Votive Scene

This canvas was one half of a pair, and its partner explains it. That other painting showed the doge Alvise Mocenigo kneeling before Saint Justina, with a line recalling the sea battle of Lepanto in 1571, when a Christian fleet beat the Ottoman navy on the seventh of October, Justina's feast day. Venice never forgot the date. Painted around 1640, della Vecchia's half is an ex voto, a thank-offering for a grace received. A richly dressed woman receives an angel who carries a skull, a reminder of death, while John the Evangelist seems to give her instruction and the martyr Justina appears above her. The saint from the Lepanto victory watches over a private act of devotion, tying one woman's promise to the city's proudest memory.