Torcello, Museo Provinciale di Torcello

Unidentified sculptor

Altar front

c.1706, painted and carved lime wood

Restored in 1997 with funding from Serena Harding-Jones, William Lese, and Lucinda Harding-Jones Lese in memory of Michael R.  Harding-Jones and Ruth E. Lese

This altar front was given to the Museo Provinciale di Torcello in 1888 by private art collector Cesare Augusto Levi. The center of the field is occupied by the Madonna of the Rosary, surrounded by scrolling tendrils, roses, and putti—all of which support the theory that it came from a  church dedicated to the rosary. The blue background was added in the nineteenth century. Some scholars have concluded that the letters “Ao” and “Gi”, above the putti on either side, are the initials of the Bishop of Chioggia, Antonio Grassi, who most likely commissioned this work during a  campaign to redecorate the Chioggia church while he was Bishop, between 1696 and 1715.

Project Director: Ettore Merkel, Superintendency of Fine Arts of Venice
Restorer: Maximilian Leuthenmayr
UNESCO Program-Association of International Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice