The conservation of the altar’s relief of Rustico and the Angel has been generously funded by Alice T. Friedman and Cameran Mason; and of the Arrival of the Madonna at San Marziale by Alice T. Friedman in memory of Professor Lilian Armstrong.

When the church of San Marziale was rebuilt between 1693 and 1714, a new altar dedicated to the 13^th-century sculpture of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie (Our Lady of Graces) was constructed in the center of the left nave. Recent scholarship has determined that the altar is likely the work of Giovanni Comin (1647–1695) and his workshop. The imposing Carrara marble baroque altar is decorated with sculptures and reliefs of angels and putti, and the votive Madonna is prominently featured in a central niche supported by two kneeling angels.

The lower register of the altar is embellished with bas-reliefs that depict three legendary stories associated with the Madonna–a scene with a devout shepherd by the name of Rustico who was said to have carved the sculpture from a single tree trunk on the right, the sculpture’s arrival by boat from Rimini to Venice on the altarfront, and on the left the miraculous restoration of a blind man’s vision as well as the curing of his mute son upon the sculpture’s arrival near the church of San Marziale. This narrative also appears in the ceiling canvases painted by Sebastiano Ricci between 1699 and 1701.

The spandrels at the top of the altar contain paintings of the evangelists Saint Mark and Saint Matthew, with their respective attributes of a lion and an angel. These canvases were painted by Giulia Lama in the 1730s. The artist also painted the evangelists Saint Luke and Saint John for the spandrels above the altar directly across the nave, which houses Jacopo Tintoretto’s Saint Martial in Glory with Saints Peter and Paul. Lama’s four spandrel paintings are currently being restored by Save Venice.

The lower register of the altar was severely affected by rising damp and the crystallization of salt deposits, resulting in significant structural issues. The corrosive salt had penetrated the marble reliefs, leading to the flaking and detachment of the stone, thereby endangering the permanent loss of the carved decorations. To address this problem, these affected areas were carefully disassembled and subjected to a desalination treatment, involving the use of large deionized water baths. The conservation efforts also extended to encompass the thorough cleaning and consolidation of the entire altar, including its sculptures and reliefs. The conservation work was strategically carried out during the most temperate months, from April to October, to maximize the effectiveness of the desalination treatment and conservation solvents.

Giovanni Comin (1647–1695) and Workshop [attr.]
Beata Vergine delle Grazie altar
c.1694, Carrara Marble
Church of San Marziale

Pavon, Giuliano. La Leggenda della Beata Vergine delle Grazie che si venera a Venezia nella chiesa di San Marziale Vescovo: una antica devozione da riscoprire. Venice: Cartotecnica veneziana, 2006

Pavon, Giuliano. Notizie sulla chiesa di San Marziale a Venezia.Venice: Cartotecnica veneziana, 1992

Guerriero, Simone. “Per un repertorio della scultura veneta del Sei e Settecento. I,” in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 33 (2009), pp. 205-210. Link to the article

Cervini, Fulvio and Guido Tigler, “Dalle Alpi al Levante. La diffusione mediterranea di sculture lignee piemontesi-aostane alla fine del XIII secolo, ” in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz,  41. Bd., H. 1/2 (1997), pp. 1-32