The Goddess Minerva, oil on canvas, 44 x 33 cm, framed, 

With his oeuvre being almost completely inspired from sixteenth-century masters, Pietro della Vecchia is rightly considered the last great representative of the Late Renaissance in Venice. His interest in the rich artistic legacy of his native region originated during his apprenticeship in the workshop of Padovanino, who frequently borrowed from such artists as Titian. Between 1640 and 1673, Pietro della Vecchia completed the cartoons for the famous mosaic frescoes in the Basilica of San Marco (with interruptions), having been entrusted with the commission by the Republic of Venice. Apart from these historicizing works, Vecchia was praised by his contemporaries for his grotesque decorations, as well as for his freely invented small-sized works. In Rome, the artist had familiarized himself with Caravaggio’s oeuvre, and Bernardo Strozzi had a great impact on his art as well. The present painting belongs to a group of similar works by the Venetian, all of which show the same treatment of surface textures and bluish shimmering armours, such as his David in the Chrysler Museum of Art or Man in a Plumed Red Hat in the National Gallery in Prague. In this context, his Man in Armour in an English private collection may be regarded as a prototype. Particularly the impasto application of the paint layers in the armours’ white highlights and in the plumes of feathers, which is also a conspicuous feature of our painting, reveals Vecchia’s origins in the great colouristic tradition of Venice.