Minerva scaccia Marte dalla Pace e dall'Abbondanza

This canvas was made to be seen by people who were nervous. It hangs in the Anticollegio of the Doge's Palace, the room where foreign ambassadors waited before Venice's inner council would receive them. Around 1576 Tintoretto painted four mythological scenes for these walls, and each holds a message for that waiting visitor. Here Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, steps between Mars, the god of war, and two seated women who stand for Peace and Abundance, and firmly turns Mars away. The point is easy to read while you wait: under Venice's prudent rule, war is kept off and the city stays at peace and prosperous. Tintoretto ran a busy workshop and worked at speed, and the loose, hurried brush his critics complained of is right there in the swirl of Mars being pushed back.