The painting is inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses. On the left we find the scene in which Apollo is preparing to kill the snake Python, of which however today we distinguish only the figure of Apollo, with the bow stretched, ready to inflict the final blow to the monster that was to be placed in front of him. Continue to the right where, in the center in the background, the dispute takes place between Apollo, on earth, and Cupid, in the sky on a cloud. Apollo boasts of his recent feat and denigrates the abilities of the boy Cupid as an archer; he decides to take revenge, shooting Apollo the arrow that will make him fall in love with the first girl he will see. Another arrow is prepared with the tip upside down in order to put the love of the woman who will be hit on the run: the nymph Daphne. Apollo begins to chase Daphne who, seeing herself reached, invokes the help of her father the god-river Peneus, (perhaps the very river that flows under the bridge). Her prayer is answered and she is represented in the act of transforming herself into a laurel.

This work is the only one in his collection, which the Marquis Manfredini had painted (he himself procured the walnut panel for the painter). The subject comes from Greek mythology: it refers to the hunting accident in which Cephalus kills his beloved Procris by mistake. While the unfortunate hero tries in vain to plug the wound caused by his spear, in the background Cupid mourns the end of a troubled love.

Penelope is at the loom intent on weaving that canvas with which she temporized in front of the marriage proposals of the suitors that she had promised to consider only when the canvas was finished. It is possible that the subject was chosen as a model of nuptial fidelity and sent to the future bride on the occasion of the stipulation of the marriage contract (this would also be testified by the bas-relief under the frame, in which some women go to obtain the spindles to be spun).

According to another interpretation, however, the solemn posture of the woman, the cold face and the arm that seems to hold a rod rather than a frame seem to be inspired by some model of ancient statuary. Also the bas-relief represented on the right probably shows Minerva who, in more manly clothes than the standing figure, teaches girls the art of weaving. The canvas is also purple while, as we know from the sources, the Laertes shroud woven by Penelope was white. On the other hand, if, pending further confirmation, the panel were part of the Petrucci series, the subject dealt with would be pertinent to the program of the cycle based on the myths relating to the mythical foundation of the city of Siena.

An angel emerges in a splendor of lights among the clouds of the night sky to give the shepherds the announcement of the birth of Jesus the Savior. Only one of them immediately gives him trembling attention; the others still sleep or are intent on caring for the animals.

This humble pastoral world - which Jacopo Bassano and his workshop know well and bring to the fore of great art - is the first recipient of the most amazing news: God became man. In the darkness of the night, a symbol of evil and sin, a simple shepherd lets himself be attracted by the new light, followed behind him by a sheep that raises its head: it is the first of that numerous flock of faithful that the Son of God has come. to gather.

Three very long ladders allow three men in skimpy robes, plus a fourth in modern clothes (perhaps a self-portrait of the painter himself), to take down the livid and lifeless body of Christ from the cross. His blood was entirely shed out of love and now it seems to have symbolically moved into John's red mantle: this is the disciple who remained under the cross until the end and collected the testimony of the water and blood that came from Jesus' side. .

In the left corner, Mary faints supported by the pious women; on the right on the ground lies the lying body of one of the robbers, while the other is carried away on the shoulder by a man of toil. In the calculation of the Jewish day, the setting of the sun begins the Sabbath and in order not to expose the bodies on the solemnity of the Passover, which is about to begin, it is necessary to give quickly burial.

The painter alludes to this by inserting the sky colored by the sunset lights in the background and allowing a glimpse of the door of the sepulcher.

This image of the face of Christ is probably inspired by the so-called legend of Edessa.

Francesco del Pugliese, Florentine merchant and patron, bought the central panel by the Flemish hand and commissioned the two side doors from Filippino Lippi. Lippi in those years (1487-1502) frescoed the chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista in SM Novella in Florence for Strozzi. This probably influenced the choice of subjects taken from the Johannine Gospel.

On the left Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well . In the right panel the meeting between Mary Magdalene and Jesus takes place in the garden of the sepulcher.

The work is almost composed by juxtaposing "decoupage" clippings from Leonardo's works. The Child is a literal reprise of the one in The Virgin of the Rocks (preserved in the Louvre), while the head of Joseph recalls the drawing studies that Leonardo conducted on the human figure.

Jerome is kneeling to study and translate Holy Scripture, when a voice from heaven calls him (symbolically represented by a trumpet) which makes him spin around and look upwards. It refers to an episode in his life: a vision he had during his first trip to Palestine, narrated in a letter from the same saint to Eutychius: "Suddenly I was grabbed in spirit and dragged in front of the Judge's seat ... I was asked to declare my condition and I replied that I was a Christian. But the Presider said: "You lie, you are Ciceronian, not a Christian. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be" ... Swearing I appealed to the name of the Lord: "O Lord, if I ever have books again worldly or I will read them, I will have denied you "" (Girolamo, ed. 1980, pp. 125-129).

The Virgin on the throne holds the Child on her knees who is caught in the act of crowning Saint Eulalia, patron saint of Barcelona, who was martyred very young in the fourth century in Spain. Behind the saint appears the "X" cross, one of her iconographic attributes: after the martyrdom, in fact, the lifeless body of Eulalia was exposed on a cross as a warning to those who intended to continue professing to be Christians. It is not yet known how the work of this Catalan painter reached Venice, it is clear only that it was donated to the Seminary in 1925.

The saint is in liturgical clothes and his halo is decorated with almost Kufic characters. He is holding a book on which rest the three golden spheres, stylization of the coin purses with which, according to legend, he saved the three daughters of a fallen nobleman from prostitution by offering them the necessary sums to prepare the dowry of each of them. , so quickly became brides.

The Virgin, seated on the throne, holds the Child Jesus in her arms who addresses the blessing spectator, standing upright and naked: Kneeling, stands a Benedictine abbot who has placed his miter on the step of the throne: it is perhaps Carrier Trevisan, but others identify him with Abbot Canal. On the left is St. Cyprian, owner of the abbey, in bishop's dress while holding the crosier. The right compartment bears St. Benedict, founder of the religious order who lived in the Murano abbey. Both saints are wrapped in sumptuous embroidered cloaks, decorated with pearls and closed with jeweled brooches. Above the central panel, a heavily repainted crescent represents the Eternal Father surrounded by angels.

The marble group depicts only a Magus who offers a gift to the Child Jesus, recognizing him as the Son of God; Mary, crowned like a queen, represents the Mother Church in whose lap Christ reigns as an emperor on the throne and blesses whoever approaches him. St. Joseph dresses like a medieval traveler and with his hand on his face meditates on the side of the scene, but he is ready to leave for Egypt to save the Child and his Mother, freeing him from the threat of Herod who wants to kill him.

Father Giannantonio Moschini (1842) says that the work was "donated" to the Seminary by Don Fortunato Maria Rosata, then Patriarchal Chancellor. Critical studies now agree on the hypothesis that the sculpture originally polychrome and belonged to a cycle on the Nativity conceived for the Basilica of San Marco. The detail rendition is exceptional; the high-value sculpture is attributed by stylistic affinity to the so-called Master of the Months of Ferrara (active in the early 13th century).

Like the bust of Pietro Zen, this leader came to the seminary as a gift from the noblewoman Chiara Zen countess Carlotti.

This head of Christ is a copy of the famous “Volto Santo” which is a crucifix-reliquary still venerated in Lucca inside the Church of San Martino. Merchants from Lucca, who lived in Venice, built their own chapel in the convent of the Serviti friars in Cannaregio around 1360-65.