Jacopo Palma il Giovane, Leonardo Corona e il soffitto della chiesa di San Zulian: una «strada d’honore, e scala del Paradiso»

This essay analyses the genesis and significance of one of the most beautiful late 16th-century Venetian ceilings, painted by Palma il Giovane and Leonardo Corona. Commissioned by the church procurator and benefactor Gerolamo Vignola, who offered 1000 ducats in his will for its realisation, the ceiling paintings - from the imposing Apotheosis of St Zulian to the Virtues surrounding it - narrate the Christian soul's arduous journey to attain heavenly bliss. Cultural references are certainly to be found in Capuchin spirituality, to which Vignola, like the community of San Zulian, must have been very attached.