News & Stories

During Save Venice’s 2018 conservation of Jacopo Tintoretto’s painted ceiling in the Room of the Inquisitors in Palazzo Ducale, conservators observed that Boccaccino’s Virgin and Child hanging over the magistrates’ desk in the same room was suffering from severe condition problems.  Thanks to the generous support of Board Member Charles Tolbert, who adopted this restoration in loving memory of Fredrina Tolbert, work on the precious painting began in September 2019.

Due to the delicate condition of the painting’s wooden structure, it was restored on-site in Palazzo Ducale in order to keep the work in the microclimate in which it is acclimated as to not further aggravate its condition. Following treatment to eliminate an invasion of wood-boring insects, conservator Gea Storace of the COREST firm meticulously thinned and removed oxidized varnish and surface grime, and secured areas of lifting and flaking paint.  Panel painting specialist Roberto Saccuman repaired the wooden support backing, reinforcing areas that had been particularly damaged, and installed a new support system to help prevent future cracking and splitting.  Storace completed the treatment, expertly integrating small cracks and surface losses with conservation paints and applying a final layer of protective varnish on Boccaccino’s painting.

The Ferrara-born artist Boccaccio Boccaccino (ca.1466-1525) was greatly influenced by the years he worked in Venice from 1500 to 1506 and his contact with Venetian artists Bellini, Vivarini and Cima da Conegliano, whose inspiration is noted in this small devotional image of the Virgin and Child.  Other works by Boccaccino can be seen in the U.S. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.