Scenes from the early life of Christ, carefully referenced to those of the Passion to come, the Virgin Mary, and two other saintly Marys. His last major series.
history of painting
A prolific period in which he painted the life of Christ for the Scuola di San Rocco, the Gonzaga Cycle, and a smaller series of Venetian histories.
Danaë, raped by Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold; Lucretia, whose rape resulted in the Republic of Rome; Leda, raped by Jupiter in the form of a swan. And a portrait of a Venetian senator.
Six mythological works, which culminate in what is probably his finest of all: the Origin of the Milky Way, analysed in detail here.
Major works for the ceiling of the Sala superiore in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, centred on ‘The Brazen Serpent’, ‘Moses Striking the Rock’, and ‘Gathering of the Manna’.
Two more informal Last Suppers, a votive of the Doge who ruled Venice at the time, and the perils of black grounds.
He completes his work for the Albergo at San Rocco with three scenes from the Passion, and paints a votive showing the Madonna and Child with three contemporary fiscal administrators in Venice.
He’d been trying to get a commission since 1549. Then in 1564, he pre-empted a competition, and painted 23 works for a single room, including his vast Crucifixion, 12 m (40 feet) across.
The less famous Wedding at Cana which preceded that of Veronese; two Assumptions, a Last Supper which still shocked Ruskin 300 years later, and episodes from the story of Saint Mark.
Three key religious works from his early career: a Crucifixion painted on a budget, and two vertiginous canvases nearly 15 m (50 feet) high.
