Triumphal Arch of the Doge Nicolò Tron

Most of what survives by Vivarini is altarpieces, rows of saints under a calm light. This one has no saints at all. It is a painted triumphal arch of grey veined marble, and it honours a single man: Nicolò Tron, elected Doge of Venice in 1471. He held the office barely two years and died in 1473. Small winged putti clamber over the stonework holding shields, and at the very top two kneeling angels raise his coat of arms, crowned with the corno, the horned cap that was the doge's badge of office. An inscription runs across the arch urging Venetians to keep the laws of the Republic. The canvas hung for centuries in the Doge's Palace and only came to the Accademia in 1890.