Triumph of Venice

In 1577 a great fire tore through the Doge's Palace and destroyed the decoration of its largest room, the hall where the Great Council, the assembly of patrician noblemen who governed Venice, met and voted. Veronese was among the painters brought in to replace what had burned, and for the centre of the new ceiling he painted Venice herself, a crowned woman enthroned above the clouds and modelled on images of the Virgin Mary, with a winged Victory leaning down to crown her and the towers of the city's shipyards at her side. It sits directly overhead, built to be seen from far below, the figures tipping and foreshortening as they rise. The men who ran the Republic debated beneath the sight of their own city being crowned.