mined by flashes of iridescent light. Another
noticeable feature is the way in which he puts on his oil-colour, so
that it bears the direct impression of the painter's hand. The
Florentines had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark
smoothed away; but as the later Venetians covered large spaces with
oil-colour, they no longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the
brush, and light, distance, movement, were all conveyed by the turns and
twists and swirls with which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at
the power of touch in such a picture as the "Death of Abel"; we see this
spontaneity of execution actually forming part of the emotion with which
the picture is charged. The concentrated hate of the one figure, the
desperate appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape, gain
their emotion as much from the impetuous brush-work as from the more
studied design. We come closest to the painter's mind in the Scuola
di San Rocco. He had already been employed in the church, and there
remains, darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative of the
career of S. Roch, patron saint of sufferers from the plague. When the
great Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560, the confraternity
asked a conclave of painters, among whom were Veronese and Andrea
Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition. When they assembled to
display their designs, Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling
of the refectory and discovered a finished picture, the "S. Roch in
Glory," which still holds its place there. Neither the other artists nor
the brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional proceeding,
but he "hoped they would not be offended; it was the only way he knew."
Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of the rest, but partly
also from the excellence of the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto,
and after two years' work he was received into the order, and was
assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (L50) a year for life, being
bound every year to furnish three pictures.

CHAPTER XXVI

TINTORETTO (_continued_)

The first portion of the vast building that was finished was the
Refectory, but in examining the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to
leave it to its proper place, which is the climax. Before beginning,
Tintoretto must have had the whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt
that he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and recalled its plan and
significance; the old di