Saint Christophe

In 1523 Venice elected Andrea Gritti as its doge, a tough old soldier and diplomat, and the young Titian was fast becoming the Republic's leading painter. Gritti had him fresco this giant near the private stair that linked the doge's rooms to his chapel, so that he passed it every day. The subject is Saint Christopher, the giant of legend who carried the Christ child across deep water. Titian sets that crossing in the Venetian lagoon itself: look to the horizon and you can pick out the bell tower of Saint Mark's. Tradition holds he finished the whole thing in three days.