The Baroque high altar arrangement, designed by Longhena himself, shelters an iconic Byzantine "Madonna and Child" of the 12th or 13th century, known as "Panagia Mesopantitissa" in Greek ("Madonna the mediator" or "Madonna the negotiator") and came from Candia in 1669 after the fall of the city to the Ottomans. The statuary group at the high altar, depicting "The Queen of Heaven expelling the Plague" (1670) is a theatrical Baroque masterpiece by the Flemish sculptor Josse de Corte. It originally held Alessandro Varotari's painting of the Virgin holding a church that the painter submitted with his architectural proposal.