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The Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli stands as one of the finest masterpieces of the Early Venetian Renaissance, celebrated for its harmonious proportions and richly ornamented marble façade. The church was originally built to house a miraculous image of the Madonna and Child painted around the 1430s, possibly by Zanino di Pietro, a French-born painter influenced by Gentile da Fabriano. Commissioned by Francesco Amadi, the Madonna was displayed outdoors in a calle near the Amadi home to protect passers-by from thieves and rogues. Some fifty years later, miracles began to be credited to the image. Both religious and political officials agreed that a small chapel should be built to house the painting. In 1481 Angelo Amadi, a direct descendant of Francesco, commissioned the church from Pietro Lombardo, the architect who had designed the nearby Scuola Grande di San Marco (façade restored by Save Venice in 2000-05). Between 1483-85 the church was enlarged and a nunnery founded across the calle to house twelve nuns of the cloistered order of Saint Clare. On 30 December 1489, the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli was consecrated to the Immaculate Conception and the Amadi Madonna placed above the high altar.

Between 1988 and 1998, Save Venice sponsored an extensive conservation program that encompassed the entire structure, safeguarding both its exterior and interior treasures. More recently, in the aftermath of the catastrophic acqua alta (exceptional high tide) of 2019, Save Venice once again intervened, funding urgent emergency treatments to stabilize the building and mitigate the immediate effects of flood damage.

Against the interior façade of the church stands a barco—a raised gallery that today houses the organ but once allowed the nuns to attend mass without being seen. Until 1865, the church was connected to the adjoining Poor Clares convent by an elevated bridge that crossed the calle and entered the church at the second-story level, preserving the nuns’ seclusion from public view.

The barco features a wooden floor supported by two finely carved stone pillars adorned with candelabra motifs, along with a pierced wooden balustrade made up of nine circular panels. The entire underside of the floor is lavishly decorated with carved and gilded motifs—plant scrolls and rosettes set against a blue background. In each of its three sections is a large central canvas: the middle depicts the Madonna and Child, the canal-side shows Saint Francis, and the calle-side portrays Saint Clare of Assisi. Each of these larger works is encircled by ten smaller paintings depicting full-length saints and half-length bishops and prophets. Their arrangement follows a precise, symmetrical pattern: two rectangular paintings along each long side, two more along each short side, and four square paintings placed in the corners. Together, they form a harmonious and well-balanced composition around each of the three main canvases.

The saints depicted on the three larger canvases are easily recognizable by their clothing and attributes. Saint Francis displays the stigmata on his hands, holds a cross, and wears a humble robe tied at the waist with a knotted cord. Saint Clare is dressed in a similar robe, over which she wears a striped mantle, a black cape, and the traditional wimple—a large piece of cloth draped around the neck and chin, covering the top of the head. In the central panel, the Madonna stands upon clouds and a crescent moon, enclosed within a mandorla that emerges from a heavenly realm of golden light and cherubs. This iconography evokes the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception—the belief that the Virgin was conceived without sin—and thus corresponds to the title under which the church was consecrated in 1489.

The three canvas paintings show numerous circular white deposits across their painted surfaces, characteristic of fungal or mold activity. The visible deterioration suggests that the biological damage may be even more extensive on the reverse of the canvases, though the precise mechanisms of this degradation remain to be investigated. A more thorough assessment will be carried out during the handling and inspection phases of the restoration process.

Conservation treatment will also involve careful surface cleaning to remove accumulated dust, grime, discolored varnishes, and previous inpainting. These interventions will not only stabilize the works structurally but also recover the visual integrity intended by the artist.

School of Titian [attr.]
Madonna and Child
Late 16th century, oil on canvas
175 x 90 cm

School of Titian [attr.]
Saint Francis
Late 16th century, oil on canvas
175 x 90 cm

School of Titian [attr.]
Saint Clair of Assisi
Late 16th century, oil on canvas
175 x 90 cm

Piana, Mario and Wolfgang Wolters (eds.). Santa Maria dei Miracoli a Venezia. La storia, la fabbrica, i restauri. Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 2003

Schulz, Juergen. Venetian Painted Ceilings of the Renaissance. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of the California Press, 1968

Venice Restored 1966-1986. The UNESCO campaign and the contribution of private organizations. Milan: Electa, 1991