006, pp. 42-49; cf R. Godding, "San
20 U. Franzoi and D. di Stefano, Le chiese di Venezia, Venice, 1976, pp.
Rocco di Montpellier, un doppione agiografico? Culto e leggenda di
48-50; J. McAndrew, Venetian Architecture of the Early Renaissance,
san Rocco di Autun", in San Rocco. Genes/' e prima espansione..., pp.
Cambridge, 1980, pp. 507-510; R. Lieberman, Renaissance Architec
71-82.
ture in Venice, 1450-1540, New York, 1982, p. 20, pis 32-33; G. Teseo,
15 Noted by André Vauchez, "Introduction", in San Rocco. Genes/' e prima"Ricerca storica e catalogazione techniche costruttive e restauri della
espansione..., pp. 4-5. chiesa di San Rocco a Venezia", Bollettino d'arte, 80/81, 1993, pp.
121-154; M. A. Chiari Moretto Wiel, "II culto di San Rocco a Venezia:
16 The Venetian ambassador would surely have been familiar with the
la Scuola Grande, la sua chiesa, il suo tesoro", in San Rocco neti'arte,
church of San Rocco and its decorations, including Tintoretto's narra
exh. cat., Milan, 2000, pp. 67-81 ; M. A. Chiari Moretto Wiel, F. Posocco
tives, given the attendance of the doge and Senate at the annual cel
and F. Tonon, The Scuola Grande di San Rocco and its Church (Marsilio
ebrations of the saint's feast. The extended chronology of Tintoretto's
Guides), Venice, 2009 (hereafter Wiel et al. 2009). Until recently, the
cycle, begun in 1549 but not finally completed until either 1567 or even
architect was identified with Bartolomeo Bon from Bergamo, active in
the 1580s (depending on dating on stylistic grounds, discussed below),
the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries (not to be confused with
means that it could not have been commissioned in response to this
the Venetian sculptor and architect of the same name, Bartolomeo di
most recent crisis, but once executed, the San Rocco iaterali could cer
Giovanni Bon, c. 1400/10-c. 1464/67). However, in 1983 Stefano Mari
tainly serve such propagandistic aims. Venetian reaction to the pope's ani demonstrated that Bartolomeo died around 1509 and uncovered the
proposal was horrified: the ambassador warned a cardinal of the gen existence of Pietro Bon (d. 1529), also Bergamasque in origin and most
eral scandal which would result if Roch were to be denounced. This
probably his son, since he took over commissions from Bartolomeo
prediction may have had an effect; in the event, Sixtus V did not pursue
when the latter was sent on missions away from Venice in the 1490s.
the matter. Later popes put any lingering fears to rest with the formalWhich "maestro Bon" was the first architect of the Scuola, responsible
introduction of Roch's name into the Roman martyrology. See Vauchez for the church and the original confraternity residence - both begun
1968, p. 272; Vaslef, pp. 138-139; Bolle 2006, p. 55. following the 1489 pact and completed by the end of the first decade
17 The authoritative study of the ceremonial, devotional, charitable and of the sixteenth century - remains under discussion; for Richard Goy, it
financial activities of the Scuole Grandi in general and San Rocco in is Bartolomeo, while Gianmario Guidarelli attributes all the San Rocco
particular is B. Pulían, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: the Socialcommissions to Pietro, who was certainly the Bon appointed as proto
Institutions of a Catholic State, to 1620, Oxford, 1971. See also the for the new confraternity residence in 1517. See M. Tafuri, Venezia e il
further clarifications by the same author: "Nature and Character of theRinascimento: religione, scienza, architettura, Turin, 1985, pp. 80-81
n. 3; R. Goy, "Bon/Buon, ii", in Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online,
Scuole", in Le scuole di Venezia, ed. T. Pignatti, Milan, 1981, pp. 9-26;
updated and revised 30/3/2000, <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/sub
"The Scuole Grandi of Venice. Some Further Thoughts", in Christianity
scriber/article/grove/artAT012287> (accessed 5/8/2010); G. Guidarelli,
and the Renaissance: Image and Religious Imagination in the Quattro
Una giogia ligata in piombo: la fabbrica della Scuola Grande di San
cento, ed. T. Verdón and J. Henderson, Syracuse, 1990, pp. 273-301.
Rocco in Venezia, 1517-1560 (Quaderni della Scuola Grande Arcicon
More recently, Franco Tonon has published important studies of the
fraternita di San Rocco, 8), Venice, 2002, pp. 11, 14-18.
Scuola's history and activities using its abundant archive: F. Tonon,
21 The other four Scuole Grandi all had altars in churches owned and
Scuola dei battuti di San Rocco: documenti sulle origini e illustrazione
dei capitoli delle Mariegole (Quaderni della Scuola Grande Arciconserviced by clerics: the Dominicans at Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Scuola
fraternita di San Rocco, 5), Venice, 1998; idem, La Scuola Grande di di San Marco); Augustinian Canons Regular at Santa Maria della Carità
San Rocco net Cinquecento attraverso i documenti delle sue Mariegole(Scuola della Carità); and priors appointed by the families who main
(Quaderni della Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, 6), Ven tained patronage rights over the churches they founded or administered
at San Giovanni Evangelista (Scuola di San Giovanni) and Santa Maria
ice, 1999; idem, Devotissima Scuola e fraternité del glorioso missierSan
Rocco. Registro delle Parti, 1488-1549 (Quaderni della Scuola Grande in Valverde (Scuola della Misericordia). See Pulían 1971, pp. 48-49;
Arciconfraternita di San Rocco, 9), Marghera, 2003. Franzoi and di Stefano, pp. 30-31, 139-143, 216-223, 424-441; Le
Scuole di Venezia, ed. T. Pignatti, Milan, 1981 ; R Humfrey, The Altarpiece
18 The exception being the Scuola di San Teodoro, which possessed the
in Renaissance Venice, New Haven, 1993, pp. 110-121.
body of St Theodore the warrior. The contrasts between the history of
this confraternity and that of San Rocco nevertheless underlines 22 Often noted by architectural historians in relation to the confraternity's
the
much greater value placed on the body of Roch. Although much older later residence. See for example R Sohm, "The Staircases of the Vene
and more well established (being founded in the mid fourteenth cen tian Scuole Grandi and Mauro Coducci", Architecture, 8, 1978, p. 145:
"The position of the Scuola di S. Rocco as the most recently established
tury), the Scuola di San Teodoro was not raised to the level of a Scuola
of the scuole grandi was a factor that recognizably influenced its build
Grande until 1552, and for much of the sixteenth century possession of
ing program. Lacking the tradition acquired over the centuries by the
the patron's relics was repeatedly contested by the Augustinian Canons
other scuole, S. Rocco relied on the examples of their predecessors for
of San Salvador, in whose church the confraternity chapel and altar
all aspects of their bureaucracy and activities".
were located. See S. Gramigna and A. Perissa, Scuole Grandi e Piccole
a Venezia tra arte e storia. Confraternité di mestieri e devozione in sei 23 Earlier Gothic examples include San Giovanni in Bragora (begun
itinerari, Venice, 2008, pp. 26-36. c. 1475), although the Renaissance details of San Rocco are more
183
Louise Marshall
in Renaissance and Baroque Art Presented to Anthony Blunt on his

explicitly modelled on Mauro Codussi's reconfiguration of the traditional
type at San Michele in Isola (c. 1468-1478). For earlier Venetian Gothic 60th birthday, London, 1967, pp. 44-50; Humfrey, p. 292; Cohen, vol. I,
church façades, see Lieberman, pp. 237-239; D. Howard, The Architec p. 266.
tural History of Venice, London, 1981, pp. 67-77; R. Goy, Venice: The
30 For earlier representations, see L. Marshall, "Manipulating the Sacred:
City and its Architecture, London, 1997, pp. 169-172. For San Rocco,
Image and Plague in Renaissance Italy", Renaissance Quarterly, 47,
see Lieberman, pp. 15, 20, pis 32-33; and McAndrew, p. 509 (describ
1994, pp. 502-506; eadem, "Confraternity and Community: Mobilizing
ing the San Rocco façade as "of Codussian type in a variation hard to
the Sacred in Times of Plague", in Confraternities and the Visual Arts
believe successful").
in the Italian Renaissance. Ritual, Spectacle, Image, ed. B. Wisch and
24 Confraternal dissatisfaction with the display of the body was a major D. Cole Ahl, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 29-34; eadem, "II culto di San Rocco
in Toscana nel tardo Quattrocento: i quadri di Bartolomeo della Gatta in
issue in 1493, when the relics were still in their temporary resting place
in the subsidiary apse to the left of the cappella maggiore in the incomArezzo", Vita Sancti Rochi, 2, 2008, pp. 96-109.
plete church. In that year, it was resolved to move the relics to the high
31 The reliquary casket was covered by a gilded copper 'antependium'
altar and commission an altarpiece, since "the body of the glorious ("I'antipetto
St del Casson"): see Markham Schulz, vol. I, pp. 192-193,
Roch is not in the form in which it should be, nor is it as ornamented
for the 1521 record of work remaining to be done on the tomb, which
as are the other holy bodies [of the city]" ("atento chel chorpo del
lists gilding of the cover as item 7. Confraternity debates frequently
gloroxio messer san rocho non sta in quela forma se rechiede ne son discussed provisions for special showings of the body to distinguished
ornato chôme son altrj chorpj santj [...]"): Venice, Archivio di Stato, visitors, in addition to regular displays on important feast days. The
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, II consegna, busta 44, f. 23v, quoted mechanics by which to ensure a suitably impressive raising and lower
in Teseo 1993, p. 142; Wiel 2000, p. 73. As a result, the Scuola com ing of the cover was an issue in the 1520s, leading to the commission
missioned an altarpiece and marble container for the body, although ing of a special mechanical device ("un inzegno") in 1527: Tonon 2003,
the relics remained in the side altar, an arrangement described by pp. 20-22. At some later date, the copper cover was replaced by the
a German pilgrim in 1497. The same complaints were often repeated; present wooden one, on which see below, n. 56. For a colour photo
in 1516, when the altarpiece-tomb was being planned, it was observed graph of the tomb with the cover removed, see B. Bertoli, Arte e teologia
that "our high altar at present looks like an orphan, but it must be pro nel culto di San Rocco (Quaderni della Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita
vided for" ("al presente ditto altar nostra grando par cosa orphana; dietSan Rocco, 3), Venice, 1996, fig. 1.
pero è da proveder [...]"): Archivio di San Rocco, Registro delle Parti,
I (1488-1542), f. 58v, quoted in Tonon 2003, pp. 20, 33. 32 It might be objected that God the Father surrounded by angels was
a motif dear to Pordenone that he repeated in almost all his dome com
25 See Humfrey 1993, pp. 273-274, on the enduring prestige of sculpture missions (cf. Schulz 1967), but it nevertheless remains true that in each
as a medium for altarpieces in Venice, including the eloquent polemic case the divine figure takes on specific meanings in relation to the other
of Tullio Lombardo on behalf of the genre in 1526, soon after the com elements of the decoration, as is suggested here.
pletion of the San Rocco altarpiece, writing to a prospective patron
("the altarpiece will be an everlasting memorial [...] painting is a tranthe Scuola residences old and new and the controversies generated
33 On
sitory thing, hardly to be compared to sculpture [...]"); for the San by the latter, see Sohm 1978, pp. 125-149; McAndrew, pp. 519-524;
Rocco tomb/altarpiece, ibid., pp. 111, 291-292, 357; McAndrew, p. 510. Howard, pp. 133-135; Lieberman, p. 26, pis 86-89; Tafuri, pp. 125-154;
For the sculptures, see A. Markham Schulz, Giammaria Mosca calledGoy 1997. pp. 222-227; Weil 2000, pp. 69-71; Guidarelli, 2002; Weil et
al. 2009, pp. 13-17.
Padovano: A Renaissance Sculptor in Italy and Poland, 2 vols, University
Park, 1998, vol. I, pp. 24-26, 41-46, 191-193, 261-265, cat. 16; vol.34 OnII,Caravia, see Pulían 1971, pp. 117-121, 130-131; Tafuri, pp. 125
figs 10-12, pis 12-30. For Sanudo's admiring comments, see Wiel 2000, 128; J. J. Martin, Venice's Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renais
p. 73. sance City, London, 1993, pp. 157-158.
26 Pulían 1971, pp. 157-158; Tonon 2003, pp. 31-38; J. Anderson, "Christ 35 Nichols 1999, pp. 149-152.
Carrying the Cross in S. Rocco: Its Commission and Miraculous His
36 It Is nevertheless a general, idealising evocation, in that the Scuola di
tory", Arte veneta, 31, 1977, pp. 186-188; M. A. Chiari Moretto Wiel,
San Rocco did not own or administer a hospital for plague victims or
"II Cristo portacroce della Scuola di San Rocco e la sua lunetta", Atti
others, and was not involved in caring for the infected poor (except
dell'lstituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Classe di scienze morali,
in the provision of nurses for members, to be discussed below). As
lettere ed arti, 156,1998, pp. 687-731 ; eadem, "Giorgione or Titian? The
Brian Pulían has demonstrated, focus on their own membership as the
Christ Carrying the Cross at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco", paper
primary recipients of charity is characteristic of all the Scuole Grandi.
delivered at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference,
By the early sixteenth century, members were divided into separate
Venice, 2010; I am grateful to the author for kindly providing me with
orders of rich benefactors who constituted the governing elite and poor
a copy.
members who were barred from office and were the designated recipi
27 "quattro teleri dalle do' bande della cappella, zoè doi de' sotto e doi ents of confraternal charity, often contingent on the performance of
di sopra de depentura cum la historia di messer san roccho": Venice, devotional acts for the good of the membership as a whole, such as
Archivio di San Rocco, Registro delle Parti, I, f. 126v, 26 February 1528; attendance at funerals and self-flagellation in processions. However, this
Pallucchini and Rossi, pp. 192-193. was to change over the course of the sixteenth century. Between 1528
and 1585, a series of substantial bequests to the Scuola dl San Rocco
28 C. E. Cohen, The Art of Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone: Between Dia
established trusts administered by the confraternity, whose charitable
lect and Language, 2 vols, Cambridge, 1996, vol. I, pp. 265-273, vol. II,
pp. 623-630, cat. nos 51-52. remit extended to "all the unfortunate poor of the city", in the words of
one testator. Pulían has estimated that the largest proportion of these
29 Such thematic and illusionistic connections across space are charac funds were used in almsgiving, followed by the provision of dowries;
teristic of Pordenone. See J. Schulz, "Pordenone's Domes", in Studies smaller amounts were donated to deserving Institutions such as con
184
vents and hospitals. See Pulían 1971, pp. 63-131, 157-193, and the 45 Baldassare di Monconys, 1664, quoted in R. Tursi, "La chiesa e la
list of Venetian hospitals, including five administered by the other four Scuola di San Rocco nelle descrizioni dei viaggiatori stranieri", in
Scuole Grandi but not San Rocco, at pp. 423-428. Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venezia, ne! VI Centenario délia Morte
del Santo Patrono, 1327-1927, Venice, 1927, p. 72.
37 The controversy was recorded by Carlo Rldolfi in his 1648 biography of
the artist: C. Ridolfi, The Life of Tintoretto, and of His Children Domenico 46 Antonio Maria Zanetti, Descrizione di tutte le pubbliche pitture della
and Marietta, trans. C. Enggass and R. Enggass, University Park, 1984, città di Venezia e isole circonvicine, o sia, rinnovazione delle ricche
pp. 25-26. Pietro Aretino's public letter to Tintoretto in April 1548 con minere di Marco Boschini, colla aggiunta di tutte le opere che usci
gratulating him on his success nevertheless warned him against hasty rono dal 1674, fino al presente 1733 [Venice, 1733], Bologna, 1980, pp.
execution ("la prestezza del fatto") and a guidebook of 1556 observes 301-302, describes Roch Healing Animals "in mezzaluna della parte
of a Tintoretto painting In the Palazzo Ducale that it "seems unfinished; dell'Epistola", with Roch Healing Plague Victims below; on the opposite
I think this is the result of his great speed". Both quotes are cited and wall, the Arrest of Roch above the Death of Roch. The epistle side of
discussed in R. Echols, "The Decisive Years: 1547-1555", in Falomir a church is that to the right when facing the altar. Ruskin describes the
2007, pp. 213-214; for the full text of Aretino's two letters of this year, ibid., same arrangement in 1853 [interpolations in brackets are mine, with
p. 420. For further discussion, see Pallucchini and Rossi, pp. 34-36,157 modern titles]: "San Rocco in the hospital (on the right-hand side of the
158, cat. 132; Rosand 1997, pp. 134-139; Nichols 1999, pp. 139-145. altar) [...] a Cattle piece [Roch Healing Animals] (above the picture last
described) [...] a noble landscape with cattle and figures [...] Finding
38 "Fino dal 1549 fo fatto il quadro délia cappella grande in giexia per ser
of the body of San Rocco [Death of Roch] (on the left-hand side of the
iacomo tentoretto, al quale ge fo promesso oltra al preccio alui dato di
metterlo in la schola nostra la qual cosa è stata desmentigatta [...]": altar) [...] San Rocco in Campo d'Armata [A/resf of Roch] [...] a wild
group of horses and warriors in the most magnificent confusion of fall
Archivio di San Rocco, Registro delle Parti, II, f. 277v, 11 March 1565. See
and flight ever painted by man": J. Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, New
Pallucchini and Rossi, p. 158; M. E. Massimi, 'Uacopo Tintoretto e i con
York, 1899, vol. 3 [1st pub. 1853], pp. 337-339.
fratelli della Scuola Grande di San Rocco: stratégie culturali e com
mittenza artistica", Venezia Cinquecento, 5, 1995, p. 35; Falomir 2007, 47 Wiel 2000, p. 77: "sulla párete verso la sacrestia, a sinistra guardando
p. 426. It was a common practice for Venetian confraternities to reward faltare, San Rocco visita gli appestati, in basso, e la Cattura in alto; sulla
artists carrying out major commissions with membership: Pignatti, párete opposta, in basso San Rocco in carcere e in alto San Rocco
p. 48. benedice gli animali"', eadem 2006, p. 144; Wiel et al. 2009, pp. 62-63.
However, in an email communication of October 2010, the author has
39 The pro- and anti-Tintoretto groupings of members has been exhaus
recognised that this reconstruction is incorrect and will be amended in
tively charted by Massimi, pp. 5-169; for the specific examples cited,
subsequent printings of the church guidebook.
ibid., pp. 32-35.
48 The 1567 resolution indicated that the three paintings still not completed
40 Massimi, pp. 35, 96; Wiel 2000, pp. 76-77; Falomir 2007, pp. 287-288.
were the two at the upper level and one at the lower level, opposite the
41 Christ at the Pool of Betheseda, 1559, now joined as a single picture and already completed canvas of 1549 (above n. 42). When Vasari was in
hung on the left nave wall. See Pallucchini and Rossi, pp. 60,179-180, Venice in 1566, only this first painting would have been on view. The
cat. 226; Massimi, pp. 66-74; Nichols 1999, pp. 155-156. specificity of Vasari's description of the healing miracle ("una prospetti
42 "chel se possi far li tre quadri in capella granda de la nostra giesia videli va come d'uno spedale pieno di letta e d'infermi in varie attitudini, i quali
cet doi di sopra e uno da basso per mezzo I'altro quadro": Archivio della sono medicati da Santo Rocco [...]") suggests a first-hand account
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Registro delle parti, II, f. 291v, 13 April and plausibly identifies this picture as the first to be completed in 1549:
1567: Pallucchini and Rossi, p. 193. Pallucchini and Rossi, p. 158. Since the sacristy is on the left side of
the church, Coletti interpreted the wording of the 1567 payment record
43 Tintoretto was paid for three paintings for the cappella grande later
("l'uno della banda della Sagrestia et l'altro dall'altra banda di sopra")
that year, although only two of these were choir laterals, along with
as referring to the canvases of the lower left and upper right walls.
a third now lost painting of the Annunciation originally placed above Further confirmation that the Death of Roch was one of those com
a door: "Spese nelll 3 quadri fatti I'anno 1567 in chiesa in capella granda.
pleted in 1567 has been found in Vasari's briefer reference to another
Contadi a miser Giacomo Tintoretto per sua mercede cos) d'accordo di
Tintoretto canvas in the choir, presumed to have been derived from
haver fatto detti 3 quadri, cioè I'uno della banda della Sagrestia et I'altro
reports sent to him in late 1567. The description is not unapt for the
daN'altra banda di sopra, et il timpano messo davanti il quadro della SS
Death of St Roch ("piena di molto belle e graziose figure, e insomma
Annonciata sopra la porta dell'Albergo di fuora": Archivio di San Rocco,
tale, ch'ell'è tenuta delle migliori opere che abbia fatto questo pittore"),
Chiesa e Scuola, fasc. 47, Summario di quanta fu speso nella Fabbrica
although it is hardly a definitive identification: Pallucchini and Rossi, pp.
della Scola Grande di S. Roccho [...] il tutto estratto dalli Libri Maestri di
192-193.
detta Scola. Another copy of the same Summary of expenses incurred
by the Scuola in its building and decorative program is in the Museo 49 Added by Santo Piatti in 1729, following the rebuilding of the nave: Wiel
Correr. There is also a payment receipt to a gilder for the frames of the 2000, p. 77. When and why this rearrangement occurred is unknown,
same three paintings on September 14,1567 (Archivio di Stato, Venice, although Ruskin's comments indicate it must have taken place after
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, II consegna, 423, Ricevute, II, f. 18V). Pal 1853.
lucchini and Rossi, p. 193. 50 Grabski 1980, for the Sala Terrena of the Scuola; for laterals for sacra
44 Marco Boschini, La carta del navegar pitaresco [Venice, 1660], ed. ment confraternities, M. Matile, "Quadri laterali, owero conseguenze di
A. Pallucchini, Venice, 1966, pp. 105-112; the statement of the respec una collocazione ingrata. Sui dipinti di storie sacre di Jacopo Tintoret
tive locations is on p. 111. An acute and eloquent observer, Boschini to", Venezia Cinquecento, 6, 1996, pp. 151-206; cf. Ilchman, in Falomir
was at pains to correct Ridolfi's mistakes in subject identifications. 2007, pp. 71-74.
185
Louise Marshall
51 Above, n. 48. lowed by the saint healing victims and discovered in the wilderness and
ending with the recovery of his body by his relatives. Another abbrevi
52 Palluchini and Rossi, pp. 92-93, 220, cat. 415, summarise earlier opin
ated cycle, at Almenno San Salvatore (Lombardy, 1515), devotes two
ions and date the picture circa 1580-1585. This is also the judgement
scenes to Roch in the wilderness, includes his cure of plague victims
of the most authoritative recent re-evaluation of Tintoretto's œuvre, by
and closes with his Arrest. For further analysis of these earlier cycles,
R. Echols and F. Ilchman, "Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with
see Marshall, 2009. The only exception is the wooden tomb cover of
a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology", in Jaco
San Rocco (see previous note), which is thus either a significant prec
po Tintoretto, Actas del Congreso Internacional Jacopo Tintoretto, ed.
edent and model for the choir scheme, or a later recapitulation under
M. Falomir, Madrid, 2009, p. 134, cat. 282: "1580s. Possibly Jacopo the influence of Tintoretto's works.
design; Jacopo and studio execution".
59 That visitors were permitted to enter the choir is indicated by the con
53 R. Echols, "Tintoretto the Painter", in Falomir 2007, pp. 55-62, who
fraternity's decision in 1527 to install a new door in the back right wall
concludes that "It is virtually impossible to date Tintoretto's works on
of the cappella maggiore, in order to reduce crowd congestion, which
the basis of style alone with any security [...]. Any attempts to date
was noted as particularly severe on Fridays and festivals. Worshippers
Tintoretto's paintings on stylistic grounds must therefore be considered
were thus allowed, at least at certain times, to move through the choir
to be speculative and approximate". See also Echols and Ilchman 2009,
and exit the church by the new door, which opens directly onto a narrow
pp. 91-150.
lane running along the right-hand side of the church and debouching
54 F. Mason Rinaldi, in Venezia e la peste, 134811797, exh. cat., Venice, back into the campo San Rocco. See Teseo, fig. 4 (1774 plan of area,
showing the lane), p. 143; Weil 2000, p. 74; the decision is quoted in full
1979, p. 243, cat. A16: "È la prima volta a Venezia, se non in assoluto,
che viene rappresentata I'azione del santo in un lazaretto"; Masslmi, by Tonon 2003, p. 22.
p. 65: "Col San Rocco nell'ospedale Tintoretto inaugura un'iconografia
60 For the ubiquity of this scene in earlier cycles, see Marshall 2009, pp.
completamente inédita [...]. Tintoretto di fatto crea un soggetto nuovo
455-457.
di zecca [...]"; Wiel etal. 2009, p. 61.
61 Retained when the original façade was demolished and now displayed
55 L. Marshall, "A New Plague Saint for Renaissance Italy: Suffering and in the portico of the Scuola; the dog is a later addition. Wiel 2000, pp.
Sanctity in Narrative Cycles of Saint Roch", in Crossing Cultures: Con69, 79 n. 43.
flict, Migration, Convergence. Acts of the 32nd Congress of the Interna
tional Committee of the History of Art, ed. J. Anderson, Melbourne, 62 The two black dots visible on Roch's chest are perhaps best under
2009,
pp. 543-549. stood as clumsy or overpainted evocations of chest anatomy, even
specifically as nipples (cf., for example, the figure of Roch in the Albergo
56 A. Moschetti, "La Scuola di San Rocco in Padova e i suoi recenti res ceiling), since they are on the outside of his pink skin-tight tunic, and
tauri", Padova. Rivista comunale dell'attività cittadina, 1, 1930, pp. 1-59; thus do not represent plague buboes or other signs of disease on the
V. Mancini, "L'Oratorio di San Rocco a Padova", in San Rocco nell'arte, skin. Roch's bubo is always only ever located on his upper right or left
Milan, 2000, pp. 96-99. thigh, a suitably decorous transposition of a lymphatic swelling charac
57 London, British Museum, inv. 1860,0414.140. See D. Rosand and teristically occurring in the groin. The canvas is documented as being
M. Muraro, Titian and the Venetian Woodcut, exh. cat., Washington, damaged and repaired in the seventeenth century and is now in poor
1976, cat. 12; Venezia e la peste, pp. 240-241, cat. A14; Rosand 1997, condition: Pallucchini and Rossi, p. 193, cat. 301; llchman and Echols,
pp. 35-37; L. Pon, "A Document for Titian's St Roch", Print Quarterly, p. 125, cat. 133, who comment that "damage makes it difficult to judge
the extent of studio involvement".
19, 2002, pp. 275-257; and M. Wivel, "Colour in Line: Titian and
Printmaking", PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 2010. I am indebted 63 Dated on the basis of style to the 1580s. The landscape is recognised
to Matthias Wivel for illuminating discussion of this print, particularly as the work of Paolo Fiammingo, who is known to have worked in
in regard to questions of style, dating and technique, and for kindly Tintoretto's shop around this date. Pallucchini and Rossi, pp. 81, 218,
sending me sections of his dissertation. More problematic is the current cat. 407; llchman and Echols 2009, p. 134, cat. 281, classify It as studio
cover of the reliquary casket of St Roch, painted with three narratives execution, with the landscape by Paolo Fiammingo and the figure of the
of Roch's life. Traditionally attributed to Andrea Schiavone (G. Nicoletti,
saint painted by an assistant after Jacopo's design.
lllustrazione della chiesa e Scuola di San Rocco in Venezia [Monumenti
64 See Nichols 1999, figs. 132 (St Roch In Glory, Albergo ceiling, 1564) and
Storici della R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, ser. 4], Venice,
157 (St Roch, Sala Superiore, 1578/80).
1885, p. 20), the panel was not included in Richardson's monograph
(F. L. Richardson, Andrea Schiavone, Oxford, 1980). Two of the three 65 On these biographical cycles, see R Humfrey, "The Bellinesque Life of
narratives on the cover (Arrest, Roch in Prison Visited by an Angel, St Mark for the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice In Its Original
Funeral) are the same as those painted by Tintoretto, and there are Arrangement", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 48, 1985, pp. 225-242;
certain formal parallels, but in the absence of documents, the uncertain and P Brown, Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio, New
attribution and dating make it difficult to determine whether the cover Haven, 1988.
precedes or postdates Tintoretto's canvases. 66 Pulían 1971, pp. 219-222, 244-252, 296-297, 315-322; A. Carmichael,
58 Many cycles begin with either Roch's birth or vocation - his spiritual Plague and the Poor in Fifteenth-Century Florence, Cambridge, 1986;
rebirth - when he donates all his property to the poor and sets out on B. Pulían, "Plague and Perceptions of the Poor in Early Modern Italy", In
pilgrimage to Rome. At Berzo Interiore (Lombardy, 1504), for example, Epidemics and Ideas. Essays on the Historical Perception of Pestilence,
five episodes plot Roch's life from cradle to grave, with intervening ed. by T. Ranger and R Slack, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 101-123.
scenes of healing, intercession and his discovery in the wilderness. 67 Acquapendente was Roch's first and hence most famous cure, to which
Directly comparable cycles of four scenes include Brossasco (Pied Diedo devotes the most detail, but he also records Roch healing suffer
mont, 1530), which opens with Roch's departure on pilgrimage, fol ers in Cesena, Rome and other unnamed towns before he was infected
186
in Piacenza: Diedo/Bolle [f. 7V—11 ], pp. 6-8. Other early vite further 76 Characteristics of Tintoretto's handling of narrative noted by Echols, in
amplify Roch's curative itinerary. Only one of the ten cycles known to Falomir 2007, pp. 39-40; and llchman, ibid., pp. 77-83.
me does not Include Roch healing plague victims; several include mul
77 Diedo/Bolle [f. 6r-8v], p. 6.
tiple curative miracles. For example, San Rocco, Volano (Trentino, 1525)
includes three separate instances of Roch healing the plague-stricken 78 At Berzo Interiore (1504), a dog stands next to the saint as he performs
his cures.
at Aquapendente, Cesena and Rimini. Not coincidentally, the church
was attached to a civic hospital. See R. Adami and S. Ferrari, Templum79 On the identification of this painting as a plague miracle, see L. Mar
Sancti Rochi. Le vicende storico-artistiche della chiesa di San Rocco
shall, "La costruzione di un santo contro la peste: il caso di Nicola da
e della comunità di Volano fra il XV e il XVI secolo, Calliano, 1992; Mar
Tolentino", in San Nicola da Tolentino nell'arte. Corpus iconográfico, 1 :
shall 2009, p. 455. Dalle origini at Concilio di Trento, ed. V. Pace and R. Tollo, Milan, 2005,
68 The term is llchman's, in Falomir 2007, pp. 66-67, 245. pp. 92-96, with further bibliography.
69 For the organization, architecture and personnel of Renaissance80hos Diedo/Bolle [f. 15], p. 10. It occurs in only one earlier cycle, at Bagolino
pitals, see J. Henderson, The Renaissance Hospital: Healing the Body (Lombardy, 1483-1486).
and Healing the Soul, New Haven, 2006, esp. pp. 147-224. For Venetian
81 Diedo/Bolle [ff. 16V-17], p. 11.
hospitals, see Pulían 1971, pp. 196-215, 423-428; Venezia e la peste,
pp. 99-112, 157-192, 343-362. 82 It appears in five out of the ten monumental cycles known to me.
83 As pointed out to me by Louise Bourdua, this dramatic detail recalls the

70 Henderson, pp. 85-86.
similar fall in Altichiero's late fourteenth-century frescoes in the St James
71 For confraternal charity, see above, n. 36. Chapel of the Santo in nearby Padua, either directly or through their
common antique source in the column of Trajan.
72 Their housing, salaries and duties are set out in chapter 26 of the
Mariegole minore: Tonon 1998, pp. 75-76. Massimi 1995, pp. 56ff.,
84 Diedo/Bolle [f. 17"], 11. Roch's confession is represented at Bagolino
interprets this picture as a specific polemic on the part of the Scuola (Marshall 2009, fig. 2) and Crana. For further discussion of the ways in
in favour of converting their original residence to a members' hospital, which the events leading up to and following Roch's death were usu
a move blocked by the Franciscans on whose land the Scuoletta was
ally depicted, see Marshall 2009, pp. 454-455. Pulían 1971, pp. 44-49,
built. However, this argument is based on the incorrect assumption thathas noted the very small proportion of priests in the membership of
Tintoretto's painting is an iconographie unicum and overemphasises Venetian scuole in general and San Rocco specifically, which from the
the hospital setting, common to many earlier versions of this subject, at1490s to 1538 admitted only 1 priest for 70 laymen. He draws attention
the expense of the healing miracle of the saint and its significance forto the parallel exclusion of priests from the government of the city as
commissioners and visitors alike. This reading also ignores the clarionfrom that of the scuole, and stresses the San Rocco chaplain's "posi
call of the plague buboes to viewers throughout the picture, and thetion of subjection to the governors of San Rocco", particularly evident in
fact that the projected hospital - never achieved, due to the oppositiona document of 1536 setting out his duties and requiring obedience to
of the friars - was intended for the use of impoverished, elderly or sick
the confraternity executive in all things.
members, not plague victims (who if not cared for in their homes by
relatives or the nurses engaged by the Scuola should have been 85 conShown in four earlier cycles, including Berzo Interiore, 1504 (Marshall
signed to the plague lazaretto). 2009, fig. 1).
73 For this understanding of buboes, see Carmichael, pp. 79-80. 88 Unfamiliarity with the biography of the saint has meant that Roch is
sometimes thought to be dying of the plague, a mistake made by Carlo
74 On the issue of clothing to patients on arrival at the hospital, see Hend
Ridolfi in his life of Tintoretto (Ridolfi/Enggass and Enggass, p. 29)
erson, pp. 162-164. As he observes, this was a significant induction
which still echoes in Pallucchini and Rossi, p. 76, who describe the
ritual that "symbolised leaving behind everyday life and entering a newaction as an angel sent by God to comfort the sick saint.
environment dedicated to the cure of the body and the spirit" (p. 164).
87 Diedo/Bolle [ff. 17V-18V], pp. 11-12.
75 Pulían 1971, pp. 239ff.; T. Nichols, "Paragons of Poverty: Imagery of
88 Pulían 1971, pp. 75-76; Tonon 2003, pp. 87-90.
the Deserving Poor in the Age of Reformation and Counter-Reforma
tion", in II Rinascimento italiano di fronte all riforma: letteratura e arte,
89 Tonon 1999, pp. 18-19, 45.
ed. C. Damianaki et al., Rome, 2005, pp. 253-269; idem, "Images of
90 Massimi, pp. 39-46. David Rosand has suggested that several of the
Almsgiving and Poverty in Venetian Art of the Sixteenth Century", in
witnesses at the Crucifixion, painted for the San Rocco Albergo two
Armut und Armenfürsorge in der italienischen Stadtkultur zwischen 13.
years earlier, in 1565, are confraternal portraits, including that of the
und 16. Jahrhundert, ed. G. Wolf and R Helas, Frankfurt, 2006, pp.
supervising Guardian Grando, Girolamo Rota, whose name is inscribed
349-370; idem, "Secular Charity, Sacred Poverty: Picturing the Poor in
along with that of the artist on a fictive cartouche in the lower left corner:
Renaissance Venice", Art History, 30, 2007, pp. 139-169; cf. R Cottrell,
Rosand 1997, p. 149.
"Poor Substitutes: Imaging Disease and Vagrancy in Renaissance Ven
91 For the duties and significance of these offices, see Tonon 1998, pp.
ice", in Others and Outcasts in Early Modern Europe. Picturing the Social
Margins, ed. T. Nichols, Aldershot, 2007, pp. 63-87. 51 ff.; Massimi, passim.
187

A - Plague - Saint - For - Venice - Tintoretto - at The Chiesa Di San Rocco

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A - Plague - Saint - For - Venice - Tintoretto - at The Chiesa Di San Rocco

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Plague Saint for Venice: Tintoretto at the Chiesa di San Rocco

Author(s): Louise Marshall

A Plague Saint for Venice:

Tintoretto's extraordinary achievement in the Scuola Grande

ALTRA VEDVTA DELLA SOVOLA DI S ROCCO

2. Bartolomeo Bon (attrib.), Scuoletta, Venice, 1489-1509

. Bartolomeo Bon (attrib.),

VU §,JMIH^ \ 111 ■ < H

J'-fptya?»; i|W* W-c»y

7. Right wall of cappella maggiore, San Rocco, Venice

8. Left wall of cappella maggiore, San Rocco, Venice

Where other confraternities owned patronage rights over chapels9.9Titian,

D £VS oyi ES GLORIO SV S IK GLORIA SANC TO R-ET CVNCTIS AD CO&TATRO

responded to and amplified the impact of the tomb, with the

later still, against accepting his proposal of an annual salary in

fc I3P ; -' SrçJ !il«!

'■- ' N '

ed his first canvas In 1549.56 The Venetian Scuola's own ear

i j without his customary exposed bubo on the thigh; instead, his

status as a plague sufferer. During the sixteenth century, plagu

7 Jl iT g wnT rcTuV ?- T^ jXj i^hlS

members of the confraternity, who often spoke of themselves

since 1561, the confraternity had been permitted to display the

in Renaissance and Baroque Art Presented to Anthony Blunt on his

83 As pointed out to me by Louise Bourdua, this dramatic detail recalls the

You might also like