San Nicolo recognized bishop of Myras

What hangs here is a fragment of a bigger idea. Veronese painted it for the ceiling of San Nicolo della Lattuga, a Franciscan church near the Frari, around the time the building was reconsecrated in 1582. Up there the canvas had a shaped, many-lobed outline and was meant to be seen from far below, its figures sweeping upward. When the church was pulled down in the 19th century the painting was cut to the plain rectangle you see now, which is why the scene feels oddly cropped and close. The subject is an old legend about Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop who became the root of Santa Claus. The clergy of Myra, so the story goes, were told to choose their next bishop from whoever first entered the church at dawn. They found an unknown young priest named Nicholas at the door and acclaimed him on the spot. Veronese shows that moment, the reluctant man drawn forward into a role he never asked for.