Tintoretto – “The Miracle of St. Mark Delivering the Slave from Torture” at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice

Tintoretto (1518 – 31 May 1594) – “The Miracle of St. Mark Delivering the Slave from Torture”

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave

“Tintoretto is the master of intensity.

He possesses a fiery compositional energy, a frenzied brushstroke, a boldness in his incredible foreshortening, and St. Mark may well be considered one of his most daring and fierce paintings.

The subject of this painting is the patron saint of Venice coming to the aid of a poor slave whom a barbaric master was having tortured and tormented because of the stubborn devotion that this poor wretch had for the saint.

The slave lies on the ground on a cross surrounded by busy executioners, who are making futile efforts to fasten him to the infamous wood.


Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave The nails bend back, the mallets break, the axes shatter; more merciful than men, the instruments of torture become blunt in the hands of the torturers.

Onlookers exchange glances and whisper in astonishment; the judge leans forward from the high bench to see why his orders are not being carried out, whilst St. Mark, in one of the most wildly exaggerated foreshortened poses that painting has ever dared to attempt, dives headfirst from the sky and plunges down to earth, without clouds, without wings, without cherubs, without any of the aerostatic devices usually employed in paintings of saints, and comes to deliver the one who has had faith in him.


Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave This vigorous, athletically muscular figure of colossal proportions, cleaving through the air like a rock hurled from a catapult, produces the most remarkable effect.

The drawing possesses such dynamic power that the massive saint seems to be supported by the eye and does not fall; it is a true tour de force.

Add to this that the painting is so high in tone, so abrupt in its contrasts of black and light, so vigorous in its localisation of light, so harsh and turbulent in its brushwork, that even the most fierce Caravaggios and Spanish masters, placed alongside it, would seem like child’s play, and you will have an idea of this painting which, despite its barbarities, still retains, through its details, that architectural, abundant and sumptuous aspect, characteristic of the Venetian school.”
Théophile Gautier – Italia 1855

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave

Tintoretto, St. Mark Freeing the Slave