Tintoretto’s depiction of Christ’s miracle—when he is said to have fed a crowd of five thousand with just five barley loaves and two fish brought by a boy—is almost cinematic in its scale and effect. Its broad, horizontal composition is typical of Venetian paintings designed to decorate the lateral wall of a chapel, confraternity hall, or the long, central hall (called the portego) of a palace. Tintoretto relied on assistants to produce these vast works. In the early nineteenth century, this painting and Tintoretto’s Christ Washing His Disciples’ Feet (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto) were in the Farnham Collection, Ireland, and may have been pendants.
?Carlo and Domenico Ruzini, Venice (in 1642); ?Giovanni Antonio Ruzini, Palazzo Sant'Apollinare, Venice (in 1787; inv., 1787); ?Sir Joshua Reynolds, London (until d. 1792; his estate sale, Christie's, London, March 14, 1795, no. 49, as "Christ feeding the multitude," by Tintoretto, for 55 gns., bought in by Offley; his estate sale, Phillips, London, May 9, 1798, no. 33, for 2-1/2 gns. to Tresham); [Nairne, Dublin, until 1839; sold to Farnham]; Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham, Farnham, Cavan, Ireland (1839–d. 1868); Barons Farnham, Farnham (1868–1900); Arthur Kenlis Maxwell, 11th Baron Farnham, Farnham (1900–1913; sold to Douglas); [R. Langton Douglas, London, 1913; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Venetian Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," May 1–September 2, 1974, no catalogue.
Carlo Ridolfi. Vita di Giacopo Robusti detto il Tintoretto. Venice, 1642, p. 72, mentions a picture of this subject by Tintoretto in the collection of Senators Carlo and Domenico Ruzini, Venice, possibly this work.
Inventory of Giovanni Antonio Ruzini's Palazzo Sant'Apollinare. 1787 [Archivio di Stato, Venice, Giudici di petizion, B. 482/147/No. 17; see Ref. McTavish 1981], lists a large painting of this subject, with no artist given, possibly this work.
Robert Langton Douglas. Letter to Edward Robinson. February 24, 1913, states that it dates from Tintoretto's last period, and is in a perfect state of preservation.
B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "An Important Tintoretto." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8 (May 1913), pp. 100–101, ill. opp. p. 100, calls it a late work; notes Tintoretto's painting of the same subject in the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, but finds the MMA picture to be more similar to his "Gathering of Manna" in San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.
"City Gains Valuable Tintoretto Picture." [unknown New York newspaper] (1913), p. ? [found in Walt Kuhn scrapbook of press clippings documenting the Armory Show, vol. 2, 1913; Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution].
"Fine Tintoretto at Metropolitan." New York Times (May 13, 1913), p. 10.
August L. Mayer. "The Miracle of the Distribution of the Loaves and Fishes by Jacopo Tintoretto." Art in America 2 (August 1914), pp. 342, 345–46, 349, fig. 1, dates it "not later than 1560, and very probably some years earlier"; considers it a pendant to a lost painting of Moses Striking the Rock, known through a sketch in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt.
August L. Mayer. Letter to Bryson Burroughs. November 28, 1914, dates it before 1550.
F. P. B. Osmaston. The Art and Genius of Tintoret. London, 1915, vol. 2, p. 177.
Detlev von Hadeln. "Early Works by Tintoretto—II." Burlington Magazine 41 (December 1922), p. 288 n. 8, calls it "scarcely earlier" than the end of the 1560s and states incorrectly that it was formerly in the collection of John Ruskin.
Erich von der Bercken and August L. Mayer. Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1923, vol. 1, pp. 54, 178, 199–200; vol. 2, pl. 14, date it 1544–47; assume that it was commissioned for an unknown brotherhood.
Mary Pittaluga. Il Tintoretto. Bologna, 1925, p. 281, dates it before 1548 and repeats the erroneous Ruskin provenance [see Ref. Hadeln 1922].
Adolfo Venturi. Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 9, part 4, La pittura del Cinquecento. Milan, 1929, p. 616 n. 1.
François Fosca. Tintoret. Paris, 1929, p. 144.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 562, lists it as an early work by Tintoretto.
Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 483.
Wart Arslan. "Argomenti per la cronologia del Tintoretto." Critica d'arte 2 (August 1937), p. XXX.
[Erich von der] Bercken inAllgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 33, Leipzig, 1939, pp. 190, 194.
Harry B. Wehle. "Tintoretto's Finding of Moses." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34 (December 1939), p. 276, calls it an early work.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, pp. 199–200, ill., suggests that it might be the work mentioned by Ridolfi [see Ref. Ridolfi 1642]; notes a replica formerly in the Palazzo Giovanelli, Venice.
Erich von der Bercken. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942, pp. 64, 98 n. 25, p. 118, no. 250, pl. 124, dates it about 1566–72; repeats the erroneous Ruskin provenance.
Luigi Coletti. Il Tintoretto. 2nd ed. Bergamo, 1944, p. 22, compares it with the version in the Contini Bonacossi collection, Florence (formerly Palazzo Giovanelli, Venice; later Stanley Moss, New York).
Hans Tietze. Tintoretto. London, 1948, pp. 36, 356, fig. 9, dates it 1544–47.
Hans Tietze. "Bozzetti di Jacopo Tintoretto." Arte veneta 5 (1951), p. 60, calls it an early work.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 95.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. London, 1957, vol. 1, p. 176.
Paintings from Irish Collections. Exh. cat., Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. Dublin, 1957, p. 11, under no. 27, calls it a pendant to "Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples," also from the Farnham collection (now Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto); mentions a catalogue of the Farnham collection of 1843.
Rodolfo Pallucchini inEnciclopedia universale dell'arte. Vol. 13, Venice, 1965, col. 944, calls it a replica with many variations of the Contini Bonacossi painting.
Pierluigi De Vecchi inL'opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970, p. 101, no. 140, ill., dates it about 1560.
Anna Pallucchini. Tintoretto. English ed. [1st ed., 1969]. London, 1971, p. 14, implies a date in the mid-1550s.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 200, 279, 606.
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian School. New York, 1973, pp. 71–72, pl. 86, tentatively date it to the late 1540s; call it probably a companion to the Toronto picture of Christ washing the disciples' feet, adding that "the subject matter and the large size of the two pictures seem to indicate that they were intended to decorate a hall or refectory in a confraternity or convent".
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston, 1974, p. 253.
Francis Broun. Draft of Ref. Broun 1987. 1977, states that "a connection cannot be positively established" between this work and the painting of this subject by Tintoretto included in the two auctions of Joshua Reynolds's collection; gives details of the Reynolds sales.
Denys Sutton. "Robert Langton Douglas, Part III, XIV: Agent for the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 109 (June 1979), p. 423, fig. 27.
David McTavish inThe Arts of Italy in Toronto Collections, 1300–1800. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 1981, p. 43, under no. 31, discusses the New York and Toronto paintings as companion pieces and calls them relatively early works; tentatively identifies them with two works listed in a 1787 inventory of Giovanni Antonio Ruzini's palazzo in Venice [see Ref. Ruzini 1787].
Rodolfo Pallucchini and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto. Vol. 2, 2 vols., Le opere sacre e profane. Venice, 1982, vol. 1, pp. 170–71, no. 179; vol. 2, figs. 238–39 (overall and detail), date it about 1555.
Francis Broun. "Sir Joshua Reynolds' Collection of Paintings." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1987, vol. 2, p. 314.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 80, ill. p. 81.
Bert W. Meijer. "Flemish and Dutch Artists in Venetian Workshops: The Case of Jacopo Tintoretto." Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer and Titian. Exh. cat., Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Milan, 1999, p. 143, includes it among paintings by Tintoretto with landscapes executed by northern painters working in Tintoretto's shop.
Andrea Bayer. "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 63 (Summer 2005), pp. 28–30, fig. 23 (color), suggests that the exaggerated poses of the figures may derive from the artist's study of Michelangelo.
Robert Echols and Frederick Ilchman. "Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology." Jacopo Tintoretto. Ed. Miguel Falomir. Madrid, 2009, pp. 140–41, date it 1570s or 1580s and attribute it to Tintoretto's workshop.
Michel Hochmann. Colorito: La technique des peintres vénitiens à la Renaissance. Turnhout, 2015, p. 207, fig. 100 (color).
A seventeenth-century cassetta frame, possibly from central Italy, parcel gilt and painted to simulate walnut (see figs. 1–3 above). The frame has been reduced vertically and enlarged horizontally, perhaps reusing the original fragments.
A smaller picture of the same subject was with Stanley Moss, New York, in 1982. It was formerly in the Contini Bonacossi collection, Florence, and the Palazzo Giovanelli, Venice. Another version is in the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice.
This work may have been painted as a companion to Christ Washing His Disciples' Feet (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto), which, like The Met's painting, came from the Farnham collection.
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