Time, the Virtues, and Envy Freed by Evil

An important phase in Venetian art began with the commission for ornamental paintings in the rooms of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), where the Grand Council was held. The choice fell on a modest painter, Giovan Battista Ponchino, who wisely gave a free hand to his two young and brilliant assistants, Giovan Battista Zelotti and Paolo Veronese. These youthful masters recently came to Venice from the mainland and had already made their name with decorations in villas in the Veneto region. Paolo Veronese was soon to reach the zenith of fame; Zelotti’s career was less brilliant but he, too, helped to create a new style of allegorical secular painting in Venice.