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The much-feared Consiglio dei Dieci (Council of Ten) was responsible for Venice's security. Its meeting-place, the Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci is the first of a series of rooms used for the administration of justice. Paolo Veronese and Gian Battista Zelotti made their Venetian debut here as the assistants of the painter Giovan Battista Ponchino. Zelotti's oval painting is one of the nine surviving paintings in the ceiling. (The tenth was confiscated by the art commissars of Napoleon and removed to Paris. Now it is replaced by a copy.)
Regarding the oval paintings in the ceiling, Zelotti could match Veronese for colour and light, but his allegories tend to be rather clumsy, as can be seen in this painting.
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