This is a detail of a painting by Gentile Bellini called The Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo, which dates from 1500. The painting was commissioned by the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, a Venetian lay brotherhood that owned and venerated a fragment of the True Cross. They commissioned a series of paintings by a number of artists to show the history of the relic and the miracles performed by it, especially those in the many processions it was carried in. In this painting the relic has jumped into the canal, and only a virtuous member of the scuola, Andrea Vendramin, can catch it, demonstrating his and his family’s virtue. Witnesses to this miraculous event line the shores of the canal, here, a cortege of noble women, all dressed to the nines and reacting appropriately to the event unfolding before their eyes.