Baroque Midnight Kitchen: Fiery Glow in a Venetian Palazzo

A theatrical Baroque oil painting of a midnight kitchen in a crumbling 18th-century Venetian palazzo, illuminated entirely by the violent orange glow of a wood-fired hearth. An elderly cook in sweat-dampened linen leans over an big copper pot, expression caught somewhere between exhaustion and quiet fury. Strings of dried chilies and blackened garlic hang from low ceiling beams.