"Moses Striking the Rock"

Characteristic of Tintoretto's mature style, here as in so many of his paintings, the artist renders the story in the moment of highest drama. The powerful tenebrism, or contrast between light and dark, symbolically contrasts the light from heaven against the earthly figures in darkness below, as well as serving to illuminate Moses who stands nearly central in the composition. The feeling of movement is accented by Tintoretto's sketch-like quality, for which he remains best known, and the depiction of strong muscular bodies contorted in a variety of positions to increase the overall theatrical effect of the scene. 

Tintoretto's treatment of space was free and fluid rather than adhering to a unified, strictly rational perspective; he structures scenes based on relationships among the figures. His skill in these paintings was so well received that he went on to create the works for the remaining spaces within the Sala Superiore for the Confraternity of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco making this project collectively his greatest commission.