Premise: The extravagant ballroom and soaring allegorical frescoes like Giambattista Tiepolo's Merit between Virtue and Nobility in the Throne Room (actually for Rezzonico weddings) and others, more wistful, by Guardi all catch the tone of a declining Venice and the frivolous lives of the idle rich.

Hypothesis: All of the architecture show Italy at the height of its power.
Relation: contradiction