LAZZARINI, Gregorio
(b. 1655, Venezia, d. 1730, Villabona)

Doge Morosini Offers the Reconquered Morea to Venice

1694
Oil on canvas
Palazzo Ducale, Venice

The Sala dello Scrutinio (Voting Hall) is the second largest hall of the Doge's Palace. The balloting and secret votes of the magistracies and the doge took place in this hall with the very complicated systems that the Venetian Republic had created to avoid intrigues and subterfuge during the elections and, above all, to ensure that the vote could not be bought especially from the poor nobility in favour of its richer equivalent.

In around 1694, an arch (Arco Morosini), designed by Antonio Gaspari, was raised by the Serenissima in the Sala dello Scrutinio in remembrance of the Doge Morosini's merits and the clamorous victories over the Turks. Gregorio Lazzarini was commissioned to decorate the arch. The paintings on the arch, Doge Morosini Offers the Reconquered Morea to Venice and Merit Offers the Command to Doge Morosini, represent an allegory of the election of Doge Morosini and the nomination of the four sea captains. The four staffs of command on the latter painting, carried by two winged cherubs, represents the four sea captains.