AUTHOR: Alessandro Varotari, known as il Padovanino
DATE: 1638
CENTURY: 17th century
TECHNIQUE: Oil on canvas
LOCATION: Left nave, near the altar of Saint Albert (first left altar); on map number 12
The painting, signed by the artist, has a complex and articulated composition with numerous characters: soldiers in armor, some on horseback, women, children. On the left, there are sturdy fluted columns of a classical temple, between which two female statues with soft and realistic forms can be found; on the right, a series of buildings with colonnades and a wide loggia with a balustrade of small columns. Saint Liberalis is depicted in the center of the scene, dressed in red and blue, pointing to the two innocent condemned men, demanding their absolution. On the left, a man seated on a throne observes from above.
Padovanino, born in Padua and early moved to Venice, continued to keep the tradition of 16th-century painting alive, renewing it with virtuosic compositions like this one.
