In Venice in the Renaissance period and later there were institutions called scuole. They were religious confraternities made of laypeople, and some of them, the Scuole Grande, grew to be very rich and influential. The most spectacular of the still remaining scuole buildings, complete with its grand series of paintings by Tintoretto (b. Jacopo Comin, know also as Jacopo Robusti; 1518-1594), is the Scuole Grande di San Rocco. In the 1560s Tintoretto began a great series of large wall and ceiling paintings for the interior of the scuole. It’s dark inside, so difficult to take pictures (flash not allowed), but I chose this detail from the huge Crucifixion of Christ scene. It shows the raising of the cross of the ‘good thief’ who was crucified along with Christ. Tintoretto wanted to show the efforts of the tormentors, but also the body of the thief, well-muscled and dramatically foreshortened.