Jacopo Tintoretto and Vittore Trincavello – painter and physician in the Saint Roch brotherhood in Venice

Abstract

Hospital interiors were presented in paintings for the fi rst time in modern art in 1549, namely by Jacopo Robusti also known as Tintoretto. The painting St Roch in the Hospital is still hanging in the presbytery of the Saint Roch church in Venice. Contemporary historiography has determined that this innovative iconography of representation constituted a direct reference to efforts of the Confraternity Scuola Grande di San Rocco Rocco to have a hospice established. The goal of this paper is to connect the presence of oriental fi gures on the painting with the public debate between the members of the confraternity and physicians at the same time – Valerio Superchio and Vittore Trincavello. 

Hospital interiors were presented in paintings for the fi rst time in modern art in 1549, namely by Jacopo Robusti also known as Tintoretto. The painting St Roch in the Hospital is still hanging in the presbytery of the Saint Roch church in Venice. Contemporary historiography has determined that this innovative iconography of representation constituted a direct reference to efforts of the Confraternity Scuola Grande di San Rocco Rocco to have a hospice established. The goal of this paper is to connect the presence of oriental fi gures on the painting with the public debate between the members of the confraternity and physicians at the same time – Valerio Superchio and Vittore Trincavello.