Virtue and Nobility putting Ignorance to Flight

This painting is a modello (a painted sketch), for a ceiling fresco at the Villa Cordellina at Montecchio Maggiore, near Vicenza in northern Italy. This modello would have been shown to the client, the lawyer Carlo Cordellina (1703–1794), for his approval before the artist started work on the ceiling. 

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) depicts two central embracing figures, likely Virtue on the left, holding a laurel wreath, and Nobility on the right, holding a statuette. They are accompanied by Fame, blowing a trumpet, and a vanquished female figure, probably Ignorance. This allegorical painting relates to other wall decorations in the Villa’s salone, or reception room, which represent the mercy of conquerors, including the Continence of Scipio and the Family of Darins before Alexander. The theme of mercy among these allegorical scenes might be a reference to Cordellina’s position as a lawyer.