Image: Jacopo Tintoretto, The Last Supper, c. 1563 -1564, oil on canvas, Church of San Trovaso, Venice

The National Gallery of Art is currently displaying an exhibit of paintings by Venetian master Tintoretto.  This is one of his versions of The Last Supper.  The “great recession” hit museums hard.  Even a decade later, it is a rare to see a large exhibition from a master on tour.  So it is a doubly gratifying to be able to see this one.

Background on the exhibition, from the National Gallery site:

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/1519–1594), the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia with the special cooperation of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, have organized a major exhibition on the Venetian master. As the first retrospective of the artist in North America, the exhibition includes many significant international loans traveling to the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition features nearly 50 paintings and more than a dozen works on paper spanning the artist’s entire career and ranging from regal portraits of Venetian aristocracy to religious and mythological narrative scenes.

If you are at all thinking about going I recommend you do.  It is stunning from room one.

Jacopo Tintoretto, Self-Portrait, c. 1588, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre