Restored in 2003 with funding from Young Friends of Save Venice, Boston Chapter.

The side portal entrance of San Francesco della Vigna is dedicated to Domenico Trevisan and is a pendant to the Trevisan monument that forms the corresponding side portal on the interior of the church. Trevisan, who died in 1535, was a Venetian naval officer, or Capitano da mar, and the father of Doge Marc’Antonio Trevisan, who served from 1553 to 1554. The portal and its sculptural decorations are sometimes attributed to Guglielmo dei Grigi, called Il Bergamasco, as well as to Jacopo Sansovino, who in 1534 began remodeling the church; another possibility is that the portal was produced by Sansovino’s workshop.

Three stone reliefs, encased in roundels, are located above the doorway. The first contains the letters IHS (the abbreviation of the name Jesus in Greek) in a disk surrounded by flames; this is the symbol of San Bernardino, a canonized Franciscan friar from Siena who also preached in Venice. The remaining reliefs depict the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary in a scene of the Annunciation. The frieze above the doorway is decorated with a central cross, and Jerusalem crosses appear above the two side columns. The Jerusalem cross was first used as a coat of arms for the Latin kingdom in Jerusalem. During the Crusades it was referred to as as the Crusader’s cross, the symbol of a Christian warrior. It is composed of four small crosses surrounding one large cross. Two Istrian stone lion heads, set in roundels, decorate the doorway’s pilasters. The Trevisan and Marcello coats of arms decorate the pedestals of the doorway columns.

The work was restored by conservators from the Co. New Tech restoration firm, with the guidance of project director Emanuela Zucchetta of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Guglielmo dei Grigi, called Il Bergamasco (c. 1485–1550) or the workshop of Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570)
Side Portal Entrance
Mid-sixteenth century, Istrian stone