Il doge Antonio Grimani in ginocchio davanti alla Fede

Titian was asked to paint this votive picture in 1555, showing an earlier Doge, Antonio Grimani, kneeling before a figure of Faith. He then took his time, as he often did, and the canvas was still unfinished in his workshop when he died, past 85, in 1576. That slowness turned out to be lucky. Fire tore through the Doge's Palace twice, in 1574 and again in 1577, destroying many paintings hung in its halls. This one survived precisely because it had never been installed. A relative, Marco Vecellio, completed it years later and was paid for the work in 1593, nearly 40 years after it was first ordered.