Scuola Grande di San Rocco

You’ll swear the paint is still fresh on the 50 action-packed Tintorettos painted between 1575 and 1587 for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Everyone wanted the commission to paint this building dedicated to the patron saint of the plague-stricken, so Tintoretto cheated a little: instead of producing sketches like his rival Veronese, Tintoretto painted a magnificent tondo (ceiling panel) and dedicated it to the saint, knowing such a gift couldn’t be refused or matched by other artists. Take the Scarpagnino staircase to the Sala Grande Superiore, in which Tintoretto covered the ceilings with Old Testament scenes that read like a modern graphic novel. Grab a handglass (mirror) to avoid the otherwise inevitable neck strain as you ogle Tintoretto’s riveting ceilings – you can almost hear the swoop overhead as an angel dives down to feed an ailing Elijah. Unlike Venetian colourists, Tintoretto concentrated on dynamic lines for his New Testament wall scenes, foreshadowing abstract expressionism by centuries. Against the shadowy backdrop of the Black Death, Tintoretto highlights his subjects in lightning streaks of hope. Downstairs, the assembly hall contains a handful of works by other artists including Titian, Giorgione and Tiepolo, and illuminates the story of the Virgin Mary. The story begins on the left wall with the Annunciation and ends with the Ascension opposite – dark and cataclysmic, compared with Titian’s glowing version at I Frari. Scarpagnino’s buoyant, proto-baroque Renaissance facade puts a brave face on the confraternity dedicated to San Rocco, who at age 20 in 1315 began wandering southern France and northern Italy helping plague victims until his death at 32. His body was transferred to Venice as a plague-prevention talisman in 1485, providing backup to the new system of vigorous quarantine pioneered by Venice with inspections and waiting periods for incoming ships at Lazaretto. Between the two, Venice managed to escape the worst of the bouts of plague that wracked Europe and devastated Italy for centuries.