Retirement of Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari, subject of Delacroix's 1855 painting

The Old Man Overstayed His Welcome.

Eugène Delacroix, 1855. The painting shows the fifteenth-century Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari, who ruled longer than any other doge: 34 years. Foscari had a most interesting biography, but the choicest episode is this: by then he had become so thoroughly sick to death of everyone that, after several attempts to pack the old fellow off into retirement, members of the so-called Council of Ten came to him and offered a choice: step down amicably and draw a pension of 1,500 ducats a year, or go by way of a coup, with confiscation of his property. And, you know, he accepted the pension, and was promptly uncrowned. A week later he died of a heart attack. But he kept his property