Mystic Marriage of St Catherine (detail)
by TINTORETTO, Oil on canvas
The painting belongs to the series on the wall of the Sala del Collegio by Tintoretto. The sequence of paintings extols the devotion of the doges. The scenes are rather contrived, since they had to combine the doges’ portraits with a votive subject. Tintoretto invariably managed to avoid the repetitiveness that tended to mar the decorations in the palace after his death. This painting shows the Doge Francesco Donà surrounded by Prudence, Temperance, Eloquence, and Charity.