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V. M. 希利尔（1875—1931），美国著名儿童教育家、科普作家 ，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的艺术史》。
Venice is a city where the streets are water and where you take a boat instead of an automobile to go from place to place. Nowadays Venice belongs to Italy， but in the time of the Renaissance， though Venice was in Italy， it didn’t belong to Italy. There wasn’t any republic of Italy then， and Venice was an independent state， a republic that governed itself. Venice had its own army and navy， its own ruler called the Doge， and its own way of doing things. It had its own great painters， too， during the Renaissance—painters still famous above all others for the wonderful colors they gave to their pictures.
In the early years of the Renaissance there was a painter of Venice named Bellini （Bel-leen’e） and he had two sons who also became painters. The sons were better painters than their father. One of the Bellini brothers taught painting to two young men who became better painters than any of the Bellinis. These two men were called Giorgione （Jor-jone’ay）， which means Big George， and Titian （Tish’an）， which just means Titian. Three Bellinis， Giorgione， Titian， and Tintoretto—six men with only three names to remember.
I wish I had room to tell you more about the Bellinis. I think you would like their pictures. But there isn’t room in this chapter for all of them， so we’ll begin with Giorgione.
威尼斯城里的道路是水路，所以如果你在那里要去一个地方的话，不是乘汽车而是要坐船。现在威尼斯属于意大利，但是在文艺复兴时期，它虽然地处意大利，但却并不属于意大利。文艺复兴时期的意大利还不是一个王国，而威尼斯自己就是一个独立的共和国：威尼斯由总督作为最高统治首脑，有自己的步兵和海军，也有自己的行事方式。不仅如此，它还有自己伟大的画家。文艺复兴时期的威尼斯画家至今都享有盛名，因为他们绘画作品的色彩特别美丽。
在文艺复兴早期时，有一个威尼斯画家名叫贝里尼，后来他的两个儿子也成了画家，甚至比他还要出名。贝里尼的兄弟中还有一个是绘画教师，他教出的两个年轻学生后来比贝里尼家族中的任何人都画得还要好。这两个学生分别叫乔尔乔涅（意思是“大乔治”）和提香（意思是“黄褐色”）。贝里尼父子三人，加上乔尔乔涅、提香和丁托列托，总共六个人，但需要记住的只有乔尔乔涅、提香、丁托列托三个人的名字。
我希望能给你们多介绍一些贝里尼家族成员的故事，而且我猜你一定会喜欢他们作的一些画。可惜这里没有足够的篇幅展示这么多图片，所以我们就先从乔尔乔涅讲起吧。
Giorgione is called one of the greatest of painters. Like Leonardo da Vinci， he left very few pictures that we are sure he himself painted. A famous painting called “The Concert” is thought by most people to have been painted by Giorgione， but others think it was painted by Giorgione’s friend Titian. “The Concert” shows the head and shoulders of three men. One of these men is seated at a clavichord. Do you know what a clavichord is？ It is a musical instrument like a piano that was used before pianos were invented. The second man has a violin in his hand， and the third wears a big hat with feathers on it that makes him look like a woman. In our house， when I was a boy， we had a photograph of “The Concert” on the wall and I always thought the man with the big hat was a woman until I grew up. Unfortunately Giorgione didn’t live long enough to paint many pictures. A terrible disease called the plague spread through Venice. Giorgione caught the plague and died when he was only about thirty-two years old.
His friend Titian lived to be a very old man， and so he had time to paint many more pictures than Giorgione. Titian was especially good at painting portraits of the noblemen of his time. One of these portraits is called “The Man with the Glove”. No one now knows who the man with the glove was， but almost every one likes the picture. How do you like it？ Look at the picture below.
喬尔乔涅被人们认为是世界上最伟大的画家之一。不过和列奥纳多·达·芬奇一样，能确定是他亲笔画的只有很少几幅。有一幅叫《音乐会》的画作非常有名，尽管大部分人都认为这幅画是出自乔尔乔涅之手，但还是有一些人认为是他的朋友提香所作。《音乐会》画的是三个男人的脑袋和肩膀，其中一人坐在一架翼琴旁。你知道什么是翼琴吗？它是一种和钢琴很像的乐器，在钢琴还没有发明之前，西方人弹奏的主要是翼琴。另一个人手里拿着一把小提琴;第三个人头上戴一顶宽檐帽，帽檐上还装饰有羽毛，使他看起来像一位女士。我小的时候家里的墙上就挂了一幅《音乐会》的临摹画，我一直以为戴大帽子的那个是个女人，直到我长大了才知道他其实是男的。
不幸的是，乔尔乔涅活的时间不长，所以并没有画很多作品。当时威尼斯有一种叫“瘟疫”的可怕疾病在传播，乔尔乔涅不幸感染上了瘟疫，三十二岁就去世了。
提香的寿命比他的朋友乔尔乔涅要长，因此也比乔尔乔涅有更多的时间创作更多的画。那时的贵族很喜欢肖像画，而提香对肖像画尤其擅长。其中有一幅肖像画叫作《戴手套的男子》。虽然至今都没有人知道这幅画中的男子到底是谁，但是几乎没有人不喜欢这幅画。你喜欢这幅画吗？请看下面的（本刊中为左边的——编者注）插图。
除了擅长画人物肖像，提香也创作其他类型的作品。他曾经为威尼斯一座教堂的祭坛画过一幅画，画作的名称是《想象》，展现的是圣母马利亚升入天堂时的情景。威尼斯人对这幅画喜爱有加，尤其是它那鲜艳的颜色。威尼斯城本身就是多姿多彩的，城市被蓝色的深海环绕着，白色的大理石宫殿在明媚的阳光下熠熠生辉。
Titian could paint other kinds of pictures besides portraits. He painted a picture for an altar in a church in Venice called “The Assumption”， which shows the Madonna entering heaven. The Venetians liked it tremendously. They especially liked its rich glowing color， for Venice itself was full of color， with its deep blue sea on every side and its marble palaces gleaming in the brilliant sunlight.
Venetians even liked pictures painted on the outside of their buildings， to add to the bright colors of the town. Both Giorgione and Titian made many paintings on the outside house walls， but all these have now disappeared， washed away by the weather.
At last after a long life of painting， Titian died—some say from the same disease that had killed Giorgione， the plague.
There were still great artists left in Venice， however. One of these was called Tintoretto， which means Little Dyer， because his father was a dyer. Tintoretto was much younger than Titian. When he was still a boy he was sent to Titian’s studio， or workshop， to learn painting. For some reason Titian let him stay at his studio for only ten days and after that Tintoretto had to teach himself to paint. He too painted many pictures on the outside walls of buildings， but these have washed away like Giorgione’s and Titian’s. Titian had always been careful to make good bargains when he sold his paintings， but Tintoretto didn’t seem to care for money. He was satisfied to take much less for his pictures than they were worth. Often he even gave them away.
One of Tintoretto’s greatest undertakings was to paint pictures for the walls of a building called the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice. Michelangelo had made his wall paintings on wet plaster， Da Vinci had made his on dry plaster， but Tintoretto made his on canvas. Then the canvas with the painting on it was fastened to the wall. The San Rocco pictures were fastened to the wall.
Tintoretto used to make little clay figures to use as models when he painted. He worked very quickly and so he was able to paint a great many pictures in his lifetime. Most of them are full of energy and action. Some of his figures seem to be rushing through the air. So much action and movement made his pictures very different from the quiet ones of early Italian painters. Tintoretto’s were more like Michelangelo’s energetic paintings. But Tintoretto also had the glowing colors of Titian.
威尼斯人還喜欢在建筑的外墙上作画，因为这些画为威尼斯城又增添了更多斑斓的色彩。乔尔乔涅和提香都曾经在建筑的外墙上作画，只可惜这些画经过风吹雨打日晒之后，已经永远的消失了。
提香后来也过世了，有人认为他和乔尔乔涅一样死于瘟疫，从而结束了他的绘画人生。
在提香之后，威尼斯仍然还有许多著名的画家。其中有一个叫丁托列托的画家，丁托列托的意思是“小染匠”，因为他爸爸是一个染坊工匠。丁托列托比提香的年龄小很多，在他还是小孩子的时候，曾经就被送到了提香的画室（工作室），跟着学画画。可是提香只让丁托列托待了十天，后来丁托列托不得不离开画室自学。
丁托列托也曾经在当时建筑物的外墙上画过画，不过和乔尔乔涅、提香的画一样，最后都被雨水冲刷没了。提香卖画的时候总是在乎能否卖个好价钱，而丁托列托就不那么在乎钱，就算卖的价格不到画本身的价值他也心满意足，而且丁托列托还经常把自己的画免费送出。
丁托列托画过一件很了不起的作品，那就是他给威尼斯圣洛可大教堂的建筑外墙绘制的画作。米开朗琪罗把画画在湿石灰墙上，达·芬奇则画在干石灰墙上，而丁托列托却在帆布上画画。帆布画好后再固定到墙壁上，圣洛可大教堂的外墙画，丁托列托就是这样完成的。
丁托列托喜欢捏一些泥人在作画时做模型。丁托列托画画的速度超快，所以他一生中创作了很多绘画作品。他的画作充满活力、动感十足，作品中有的人物就好似在空中飞行一样。这使得他的画作与意大利早期画家的静态画极为不同。丁托列托的画在活力方面很像米开朗琪罗，色彩方面同时又具备提香绘画作品的绚丽。
Over his studio door he put these words： “The drawing of Michelangelo and the color of Titian.” Sometimes he went beyond Titian， whose colors were golden browns and rich reds and greens. Tintoretto’s later pictures contained soft shades of gray and had a silvery finish rather than a golden glow.
One of Tintoretto’s famous paintings is called “The Miracle of Saint Mark”. The story goes that Saint Mark had a faithful servant who was sentenced to be tortured to death for being a Christian. Saint Mark was away when this happened. The servant was stretched on the ground in front of the judge’s chair and the torture was about to begin. Suddenly the tools broke in the executioner’s hands as Saint Mark appeared in the air above. He had come to save his servant. Tintoretto’s picture shows Saint Mark rushing through the air above the executioner， but nobody in the picture， except a little baby， has noticed him. All are looking at the broken tools of the executioner.
When Tintoretto was an old man he was given the order to paint a huge picture of Paradise. The picture was to be large enough to cover a wall space thirty feet high and seventy-four feet long.
Tintoretto set to work and finished the largest painting on canvas in the world. His “Paradise” shows Christ and the Madonna seated on clouds in heaven. Below them are crowds of saints and angels， over five hundred figures altogether. This painting was Tintoretto’s last great work. He died soon after finishing it.
Some of Tintoretto’s paintings were much better than others. The Venetians used to say he had three pencils， one of gold， one of silver， and one of iron. By this they meant that some of his pictures were wonderfully done， some were only fairly well done， and some were poorly done. Perhaps this is why people have had so many different opinions about Tintoretto.
Venice had great painters after Tintoretto. But certainly the Bellinis， Giorgione， Titian， and Tintoretto are enough great men to squeeze into one little chapter！
丁托列托的画室门框上有这样的字句：“米开朗琪罗的手法和提香的色彩。”不过色彩方面，丁托列托甚至比提香更有突破。比如，提香最常用的颜色是金褐色、亮红色和绿色，而丁托列托晚期的画作还使用了很多柔和的灰色，而且还用银色代替了金色做修饰。
《圣马可的奇迹》（本页左侧画作——编者注）是丁托列托另一幅著名的画作。绘画的故事背景是，圣马可有一个非常忠诚的仆人，但这个仆人因为是基督徒而被判酷刑处死。当事情发生时，圣马可并不在家。就在这个仆人被平放在法官席前的地面上即将行刑的时候，突然行刑者手中的刑具无故断裂了，因为圣马可从天而来，解救了自己的仆人。
画中，圣马可飞在行刑者上方的空中，但是除了一个婴儿没人注意到他，因为所有人都盯着行刑者手中断裂的刑具。
晚年时，丁托列托还奉命绘制一幅巨大的、名为《天堂》的作品。这幅画非常大，需要覆盖长74英尺（约22.6米），高30英尺（约9.1米）的墙壁。
丁托列托接下了这项工作，并且完成了世界上最大的一幅帆布画。《天堂》这幅画一共有五百多个人物，画的是耶穌和圣母马利亚端坐于云朵之上，下面是成群的圣人和天使。这幅画是丁托列托的遗作之笔，他在完成这幅画之后没多久就离世了。
丁托列托绘画作品的质量有好、有差。威尼斯人常说他有三支笔，“金笔、银笔，还有一支铁笔”。就是说丁托列托有些画很好，有些画还可以，但还有一些画就不怎么样了。也许这就是为什么人们对丁托列托有着不同评价的原因。
威尼斯城其实在丁托列托之后还出现了许多大画家。但这一章只够挤下这几位了：贝里尼父子三人、乔尔乔涅、提香，以及丁托列托。
Word Study
undertaking /'?nd?'te?k??/ n. 任务;项目
Organizing the show has been a massive undertaking.
glowing /'ɡl????/ adj. 热情洋溢的
He spoke of her performance in the film in glowing terms.
torture /'t??t??（r）/ v. 拷打;拷问
Despite being tortured she proclaimed her innocence.
V. M. 希利尔（1875—1931），美国著名儿童教育家、科普作家 ，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的艺术史》。
Venice is a city where the streets are water and where you take a boat instead of an automobile to go from place to place. Nowadays Venice belongs to Italy， but in the time of the Renaissance， though Venice was in Italy， it didn’t belong to Italy. There wasn’t any republic of Italy then， and Venice was an independent state， a republic that governed itself. Venice had its own army and navy， its own ruler called the Doge， and its own way of doing things. It had its own great painters， too， during the Renaissance—painters still famous above all others for the wonderful colors they gave to their pictures.
In the early years of the Renaissance there was a painter of Venice named Bellini （Bel-leen’e） and he had two sons who also became painters. The sons were better painters than their father. One of the Bellini brothers taught painting to two young men who became better painters than any of the Bellinis. These two men were called Giorgione （Jor-jone’ay）， which means Big George， and Titian （Tish’an）， which just means Titian. Three Bellinis， Giorgione， Titian， and Tintoretto—six men with only three names to remember.
I wish I had room to tell you more about the Bellinis. I think you would like their pictures. But there isn’t room in this chapter for all of them， so we’ll begin with Giorgione.
威尼斯城里的道路是水路，所以如果你在那里要去一个地方的话，不是乘汽车而是要坐船。现在威尼斯属于意大利，但是在文艺复兴时期，它虽然地处意大利，但却并不属于意大利。文艺复兴时期的意大利还不是一个王国，而威尼斯自己就是一个独立的共和国：威尼斯由总督作为最高统治首脑，有自己的步兵和海军，也有自己的行事方式。不仅如此，它还有自己伟大的画家。文艺复兴时期的威尼斯画家至今都享有盛名，因为他们绘画作品的色彩特别美丽。
在文艺复兴早期时，有一个威尼斯画家名叫贝里尼，后来他的两个儿子也成了画家，甚至比他还要出名。贝里尼的兄弟中还有一个是绘画教师，他教出的两个年轻学生后来比贝里尼家族中的任何人都画得还要好。这两个学生分别叫乔尔乔涅（意思是“大乔治”）和提香（意思是“黄褐色”）。贝里尼父子三人，加上乔尔乔涅、提香和丁托列托，总共六个人，但需要记住的只有乔尔乔涅、提香、丁托列托三个人的名字。
我希望能给你们多介绍一些贝里尼家族成员的故事，而且我猜你一定会喜欢他们作的一些画。可惜这里没有足够的篇幅展示这么多图片，所以我们就先从乔尔乔涅讲起吧。
Giorgione is called one of the greatest of painters. Like Leonardo da Vinci， he left very few pictures that we are sure he himself painted. A famous painting called “The Concert” is thought by most people to have been painted by Giorgione， but others think it was painted by Giorgione’s friend Titian. “The Concert” shows the head and shoulders of three men. One of these men is seated at a clavichord. Do you know what a clavichord is？ It is a musical instrument like a piano that was used before pianos were invented. The second man has a violin in his hand， and the third wears a big hat with feathers on it that makes him look like a woman. In our house， when I was a boy， we had a photograph of “The Concert” on the wall and I always thought the man with the big hat was a woman until I grew up. Unfortunately Giorgione didn’t live long enough to paint many pictures. A terrible disease called the plague spread through Venice. Giorgione caught the plague and died when he was only about thirty-two years old.
His friend Titian lived to be a very old man， and so he had time to paint many more pictures than Giorgione. Titian was especially good at painting portraits of the noblemen of his time. One of these portraits is called “The Man with the Glove”. No one now knows who the man with the glove was， but almost every one likes the picture. How do you like it？ Look at the picture below.
喬尔乔涅被人们认为是世界上最伟大的画家之一。不过和列奥纳多·达·芬奇一样，能确定是他亲笔画的只有很少几幅。有一幅叫《音乐会》的画作非常有名，尽管大部分人都认为这幅画是出自乔尔乔涅之手，但还是有一些人认为是他的朋友提香所作。《音乐会》画的是三个男人的脑袋和肩膀，其中一人坐在一架翼琴旁。你知道什么是翼琴吗？它是一种和钢琴很像的乐器，在钢琴还没有发明之前，西方人弹奏的主要是翼琴。另一个人手里拿着一把小提琴;第三个人头上戴一顶宽檐帽，帽檐上还装饰有羽毛，使他看起来像一位女士。我小的时候家里的墙上就挂了一幅《音乐会》的临摹画，我一直以为戴大帽子的那个是个女人，直到我长大了才知道他其实是男的。
不幸的是，乔尔乔涅活的时间不长，所以并没有画很多作品。当时威尼斯有一种叫“瘟疫”的可怕疾病在传播，乔尔乔涅不幸感染上了瘟疫，三十二岁就去世了。
提香的寿命比他的朋友乔尔乔涅要长，因此也比乔尔乔涅有更多的时间创作更多的画。那时的贵族很喜欢肖像画，而提香对肖像画尤其擅长。其中有一幅肖像画叫作《戴手套的男子》。虽然至今都没有人知道这幅画中的男子到底是谁，但是几乎没有人不喜欢这幅画。你喜欢这幅画吗？请看下面的（本刊中为左边的——编者注）插图。
除了擅长画人物肖像，提香也创作其他类型的作品。他曾经为威尼斯一座教堂的祭坛画过一幅画，画作的名称是《想象》，展现的是圣母马利亚升入天堂时的情景。威尼斯人对这幅画喜爱有加，尤其是它那鲜艳的颜色。威尼斯城本身就是多姿多彩的，城市被蓝色的深海环绕着，白色的大理石宫殿在明媚的阳光下熠熠生辉。
Titian could paint other kinds of pictures besides portraits. He painted a picture for an altar in a church in Venice called “The Assumption”， which shows the Madonna entering heaven. The Venetians liked it tremendously. They especially liked its rich glowing color， for Venice itself was full of color， with its deep blue sea on every side and its marble palaces gleaming in the brilliant sunlight.
Venetians even liked pictures painted on the outside of their buildings， to add to the bright colors of the town. Both Giorgione and Titian made many paintings on the outside house walls， but all these have now disappeared， washed away by the weather.
At last after a long life of painting， Titian died—some say from the same disease that had killed Giorgione， the plague.
There were still great artists left in Venice， however. One of these was called Tintoretto， which means Little Dyer， because his father was a dyer. Tintoretto was much younger than Titian. When he was still a boy he was sent to Titian’s studio， or workshop， to learn painting. For some reason Titian let him stay at his studio for only ten days and after that Tintoretto had to teach himself to paint. He too painted many pictures on the outside walls of buildings， but these have washed away like Giorgione’s and Titian’s. Titian had always been careful to make good bargains when he sold his paintings， but Tintoretto didn’t seem to care for money. He was satisfied to take much less for his pictures than they were worth. Often he even gave them away.
One of Tintoretto’s greatest undertakings was to paint pictures for the walls of a building called the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice. Michelangelo had made his wall paintings on wet plaster， Da Vinci had made his on dry plaster， but Tintoretto made his on canvas. Then the canvas with the painting on it was fastened to the wall. The San Rocco pictures were fastened to the wall.
Tintoretto used to make little clay figures to use as models when he painted. He worked very quickly and so he was able to paint a great many pictures in his lifetime. Most of them are full of energy and action. Some of his figures seem to be rushing through the air. So much action and movement made his pictures very different from the quiet ones of early Italian painters. Tintoretto’s were more like Michelangelo’s energetic paintings. But Tintoretto also had the glowing colors of Titian.
威尼斯人還喜欢在建筑的外墙上作画，因为这些画为威尼斯城又增添了更多斑斓的色彩。乔尔乔涅和提香都曾经在建筑的外墙上作画，只可惜这些画经过风吹雨打日晒之后，已经永远的消失了。
提香后来也过世了，有人认为他和乔尔乔涅一样死于瘟疫，从而结束了他的绘画人生。
在提香之后，威尼斯仍然还有许多著名的画家。其中有一个叫丁托列托的画家，丁托列托的意思是“小染匠”，因为他爸爸是一个染坊工匠。丁托列托比提香的年龄小很多，在他还是小孩子的时候，曾经就被送到了提香的画室（工作室），跟着学画画。可是提香只让丁托列托待了十天，后来丁托列托不得不离开画室自学。
丁托列托也曾经在当时建筑物的外墙上画过画，不过和乔尔乔涅、提香的画一样，最后都被雨水冲刷没了。提香卖画的时候总是在乎能否卖个好价钱，而丁托列托就不那么在乎钱，就算卖的价格不到画本身的价值他也心满意足，而且丁托列托还经常把自己的画免费送出。
丁托列托画过一件很了不起的作品，那就是他给威尼斯圣洛可大教堂的建筑外墙绘制的画作。米开朗琪罗把画画在湿石灰墙上，达·芬奇则画在干石灰墙上，而丁托列托却在帆布上画画。帆布画好后再固定到墙壁上，圣洛可大教堂的外墙画，丁托列托就是这样完成的。
丁托列托喜欢捏一些泥人在作画时做模型。丁托列托画画的速度超快，所以他一生中创作了很多绘画作品。他的画作充满活力、动感十足，作品中有的人物就好似在空中飞行一样。这使得他的画作与意大利早期画家的静态画极为不同。丁托列托的画在活力方面很像米开朗琪罗，色彩方面同时又具备提香绘画作品的绚丽。
Over his studio door he put these words： “The drawing of Michelangelo and the color of Titian.” Sometimes he went beyond Titian， whose colors were golden browns and rich reds and greens. Tintoretto’s later pictures contained soft shades of gray and had a silvery finish rather than a golden glow.
One of Tintoretto’s famous paintings is called “The Miracle of Saint Mark”. The story goes that Saint Mark had a faithful servant who was sentenced to be tortured to death for being a Christian. Saint Mark was away when this happened. The servant was stretched on the ground in front of the judge’s chair and the torture was about to begin. Suddenly the tools broke in the executioner’s hands as Saint Mark appeared in the air above. He had come to save his servant. Tintoretto’s picture shows Saint Mark rushing through the air above the executioner， but nobody in the picture， except a little baby， has noticed him. All are looking at the broken tools of the executioner.
When Tintoretto was an old man he was given the order to paint a huge picture of Paradise. The picture was to be large enough to cover a wall space thirty feet high and seventy-four feet long.
Tintoretto set to work and finished the largest painting on canvas in the world. His “Paradise” shows Christ and the Madonna seated on clouds in heaven. Below them are crowds of saints and angels， over five hundred figures altogether. This painting was Tintoretto’s last great work. He died soon after finishing it.
Some of Tintoretto’s paintings were much better than others. The Venetians used to say he had three pencils， one of gold， one of silver， and one of iron. By this they meant that some of his pictures were wonderfully done， some were only fairly well done， and some were poorly done. Perhaps this is why people have had so many different opinions about Tintoretto.
Venice had great painters after Tintoretto. But certainly the Bellinis， Giorgione， Titian， and Tintoretto are enough great men to squeeze into one little chapter！
丁托列托的画室门框上有这样的字句：“米开朗琪罗的手法和提香的色彩。”不过色彩方面，丁托列托甚至比提香更有突破。比如，提香最常用的颜色是金褐色、亮红色和绿色，而丁托列托晚期的画作还使用了很多柔和的灰色，而且还用银色代替了金色做修饰。
《圣马可的奇迹》（本页左侧画作——编者注）是丁托列托另一幅著名的画作。绘画的故事背景是，圣马可有一个非常忠诚的仆人，但这个仆人因为是基督徒而被判酷刑处死。当事情发生时，圣马可并不在家。就在这个仆人被平放在法官席前的地面上即将行刑的时候，突然行刑者手中的刑具无故断裂了，因为圣马可从天而来，解救了自己的仆人。
画中，圣马可飞在行刑者上方的空中，但是除了一个婴儿没人注意到他，因为所有人都盯着行刑者手中断裂的刑具。
晚年时，丁托列托还奉命绘制一幅巨大的、名为《天堂》的作品。这幅画非常大，需要覆盖长74英尺（约22.6米），高30英尺（约9.1米）的墙壁。
丁托列托接下了这项工作，并且完成了世界上最大的一幅帆布画。《天堂》这幅画一共有五百多个人物，画的是耶穌和圣母马利亚端坐于云朵之上，下面是成群的圣人和天使。这幅画是丁托列托的遗作之笔，他在完成这幅画之后没多久就离世了。
丁托列托绘画作品的质量有好、有差。威尼斯人常说他有三支笔，“金笔、银笔，还有一支铁笔”。就是说丁托列托有些画很好，有些画还可以，但还有一些画就不怎么样了。也许这就是为什么人们对丁托列托有着不同评价的原因。
威尼斯城其实在丁托列托之后还出现了许多大画家。但这一章只够挤下这几位了：贝里尼父子三人、乔尔乔涅、提香，以及丁托列托。
Word Study
undertaking /'?nd?'te?k??/ n. 任务;项目
Organizing the show has been a massive undertaking.
glowing /'ɡl????/ adj. 热情洋溢的
He spoke of her performance in the film in glowing terms.
torture /'t??t??（r）/ v. 拷打;拷问
Despite being tortured she proclaimed her innocence.