Fortune

This panel is small enough to hold in two hands, and even its subject won't sit still. A woman balances in a little boat that seems about to tip, cradling a smooth globe, while naked children wade and push at the water around her. The Venetian catalogues still can't agree what to call her. Some label her Fortune, others Inconstancy, and both fit a figure perched on water with a sphere that could roll away at any moment. Bellini painted it in Venice around 1490, one of a small set of these puzzling allegories. In a city built on water, where a shift of trade or a bad season could remake a family's standing, that unsteady boat needed no explaining.