Artist: Anonymous 14th - century sculptor
Location: Church of San Martino, Castello
Medium: Wood
Treatment: Cleaning, consolidation, and restoration
Sponsor Status: Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò

The 14th-century wooden Crucifix, known to Venetians as “the Lepanto Cross,” came to adorn the church of San Martino after the destruction of the nearby church of the Madonna dell’Arsenale. Venetian ship builders in the Arsenale and the Republic’s soldiers were devoted to this much-venerated object. Oral history relates that it was carried on a Venetian galley at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Europe’s great victory against the Ottoman Empire.

The Battle of Lepanto was the decisive naval confrontation that ended Turkish domination of the Eastern Mediterranean. Unified Christians forces from Venice, Spain, Naples, Sicily, Genoa, and the Papal States, defeated the Turks in the Gulf of Patras, off the west coast of Greece. Underscoring the importance of the victory to the seafaring Venetians, Frederick Lane writes in Venice: A Maritime Republic, “The victory of Lepanto was the climax of decades of effort by Venetian diplomats as well as by Venetian admirals, Arsenale, and naval administrators.”

Reinforcing the tradition connecting San Martino’s Lepanto Crucifix to one of the most famous naval battles in Venetian history, Lane reports that before the battle, “… A crucifix was raised aloft on every galley. Men bowed before it, confessed sins, and received absolution according to the indulgence which the pope had granted for the crusade.”

Restoration of the Lepanto Crucifix will structurally consolidate the cross and the figure of Christ, disinfect termites, and remove heavy repainting.