# The Descent into Hell [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TINTORETTO, Jacopo]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 342 x 373 cm ## Commentary This monumental composition is constructed on two diagonally intersecting axes of movement: Christ is flying down above left, while Adam and Eve approach him below right. In the other diagonal two angels - probably Satan below left and Michael above right - are storming into the outermost corners of an overpopulated Limbo. The governing board of the Scuola del Sacramento of San Cassiano, who had commissioned the picture, anticipated their own redemption by having themselves depicted as the righteous of the Old Testament, directly behind the liberated figures of Adam and Eve, thus obtaining a good view of the naked Eve. This radiant figure, which Tintoretto prepared from a female nude in one of his very rare drawings, had to be hidden later by little clouds. ## Related artworks - [A Philosopher \(detail\)]() - [A Philosopher]() - [Allegory of Faith]() - [Allegory of Fortune \(Felicità\)]() - [Allegory of Generosity]() - [Allegory of Goodness]() - [Allegory of Happiness]() - [Allegory of the Scuola della Carità]() - [Allegory of the Scuola della Misericordia]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Marco]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Teodoro]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()