The Virgin Appearing to St Philip Neri

This altarpiece stands more than 11 feet tall, and Tiepolo painted it in 1740 for a church in Camerino, a hill town in the Marche. The kneeling man in a priest's vestments is Philip Neri, a Roman priest of the 16th century who founded the Oratorians and was loved for his warmth and jokes as much as his devotion. He was said to have had visions of the Virgin, and one such moment is what Tiepolo stages: Mary on a bank of cloud with the Christ child, tipping toward the old priest as he throws his arms open. Tiepolo was the most sought-after decorator in Venice, at ease with exactly this kind of airborne, weightless heaven. The saint's plain dark cassock anchors the whole rising swirl of colour above him.