Explain how one Venetian Renaissance painting has been shaped by its political, social and/or cultural context.

In the early 1440s, the Vivarini workshop, ran by Antonio Vivarini and his partner Giovanni d'Alemagna, were commissioned to paint three opulent altarpieces for the Chapel of San Tarasio in the convent of San Zaccaria, Venice. Their patrons were Benedictine nuns, several of whom were influential members of society and independently wealthy, giving them the means to commission works of art. In my answer, I will focus upon the high altarpiece in the chapel, the largest of the three paintings and dated to 1444.The altarpiece comprises multiple separate panels within a gilded gothic frame; in altarpiece typology, it is known as a polyptych. Its iconography and function links it directly to the cultural setting of the convent of San Zaccaria, and Venice during the first half of the fifteenth century. An inscription on the frame reads that the altarpiece was commissioned by Abbess Elena Foscari and Prioress Marina Donato. Elena was sister of the leader of Venice, Doge Francesco Foscari. The altarpiece, which still stands in the place for which it was made – the apse of the Chapel of San Tarasio – depicts the namesakes of both nuns on the far right and left in sculpted form. A third inscription on the back of the altarpiece reads "in this chapel are many bodies that were given to the pious monastery by popes." The back of the altarpiece functioned as a catalogue of saints' relics, recording the remains of individuals linked to papal and civic history with portraits and inscriptions. Several relics were even contained within the polyptych itself, making it a reliquary-altarpiece.