Paolo Veronese was an Italian Renaissance painter; one of the great masters of the Venetian school. Originally named Paolo Caliari, he was called Veronese from his native city of Verona.The fire in the Doges Palace in 1574 also destroyed the decoration in the Sala del Collegio. Restoration work commenced immediately, and Veronese was commissioned to do the ceiling paintings.

The picture shows paintings by Paolo Veronese in the gilt wooden ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.The three central panels (Mars and Neptune; Faith and Religion; Venice Ruling with Justice and Peace) are surrounded by eight more canvases of alternating "T" and "L" shapes containing personifications of the Christian Virtues, interspersed on the longer sides by six more monochrome panels with Scenes from the Greek and Roman History. The allegorical program, the glorification of the "good governance" of the Venetian Republic, is clearly defined in the inscriptions that appear in the coffers next to the three biggest canvases: "Robur imperii" above Mars and Neptune, "Nunquam derelicta" and "Reipublicae fundamentum" above and below Faith and Religion and "Custodes libertatis" under Venice Ruling with Justice and Peace.