_Tintoretto_ (Venetian: 1518-1594). _See 16._
This work, acquired from the Earl of Darnley, is a particularly welcome
addition to the National Gallery; for the two works by Tintoret
previously in the collection,--the "St. George and the Dragon" and
"Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet,"--though fairly representative of
his more sombre mood, give no idea whatever of such radiant forms and
sweeping harmonies as those with which he decorated the Ducal Palace
at Venice. This picture immediately recalls these last-mentioned
works, for it was doubtless designed as the centre-piece for some
painted ceiling. The picture is a very beautiful representation of a
classic myth of the Milky Way. Hermes, it is told, carried the infant
Hercules to Olympus, and put him to the breast of Juno while she lay
asleep; but, as she awoke, she pushed the child from her, and the milk
thus spilled produced the Milky Way. In this picture, however, we see
Jupiter himself descending through the air and bearing the child in
his arms. Juno is rising undraped from her couch, surrounded by little
loves, and attended by peacocks--emblems of her royal state as Queen
of Heaven; while in the deep-blue firmament is the eagle carrying the
thunderbolt of Jupiter. From her bosom issue long lacteal jets that
seem, as it were, to crystallise into stars. Sumptuous draperies float
around the ground, and in most poetical composition Tintoret has thus
"mingled with their gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies."
There is a study for the picture in the Accademia at Venice.