art in venice, 1400–1600 791
the intent of competing scuole to outdo one another with the artis-
tic quality of their own buildings and their furnishings or with altars in
churches has been attested to copiously. Scuole could obtain outstanding
painters for the altars or give the chance to an ambitious genius such as
Jacopo tintoretto, as was the case in 1548 in the Scuola Grande di S. Marco
with St Mark’s Miracle (Gallerie dell’Accademia), to gain recognition for
himself as an artist and for the school. in this respect, the prestige of the
painter played an important role. revolutionary artwork did not always
agree with the expectations of the customer. titian offered, in case the
Scuola di S. Pietro Martire did not accept his Martyrdom of St Peter, to
find another home for the painting (burned in 1867 and replaced with a
copy by Johann carl Loth). thus, in their art policies, the scuole were often
forerunners for the less-flexible aristocratic government.
the painting of the scuole also documents the wish of the members to
be present in and remembered through pictures. in the cycle from the
Scuola Grandi di S. Giovanni evangelista and the first cycle from the Scuola
Grande di San Marco (presently in the Gallerie dell’Accademia), members
of the scuole populate the scenes. the histories thus also became portraits
of a self-confident social stratum. the proximity of Scuola members to the
protagonist or the forefront of the picture was as likely a consequence of
individual demands as artistic considerations. Whether there were fees for
putting portraits into such pictures is not known. in regard to the pres-
ence of portraits, the pictures of the scuole are no different from those of
the Sala del Maggior consiglio in the Doge’s Palace in which depictions
of prominent personages are found next to influential contemporaries
and council members. in all of these pictures, people were memorial-
ized irrespective of whether they were living or dead. near the end of
the 16th century, some themes offered a welcome pretext for group por-
traits. comparable to Domenico tintoretto’s (1560–1635) portraits of the
censori in their meeting room in the Doge’s Palace in which the bibli-
cal themes have been marginalized by the painter, the members of the
Scuola Grande di S. Marco only leave a narrow pathway in his picture
for the admiration of the miracle of the rediscovery of St Mark’s relic
(Gallerie dell’Accademia). On Domenico’s wings of the Altar of the Scuola
dei Mercanti (Gallerie dell’Accademia), 36 neatly rowed “confratelli” gaze
out of the picture. today, the once-central meaning of remembrance has
conveniently become fragmented.
the hierarchies within the Scuole offered the Guardiano grande and the
artists leeway. in reliefs on the façades, the artist would stage the group