1570 · Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice

Many years after the competition for the tondi on the ceiling of the Libreria Marciana (in which Tintoretto did not take part), the painter was asked to complete the decoration of the reading room. Five of the figures in niches are by Tintoretto who for once refrained from crowded narrative scenes and concentrated on reproducing effects of light on the strained pose of a single figure.