Portrait of Ottavio Strada

In 1567 both Titian and Tintoretto, the two great rivals of Venetian painting, were at work on the same family. Titian painted Jacopo Strada, the imperial antiquary who supplied ancient coins and sculpture to the courts of Europe. Tintoretto took the son, seventeen-year-old Ottavio, and staged him inside an allegory: a figure of Fortune leans in from above to pour a cornucopia of gold and silver coins into his hands, while behind him stands a statue of Venus he pointedly ignores. The coins are the point. Ottavio was being trained by his father to read and catalogue antiquities, and the shower of gold promises both the wealth and the learning of that trade. He would go on to work as an antiquary and metalwork designer himself.