The conservation of Antonio Balestra’s Death of Saint Joseph has been sponsored

Antonio Balestra was born in Verona in 1666, the son of a wealthy merchant whose family had originally come from Bergamo. Although he grew up in a household devoted to trade, Balestra showed an early inclination toward the arts. At the age of fifteen he began studying painting, initially as a pastime rather than a professional pursuit. During these formative years he also received a humanistic education under the Jesuits—studying literature, philosophy, and theology.

In 1687, when he was twenty-one, Balestra decided to set aside the family business and choose to dedicate himself entirely to painting. His first step was to move to Venice, where he entered the workshop of the renowned painter Antonio Bellucci. By 1691 he had relocated to Rome, the vibrant center of artistic life in late 17th-century Italy, where four years under Carlo Maratta shaped his refined, classical style influenced by Raphael and Annibale Carracci. By 1695 he had settled permanently in Venice, quickly rising as a leading artist. There, his elegant, Roman-inspired works earned wide acclaim, including commissions for confraternities like the Scuola Grande dei Carmini and altarpieces for churches such as San Cassiano, San Zaccaria, and San Marziale.

Balestra’s Death of Saint Joseph, painted between 1704 and 1707 and still in its original location on the Altar of San Giuseppe in San Marziale, reflects the growing early modern Catholic devotion to Saint Joseph as the patron of a “good death.” According to tradition, Joseph died peacefully in the presence of Christ and the Virgin Mary, making him a powerful intercessor at life’s end—a theme closely aligned with Balestra’s Jesuit-influenced education, which emphasized such devotion. At San Marziale, this subject held particular resonance, as a confraternity dedicated to Saint Joseph regularly held Mass at the altar and actively cared for the sick and dying, embodying the compassion and hope expressed in Balestra’s painting.

The Roman influence in Balestra’s oeuvre emerges clearly in his The Death of Saint Joseph, a composition that closely reflects models developed by his teacher, Carlo Maratta, in Rome in the late 17th century. A particularly compelling point of comparison is Maratta’s altarpiece painted for Emperor Leopold I for the Hofburg in Vienna, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Balestra’s painting adopts a remarkably similar structure: in the foreground, Saint Joseph lies on his deathbed, tenderly attended by Christ and the Virgin, while above them angels descend from the heavenly realm, opening the scene toward the divine. The connection becomes even more evident in several echoed details: the angel seen from behind, kneeling at the foot of the bed; the Virgin, her head gently inclined and her hands folded in her lap; and, just above her, an angel resting on a cloud and turning upward toward the heavens. Through these quotations, Balestra reveals not only his familiarity with Maratta’s celebrated composition but also the lasting imprint of his Roman training on his artistic language.

Balestra, however, chose a less monumental and more intimate interpretation of the scene. Rather than standing in a formal gesture of blessing, Christ is seated beside Joseph’s bed, leaning toward him and thereby creating a quieter, more compassionate atmosphere. This compositional solution recalls another model by Maratta: his deeply emotional treatment of the subject in a now-lost painting for the Jesuit church of Sant’Isidoro in Rome, known today through a number of copies. Drawing on these precedents, Balestra effectively brings together two strands of Maratta’s compositional tradition. He adapts them to the vertical format of the altarpiece while heightening the scene’s intimate and devotional character, transforming the moment into a tender meditation on Saint Joseph’s final hours.

The only documented conservation treatments for Balestra’s painting, as well as for several other artworks in the church, date to 1957–58. The altarpiece was most likely relined during this campaign.

The pictorial surface is significantly altered by extensive pictorial integrations carried out at different times; the most recent interventions are particularly noticeable due to their matte appearance. The paint layer exhibits localized areas of minor lifting and numerous losses ranging from small to medium in size. A thick and uneven varnish layer—now heavily yellowed, darkened, and oxidized—further obscures the surface, substantially compromising the legibility of the composition and masking the luminosity and chromatic qualities characteristic of Balestra’s palette.

The small wooden frame is also in poor condition, particularly along the lower section, where fractures in the support, losses of the ground layer, and abrasions to the gilding are evident.

Antonio Balestra (1666 – 1740)
Death of Saint Joseph
1704-1707, oil on canvas
350 x 160 cm

Ghio, Lilli and Edi Baccheschi. Antonio Balestra. In I pittori Bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo, 5 vols. Il Settecento, vol. II. Bergamo: Poligrafiche Bolis, 1989, pp. 81-307

Novelli, Maria Angela. Balestra, Antonio. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 5. Rome: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, 1963, pp. 547-549. Link to the article

Polazzo, Marco. Antonio Balestra. Pittore veronese del Settecento. Verona: Centro per la formazione professionale grafiche San Zeno, 1990, pp. 66-67