The Rectors of Vicenza Silvano Cappello and Giovanni Moro kneeling before the Madonna enthroned between Saint Mark and Saint Vincent

The large canvas, signed and dated 1573, was once intended to decorate the hall of the Council of the One hundred and fifty in the Palazzo del Podestà in Vicenza, which was destroyed and then rebuilt following the bombing in 1945.

It was commissioned from Jacopo Bassano by the captain Silvano Cappello and by the podestà Giovanni Moro, rectors of Vicenza, in thanksgiving to the Madonna for having saved the city from the outbreak of plague in 1572. On that occasion some prisoners were pardoned who, as may be seen on the right of the painting, were released from prison by soldiers.

The monumental layout of the composition and the considerable dimensions of the canvas, which were new elements in the production of the painter from Bassano, offered the artist the possibility to compete with the contemporary production of Tintoretto and Veronese. The imposing architectural structure, after the manner of Tintoretto, in fact divides the composition into two large blocks, separated by the diagonal perspective of the staircase. The figures on the right are agile and dynamic, caught in extremely natural attitudes, whereas the group on the left, with the two rectors kneeling before the Virgin seated on the throne between Mark, patron saint of Venice, and Vincent, patron saint of Vicenza, is more static and composed.

It is a late work by Jacopo Bassano, who works here, perhaps collaborating with one of his sons, applying the colour almost in blobs, with rapid and impetuous brush strokes, alternating the shadows with sudden flashes of light, that bring out the most vivid and brilliant hues.