This is a detail from a remarkable 1548 painting by Tintoretto, which was once housed in the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice. Now it’s in the Gallery of the Accademia in Venice. The whole painting shows a miracle of St Mark as the saint flies out of the heavens to protect a slave who is being attacked for worshiping relics. It’s a classic Counter-Reformation piece, reconfirming forcefully the Catholic focus on the veneration of relics.  I picked out a detail of the nude body of the slave, the broken wooden clubs and loosed rope around him. One of the most difficult techniques for artists of the renaissance was foreshortening, and only the best masters could do it well. Here, Tintoretto shows his mastery not only of the nude male figure but also its foreshortening in space.