From the extant Scuola dei Mercanti in the sestiere of Cannaregio, the large canvas adorning the Sala dell’Albergo above the entrance door came to the Gallerie dell’Accademia in 1812 after the Napoleonic Suppression. Beneath the tympanum we can see the symbol of the confraternity (a hand blessing the cross), while at the base of the plinths of the columns we have the coats of arms of the commissioning Cadabrazzo and Cottoni families. The pronounced horizontal configuration gave Veronese the chance to experiment with a particularly virtuoso conception, where a succession of parallel planes can all be read converging onto a single central vanishing point in the vast empty space between the angel and the Virgin. Particularly admired by contemporaries, the work was not particularly fortunate in that heavy repainting made it difficult to determine its stylistic form, at least until its recent restoration (2007), which, thanks to infrared reflectography, allowed us to read the date 1578 and the refined preparatory sketch for the buildings in charcoal. One of these buildings in the centre of the background was recognised as related to the church of Santa Maria Nuova in Vicenza.