PALMA GIOVANE
(b. 1548, Venezia, d. 1628, Venezia)

Pasquale Cicogna Hearing Mass Celebrated in the Oratory of the Crociferi (detail)

1568-87
Oil on canvas
Oratory, Ospedaletto dei Crociferi, Venice

The future doge received notice of his election while attending mass here. The poetry of daily life, portrayed by the elderly women receiving host, their faces framed by black and white shawls, the bunches of flowers overflowing from Murano glass vases on the altar, renders this decorative cycle unique.