Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) critics have historically viewed the character negatively, highlighting her theft of her father's gold, her betrayal of his trust, and her apparently selfish motivations and aimless behaviour. In her 1980 survey, "In Defense of Jessica: The Runaway Daughter in "The Merchant of Venice"", Camille Slights calls out Arthur Quiller-Couch's opinion in the 1926 "The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare" as an extreme but representative example: Slights sees this as a consequence of sympathetic readings of Shylock, where the play is seen primarily as exposing Christian hypocrisy, and his actions merely natural responses to ostracism and prejudice. In such a reading Jessica's
Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo The Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo (Italian: "Miracolo della Croce caduta nel canale di San Lorenzo") is a painting by Italian Renaissance artist Gentile Bellini, dating from 1500. It is now housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. The painting was commissioned for the Grand Hall of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, the seat of the eponymous brotherhood in Venice. The commission included a total of nine large canvasses, by prominent artists of the time such as Bellini, Perugino, Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Mansueti,