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On the Loggetta, there are three oblong allegorical reliefs representing allegories of the island of Crete (left), of Venice in the form of Justice (centre), and of the island of Cyprus (right). Two of them are by Sansovino's pupils Danese Cattaneo and Tiziano Minio, but in that in the middle the subtle gradations of the surface, the ambivalent movement of the central figure, and the pure classical forms of the reclining nudes all reveal Sansovino's hand.
The picture shows the Allegory of Cyprus. Cyprus, annexed to Venice in 1489 and ceded to the Ottoman Turks in 1573, is shown as Venus who was born from the waters near the island.
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