Italian, Venetian, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints', 1478-85

In this enormous picture, the doge – the elected head of the Venetian Republic – kneels before the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, asking for her support for the Venetian state. This is painting at its most official: the doge holds a banner showing the lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice, and wears ceremonial dress. The inscription on the altarpiece in the centre reads: ‘Protect the city, the Venetian State and the Venetian Senate and, if I merit it, look down with favour on me, Virgin.’

It was traditional for each doge to commission a painting of himself with the Virgin and saints, to be placed in the Senate or Doge’s Palace, in thanks for achieving his office (another example of such a picture is the so-called Barberigo Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, now in San Pietro Martire, Murano). This is Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (1478–85). The family’s coat of arms is visible on the tails of the banner and on the front of the altar, and is being presented by Saint John the Baptist, his patron saint. The Mocenigo were one of the most renowned patrician families of Venice, seven of whom served as doge, and two portraits of Giovanni Mocenigo by Giovanni Bellini clearly show the same man. On his head is a distinctive horned hat, the corno ducale – also seen in Bellini’s Doge Leonardo Loredan – made of red and gold silk over a white linen coif, with long strings tied under the chin. His mantle of red velvet cloth of gold falls in deep folds to the ground, while on his shoulders is a ceremonial ermine cape.

Immediately before him the Virgin sits in a classical stone alcove, deposited in the mountainous landscape like a monumental piece of garden furniture. On her knee a fair, curly-haired Christ raises his hand to bless the kneeling doge: Mocenigo’s prayers seem to be answered. Beside him flutters a goldfinch, the bird thought to have pulled thorns from Christ’s forehead at the Crucifixion, which the bird came to symbolise.

As well as invoking the Virgin’s general aid, the painting might also be connected to the plague – there were outbreaks in Venice in 1478/9 and in 1485, while Mocenigo was doge. Saint Christopher, who stands behind the Virgin, was sometimes invoked against the plague and the vase on the altar perhaps contains medicine.

The painting’s condition makes it difficult to attribute securely to any particular artist, though it has been associated with Vittore Carpaccio, Lazzaro Bastiani and both Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. It may have lost something at the top – the vase hanging in the middle was perhaps originally attached to a swag of fruit.