jacopo tintoretto created a symbolic drama with scenes from the old and new testaments. opposite the descent of manna from heaven, is his version of the last supper. tintoretto organized the perspective so the paintings were best seen from the altar steps by worshipers taking the bread and wine of the mass. christ is shown distributing the bread that will be his body in the mass. up above, the great glory of angels-- gossamer forms painted with broad, sweeping strokes-- articulates the darkness as light suffused, a holy presence. down below, dogs play... cats, animals. the hierarchy that is implicit in tintoretto's painting, that is, the hierarchy that runs from the base level of animals, of the dogs, to the level of the angels up above, is a hierarchy that's almost inherent in the painting of 16th-century venice, a hierarchy from the material to the spiritual. this is almost a game that tintoretto plays in many of his paintings, giving us, as it were, footholds of substance, footholds of reality, just enough to convince us of the reality itself of the painting. and then