Miracle of the Slave (Tintoretto)

The Miracle of the Slave is a painting completed in 1548 by the Italian Renaissance artist Jacopo Tintoretto. Originally commissioned for the Scuola Grande di San Marco, a confraternity in the city of Venice, the work has been held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia since 1815. The painting portrays Saint Mark, patron saint of Venice, performing a posthumous miracle of saving a slave from torture.

Drawn from hagiographic sources on the saint’s life, like Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend and Jacopo Sansovino's bronze reliefs, Saint Mark appears at the top of the image after being summoned by the slave, destroying the tools used in his torture and stunning the crowd. Miracle of the Slave has been described as Tintoretto’s public consecration in Venice, and has classic components of the Venetian school of art along with themes that would become prevalent throughout the artist's career.