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

  

Church of San Samuele Fresco

Fresco cycle in the chancel and apse (late-15C)
Artist: unknown (perhaps from Bologna or Padua)
Media: Fresco
Sponsors: Family and friends of Linda Simunovich and Save Venice Inc.

The Church of San Samuele bears the distinction of being one of only a handful of Venetian churches dedicated to an Old Testament prophet rather than a Roman Catholic Saint. It is also unique in that its late-gothic apse has remained intact despite the restructuring of its nave and façade in 1685. The walls and vaults of this apse, which have been restored by Save Venice, are now providing new insights into one of the few surviving fresco cycles of the early Venetian Renaissance.

Before restoration began in 1999, the amount of humidity within the walls had made it difficult to speculate on the condition of the original frescoes underneath modern repainting. Following months of painstaking work, which included salt removal and repair of holes and fissures in the plaster surface, restorers were able to confirm that large sections of the original frescoes had actually suffered minimal damage. Furthermore, these had not been painted entirely in the "buon fresco" technique, which used wet plaster, but had included other media such as tempera.

The cycle's depiction of eight Sibyls, Greek and Roman female seers who were believed to have predicted events in the life of Christ such as the Annunciation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, is typical of Venetian iconography of the time. Their prominent placement, however, is extraordinary even for Venice. The ceiling's quadripartite vault features Saints Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose and Gregory, the four fathers of the Western church, set in roundels and surrounded by inscriptions, decorative foliage, and putti bearing the instruments of the Passion. Above the high altar, the frescoes occupying the spaces between the ribs of the cupola feature Christ and the four Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Although the cycle has traditionally been attributed to the Paduan school, with Mantegna as a general point of reference, the range in quality suggests that a number of different artists may have been involved in its execution. Certain figures, for example, particularly the handsome St. John, are reminiscent of the facial types used by Vincenza painters at the end of the 15th century. Whatever the case may be, their restored condition will most certainly encourage further research on dating and attribution.