Creation of the Animals
Jacopo Tintoretto·1550
Historical Context
Tintoretto's Creation of the Animals at the Gallerie dell'Accademia depicts the third day of Creation when God commanded the waters to bring forth living creatures. The extraordinary subject — God moving through an aquatic world teeming with animals — gave Tintoretto the opportunity to display his prodigious ability to populate a composition with dozens of different creatures in dynamic action. The animals churning through the water and air, rendered with Tintoretto's characteristic energy and his unusual interest in natural history, create an image of creative abundance that makes the theological doctrine of Creation physically overwhelming in its profusion.
Technical Analysis
The dynamic figure of God swooping across the canvas creates extraordinary kinetic energy, with animals emerging in vivid detail from a landscape rendered in Tintoretto's characteristic rapid, expressive brushwork.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the figure of God swooping across the canvas, His outstretched arm commanding the teeming creatures below.
- ◆Look at the extraordinary variety of animals depicted — fish, birds, and land creatures rendered with vivid, individual detail.
- ◆Observe the aquatic chaos of the newly created world, creatures churning through water and emerging into air.
- ◆Tintoretto's brushwork gives each animal its own character — this is an artist who observed animals with genuine curiosity.
- ◆Find how the composition radiates outward from God's commanding gesture, the creatures of creation spreading in all directions.
