Calumny of Apelles

Calumny of Apelles combines ideals of Renaissance art with an early view of the square outside the church of Saints Giovanni and Paolo in Venice. It responds to a challenge made by the 15th-century theorist Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) that artists should recreate a lost work by the Greek painter Apelles. Here, a king, advised by Suspicion and Ignorance, sits in judgment with the ears of a donkey. Led by Envy and followed by Deception and Treachery, Calumny (Slander) drags Innocence before the king. After the Piazza San Marco, this was the most important square at a time when the Republic's military confidence was at its peak. Andrea Verrocchio's (c. 1435-88) equestrian statue of Venetian mercenary captain Bartolommeo Colleoni (c. 1395/1400-75) was unveiled in the piazza in 1495, the year the plaza was paved.