NORTHERN Lights
It’s a misty winter’s morning outside Tintoretto’s house in Cannaregio. Here at the tall, pink house on Rio della Sensa the great painter would kiss his wife goodbye and promise to account for the money she had given him for his day. When he’d return late with alcohol on his breath, he’d always insist, against all the available evidence to the contrary, that he’d given most of it away in charitable donations.
Yet Tintoretto did his greatest work in Cannaregio. Just around the corner stands the church of Madonna dell’Orto, a tall brick Gothic structure, much beloved by John Ruskin, that contains some of Tintoretto’s greatest works. There is a massive Last Judgement on one side of the altar, matched by an equally huge Making of the Golden Calf on the other, as well as a Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, which is arresting in its irregular composition and use of light. Jacopo Tintoretto, also known as Il Furioso, is buried in this church along with members of his family.
Cannaregio is extraordinarily rich in beautiful churches, even by Venice’s high standards. It is the most northerly of the city’s six and has its share of obelisk-sporting , but in Tintoretto’s day it was a working-class district full of traders and artisans. Behind what is now called stands an ornate canalside
