St. Mark Crowning the Virtues

In the Doge's Palace in Venice, anyone summoned by the Council of Ten waited their turn in an anteroom called the Sala della Bussola, named after the large wooden booth that screens the door to the inner rooms. This canvas was the centre of that room's ceiling. Veronese painted it between 1553 and 1556, in his mid-twenties. Saint Mark, patron of the city, swoops down holding out a crown, with an angel carrying his book, and below him sit the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, among angels. Charity is the one with a child in her arms. The painting was taken down in 1797 and reached Paris the next year, and its paint layer was later transferred onto a new canvas. A copy fills the ceiling in Venice today.