Restored in 2021 with funding from Susan and Carter Emerson

The conservation of Palma’s Madonna and Child in Glory with the Coronation of Venice by Saint Magnus was part of a broader campaign funded by Save Venice in celebration of the city’s 1600th anniversary. As part of this initiative, Save Venice supported the restoration of thirteen works of art featured in the exhibition Venice 1600: Births and Rebirths, held at the Palazzo Ducale from September 4, 2021, to June 5, 2022.

This altarpiece marks the first appearance of Venetia, the allegorical personification of Venice, in a sacred painting, where she is depicted being crowned by Saint Magnus, the city’s patron bishop. Jacopo Palma il Giovane painted this altarpiece for the altar of Saint Magnus in the Church of San Geremia, home to the saint’s relics since 1262, following a commission from the Venetian Senate in 1602.

Born in the ancient city of Altinum, Magnus first served as bishop of Oderzo, a small town on the Venetian mainland near Treviso, and later as bishop of Heraclea, on the Adriatic coast. His life and legend are inseparable from the sacred origins of Venice. According to tradition, while living in Heraclea, Magnus experienced a divine revelation in which he was told that God wished the city of Venice to be built in the Lagoon. Magnus was then instructed to build eight churches—Santi Apostoli, San Giovanni in Bragora, Santa Giustina, Santa Maria Formosa, San Pietro di Castello, San Raffaele, San Salvador, and San Zaccaria—each destined to become a cornerstone of the emerging city’s spiritual identity. By the 15th century, devotion to Saint Magnus had grown so deep that the Venetian Senate formally acknowledged his divine mission, decreeing his role in the founding of the eight churches and proclaiming October 6 as his feast day. Through this act, Venice honored Magnus as the divinely inspired architect of its holy beginnings—a city born, as legend tells, under the protection of God.

Among the senators who voted to promote the civic cult of Saint Magnus was Giorgio Dolfin, whose chronicle added to the eight churches founded by the saint through divine revelation a ninth—San Geremia, where his body lay. Around the same time, a prominent family of the parish, the Frigeri of Altinum, claimed descent from Magnus himself. In 1469, the Frigeri obtained the rights to the saint’s altar in San Geremia and adorned it with an altarpiece—now unfortunately lost—described in contemporary records as depicting “the miracles he performed during the construction of Venice.” In 1563, the Venetian Senate resolved to donate a new altarpiece for the Altar of Saint Magnus, but the commission was not actually assigned until 1602, when it was entrusted to Palma. This commission was likely prompted by the rising and competing devotion to another cult centered on a miraculous crucifix donated to the church by Fra’ Colombano Da Mula (an extraordinary articulated Christ figure that Save Venice is currently restoring).

In Palma’s altarpiece, every thread of Saint Magnus’s legend is woven into a vision of faith and civic pride. Rather than depicting the saint as he oversees the building of Venetian churches, Magnus now crowns the radiant embodiment of the Serenissima Republic—an image that echoes the iconography of state authority familiar from the decoration of the Palazzo Ducale. Around him, allegory and divinity converge: the figure of Faith, bearing the chalice and cross, anchors the scene in devotion, while the Virgin and Child appear in celestial splendor above. Through this inspired composition—first explored in a preparatory drawing now in the Musée du Louvre—Palma transforms legend into revelation, affirming Venice’s sacred origins and her destiny as a city blessed by divine grace. His iconographic vision proved enduring. A century later, Giulia Lama drew upon Palma’s model when commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the high altar of Santa Maria Formosa, creating her Madonna and Child with Saint Peter, Saint Magnus, and the Allegory of Venice (now the focus of a new Save Venice conservation project).

The altarpiece appeared obscured by a dark, oxidized varnish and a substantial accumulation of dust and grime. During conservation, these non-original layers were carefully reduced and removed, along with extensive overpainting from earlier restoration campaigns. The treatment restored the clarity of the figures and the precision of detail.

Palma il Giovane (1548/50–1628)
Madonna and Child in Glory with the Coronation of Venice by Saint Magnus
c. 1610–1620, oil on canvas
316 x 165 cm

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