Saints Mark, George and Nicholas free Venice from the Demons (Sea Storm)

In 1528 the Venetian painter Palma il Vecchio died with this canvas still unfinished, and the younger Paris Bordone was brought in to complete it. It was made for the Scuola Grande di San Marco, the confraternity devoted to the city's patron saint, and it tells a piece of local legend rather than scripture. During a terrible storm one night, so the story went, an old fisherman ferried three passengers across the lagoon: Saint Mark, Saint George and Saint Nicholas, who had come to drive off the demons stirring up the sea and threatening Venice. Bordone shows them mid-crossing, the small boat pitching on black water while shadowy fiends scatter before the saints. The tale was tied to a companion picture Bordone also painted, in which the same fisherman later brings Saint Mark's ring to the Doge as proof of the miracle. Both hung in the same hall, so a visitor read them as two halves of one night's events.