Artist: Paolo Veneziano (c. 1290-1362)
Location: Church of the Frari
Medium: Tempera on wood
Proposed treatment: Monitoring, cleaning and restoration
Sponsored by: Stephanie, Paul Jr. and Deirdre Wallace

Paolo Veneziano (or "da Venezia") is the first named painter to emerge from medieval anonymity in Venice. His large lunette for the tomb of Doge Francesco Dandolo is one of his most important surviving pictures, a masterpiece of the dawn of the Renaissance.

The lunette format of this panel was governed by its original location; mounted on a wall of the Sala Capitolare of the Franciscan Convent Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the painting filled the space between Dandolo's sarcophagus and a gothic arch. The proposed restoration includes returning the painting to its original setting, making it perhaps the earliest painting in situ in Venice.

The Madonna and Child with Doge Francesco Dandolo probably dates from the year of the Doge's death (1339) or soon thereafter. Doge Francesco Dandolo is presented to the Madonna and Child by his name-saint, Saint Francis. This is probably the first painted portrait of a doge (and one of the earliest Venetian portraits in any medium). For the past decade, the painting has been housed in the Sacristy. This room is heated during the winter for masses, and the frequent changes of temperature and humidity have damaged both the wooden panel support and the actual paint layer. A long horizontal crack has recently spread from one side of the panel to the other. The restoration will stabilize this problem, and address minor losses in both the paint surface and the wooden panel.