In the Book of Various Expenses the small painting is mentioned several times. It was mentioned for the first time in May 1549, in Venice, before leaving for Ancona, where the work appears on the list of Lotto’s works that went to the lottery of 1550.While taking into account the difference in size between the two works, the eyes that rest on this small canvas cannot avoid a comparison, in search of similarities and distances, with the other Lotto-fight painting, with Saint Michael chasing away Lucifer. Following that of a few previous years, the “picture” testifies to one of the last forays of the Venetian painter into the sky of pagan divinities. On the one hand, the unsuccessful goddess Fortuna (Tyche in Greek), is depicted, according to one of the most widespread variants in the Renaissance Age, as a young naked woman in forcibly precarious balance on a sphere and propelled by a sail, therefore subject to the changing direction of the wind. On the other hand, there is triumphant Fortress, that virtue whose attributes are firmness, symbolized by the column, and courage, portrayed by the lion heads that grip her shoes. It is true that the broken sail is reminiscent of the Luciferian staff. This is also the case with the naked flesh of Fortuna and those of the prince of the rebel angels. But here the cloud is a widespread threat, a darkness that covers the whole sky, not just a part of it. Though the two do not even touch each other in the battle between angels, Fortezza is instead ready, with the column in the hands, to strike the decisive blow on the goddess, after having already subdued her body with its own legs. There is no conciliation, no merciful gesture possible, no hand held out therefore, in a pagan context. Win or succumb. And yet the moment where Lotto stops is the one that precedes the final killing, the coup de grace that only firmness (the column) can deliver. Fortune is too beautiful, her volatility too attractive, to really believe (hope) in, or think of her definitive defeat.”