The Glorification of Andrea Doria

This is a modello, or preparatory work, for a large ceiling painting that used to be in the Palazzo Doria in Rome. Andrea V Doria (1707–65), a descendant of the individual lauded in the painting, commissioned this work in the late 1700s. It shows Andrea Doria (1466–1560), an important Genoese military figure perhaps most celebrated for his exploits ridding the Mediterranean of pirates as commander of the Genoese navy. Along with the ancient Roman hero Pompey the Great—another famed pirate hunter—and the city of Genoa (personified as a kneeling woman), he is portrayed here astride the deck of a ship, a mast towering above. The painting’s extremely low perspective places the viewer on the rocky coast, looking up.