Doge Alvise Mocenigo and Family before the Madonna and Child c. 1575

Jacopo Tintoretto painted Doge Alvise Mocenigo and Family before the Madonna and Child in oil on canvas. This was a traditional method for the time, but its implications are significant. Consider the sheer scale of the canvas, some 2 by 4 meters. Preparing it would have been labour intensive. So would the grinding of pigments to make the paints, and the layering of those paints to produce this scene. Tintoretto was celebrated for the speed of his brushwork, but even he would have needed assistants to complete a commission of this scale. And what a commission it was! The Mocenigo family literally bought their way into the picture, and were immortalized in paint. But so, too, were all the anonymous workers who contributed to the painting’s making. Next time you see an old master like this, remember that you are also seeing the accumulated labour of many hands.