Other Restorations
Church of San Samuele | Church of San Lio | Monumental Arch | Cornaro Chapel | Saint Mark Healing the Cobbler Anianus | Four Wooden Poles | Façade of Scuola Dalmata | Sarcophagus of Giovanni Priuli | Marco Polo Arch | Tombstones, New Jewish Cemetery, Lido |   Bernabò Chapel and Relief of the Coronation of the Virgin | Photographs of Venetian Architecture and Sculpture  |  19th-Century Glass-Plate Negatives of Venice from the Ferdinando Ongania Collection  |  St. Martin and the Beggar  | Madonna with Child and St. Peter |  Crucifix

Bernabò Chapel

 

  Fresco of St. Matthew

 

Fresco of St. Mark
 

Artist: Tullio Lombardo (c. 1455-1535)
Location: Church of San Giovanni Crisostomo
Medium: Marble and Istrian stone (2.7 x 2 m.)
Treatment: Cleaning and restoration
Sponsor: Partially funded by Oceanic Heritage Foundation and the James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation, Inc.

The Bernabò Chapel was commissioned around 1499 by the Scuola della Misericordia to satisfy the will of a silk merchant, Jacopo Bernabò, who had died more than fifty years earlier. In Renaissance Venice, marble was generally considered too expensive a medium for altarpieces. Thus, Tullio Lombardo's Coronation of the Virgin (1500-2) in the Bernabò Chapel stands as a particularly ambitious altarpiece as well as a masterpiece of stone carving. The relief comprises two large marble slabs, with the upper slab showing God the Father and the Holy Spirit surrounded by angels. The lower slab depicts Christ, surrounded by the Twelve Apostles, crowning the Virgin Mary.

Lombardo seems to have seen himself as an heir to ancient artists; he prominently signed his name in Latin, using Roman lettering, under the feet of Christ.

Although the relief itself was restored by Save Venice in 1981, twenty years of dust and pollutants disguised the delicacy of the surfaces. Moreover, the substantial altar, marble walls and architectural elements of the Chapel had never been treated, and had darkened significantly over the centuries. Chemical and physical analyses were conducted to determine the extent of the decay of the marble and stonework. This was followed by a complete restoration of the Chapel.

While removing 14 layers of plaster in the search for Sebastiano del Piombo's lost frescoes in the cupola of the church, restorers instead uncovered, in three of the cupola's spandrels, frescoes depicting Evangelists John, Matthew, and Mark. The fourth spandrel, which would have been decorated with a fresco of St. Luke, is lost, probably destroyed when repairs were made on the adjacent bell tower. The frescoes of the Evangelists are of outstanding quality and could be the work of an artist working in the circle of Giovanni Bellini or Bartolomeo Montagna.  The costly materials that were employed, such as gold leaf and lapis lazuli, confirm the importance of this commission.  To date, the artist has not been identified.

Photo of Bernabò Chapel: Matteo De Fina
Photos of Frescoes: Co. New Tech.