Glorification of the podestà Girolamo Priuli

This large painting, dating back to 1649, was once part of a series of lunettes made by Jacopo Bassano, Giulio Carpioni and by Francesco Maffei himself for the Council Chamber in the Palazzo del Podestà in Vicenza and now kept in the Civic Art Gallery.

In this grandiose work, as in the other paintings in the Palazzo del Podestà, Maffei “treats the commemorative secular theme in an ornamental and baroque sense, developing its allegorical and narrative aspects, mixing the earthly with the celestial, fantasy with portraiture” (Villa).

The podestà Girolamo Priuli is portrayed in the foreground: the firmness and determination of his gaze, facing the onlooker, seem almost to contrast with the affable appearance and the full profile of his face. Behind him, next to his son Girolamo, appear two elegant female figures: one holding a lamb in her arms, symbolises Meekness, the other, holding a heart in her right hand, represents Faithfulness and probably alludes to Vicenza’s devotion to the Serene Republic of Venice. At top left appears the Virgin, suspended amidst the clouds and flanked by Saint Mark (patron of Venice) and Saint Jerome (patron of the Priuli family) accompanied by two lions that identify them.

The most significant element of the work is the broad view of the city of Vicenza - easily recognisable for the presence of some of its most important buildings - lying under a dark sky that suggests a storm is looming.

The layout of the composition of the painting has no perspective depth, so “reality and unreality are entwined in the same flow of time” (Pallucchini).