With the return of the People of Israel in the desert and the Last Supper on the walls of the presbytery, the basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore rediscovers two masterpieces from the last period of Jacopo Tintoretto.
The recent relocation of the paintings, which took place at the end of an important restoration project promoted by the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore – ETS branch and supported by Save Venice thanks to the generous contribution of the Stracke family, provides an opportunity to reinterpret the works in the context for which they were conceived.
Painted around 1591–1592, the two canvases are situated at the point of maximum liturgical and visual intensity of the Palladian basilica: the presbytery, dominated by the high altar and its monumental tabernacle.
Here, the People of Israel in the desert and the Last Supper create a tight dialogue between the Old and New Testaments, oriented towards the Eucharistic mystery and amplified by the relationship with sculpture and architecture.
Based on the results emerged from the restoration, the intervention proposes to reconsider the role of the two works not as mere side paintings, but as constituent elements of an extraordinary dense figurative, liturgical, and architectural complex.
Jacopo Tintoretto, Last Supper, part., Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.
Gabriele Matino is a Senior Researcher at Save Venice and an independent curator.
He holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Nottingham and has conducted research and teaching activities in various international institutions.
He has received important scholarships, including those from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Save Venice, and the Getty Foundation.
He has curated exhibitions dedicated to Venetian art, including Art, Faith, and Medicine in Tintoretto's Venice and Venetia 1600, and has published numerous essays and volumes on artists and themes of Venetian painting, with particular attention to Tintoretto, Carpaccio, and Titian.
Among his most recent works is the volume dedicated to the Titian restorations promoted by Save Venice.
