While historian Giorgio Vasari’s brief account of Renaissance painter Tintoretto (1518–1594) was largely a lament for what he considered a misuse of genius, he had nothing but high praise for the artist’s “Presentation of the Virgin.” Vasari (1511–1574) described the painting as “a highly-finished work” and “the best-executed and most gladsome picture” in Venice’s Madonna dell'Orto church.
Tintoretto’s Symbolic Canvas
Understanding Tintoretto’s painting requires familiarity with a story about the Virgin Mary’s childhood. It’s lesser known in Anglophone societies, especially those influenced by the Protestant belief where the Bible is the sole source of religious knowledge. The story has been preserved by oral tradition where private revelations by saints, living after the apostolic age, provided more elaborate versions.
Tintoretto’s subject came from non-biblical sources valued by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians. His painting was designed around the story’s most popular detail: the toddler Mary walking up the stairs without assistance. When Mary was 3 years old, her parents brought her to the temple of Jerusalem to be presented to God. To the high priest’s amazement, Mary climbed the long staircase by herself.
In his composition, Mary moves from the right of the painting to the left as she nears the end of her ascent up the 15 steps on the south side of Jerusalem’s temple. Explanations of the scene often stress the correlation between the number of steps (15) and what are known as the “gradual psalms” (Psalms 119–133) in the Christian tradition. The name of the psalms comes from the pilgrims who prayed one psalm per step while climbing the same staircase.
Like the gradual psalms, the traditional Catholic rosary also contains 15 Mysteries that are prayed between the five “decades”: five Joyful Mysteries, five Sorrowful Mysteries, and five Glorious Mysteries. For artists, patrons, and worshipers of Tintoretto’s day, the parallel symbolism would have likely been obvious. It emphasized the link between the Old and New Testaments.
Further Marian symbolism within the painting can be seen in Mary’s placement. Tintoretto’s use of light and shadow makes her sanctity clear to the viewer. By painting the stairs rising and curving from the darkness, the artist created a sense of depth, drawing the eye past the shadowed figures to the child above. Near the top of the steps and set against a bright sky, Mary is a relatively isolated figure.
In Catholic theology, Mary was conceived without original sin before living a sinless life, setting her apart from the rest of humanity. It was Mary who brought the “light of the world” (Christ) into the world. Running up the stairs to God’s priestly representative reflected her eagerness to serve God.
Her distance in advance of her parents—both considered saints by the Catholic and Orthodox churches—can symbolize being before everyone but Christ in sanctity. At the bottom of the painting, the mother pointing out Mary to her daughter is reminiscent of Catholic and Orthodox parents holding her up as a model for their own daughters.
Tintoretto’s steep, imposing staircase—suggesting the ascent to God rather than reflecting the appearance of the temple—sets his composition apart from Titian and da Volterra. Titian’s horizontal emphasis and da Volterra’s balance of the horizontal and vertical gave their works a more realistic appearance. Tintoretto used directness, force, and drama to infuse his painting with the event’s religious meaning. It’s because of this that his “Presentation of the Virgin” became arguably the most definitive and most influential depiction of the subject.
