Return of the Prodigal Son

The subject is the parable from Luke's Gospel, the son who squandered everything and is welcomed home again, but Bernardino Licinio treats it as an excuse to show off the world he actually lived in: the Venetian mainland around the middle of the 16th century, when the city's wealthy families were building grand villas out on the terra firma. The reunion of father and son happens almost in passing, in the foreground, while behind them fashionable courtiers gather, servants trumpet the news from a terrace, a page from Africa watches, and a flamingo strolls across the patio. The deep blue Licinio uses for the clothes was among the most expensive colours of the day, ground from lapis lazuli that Venetian ships brought from mines in the East.