1 00:00:06,372 --> 00:00:07,481 We’re in S G M 2 00:00:07,481 --> 00:00:10,633 across the Grand Canal from S M in Venice. 3 00:00:10,633 --> 00:00:13,823 And we’re looking at Tintoretto’s 'Last Supper.' 4 00:00:13,823 --> 00:00:16,944 It’s located in the sanctuary of the church – 5 00:00:16,944 --> 00:00:18,184 on the right wall 6 00:00:18,184 --> 00:00:19,383 And it’s huge. 7 00:00:19,383 --> 00:00:21,663 This is such an untraditional version 8 00:00:21,663 --> 00:00:23,817 of this subject – very mannerist. 9 00:00:23,817 --> 00:00:26,306 We’re so used to looking at Leonardo da Vinci’s 10 00:00:26,306 --> 00:00:28,060 Last Supper in Milan. 11 00:00:28,060 --> 00:00:29,414 That’s a painting where the table 12 00:00:29,414 --> 00:00:31,503 is drawn across horizontally – 13 00:00:31,503 --> 00:00:33,518 which is such a high Renaissance example 14 00:00:33,518 --> 00:00:35,005 of the use of linear perspective – 15 00:00:35,005 --> 00:00:36,908 with Christ as the vanishing point – 16 00:00:36,908 --> 00:00:38,319 at the very center of the painting – 17 00:00:38,319 --> 00:00:40,112 at the very center of the table. 18 00:00:40,112 --> 00:00:42,397 And here, everything is askew. 19 00:00:42,397 --> 00:00:46,690 And Leonardo uses natural light – without halos. 20 00:00:46,690 --> 00:00:48,355 Christ is framed by a window. 21 00:00:48,355 --> 00:00:52,774 But here, the figure of Christ actually glows from within – 22 00:00:52,774 --> 00:00:56,013 in a return to spiritual symbolism. 23 00:00:56,013 --> 00:00:59,371 And the spiritual permeates the entire space of this painting 24 00:00:59,371 --> 00:01:01,736 in a very evident way. 25 00:01:01,736 --> 00:01:04,305 Light is central to understanding this painting. 26 00:01:04,305 --> 00:01:06,279 There are really only two light sources here 27 00:01:06,279 --> 00:01:08,369 in this very dark painting 28 00:01:08,369 --> 00:01:09,945 Closer to us, on the upper left, 29 00:01:09,945 --> 00:01:11,174 you have a lantern, 30 00:01:11,174 --> 00:01:13,060 which just dances with light 31 00:01:13,060 --> 00:01:14,831 and flame and smoke. 32 00:01:14,831 --> 00:01:17,288 And then there’s the divine emanation. 33 00:01:17,288 --> 00:01:20,117 And from that lamp, in the upper left, 34 00:01:20,117 --> 00:01:21,926 angels are illuminated. 35 00:01:21,926 --> 00:01:24,622 And we see them floating all over the ceiling. 36 00:01:24,622 --> 00:01:27,213 It’s not that high Renaissance way of 37 00:01:27,213 --> 00:01:31,159 indicating the spiritual through the natural – 38 00:01:31,159 --> 00:01:32,516 through reality. 39 00:01:32,516 --> 00:01:35,910 Here, Tintoretto is not afraid to paint angels. 40 00:01:35,910 --> 00:01:38,073 There is a kind of divine revelation. 41 00:01:38,073 --> 00:01:39,799 The light that emanates 42 00:01:39,799 --> 00:01:43,140 from Christ’s halo seems quite strong. 43 00:01:43,140 --> 00:01:44,263 If you look at the woman 44 00:01:44,263 --> 00:01:45,989 who kneels in the foreground – 45 00:01:45,989 --> 00:01:47,145 slightly to the right – 46 00:01:47,145 --> 00:01:48,506 you’ll see that, in Christ’s light, 47 00:01:48,506 --> 00:01:50,819 her head casts a deep shadow 48 00:01:50,819 --> 00:01:53,555 that [creates] a diagonal that points us towards Christ. 49 00:01:53,555 --> 00:01:55,657 And then the apostles around the table 50 00:01:55,657 --> 00:01:57,409 also have halos of light – 51 00:01:57,409 --> 00:02:00,278 although smaller than the light from Christ. 52 00:02:00,278 --> 00:02:02,407 But this painting is all about energy. 53 00:02:02,407 --> 00:02:03,515 It’s all about drama. 54 00:02:03,515 --> 00:02:06,603 Look at the way the primary diagonal of the table 55 00:02:06,603 --> 00:02:09,107 moves us back with incredible speed 56 00:02:09,123 --> 00:02:10,522 back to a vanishing point 57 00:02:10,522 --> 00:02:12,295 in the upper right corner of the painting. 58 00:02:12,295 --> 00:02:13,448 And actually, I’m not even sure 59 00:02:13,448 --> 00:02:16,090 that it’s a correct use of linear perspective. 60 00:02:16,090 --> 00:02:18,166 That table tilts forward – 61 00:02:18,166 --> 00:02:20,101 So that he’s playing fast and loose 62 00:02:20,101 --> 00:02:23,789 with those very ideas that were so critical 63 00:02:23,789 --> 00:02:25,723 to the high Renaissance – 64 00:02:25,723 --> 00:02:27,354 like linearperspective. 65 00:02:27,354 --> 00:02:29,728 Pictorial spaces seem literally up ended. 66 00:02:29,728 --> 00:02:33,011 The space rises so steeply, and so dramatically, 67 00:02:33,011 --> 00:02:33,923 and so quickly. 68 00:02:33,923 --> 00:02:37,239 And form itself seems to have dissolved 69 00:02:37,239 --> 00:02:40,427 under the power of his line and color. 70 00:02:40,427 --> 00:02:41,841 Tintoretto said that his goal 71 00:02:41,841 --> 00:02:44,949 was to unite the two different traditions 72 00:02:44,949 --> 00:02:46,429 of the Florentine Renaissance 73 00:02:46,429 --> 00:02:47,539 and the Venetian Renaissance – 74 00:02:47,539 --> 00:02:51,372 the line of the Tuscan tradition of Michelangelo 75 00:02:51,372 --> 00:02:52,766 and the color of Titian. 76 00:02:52,766 --> 00:02:55,637 He had a sign written on his studio wall 77 00:02:55,652 --> 00:02:57,177 that said exactly that. 78 00:02:57,177 --> 00:02:58,267 When I look at this painting 79 00:02:58,267 --> 00:03:00,091 I feel pulled in different directions. 80 00:03:00,091 --> 00:03:02,426 I feel pulled by the velocity 81 00:03:02,426 --> 00:03:05,017 of the orthogonals of the table. 82 00:03:05,017 --> 00:03:08,202 And then I feel pulled by the light around Christ. 83 00:03:08,202 --> 00:03:11,025 And then I also feel pulled to anecdotal details 84 00:03:11,025 --> 00:03:13,114 that are around the periphery. 85 00:03:13,114 --> 00:03:15,735 The figure serving food on the right, for example. 86 00:03:15,735 --> 00:03:17,142 or in the foreground. 87 00:03:17,142 --> 00:03:20,802 Or the apostles reacting and talking to each other, 88 00:03:20,802 --> 00:03:22,084 after Christ’s words, 89 00:03:22,084 --> 00:03:23,975 ”Take this bread, for this is my body,” and, 90 00:03:23,975 --> 00:03:25,786 “Take this wine, for this is my blood" 91 00:03:25,786 --> 00:03:28,369 and Christ has stood up [and] turned. 92 00:03:28,369 --> 00:03:29,186 [And] seems to be offering the bread. 93 00:03:29,186 --> 00:03:31,369 And so we have the literal enactment 94 00:03:31,369 --> 00:03:32,306 of the Eucharist. 95 00:03:32,306 --> 00:03:33,592 It’s much more active. 96 00:03:33,592 --> 00:03:35,594 I want to go back to that idea of the anecdotal. 97 00:03:35,594 --> 00:03:36,688 Yes, the woman's serving food. 98 00:03:36,688 --> 00:03:39,274 But notice that she’s reaching into a basket. 99 00:03:39,274 --> 00:03:42,499 And a cat happens to be looking in that basket, as well. 100 00:03:42,499 --> 00:03:44,869 There is this very solemn event that's taking place. 101 00:03:44,869 --> 00:03:46,858 And yet, at the same time, it's surrounded 102 00:03:46,858 --> 00:03:48,725 by elements that are simply not important. 103 00:03:48,725 --> 00:03:51,004 and make this a human event. 104 00:03:51,004 --> 00:03:54,980 That's right. Make it, in a way, more real 105 00:03:54,980 --> 00:03:57,851 than the pared down, harmonious, balanced image 106 00:03:57,851 --> 00:04:00,372 that Leonardo gives us of the Last Supper. 107 00:04:00,372 --> 00:04:02,310 And that's what I find so incongruous 108 00:04:02,310 --> 00:04:04,494 about this dark painting. 109 00:04:04,494 --> 00:04:07,832 and all of its solemnity – yes – but all of its energy 110 00:04:07,832 --> 00:04:10,515 within this very staid environment 111 00:04:10,515 --> 00:04:14,240 of the church by P – S G M. 112 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,650 We are in a pristine, white building. 113 00:04:17,650 --> 00:04:20,718 And yet this painting is so dark and so mysterious. 114 00:04:20,718 --> 00:04:23,764 And yet Paladio has made everything evident of us. 115 00:04:23,764 --> 00:04:27,588 with its classicism, its order, its precision, its logic, 116 00:04:27,588 --> 00:04:29,178 its rationality. 117 00:04:29,178 --> 00:04:31,607 And then, in this Tintoretto, we enter into 118 00:04:31,607 --> 00:04:34,409 the realm of the spiritural – the supernatural. 119 00:04:34,409 --> 00:04:36,473 This is not the realm of the rational at all. 120 00:04:36,473 --> 00:04:39,868 We move from the high Renaissance 121 00:04:39,868 --> 00:04:45,196 classicism of Paladio into the mannerism of a Tintoretto.