The iconic Entombment of Christ is the last documented painting to emerge from the workshop of Jacopo Tintoretto and was completed only months before the artist’s death in 1594. It was painted for the altar of the mortuary chapel (Cappella dei Morti) of the Benedictine Monks on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore and remains in situ to this day. 

While it is believed that Tintoretto’s son Domenico executed a majority of this painting, the composition and emotional impact can certainly be credited to Jacopo. This final masterpiece by Tintoretto dramatically portrays the suffering and death of Christ in the foreground, the Virgin Mary in the middle ground as she is overcome with grief and faints into the arms of two attendants, and the hill of Calvary set against a lush landscape in the background. This painting was recently featured in the exhibition Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from March to July 2019. 

Prior to the painting traveling to the United States for the Tintoretto exhibition in 2019, it was discovered that the work was suffering from some conservation issues, including mold growth. Thanks to funding from Save Venice, conservators were able to identify and treat the urgent issues allowing the painting to travel.

In addition to these urgent issues, it was clear that the details and colors of the painting were muddled and distorted beneath several thick layers of oxidized varnishes and heavy overpainting from previous conservation treatments. As soon as the painting returned to Venice following the exhibition, conservator Claudia Vittori began the process of undertaking a full conservation treatment to thin and remove these non-original surface layers.

A campaign of non-invasive studies including UV and infrared photography has also allowed conservators and scholars to learn more about the mysterious “last Tintoretto:” these advanced imaging techniques have revealed remarkable details below the pictorial surface, including the preparatory drawings and compositional changes that were likely made by the artist and his workshop. 

Treatment was completed in September 2020 and the painting has been re-installed in the Cappella dei Morti in the church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Jacopo Tintoretto (c. 1518/19 – 1594) and Domenico Tintoretto (1560 – 1635)
Entombment of Christ
1592-1594, oil on canvas
288 x 166 cm

National Gallery of Art: Tintoretto, Artist of Renaissance Venice (Exhibition)

Dalla Costa, Thomas, Robert Echols, and Frederick Ilchman, eds. Tintoretto in Venice: A Guide. Venice: Marsilio, 2018.

Echols, Robert and Frederick Ilchman. Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.