Department: Ruskin

This is a small detail from Tintoretto's massive work 'Paradiso' or 'The Paradise', which he started in 1588. Tintoretto's original 'Paradiso' shows a vision of heaven with Christ and the Madonna at the centre, surrounded by hundreds of saints and angels. At over 10 metres tall and 25 metres wide it covers the entire wall of the massive council chamber at the Doge's Palace in Venice. Alessandri's detail depicts an area from the upper right area of the work, with St Augustine prominently at the centre surrounded my numerous other figures. These, according to Ruskin include, faintly behind St Augustine, 'his mother, watching him, her chief joy, even in Paradise', and '[Mary] Magdalene …on the right, behind St Monica.' Ruskin considered that Tintoretto's 'Paradiso' or Paradise was 'the most precious thing Venice possesses' and the greatest work Tintoretto ever created. He considered that Tintoretto himself was 'the most powerful painter whom the world has seen.'