Portrait of the procurator Jacopo Soranzo

Procurator Jacopo Soranzo had himself painted by Tintoretto twice during the last months of his life. In this canvas preserved in the Pinacoteca del Castello, Tintoretto reaches one of his greatest expressions in portraiture. The subject’s face is revealed by the light that strikes its features, rendered with restless and very free painting. Here the elements of aristocratic decorum, typical of the official portrait, are completely abandoned, and all the attention is focused on the psychological view of the man, summed up in his absorbed, suffering gaze.