This interpretation has since been questioned by Fletcher, and more recently by Eade, who has brought into question the astrological status of the plaque. The peculiarly favourable conjunction of Mercury on 15th June 1527 would therefore have been a good omen for him. In that month he married Maffea Soranzo, and began to scheme for election to the senate, in which he was finally successful on 28 September 1527.
By 1527, when the statuette was commissioned, Michiel was free once again to try for office. He explains this in terms of Michiel's repeated attempts to secure public office, with a particular desire to serve as ambassador, which were dashed in September 1525 as a result of a disgraceful conflict with a relative that caused him to be debarred from public office for a year. Pope-Hennessy argues that this shows Mercury in a particularly favourable position as Lord of the Ascendant and of the Midheaven, also in conjunction with the Sun and Jupiter, and that the moment was therefore clearly chosen with great care and must have some special significance for the career of Marcantonio Michiel. It has been interpreted as a horoscope by Hartner and Pope-Hennessy, with some differences as to the precise time, which Hartner places at 8.04 a.m. The bronze plaque is engraved with a diagram of the planets, showing the motions of Mercury, placed at the top, the relative positions of the planets on 15 June 1527, the date of the completion of the figure.