Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet

This biblical tale directly precedes The Last Supper, where Christ is betrayed by Judas.

Although this earlier scene is not quite as prominent within Renaissance art, Tintoretto covered Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet on around six occasions and they all remain in good condition in the present day. The paintings were separate commissions for a variety of churches across Italy, mostly in the vicinity of Tintoretto’s home city of Venice. In the present day, sadly, only two remain in the country with the rest sold off abroad.

The skills in perspective of Tintoretto are displayed in this painting, both in the architecture that sits across the background plus also the floor pattern on which the many figures are sat or standing. The painting pictured here is the one owned by the Prado Museum, with the other versions to be found in Toronto, the National Gallery in London, the Shipley Art Gallery, plus the Santo Stefano and San Moisè in Venice.

The Prado Museum must surely rank as one of the finest art venues in the world and alongside this influential work from Tintoretto, you will also find the likes of Fra Angelico, Raphael and Titian. The stand out highlights from the thousands of paintings would have to be Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez.