Contemporaries viewed the war in Candia  as an excuse for the revival of chivalric glory and the spirit of the Crusades. In the mid-seventeenth century this led to the development of a Baroque mythic cult, and the celebration of heroic Christian virtues leading up to the crucial years of the war with Morea . This war caused a profound alteration in modes of communication, as treatises, novels, and especially paintings began to emerge from this relatively small-scale event. Placed within a larger public context, they aimed to create a sort of primitive public opinion. The glorification of the 1657 sacrifice of Lazzaro Mocenigo, General Sea Captain , was a highly significant factor in this development.

Another General Sea Captain, Lorenzo Marcello, was to meet a similar fate in 1656.