Vianello the Painter

Vianello is the official portrait painter of the Sollan Empire, whose commission spans nearly five thousand years -- from Raphael VII in the thirteenth millennium through every successive Emperor. He is kept in fugue between commissions and decanted only as long as each portrait requires, making him one of the longest-serving figures in Imperial history without ever aging to match his tenure.

Aboard the Emperor's flagship Aurora, Vianello works in the Imperial apartments where William XXIII's fugue creche is kept, a half-finished canvas on his easel. Hadrian, who recognizes his distinctive style from the coronation portrait, earlier portraits of the Emperor's mother and ancestors, and the Triumph canvas, regards his presence there as an ill omen.