M.FAVILLA - R.RUGOLO Baroque Venice. SPL PDF

Venezia Barocca UK:Layout 1 17-08-2009 23:28 Page 1
BAROQUE VENICE
Splendour and illusion in a “decadent” world
Venezia Barocca:Layout 1 13-08-2009 13:37 Page 2
Massimo Favilla Ruggero Rugolo
BAROQUE VENICE
Splendour and illusion in a “decadent” world
Introduction
Filippo Pedrocco
Photographs
Luca Sassi
SASSI
PAGE. 2, Baldassare Longhena,

Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute,
detail.
OPPOSITE, Aerial view of Venice with
the Grand Canal, the Bacino di San
Marco and the Giudecca Canal.
PAGES. 6-7, View of Punta della
Dogana with the Basilica of Santa
Maria della Salute, towards the church
of Il Redentore.
Published for the first time in Italy

in 2009 by Sassi Editore Srl
Copyright © 2009 Sassi Editore Srl
© texts, Massimo Favilla – Ruggero Rugolo
© preface, Filippo Pedrocco
© photographs, Luca Sassi
© appendix, Serena Tagliapietra
Sassi Editore Srl, Viale Roma 122/b,

36015 Schio (VI)
tel +39 0445539051, fax +39 0445539051
www.sassieditore.it, info@sassieditore.it
ISBN: 978-88-96045-08-4
Editorial coordination: Luca Sassi

Text editing: Natalie Lanaro
Graphic design: Matteo Gaule
TABLE OF CONTENTS
11 INTRODUCTION
13 CHAPTER I – ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 139 CHAPTER II – PAINTING

AN OBSESSION WITH DEATH, A CRAVING FOR GREATER GLORY, LIGHT AND LARKNESS, LANGUID SENTIMENTALITY,
AND A RETURN TO ORDER GRANDILOQUENCE, AND BON GOÛT
16 THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR: STATE COMMISSIONS FOR 142 DRAMA, SENSUALITY, AND WHIMSICALITIES: FROM THE PLAGUE
SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE AND SANTA MARIA DEL PIANTO TO ANTONIO ZANCHI, AND THE GOLD OF PIETRO LIBERI
30 CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 142 – Precursors

145 – The Tenebristi: Antonio Zanchi and Pietro Negri in the
33 – Vincenzo Fini at San Moisè Scuola Grande di San Rocco
34 – Antonio Barbaro at Santa Maria del Giglio (known as 152 – In the alchemist’s crucible: Pietro Liberi at Palazzo Fini
Santa Maria Zobenigo
46 – Bartolomeo Cargnoni in Santa Maria dei Derelitti 159 FROM THE GLORY OF VENICE TO NICOLÒ BAMBINI AND THE
(known as the Ospedaletto) TRIUMPH OF ELOQUENCE IN GIAMBATTISTA TIEPOLO
52 – A façade for Francesco Morosini at San Vidal
159 – Nicolò Bambini at Ca’Pesaro
60 PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES 159 – Louis Dorigny at Ca’ Tron
161 – The large lunettes in San Zaccaria
60 – For a monument to Francesco Morosini in Santo 166 – Antonio Molinari in the mosaics of St Mark’s
Stefano 173 – Gregorio Lazzarini and Antonio Bellucci for San
61 – The monument to Alvise Mocenigo in San Lazzaro dei Lorenzo Giustiniani
Mendicanti and the “rehabilitation” of Patriarch 181 – Opening up space: frescoists and perspective painters in
Francesco Vendramin in San Pietro di Castello Venice
63 – The monument to Doge Giovanni Pesaro in the Frari 187 – The largest canvas in the world: Giovanni Antonio
71 – Stopping the course of time: the monuments to Fumiani in San Pantalon
Cristoforo Ivanovich in San Moisè and to the patriarch 189 – Many styles of painting
of Venice Giovanni Francesco Morosini at the Tolentini 190 – Antonio Balestra and classicism
79 – The monument to the Valier family at Santi Giovanni e 195 – Sebastiano Ricci and the Late Baroque
Paolo 200 – The San Stae cycle
84 – A monument to the world’s first woman graduate 200 – The skies of Piazzetta and Tiepolo
86 OSTENTATION AND DEVOTION ON THE ALTARS 217 BEL COMPOSTO IN VENICE: A FLORILEGIUM FROM FORIGNY,
PELLEGRINI, RICCI AND TIEPOLO
86 – The plague and the Cretan War: the altars of the Salute
and of San Pietro di Castello 217 – From Ca’ Zenobio to Palazzetto Zane
87 – An altar of clouds at San Marziale 223 – Stuccoes and paintings: from Palazzo Barbaro to Ca’
87 – Giuseppe Pozzo’s altars at the Scalzi and at the Jesuits. Sagredo
239 – From the Gesuiti to the Gesuati
108 WOODEN SCULPTURE WITH “OBSCURE SYMBOLS” AND
RELIGIOUS PIETY 257 ANOTHER VENICE
108 – Francesco Pianta’s “hieroglyphs” in the Scuola Grande 257 – The miniature world of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro
di San Rocco Longhi
122 – A small monument to time: Francesco Pianta’s clock at 259 – Canaletto’s other Venice
the Frari
122 – The fortune of Venice: Giacomo Piazzetta, Andrea 262 APPENDIX
Brustolon and Giuseppe Torretti, woodcarvers TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS IN VENETIAN BAROQUE
262 Bibliography
269 Index of names
272 Photo Credits and aknoledgements
INTRODUCTION
Reconstructing a historical and artistic context is changing fortunes of genres and artists, and in the
no easy task, but this book will let even non-specialist personalities of the patrons. The vision of a
readers find their way without difficulty through the “Venetian” Baroque is an fundamental aspect of a city
Baroque in Venice, taking them into a complex, that was “founded on the impossible”, in a setting
contradictory and fascinating world very different dominated by water. And it forcefully appears in a
from our own. It was an age that once again allowed journey that takes us through personal celebration
the city to show off her greatness and her supremacy and the exaltation of civic virtues, religious piety and
in the arts, even as new powers were emerging in obscure hieroglyphs, flaunted sensuality and a
Europe and gradually forcing her aside. fascination for alchemy, an obsession with death and
It is a sweeping, multifaceted age that stretches a passion for the theatre, and a craving for greatness
from the plague of 1630 to the Treaty of Passarowitz and for worlds in miniature. It was an era that ranged
in 1718. During the course of these years of dramatic from the genius of Baldassare Longhena to its finest
change, the ruling classes of Venice felt the need to flower, Giambattista Tiepolo.
adorn their city with grandiloquent signs of triumph. The stunning illustrations, which are the personal
PAGE 8: Baldassare Longhena and Pomposity, theatricality, extravagant ornamentation, merit of the versatile publisher Luca Sassi himself, are
Antonio Gaspari, Ca’ Pesaro, detail of
the façade on the Grand Canal.
and even the grotesque became the essential an essential feature of this book and they provide us
OPPOSITE: Pietro Roncaioli (attr.), ingredients of art, with the aim of provoking with an extraordinary means for appreciating the
Palazzo Barbaro in San Vidal, detail
on the stuccoes in the cameron. astonishment and reinforcing those symbols that had most intricate details and with an in-depth
made the illustrious “Dominante” so legendary and understanding of the works examined. And yet this is
invincible in the past. Towards the end of the not just a book of “pretty pictures”, for it contains
seventeenth century, this surge of triumphalism texts on the most advanced research, shedding light
started to decline, the narrative register became more on a fascinating and crucial journey that winds its
gentle, and the magnificence of Baroque began to be way through almost a century of Venetian history: we
abandoned in favour of the nascent rococo. can at last enjoy a new and positive look at this
Massimo Favilla and Ruggero Rugolo trace out a troubled period, which all too often has been viewed
compendium that, due to limitations of space, only as a long age of sterile decadence in Venetian art. On
scratch the surface of some aspects but they have the contrary, as we learn from Favilla and Rugolo, it
nevertheless examined some particular cases in great is one that undoubtedly deserves to be reassessed and
depth, presenting some outstanding discoveries based seen with fresh eyes.
on exhaustive bibliographic and archival research.
They take us into churches and palazzi, where we can
admire the paintings and sculptures in their original Filippo Pedrocco
settings, capturing impalpable nuances in the
BAROQUE VENICE – INTRODUCTION 11

CHAPTER ONE - ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE

Obsession with Death, Craving for Glory, and a Return to Order
The seventeenth century brought Venice’s last

opportunity to react on a cultural and artistic level to
the destiny that was inevitably pushing it to one side
on the great stage of European politics (Storia di
Venezia 1997). Even today, the urban fabric of the city
still reflects the need that was felt in those years for
grandiloquent signs of “triumph” – a desire that
combined hopes, dreams, and illusions with the harsh
reality of politics and society. Excess and pomposity
prevailed, fuelling a tendency towards over-abundant
ornamentation, a taste for the grotesque and the
bizarre, and a craving for expansion and greatness
(Cozzi 1961). There was a clear aim to cause
wonderment and awe by creating a theatrical, scenic
backdrop that could be unfurled both outside
OPPOSITE: Giusto Le Court, High
buildings and inside, and it spread across the entire
altar, detail with the statue of the
Plague, basilica of Santa Maria della city. It came in a form of Baroque that was peculiar to
Salute.
Venice, a city of insubstantial, aquatic consistency,
RIGHT: Baldassare Longhena,
Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute that was “founded on the impossible” (Sansovino,
from the Grand Canal.
1581). Over the years, its vocation and momentum
waned, and towards the end of the century, and in the
early eighteenth, a different aesthetic form found its
way in. The new style was more relaxed and inspired threat was brought about by the devastating plague of
by the bon goût of the nascent rococo taste, which 1630, and later by the disastrous Cretan War (1645-
abandoned rhetoric and turned its attention to 1669), which reached its height in 1687 with the first,
smaller things, and to the ephemeral nature of the anxiously-awaited victories over the Turks by the
senses. At the same time, when the last yearnings for future doge, Francesco Morosini Peloponnesiacus.
power had died away, the Serenissima closed in on
This was the period that brought the solemn
itself in a composed, magnificent neutrality which
consecration of the fiery, monumental Basilica della
was, however, to prove fatal to its destiny.
Salute, designed by Baldassare Longhena in 1631. This
The seventeenth century was an age of dire
turbulent era finally came to a close with the Peace of
struggles for Venice. The period started in 1606 with
Passarowitz, in 1718, which put an end to the
the Interdict – the excommunication cast upon the
proud Republic of St Mark by the Roman Curia. The Serenissima’s last war against the Ottoman Empire,
“Dominante” reacted to this unacceptable interference confirming the loss of Morea and the Republic’s last
with stubborn opposition, and it emerged as a weary hegemonic ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean.
power when the end eventually came. An even greater It was a time marked by profound social
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 13

transformation, in a world – that of the lagoon –

which had been traditionally resistant to all forms of
change, but in 1646 the drained coffers of the State
inevitably led to the normally carefully sealed Libro
d’Oro of the Venetian patricians being forced open “for
money”. “New” families thus entered the aristocratic
circles of the city, much to the chagrin of the more
ancient nobles. Amongst other things, the century was
characterised by individualistic excesses that
culminated in celebrative ecclesiastical façades that
were raised to the greater glory of their patrons. These
were the symbols of the egotistical triumph of
individuals to the detriment of religion.
In such a varied and ever-changing world, the
Republic showed it could be truly cosmopolitan,
welcoming foresti, or outsiders, at a time when its
artists were obliged to compete with the golden age of
painting – the Cinquecento – which remained an
inevitable and often embarrassing model. It was
insuperable and unattainable, and the problem was
partly dealt with by bringing in contributions from
outside and, as never before, these proved to be
decisive for the continuing development of the
Venetian tradition.
From 1631, with the competition for the votive
temple of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice became a
hive of activity, with public and private building sites
making a decisive impact and redefining the city.
Behind the integrity of this programme, however,
there was also a taste for the grotesque and the
monstrous: the deformity of the sculptures on the
façade of San Moisè and those of the Pesaro
monument at the Frari culminate in the astonishingly
bizarre allegorical hodgepodge of wood carvings in the
Scuola di San Rocco. And yet there was an underlying
theme in this generalised, frenetic desire to show off
TOP: Enrico Merengo, Sculptural
detail of the façade of San Moisè. one’s existence in the most dazzling way possible, and
OPPOSITE: Alessandro Tremignon
and Enrico Merengo, Façade of San
it reached its highest, most apparent, and most
Moisè with the monument to Vincenzo resounding triumph over death in the construction of
Fini, detail.
the Salute and, in a contrasting manner, in the most
involuted conceits in the carvings of San Rocco.
14 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE

THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

STATE COMMISSIONS FOR SANTA
MARIA DELLA SALUTE AND SANTA
MARIA DEL PIANTO
On 22 October 1630, the plague was still raging

through Venice. At that dramatic time, the Senate
decreed, with the Doge, to make a “solemn vow” to
erect and dedicate a temple to the “Vergine Santissima”,
naming it “Santa Maria della Salute” (Frank, 2004;
Hopkins, 2006). A public competition was
immediately launched to come up with the location
and form of the church, which was to be “magnifica et
con pompa”. In the end, on 13 June 1631, it was the
design by Baldassare Longhena, for a building in the
shape of a “rotonda”, that was chosen. After carefully
examining the various sites, the choice fell on the very
central area between the Punta della Dogana and the
abbey of San Gregorio.
In 1646, the Senate also approved the construction
RIGHT: The church of Santa Maria del of a small monastery, which was not to be of “alta e
Pianto in a 19th-century drawing by rilevata architettura”, and thus well suited to the
Giovanni Pividor, Venice, Museo
Correr. Capuchin rules of its founder, Maria Benedetta de’
OPPOSITE: Baldassare Longhena, Rossi. In the meantime, the Cretan War had broken
Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute
from the Grand Canal. out (1645). The nun convinced the senators to build a
sanctuary in order to turn the outcome of the conflict
in favour of the city, declaring that the war had been
caused by the wrath of God, which needed to be backdrop, with its dome rising majestically up and
placated (Niero, 1986a; Rugolo, 1997; Frank, 2004). dominating all round it, while Santa Maria del Pianto
The proto Francesco Contin was entrusted with the is closed within the walls of the monastery, “umile e
design of the new building. In 1658, the nuns entered basso” – humble and low. Just as one is placed at the
the convent, which had been built on the Fondamente very centre of the Bacino di San Marco, forming an
Nuove. Many Venetians are still unaware of its church, authentic urban fulcrum for the city, so the other is
even today. The official consecration of this small relegated to the Fondamenta Nuove, tucked away in
religious community, however, came on 7 May 1687, the outskirts, bringing lustre to an area that had only
the year when the Salute too was consecrated. recently been redeveloped. And yet these are the only
It would seem that a whole epoch had passed two seventeenth-century churches to have been built
between the time of the Basilica of Santa Maria della from scratch, and planned and controlled by the State.
Salute, so “magnificent and with such pomp” and the Quite apart from its clear similarities (the
church of Santa Maria del Pianto, a “restrained place octagonal ground plan, and the number of altars)
without show”. The Salute stands out against the urban Santa Maria del Pianto had to adopt a different,
16 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

though complementary shape. Totally inward-looking,

in stark contrast to the extroversion of the Salute, it
could not be just a minor countermelody taking up
the grand motif of Longhena’s “symphony”. Santa
Maria della Salute is, on the other hand, a monument
to the optimism of a triumphal State, and a visible and
eternal manifestation of the terrible disease, and a
consistent and magnificent integration of its image.
Longhena’s “macchina” is a complex and composite set
of symbolic elements that combine to turn the
building into a spectacular symbol of the city’s
renascence. “Unde origo inde salus” (where there is
origin, there is salvation), the inscription that appears
on commemorative medallions and on the floor of the
church, reflects the policy that consecrated the church
to the resurrection of the oldest state in the world and
to its perpetuity down the centuries. In the historical
imagination of the Republic, 25 March represents the
birth and the consecration of the Virgin of the city,
and this is why the date was chosen for the official
ceremony that started the works.
The Salute, which was built “in forma di rotonda”
OPPOSITE PAGE: Baldassare on an octagonal base of colossal dimensions, was
Longhena, Basilica of Santa Maria
unprecedented in Venice. Longhena maintained that
della Salute, view into the dome.
PAGE 20: Baldassare Longhena and this plan was desired by countless people – “desiderata
Antonio Gaspari, Basilica of Santa
da molti e molti” (cit. in Frank 2004). It has also been
Maria della Salute, detail of the floor.
PAGE 21: Head of a lion, Basilica of referred to as a Solomon’s temple, with biblical echoes,
Santa Maria della Salute, façade.
in which, as in St Mark’s, the sovereignty conferred by
the sacred gift of Justice was housed (Concina 2004)
and, as in Solomon’s temple, there are fifteen steps on
the flight leading in. It is a sort of “national pantheon”
(Gemin 1982) and this can be seen in the analogy of
the round floor plan. Longhena’s “opera vergene” thus
appears as an emphatic seventeenth-century
interpretation of the “legend” of the city that had
slowly built up over the centuries (cf. Puppi 1994).
The enfolding shape of Longhena’s macchina
introduces a new spatial unity to the Bacino, upsetting
the old hierarchies but, at the same time, completing
and glorifying the rich symphony of the domes created
by Palladio, and those of St Mark’s. Even before
Andrea Palladio made his contribution (San Giorgio,
Zitelle, Redentore), a single, unchallenged voice
18

TOP: Baldassare Longhena, Basilica

of Santa Maria della Salute, detail of
the main door with the Sibyl.
OPPOSITE: Saint Matthew, Basilica of
Santa Maria della Salute, façade.

sounded across the Bacino: the austere solo of St pyramid, he is not its absolute lord. He has the
Mark’s, which rose up unopposed as a symbol in extremely delicate function of moderating all the
which the city jealously embodied its significance. ostensibly equal forces that participate in the political
Weary of conversing with itself, the St Mark’s complex life and government of the city. Longhena thinks in
gradually extended the reach of its image, as though in terms of town planning, undertaking to bring order to
a play of mirrors. The Salute came as the final, most the centre of the city once and for all: he completes the
resonant, and longest-awaited note in this concert, in a Baroque piazza of water – the Bacino – of which his
crescendo that can be perceived when one enters from
rotonda becomes the solid measure, the “compass” and
the port of San Nicolò di Lido. It starts with the
the “cognitive model of the urban scale” (Gemin
opening note of the dome of the cathedral of San
1982).
Pietro di Castello, and continues through to the
During its construction, the Senate gradually
unmistakable silhouette of the domes of St Mark’s,
started to correct the original iconographic premise
which are reflected on the other side in Palladio’s
that was based on the vow against the plague, giving it
works on Giudecca. It finally ends, with great
an anti-Turkish significance in the Cretan War and,
composure, in the vertical triumph of Longhena’s
building, which maintains the smaller dome of the lastly, conferring upon it a celebratory touch after the
presbytery as a point of reference and comparison for initial victories by Francesco Morosini in the 1680s.
the lower, more distant domes of the Giudecca, which Lastly, the statue of the Virgin with the baton was
now form the island’s “natural” skyline. Its presence is propitiously placed on the lantern of the main dome.
justified by degrees and, though on a larger scale, it is She is an authentic “capitana da mar”, leading the city,
part of a context that was begun centuries earlier. The because here “Mary is identified with Venice, as a
new church is more than just the sum of its parts and maritime power born of the sea and living on the sea”
OPPOSITE: Baldassare Longhena, yet, if we break it down, we can see that from the (Niero 1979a). The official consecration of the Salute –
Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute,
centre of the Bacino it is directly and dialectically and, it should be remembered, of Santa Maria del
detail of the lantern with the statue of
the Virgin. related to the Redentore, which is its most immediate Pianto – thus coincided with the triumph of Morosini
PAGES 26-27: Baldassare Longhena
point of reference in every sense. We find the same Peloponnesiacus’ conquest of Morea in 1687.
and Antonio Gaspari, Ca’ Pesaro,
view of the façade and a detail of one compositional modules in the presbytery section, with From the public to the private sphere, the pomp
of the portals on the Grand Canal.
its two opposing apses, with its two little symmetrical and magnificence explicitly requested by the State
PAGE 28: Baldassare Longhena and
Antonio Gaspari, Ca’ Bon Rezzonico, bell towers, the smaller one of which is optically
view of the façade on the Grand
commission for the Salute is reflected in the palazzi of
aligned with Palladio’s, with its triumphal-arch façade
Canal. the nobility that give onto the Grand Canal. Just as the
PAGE 29: Baldassare Longhena, Ca’ and with a main body that, in the hands of Longhena,
Belloni Battagia, view of the façade on majestic church forms the heart of the formal Baroque
the Grand Canal.
becomes “rotondo”, just as the sensual buttresses are
triangulation of the Bacino di San Marco, so too do
glamorous and round, while those of the Redentore
Longhena’s Palazzo Bon, later Rezzonico, Palazzo
appear harsh and square-cut in comparison. And
Pesaro, and Palazzo Belloni Battagia, to name but some
above all this looms the majestic main dome, forming
of the “gigantic piles that do battle through excellence
an essential part of the image of the city. Triumphal
and Baroque, the Salute celebrates the victory of life and art” ([“moli giganti che pugnano fra lor di pregio e
over death: it is a resounding manifestation of the d’arte” – Fini 1675). They constitute equally important
illusory myth of an eternal Venice. The destiny and models along the great winding and vibrant artery that
future of the city and, quite literally, its every prospect crosses the city, in addition to so many monumental
are linked symbolically to the Salute. It represents Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance buildings (Bassi
Venice as the person of the doge represents the 1962; Frank 2008; Borgomaniero 2008; Giudarelli
Venetian state: though at the pinnacle of the social 2008).


BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR 27


BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR 29

CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION
“Since they could not entirely usurp the place of On this matter, we know that the public portrayal of the
divinities in temples, kings took possession of their doge was severely restricted and laws were gradually
portals”, said Jacques-Louis David polemically about the introduced to prevent him from being portrayed
rulers of France during the animated session of the outside of the Ducal Palace. One of the pillars – the
Convention of 17 Brumaire Year II – which is to say, 17 most enduring – of the “myth” of Venice was precisely
November 1793. “There they placed their proud effigies, the principle of veneta libertas. “The Venetians [...] are
certainly so that the adoring population would stop in the lords of this city and they are free”, maintained
front of them before entering the sanctuary. And thus it Tommaso Diplovataccio in 1524. A century later, Giulio
was that, accustomed to invading everything, they even Strozzi idealised the “Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia”
dared challenge God’s right to vows and incense” (cit. in as a marvel of the universe and as the home of true
Rossi Pinelli 1989). David may not have been aware that liberty (“maraviglia dell’universo” and as a “stanza di
the gallery of crowned heads on the Gothic façade of vera libertà” – Strozzi 1624), while Francesco Sansovino
Notre Dame in Paris, which fell victim to the maintained that no citizen who was not born or who
iconoclastic anger of the people, did not depict the did not die free was ever born or died in Venice (“Non
hated Capetians but rather idealised images of the nacque mai, né morì in Venetia alcun cittadino che non
biblical kings of Israel. nascesse e morisse libero” – Sansovino 1581).
Some Venetian aristocrats, but also common Again in the view of this myth, the only constraint on
citizens, went as far and even further, usurping from the a Venetian was respect for the law. Even outside the
divinity, or from the saint, the place that had territories of the Serenissima, Venetian nobles were not
traditionally and rightfully been occupied on the main obliged to recognise the authority of anyone other than
façade of churches, even eliminating them entirely. The St Mark, nor did they uncover their heads even before
idea of the church façade devoted to the everlasting the emperor (Casini 1997). The absolute sovereignty of
memory of a private citizen is an exquisitely Venetian Venice, which was shrouded in mysticism, allowed for no
oddity. The phenomenon started out in the fifteenth external interference of any sort. We learn from Giovan
century and culminated in the Baroque façade of the Battista Lucini’s eulogy to the Doge and Capitano
parish church of Santa Maria del Giglio, where the Generale da Mar Francesco Morosini, that the city
egotism of Antonio Barbaro, the senator and former could boast of thirteen centuries of “flawless liberty”
general supplier of arms to Candia (Heraklion), reached (Lucini 1688). At least according to legend, Venetian
fever pitch. Between 1679 and 1681, it led to the total aristocracy was one of equals. Towards the mid-
banishment of religion and the sacred from the front sixteenth century, Nuncio Girolamo Aleandro was able
(Benzoni 1986). to state that two thousand nobles considered themselves
And yet the Republic could not allow an individual – to be as many kings (“domilla nobili volevano essere
and certainly not one who was at the top of the social altrettanti re” – cit. in Zanetto 1991). Quoting from
pyramid – total license to impose the image that pleased Jacopo Sannazaro, an anonymous seventeenth-century
him most without some effective, even indirect control. chronicler close to the Roman Curia emphasised this
30 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

aspect when he said that Sannazaro was right to monuments to the most diverse heroes of the
compare Rome to the city of Venice, for the former was homeland: heroes of war, of politics, and of culture.
made of men, the latter of gods (“A ragione cantò il And all this was because Venice was a republic
Sanazaro nel far paragone di Roma con la città di Venezia, founded on the most delicate, fluid, ambivalent,
che quella era fatta d’huomini e questa di dei” – cit. in cumbersome, bureaucratic and, undoubtedly,
Andretta 2000). contradictory premises. These were both evolved and
The innate and irrepressible drive of the Venetian involuted, and were part of the intimate essence of
aristocracy to defend its own “republican” freedoms at “venezianità”: no one wanted to be a subject, everyone
all costs at the same time created powerful antibodies, wanted to be a king, almost a god. Since they could not
which made sure it would not degenerate into anarchy. have the squares, which were exceptionally granted only
We may refer to these antibodies as the “policy of to an “outsider”, the foresto Bartolomeo Colleoni, the
personal negation” and, in different ways and to Venetians paradoxically took over the façades of the
different degrees, they intervened in every aspect of civic churches. This was partly because the ecclesiastical
and religious life (Gaier 2002). Initially, however, it was patronage system allowed it, and partly because they
not a repressive policy of personal negation that led to thus acted as a sounding board for a “neo-pagan”
the phenomenon of celebratory façades, for it wormed ideology – if we may be permitted the term – which had
its way in, as a historical antibody, in an attempt at turned the cult of the State into a secular religion,
containment, or rather at self-containment. It was intentionally confusing the sacred and the profane.
certainly not the reaction of an unblemished and Even a cursory and provisional analysis immediately
disinterested conscience (Favilla-Rugolo 2004-05). As in shows how, ever since the fifteenth century, Venice had
other cases, those who make accusations are never boasted a colossal bronze equestrian statue, based on
entirely pure. Those who reveal the sins of others, at the one of the Roman Marcus Aurelius, to glorify not a
least in their heart of hearts, have already committed it sovereign but a mere condottiero, and a foresto at that.
themselves. Initially, the building of so many This statue of Colleoni had taken its example from the
monuments in public spaces was the result of the Gattamelata, another foresto, in Padua. Both were the
unprecedented and certainly idealised “liberty” of the result of private patronage, but in the end they were
Venetians. It shows how they felt themselves to be free promoted by the Republic. And they were accompanied
and not subject to any sovereign, and it reveals their by an unprecedented flourishing of façade-monuments.
underlying desire to portray themselves as essential There is nothing comparable in the statuary anywhere
elements in a complex state organism, and their view of in the ancien régime. And if a comparison really had to
themselves as precious and irreplaceable tesserae in a be made, it might, mutatis mutandis, be sought only in
vast and ancient mosaic. Elsewhere, only the emperor, Republican Rome, with its forums inhabited by
the king, the prince, or the pope could have claimed as monumenta that perpetuated the memory of illustrious
much. But in Venice things worked the other way personalities. And yet even this master model was
round. The privileges and public visibility of the doge, surpassed, because Ancient Rome was no longer, and
who was a primus inter pares – for never should he modern Rome had no heroes to immortalise. Venice
consider himself a monarch – were gradually reduced at “was called the altera Roma, in comparison to that of
every new promissione. Those who were not the doge, ancient times. Imperial Rome had collapsed under the
including those who were just private citizens, were excessive, lumbering weight of its own size, corroded
“permitted” such excesses, which were unparalleled from within initially by an authoritarian and later by a
anywhere in Europe prior to the liberal nineteenth- tyrannical degeneration of what had formerly been the
century regimes. As a result, they filled the squares with Republic, and it was from the latter that Venice drew its
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 31

inspiration. She declared herself [...] to be heir, daughter the individual was part of the whole. The Venetians had
and pupil. And yet [...] the pupil surpassed her teacher. such a level of self-awareness that they formulated the
Framed by a perfect and well-ordered constitution, the myth of the perfect city, which accompanied that of the
Venetian Republic was immune from the conflicts and perfect State. It was a different world, a “mundus alter”
tensions that had troubled ancient Republican Rome, and also unique, “et singolare” (Sansovino 1581). A city
where the authority of a collective organ, the Senate, not of men but of gods – if not of God Himself, as
was drained away by the personal power of the emperor. Giulio Strozzi states in his La Venetia edificata (1624). A
In Venice, however, the Senate remained the decision- city already in mente Dei and that increased over time,
making centre” (Benzoni 2004). even though it already existed outside of time as an
It is thus in this world that, as a perfect and archetype in the celestial gallery of the divine Architect.
inimitable model, the façade of the church of Santa So it is not that surprising that, in such a world,
Maria Formosa was built. Towards the middle of the wealthy personalities used their fortunes to launch
sixteenth century, it portrayed Capitano Generale da ambivalent processes of authentic self-divinisation,
Mar Vincenzo Cappello, the hero of the Battle of erecting monumental façades to the glory of themselves
Preveza, “as a Roman admiral”, a second Agrippa (Gaier and, by reflection, also to that of the State. They
2002). Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, winner of the Battle constituted a sort of “pantheon laique, […] un
of Actium in 31 BC, had been a fervent supporter of the monument à la gloire de la Serenissima ou des venitiens”
republican institutions and, as such, had attempted to (Gallego 1968). A pantheon that was ubiquitous in the
influence his father-in-law and friend Augustus, even urban fabric.
though with little success. After Actium, he had ordered This process reached its climax in the Baroque
the building of the Pantheon at his own expense, period, which was an age of excesses, great contrasts and
placing his own effigy and that of Octavian side by side a crisis of values, of absolutism and subjectivism. It was
on the pronaos. In the mid-sixteenth century, the statue an age in which rhetorical emphasis, scientific
of Agrippa was in the famous collection of the Grimani rationalism, esoteric lingerings and a loss of central
family of Santa Maria Formosa and, together with the focus all coexisted. The phenomenon reached its height
temple, it provided the main façade with its “Roman” during the most critical phase of the Cretan War, when
and “Republican” inspiration. The glory of the the Republic found itself involved in a conflict that, with
individual and that of the State were to be at least its alternating fortunes, brought about a serious
equivalent: Cappello was “triunphator pro patriae financial, social, and identitary crisis. The closely
libertate” and “antiquorum laudibus par (ut publica guarded Libro d’Oro was opened, as were several
testantur monumenta)” – victor for the liberty of his building sites around the city so that this individual
OPPOSITE: Alessandro Tremignon,
country, and on a par with the Ancients in terms of desire for power could be expressed to the full. In this Façade of the church of San Moisè.
praise, as public monuments attest (Gaier 2002). climate, just a short walk from the façade of Santa Maria FROM THE TOP: The Personification
of Art and Saint Mark Enter the
With their ostentatious designs, these celebratory Formosa, the sobriety and equilibrium that had Gallery of Heaven Which Contains the
Image of the City of Venice Ab
constructions illustrate a new and by no means appeared a century earlier in the monument to the hero
Aeterno engraving (Strozzi 1624);
coincidental use of public space as a means to reassert Vincenzo Cappello appears to be contradicted – Domenico Grazioli da Salò, Marble
portrait of Vincenzo Cappello, church
the greatness of the Republic through its countless although it is actually enhanced through contrast – by of Santa Maria Formosa, façade;
heroes. These men thus emerge from the private sphere the apotropaic, squint-eyed, ramshackle, snickering Agrippa Grimani, Venice, Museo
Archeologico.
and fully into the public, to astound and caution the mascaron that openly jeers at the foot of the bell tower,
people, as well as visitors from outside. The excesses of which was rebuilt between 1679 and 1686 by the
an individual could be tolerated only if they were in line stonecutter Giovanni Battista Cavalieri (ASPVE, S.M.
with the ideology of a city-state of free men, in which Formosa).

the use of festoons, garlands, allegories, putti, rosettes,

and animal grotesques attributed to the German stone
carver Enrico Merengo, monstrous dragons with
disquieting sneers, mascarons, and contorted figures
in a constant huddle of objects that reveal an
authentic horror vacui. The busts of other members of
the Fini family, Girolamo and Vincenzo Girolamo,
almost disappear in whirling, dreamlike clusters. All
the rules are swept aside in an attempt to exorcise the
monsters and storm clouds gathering on the historical
horizon of a twilight announced by the loss of Candia
in 1669. The sinister flickers of apprehension in those
days must have run through the minds of a family of
Cretan origin, and indeed this is the first sensation
that the viewer has when faced with the façade of San
Moisè.
The iconographic arrangement is a celebration of
both the sacred and the profane. The Fathers of the
VINCENZO FINI AT SAN MOISÈ Old Testament – Moses first and foremost, with the
tablets of the Law – are placed on the tympanum, to
The architectural and sculptural decoration of the assert the supremacy of the Law over the moral order
TOP: Enrico Merengo, Marble parish church of San Moisè, which was built between of the world, thereby guaranteeing eternal and
portrait of Girolamo Fini, church of
San Moisè, façade. 1681 and 1684 (Gaier 2002), was particularly proclaimed Fame (shown beneath the family crest) to
OPPOSITE: Enrico Merengo, Honour spectacular. In terms of superfluity and ostentation, it all those who embody and cultivate the four cardinal
Over a Dragon, church of San Moisè,
façade. is unique in the panorama of celebratory façades. Virtues, who appear next to the main window (cf.
Girolomo Fini, a member of a rich family of Cretan Ripa 1645). The obelisk, or pyramid, which is a
origin which had only recently been admitted to the symbol of Glory, rises up supported by two dragons
Maggior Consiglio in exchange for 100,000 ducats, symbolising Eternity. The figure of the patron is
summoned the proto of the Arsenal, Alessandro enhanced and celebrated by the statues at the sides:
Tremignon, to build a façade that would pay tribute to Counsel and Honour on the dragons, Virtue and
the illustrious members of his family. The bust of his Honesty slightly lower down – these are two generic
brother Vincenzo, who had died in 1660 and whose but also specific qualities that bring about the fortune
bequest of 30,000 ducats had formed the initial funds and esteem of those who take up the legal profession.
for the ambitious project, rises up at the centre of the The choice of subject was inevitable, for the façade
composition. He stands above an obelisk, on which was built on the church consecrated to Moses, the
his virtues and the dignity of his membership of the quintessential symbol of the law. Fini, who is seen
patriciate and of the legal profession are inscribed. wearing his gown, is fully part of this noble vocation
The traditional distribution of the façade, with a large and it would seem that he did it great honour, for he
Diocletian window at the centre, is transfigured by the is borne aloft and accompanied by the many
dynamic interaction between architecture and important virtues that allowed him to achieve eternal
sculpture. Its engaging theatricality is achieved with fame and glory.

ANTONIO BARBARO AT SANTA MARIA the coping is spared, for at the very summit we see not
DEL GIGLIO (KNOWN AS SANTA MARIA the image of the Virgin, but a splendid allegory of
ZOBENIGO) worldly Glory, whom Cesare Ripa (1645) describes as a
“Woman with a golden crown on her head [...] a sign
The most disconcerting example of a celebratory of the reward that is due to all famous men”. At the
façade can be seen in Giuseppe Sardi’s design for the sides of the mixtiliear tympanum there are the
church of Santa Maria del Giglio. Between 1679 and recumbent figures of the four cardinal virtues, of
1681, Triadan Gritti, the executor of the will of which Prudence and Justice (on the right) have lost
their symbols, while in the centre (aligned with Glory
Antonio Barbaro, a rather minor but successful hero of
at the top and the figure of the patron beneath) we see
the Cretan War, had the new façade of the parish
the family’s coat of arms, crowned and accompanied
church built, fully respecting the last will and
by trophies, against a lavish drape held up by Turkish
testament of the patrician (Frank 1985-86; Benzoni
“prigioni”. Antonio Barbaro stands out magnificently
1996; Favilla-Rugolo 2004-05). Upon his death in
on the second order, above a mock sarcophagus. He is
1678, the donor left not only the design, which he
fully dressed in armour with the characteristic reversed
himself had inspired and approved, but also the
truncated-cone style cap of a capitano da mar, or naval
conspicuous sum of 30,000 ducats for building the
captain. The fluffy wig that frames his face with its
new façade. Together with a life-size statue of His
contemptuous expression, and the massive cloak
Excellency dressed as a general (“statua di sua
thrown over his left shoulder and nonchalantly
eccellenza al naturale con habito generalitio”), there
gathered at his side in a cascade of heavy folds, all help
were also to be statues of his four brothers. It is fairly
focus the spectator’s eyes on the hand holding the
remarkable that the civic and religious authorities
baton of command. The splayed fingers and even the
made no objection to such elevation of secular figures. OPPOSITE: Giuseppe Sardi, Façade
vein that swells the skin, and the affected but firm of the church of Santa Maria del
And indeed, the decision to decorate the church façade Giglio (called Santa Maria Zobenigo).
gesture of grasping the symbol of power are all
with “trofei e memorie” of the family, and then to PAGE 38: Giuseppe Sardi, Façade of
emphasised by the sculptor, who creates a diagonal the church of Santa Maria di Nazareth
rebuild the ancient church entirely, was craftily or “degli Scalzi”.
from the right shoulder, haughtily thrust forward,
PAGE 39: Orazio Marinali, San
suggested to Antonio Barbaro by the parish priest down to the tip of the baton below. This Barbaro Sebastiano, detail, church of Santa
himself. This was Alvise Baratti, to whom the appears more as a god than as a man, almost like a Maria di Nazareth or “degli Scalzi”,
façade.
nobleman had turned for advice, in his wish to resurrected Christ standing tall on his sarcophagus PAGES 40-41: Giusto le Court,
“immortalise himself ”. The decision was agreed upon Monument to Antonio Barbaro,
between little angels holding up curtains. Everything general view and detail, church of
by both parties, placing the priest in an ambiguous here refers solely to him. No saints look out from the Santa Maria del Giglio, façade.
position as instigator, as well as accomplice, for he was PAGES 42-43: Enrico Merengo,
niches at the sides, but only his own virtues: Virtue Marble portraits of Francesco and
anything but unaware of the effects that it would have herself and Honour. At the two ends stand Fame and Marino Barbaro, general view and
detail, church of Santa Maria del
on the entire building (Favilla-Rugolo 2004-05). Wisdom on tall pedestals. Every available space is filled Giglio, façade.
The clarity of the architectural composition only with arms and reliefs of the feats that gave such glory PAGES 44-45: Bas-reliefs with naval
battles and maps of the cities of Padua
underscores the overabundance of decoration. True to to his name: naval battles are shown in the panels and Candia, church of Santa Maria
long-standing tradition, the sculptures, which are del Giglio, façade.
between the first and second order and, in the plinths
variously attributed to Giusto Le Court, Enrico below, we see town plans of the places where Antonio
Merengo, and Tommaso Rues (P. Rossi 1997), are worthily performed his duties for the Republic –
placed in niches, and it hardly seems to matter that Zadar, Candia, Padua, Rome, Corfu, and Split. The
laymen have unduly taken the place of saints. Secular “magnanimity” of the donor also extends to the four
images spread out over the entire surface, and not even niches on the lower order, flanking the main entrance.

Here we see his brothers, Giovanni Maria, Marino, would never have constituted a real danger for the
Francesco, and Carlo, who would otherwise have established order and for the class of optimates. And,
probably been forgotten by history. An illuminating even though he had never held the highest post of
parallel can be seen close by in the façade of the Capitano Generale da Mar, he was tacitly allowed to
church of Santa Maria di Nazareth, known as Degli show himself as one (Casini 2001). It was a magnificent
Scali. For a commission from Girolamo Cavazza, the fallacy and an authentic misrendering orchestrated by
same architect, Giuseppe Sardi, had already used the the ruling class that allowed some people the privilege
same compositional structure: two orders of coupled of raising themselves above others.
columns on tall plinths flank niches with statues, In 1678 Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo, an illustrious
though here they are of saints (or of religious parishioner of Santa Maria del Giglio, even expressed
allegories) and, in the central area, in place of Antonio his satisfaction and did not display the slightest
Barbaro, the Virgin and Child rise up on a tall pedestal. disapproval of what we today would find hard not to
Barbaro “immortalised himself in the mausoleum consider as profanation of a holy place: “death strips
left to the admiration of his homeland and to the all and allows our parish to enjoy the spoils carried off
embellishment of the ages; in as much as [...], in that [by Barbaro] from the fierce Thracian [i.e. the Turk]”
theatre of magnificence he managed to commit God (cit. in Benzoni 1996). The cardinal did however
Himself to the preservation of his memory in the lament something else, which was the extinction of
pageantry of glorious eternity” (Freschot 1682). The this branch of the Barbaro family and of other noble
restrained façade of Santa Maria Formosa, with the families because, increasingly often, “in Venice the rich
monument to Vincenzo Cappello, was reflected one die without offspring and the poor because they have
hundred and thirty years later in its excessive, too many”. Once again, love of one’s country is seen
overblown, deformed, monstrous “younger sister”, the through the filter of the interests of individual
wonderfully Baroque façade of Santa Maria del Giglio, families.
which did indeed border on the blasphemous. Even
though more sophisticated connoisseurs of good taste BARTOLOMEO CARGNONI IN SANTA
might have had many reservations about the MARIA DEI DERELITTI (KNOWN AS
appropriateness of such a construction, we can be OSPEDALETTO)
quite sure that, in the end, few people would have
doubted that Barbaro’s extravagant monument Fini and Barbaro’s astounding undertakings were
brought even greater glory to the Republic. That such in no way prevented by the Republic – which normally
personalised ostentation, which almost deified an took pains to prevent the self-promotion of individual
individual on the façade of a church, could be possible citizens – but this was simply because they were
must have seemed astonishing to outsiders in promoted by secondary exponents of the political
particular. It might have been a clear demonstration
scene in Venice: a Cretan-war veteran ennobled
that the Republic abounded with heroes, all of them
through wealth and a minor aristocrat.
free and sovereign unto themselves: almost “kings”, if One burgher who was a member of the order of
not exactly gods. All free and almost kings, but none “original citizens”, and who always remained one, was
more free or more of a king than others – as in, and the patron of a façade-monument of Baroque Venice.
better than, Republican Rome. Barbaro was permitted Commissioned by the merchant Bartolomeo
this honour because he was the last in the dying Cargnoni, who left a sizeable bequest in his will, the
branch of a family that had already become front of the Ospedaletto church was built to a design
impoverished and relatively uninfluential. His example by Baldassare Longhena between 1670 and 1674 (Gaier

Baldassare Longhena, Façade of the

church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti
(called Ospedaletto).
47
TOP: Marble portrait of Bartolomeo 2002; Frank, 2004). Since it looked out over the narrow issue, for his dignity as a haberdasher is extolled in the
Cargnoni, church of Santa Maria dei
callo of Barbaria de le Tole, the elevation consists of shop sign with an ostrich which is replicated on the
Derelitti, façade.
OPPOSITE: Marco Beltrame, considerably projecting and foreshortened elements. stone expanses of the attic. It is certainly true that, in
Mascherone irridente, church of
The piety and generosity of the donor is conveyed in a accordance with the Epistle of James the Apostle (2,
Santa Maria dei Derelitti, façade.
complicated but unified arrangement, where even the 17), the statues of Faith and Charity at the top,
most marginal decorative element celebrates the between Temperance and Hope, remind us that faith
dignity and memory of an archetype to be shown off. without good works “is death in itself ” and that the
Enclosed in an elegant niche, the bust is accompanied rich in particular must show compassion for the poor
by domineering atlantes dressed as pilgrims of St and uncared-for. “BARTHOLOMEVS CARNIONVS /
James, with shell, cowl, rosary, and a water flask tied THESAVRIZATVRVS SIBI THESAVROS IN COELIS […]” was
round their waists. Whether or not this symbolism clearly inspired by charitable zeal, as we read on the
alludes to the charitable function of the Ospedaletto, plaque below the bust. This recalls the famous passage
of which this church was the chapel, or to the personal from Matthew (6, 20) and, again from the Epistle of St
virtues of the wealthy merchant is not so much the James (5, 2-3), about the need for a true Christian to

TOP: Giusto Le Court (attr.), Atlantes

in the form of a Pilgrim of St James,
detail, church of Santa Maria dei
Derelitti, façade.
OPPOSITE: Marco Beltrame, Festoon,
detail, church of Santa Maria dei
Derelitti, façade.
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

accumulate eternal treasures in heaven.

On this subject, it appears that the niche that
houses the portrait of the donor is “the most
reassuring focal point for the eyes” of the observer,
who is overwhelmed by the looming sculptural
decoration of the façade (Frank 2004). This lofty
example was to remain true for anyone who passed by
the church in the centuries to come and who, almost
like a pilgrim of St James, stopped to reflect on the
“narrow” path to salvation. Passers-by would be
caught in devout meditation on the desirability of
conversion to the law of evangelical charity and, lastly,
they would burn with the fire of divine love. “ET TV
FLAMMAS CARPE CHARITATIS UT REVIVISCAS [...]” reminds
the inscription.
THE FAÇADE FOR FRANCESCO MOROSINI

AT SAN VIDAL
An ambitious but much less successful project was

one that involved Francesco Morosini, the glorious
doge who led the conquest of Morea, an event which
was seen by all Venice as redemption for the
intolerable loss of Candia. In the 1680s, the architect
Antonio Gaspari prepared a large number of drawings
for a complete renovation of the church of San Vidal
and its façade (Conticelli 1999; Gaier 2002; Favilla-
Rugolo 2004-05).
With great pomp and solemnity, on 27 October
1686 Venice celebrated the conquest of Nauplia (which
became known as the “Naples of Romania”). The
victory was a turning point in the Morea campaign,
which started in 1684 with the aim of freeing the
Peloponnese from the dominion of the Ottoman
Empire. The unchallenged hero of this military
operation, which at last reversed the fortunes of the
Republic in its overseas possessions, was Capitano
TOP: Antonio Gaspari, Design for the Generale da Mar Francesco Morosini. His victories
Façade of the Church of San Vidal fulfilled the lasting aspirations of the Dominante to
With a Monument to Francesco
Morosini as Capitano Generale da occupy those territories, and they enabled Morosini to
Mar, Venice, Museo Correr. dispel once and for all any doubts there may have been
BOTTOM: Johann Bernard Fischer
von Erlach, Karlskirche, Vienna. about his having dishonoured Venice at the Peace of
Candia in 1669 (Gullino 1986). Special medals,
inscriptions, books, engravings, eulogistic

compositions and, ultimately, his receipt of the Corno

Dogale, the doge’s cap, upon his election in 1688 were
all tangible evidence of the city’s gratitude. This
exaltation of the qualities of its beloved son became,
by reflection, a celebration of the Republic’s virtues.
As early as February 1686 a wooden model was
made for the rebuilding of the church of San Vidal, so
the final design cannot have been made after 1685,
relating it to the first important military victory by
Morosini in Morea (Favilla-Rugolo 2004-05). It was
probably Lorenzo, the future doge’s brother, who took
the initiative to have the church rebuilt, giving it a
monument-façade, with a twofold aim: to celebrate the
new-found honour and prestige of Francesco, and thus
of the family as a whole, and to provide a suitable
response to the nearby Santa Maria del Giglio, which
had just been finished. This would put an end – and to
his own advantage – to the long-running dispute that
had pitted Antonio Barbaro against Francesco
Morosini (cf. Benzoni 1996). The choice of site could
hardly have been random, not only because it was the
family parish church, potentially with a flamboyant
prospect on the Grand Canal, but also because it
contained the mortal remains of an authentic
champion of heroism, Capitano Generale da Mar
Lorenzo Marcello, who had achieved the memorable
victory over the Turkish army at the Dardanelles on 26
June 1656 (Martinioni 1663).
A sketch for the façade of San Vidal, with lively,
incisive, zig-zag brushstrokes of watercolour, may date
from 1685. On the back, it bears a pencil drawing of
the same subject (MCVE, Raccolta Gaspari, I, 45r-v).
The predominant elements in this composition are the
triumphal column and the obelisk – which are shown
as alternatives – set into concavities carved out of a
triaxial structure adorned with banded demi-columns
and set on a tall rusticated basement with three
portals. The tympanum puts the focus on the central
TOP: Antonio Gaspari, Design for the
axis, thus leading the eye to the statue of Morosini. that opened up above two barrel vaults at the sides and Façade of the Church of San Vidal
The original composition recalls a type that was he developed this theme further in the Karlskirche in With a Monument to Francesco
Morosini with His Attributes as Doge,
also adopted by the Austrian architect Johann Bernard 1715. Yet in the history of Western architecture there Venice, Museo Correr.
BOTTOM: Temporary Altar Set up in
Fischer von Erlach, who in 1690 erected a temporary are countless examples from which Gaspari too may 1621 for the Funerary Display for
have drawn inspiration (Favilla-Rugolo 2004-05). Cosimo II de’ Medici in the Basilica of
triumphal arch in honour of Emperor Leopold I. This
Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice,
had two historiated columns inserted in concavities In another design for the façade of San Vidal, the engraving (Strozzi 1621).

triaxial format of the triumphal arch (MCVE, Raccolta

Gaspari, I, 48r) is inverted with respect to the sketch
mentioned above, but it is made even more opulent by
being attached to a façade similar to the one of the
Temple of Minerva. Palladio had already used this as a
source, though Gaspari brings it up to date by drawing
on some illustrious precedents in Venice. The same
modulation of the masonry surface had already
appeared in the monument to Alvise Mocenigo in San
Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, which was built between 1658
and 1665. Also at the Mendicanti, the mausoleum
structure was based on that of a triumphal arch held in
at the sides by two barrel vaults, while the attic
contains a statue of the Capitano Generale da Mar in a
concave niche in the centre flanked by obelisks. Again
taking up a style of architecture that had already been
adopted in Venice, the display created in 1621 for the
funeral of Cosimo II de’ Medici at Santi Giovanni e
Paolo (Strozzi 1621) combined the same ingredients
But the earthquake of 12 April 1688 may have altered
with obelisk-pyramids of candles. These were placed
their plans, because from that date until 1699,
beside an altar in a niche with a statue of the
documents show how the priest mainly worked on
Redeemer below, and a Crucifix above, all of which
rebuilding the buildings owned by the parish, which
was enclosed by two lateral arches. The sources from
TOP LEFT: Andrea Tirali, Façade of
which Antonio Gaspari drew, as indeed did Fischer had been severely damaged. It was only towards the
the church of San Vidal.
TOP RIGHT: Filippo Parodi, Bronze von Erlach, are thus those of a long and varied end of the century that the building site probably
portrait of the Doge Francesco
tradition which could be found in treatises, in ancient started up, and work continued until well after the
Morosini, Palazzo Ducale, Armeria.
and contemporary Roman architecture, as well as in death of Tesseri in 1718. It was terminated with a neo-
French and even Venetian works. Palladian façade that formed a restrained celebration
In Gaspari’s juxtaposition of the obelisk with the of the Contarini family. This was built between 1725
religious building (the solution that in the end won and 1735 by the architect Andrea Tirali (Gaier 2002;
out in his designs for the façade of San Vidal; MCVE, Favilla-Rugolo 2004-2005).
Raccolta Gaspari, I, 45r-v) we can however see an A number of hypotheses have been put forward
attempt to find a dialectic synthesis of Bernini and about the reasons that ultimately led the parish priest
Borromini. If we superimpose the obelisk of the (and perhaps Morosini too) to prefer a more
Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona and the traditional solution and to abandon the idea of
concavity of the façade of Sant’Agnese in Agone erecting a façade to celebrate Francesco Morosini
opposite, we come close to the effect recreated by the Peloponnesiacus. The first may have been of an
Venetian architect and the extraordinarily successful economic nature, for in his will, dated 26 May 1693,
one obtained by Fischer von Erlach in the later Francesco Morosini does name Gaspari as the proto of
Karlskirche in Vienna. his family, but he makes no mention of the plans for
Coming back to the construction history of San San Vidal – neither for the façade nor for the main
Vidal, in 1685 the most important thing for the parish body of the church – though he does mention generic
priest Teordoro Tesseri, and possibly for Lorenzo monuments, which were also never made, for the
Morosini too, was thus to rebuild the ancient church. church of Santo Stefano. In any case, if one of these

projects had been taken up, the city would have

received an exceptional monument, but it would have
been the first time ever in the history of the Republic
that a doge, even of the highest merit, would have
been granted such prominence in a public place. The
Senate may not have deemed it advisable to allow
such a powerful patron to have a space of his own in
a city where he could exhibit a degree of real power
that was absolutely legitimate and not just nominal.
Even so, it had already commissioned the Genoese
sculptor Filippo Parodi, and Gaspari himself, to set
up a statue and a triumphal arch in the ducal palace
(Frank 1985-86).
Santa Maria Zobenigo had brought to an end the
fashion for personalised celebration. From then on,
religious architecture would gradually shift towards a
more restrained and classical style. This was to be part
of a modern debate on the need to revive the
architecture lessons taught by Andrea Palladio, and an
awakening of the cult, for example, of the sixteenth-
century master – who was already a legend in Venice –
was also furthered by the mathematical works of
Andrea Musalo (Concina 1995). A sort of genteel
“Palladianisation” of the city had already been under
way in the early eighteenth century. This revival had
eighteen celebrative façades that were actually built in TOP: Domenico Rossi, Façade of the
led Domenico Rossi to refer back to the Palladian church of Sant’Eustachio (called San
Venice from the Quattrocento to the Settecento, ten Stae).
model in 1709 in his façade for San Stae (Ravaioli
were built in the Seicento and only three in the PAGE 56: Giorgio Massari, Façade of
1993), which looks like a sort of porcelain Palladio the church of Santa Maria del Rosario
following century. A follower of this now outdated (called Gesuati).
and, even though for different reasons, Giorgio
fashion was Andrea Tirali, who in 1711 placed a simple PAGE. 57: Andrea Tirali, Façade of
Massari had followed suit in 1724 in his design for the the church of San Nicola da Tolentino
bust above the entrance on the façade of the Tolentini
(called Tolentini).
Gesuati. One shows off its façade on the Grand Canal,
dedicated to Alvise da Mosto. The image is concealed
while the other, which is both ambitious and by an authentic and imposing Corinthian pronaos, the
unrestrained, faces the Redentore from the Zattere, on first and last to be made in the lagoon (Gaier 2002).
the other side of the Giudecca Canal, consciously With remarkable creative liberty, the architect has
making a comparison with it. Between 1716 and 1736, carved a graceful oval oculus out of the tympanum, in
Rossi was again responsible for the renovation – in a composition that is only apparently classical. The
both the “Roman” and, at the same time, Palladian purist Pietro Selvatico maintained in 1847 that the
sense of the term – of the ancient church of the “Baroque [Tirali] reveals himself in that barbarous
Crociferi, which had been taken over by the Jesuits in elliptic eye of scrolls”. And indeed the composition
1657, when they were allowed back into the Republic does emanate a mellow, impalpable aura of Late
after the Interdict (Frank 1996; Olivato 2003). Baroque, which would not have seemed out of place in
Private celebration was gradually reduced, until it the background of a painting by Sebastiano Ricci.
disappeared altogether on the exteriors, though it did
briefly survive in the interiors of churches. Of the

OPPOSITE: Domenico Rossi, Façade

of the church of Santa Maria Assunta
or Gesuiti.
TOP: Giuseppe Torretti, Our Lady of
the Assumption with Angels, church
of the Gesuiti, coping of the façade.

PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES

FOR A MONUMENT TO FRANCESCO
MOROSINI IN SANTO STEFANO
The designs for the astonishing façade of San Vidal

in honour of Morosini Peloponnesiacus were never
actually built, but in 1687 the Senate permitted a
bronze bust of him to be placed in the “Sala del
Pubblico Armamento” in Palazzo Ducale and, later, a
triumphal arch to be built on the inside portal of the
Sala dello Scrutinio. It also approved the bronze base
of the flagpole, with decorations to commemorate
him, in Campo dell’Arsenale.
No such success was achieved by Antonio Gaspari’s
designs for a funerary monument in the church of
Santo Stefano, which was to have been erected within
two years of Morosini’s death on 6 January 1694 in
Nauplia di Romania, in accordance with his
testamentary will. A series of unforeseen events
RIGHT: Antonio Gaspari, Design for
prevented the creation of monuments clearly inspired
the Funerary Monument to Doge
Francesco Morosini in Santo Stefano, by the works of Gianlorenzo Bernini (Conticelli 1999).
Venice, Museo Correr.
For this purpose, the nephew of the late doge hired
some of the most talented stone carvers available at the
time in Venice: Giovanni Comin, Giovanni Toschini,
Francesco Cabianca, and Marino Groppelli, helped by
Giovanni Battista Groppelli and Piero Tirali
“intagliadori di marmi”, Antonio Trabucco “bronzer”,
Lorenzo Viviani and Zuanne Canciani, stonecutter magnificent performance on the stage of Venice. It was
(Favilla-Rugolo 2004-05). This was a well-assorted a though his mortal remains were to rise up from the
team, in view of the complexity of Gaspari’s drawings, sepulchre and appear in a sort of dance of death that
which amongst other things called for elaborate would perpetuate the glory of the Republic,
bronze decorations and a lavish amount of precious immortalising its legendary status (MCVE, Raccolta
marbles. The intention was clearly to create some Gaspari, I, 44, 52). But destiny made a mockery of all
memorable designs, with spectacular funerary this: the sudden death of Giovanni Comin, the
backdrops, as eternal catafalques to sing the praises of caprices of Francesco Cabianca, and the misgivings of
the “veneto eroe”, who had “vanquished the pride of the Augustinian monks of Santo Stefano about the
true monsters” (Vannucci 1688). By sublimating the impact of the monument on their church in the end
dissolution of the body in these marbles, the led to a compromise, with the tombstone being placed
Peloponnesiacus would thus bow out from his at the centre of the floor of the nave. It was designed
60 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES

by Gaspari himself, with the help of the Genoese stone

carver Filippo Parodi.
THE MONUMENT TO ALVISE MOCENIGO

IN SAN LAZZARO DEI MENDICANTI AND
THE “REHABILITATION” OF PATRIARCH
FRANCESCO VENDRAMIN IN SAN PIETRO DI
CASTELLO
The pyramid-obelisk motif, a “symbol of glory”

(Ripa 1645) which appears in a number of forms in
Morosini’s designs, does indeed have some precedents
in Venice (Frank 2002). One example is the monument
to Girolamo Garzoni, the hero in the war against the
Turks, which was placed on the façade of the Frari
between 1688 and 1689, possibly by Giovanni
Bonazza, a pupil of Giusto Le Court: a tall obelisk
looms up over the illustrious man, between Faith and
a personification of Venice (cf. Bacchi 2000). One and Fortitude, which are the work of Giusto Le Court,
trend, which would have culminated in Gaspari’s plans
are placed at the base of the composition, while a
for Santo Stefano if they had actually been built,
statue of the Madonna, which is placed above
emerged in the Baroque age: it was that of gradually
Mocenigo, is so small that it does not affect the entirely TOP: Giuseppe Sardi, Façade
reducing or even eliminating from the tombs those of the church of San Lazzaro dei
secular nature of the monument. At the centre of the
symbolic and allegorical references that might Mendicanti.
upper register stands the patron, in a sacralising niche.
somehow overshadow the chaste and egotistical
The decoration that covers much of the surfaces for
elevation of the patron’s personality. He would thus
the first time introduces a purely military celebration
appear alone and in a higher dimension, if anything
of the great man. It takes the form of bas-relief
with just trophies, weapons and documentary
chronicles, which were made by the English sculptor
representations of his immortal feats (Conticelli 1999).
John Bushnell (Borean 1998), illustrating his glorious
The seeds of this tendency already appeared in
battles and plans of the fortresses in Candia where
condensed form in the architect Giuseppe Sardi’s
proposal for the monument to Alvise Mocenigo, the Mocenigo rose to glory. The narrative content is thus
hero of the Cretan War, which was set up in the church worthy of the glorifying obelisks.
of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti between 1658 and 1665 This narrative inspiration is one that we find ten
(Niero 1986b; Borean 1998; Gaier 2002). The front of years later in its purest form, in a relief sculpted by the
the building gives onto the foundations of the Rio, and foresto, Michele Fabris, called Ongaro (he was born in
behind there is a vast entrance hall closed by the Bratislava in about 1644) for the Vendramin chapel in
monument-wall that marks the actual end of the nave, San Pietro di Castello, where he worked between 1668
making it quite a unique work. The structure of the and 1674 (Rossi 1995). This expert sculptor created a
triumphal arch is clearly used to create a partition, lively, jagged, claustrophobic composition – unlike
though its function is confused with the need to anything being made in Venice at the time – in the
celebrate. The traditional allegorical figures of Justice episode in which Paul V places the cardinal’s cap on
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES 61

Francesco Vendramin. He creates a Bernini-style stage

setting, which he had learnt from its source – in the
studio of Giusto Le Court – in which the figures are
shot through by a sort of electric discharge in their
neurotic reactions of stunned amazement as they
witness the unexpected event. Vendramin, who is
celebrated in the centre, expresses his gratitude simply
by raising up his eyes towards heaven. This rather
inconvenient patriarch was rewarded in 1615 by Pope
Paul V, who promoted him to the cardinalate for his
allegiance to the Roman Curia during the Interdict
(Menniti Ippolito 2008). For the very same reason, he
had been harshly reprimanded by the Senate of the
Republic in 1609, when proud Doge Leonardo Donà
brutally reminded him that his consecration as
patriarch had not been granted “to honour his person
[...], but to maintain our jurisdiction and ecclesiastical
patronage” (Pin 2008). Here, however, he appears to
have been redeemed by his descendants in a
posthumous rehabilitation that, since the excesses of
the Interdict had definitively died away, can be seen as
a resounding and overexcited apologia.
THE MONUMENT TO DOGE GIOVANNI

PESARO IN THE FRARI came from an idea put forward by the erudite OPPOSITE: Giovanni Bonazza,
Funerary monument to Giovanni
Emanuele Tesauro of Turin and later taken up in the Garzoni, basilica of Santa Maria
The creation of the memorial to Doge Giovanni description that the canon of San Marco Cristoforo
Gloriosa (called “dei Frari”), counter-
façade.
Pesaro, which was erected in the basilica of Santa Ivanovich gave of the work in two later manuscripts. TOP: Giuseppe Sardi, Funerary
Maria Gloriosa dei Frari between 1665 and 1669, was a monument to Alvise Mocenigo,
The first of these was entitled Istoria ne’ marmi, ovvero church of San Lazzaro dei
huge project, involving illustrious names such as the Mendicanti.
memorie gloriose di Giovanni Pesaro and the second
architect Baldassare Longhena and the sculptor of PAGE 64: John Bushnell, Marble
Marmi loquaci, ovvero il regio mausoleo, che rappresenta portrait of Alvise Mocenigo, church of
Flemish origin, Giusto Le Court. The Doge had “left San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti.
le memorie gloriose di Giovanni da Pesaro (Rossi 1990; PAGE 65: Michele Fabris, called
his mortal remains in that illustrious mausoleum
Frank, 2004). Ongaro, Paul V Imposes the
where he triumphed again through ashes and death in Cardinalitial Cap on Patriarch
In the shape of a large triumphal arch, the Francesco Vendramin, San Pietro di
the sculpted and living majesty of his presence, in such Castello, Vendramin chapel.
monument extols the personality of the doge and his
a perfectly orchestrated wealth of marbles, with the
eloquence and inspiration of the inscriptions, which in unprecedented feats. He was a fervent advocate of
their affliction recapitulate the feats of this hero” defending Candia to the bitter end, for he did not
(Freschot 1682). consider it as just an island but as a “kingdom” which
Literary inspiration, which in the Mocenigo made Venice an authentic bulwark against the attacks
monument adopted a mainly narrative tone, played an against Christianity by the Turks, and a true European
essential role in the creation of this complex, which power worthy of being “among the crowns of Europe”.


70
His commitment to the war is referred to by the four the sculptor Marco Beltrame, set up in the church of
giant atlantes, which are actually Moorish slaves, San Moisè (Bacchi 2000).
holding up the heavy central trabeation, on which In 1684, the canon, who was obsessed by the
stands the figure of the prince wearing all the impermanence of things, and by the transient nature
vestments worthy of his dignity. He is surrounded by of existence – a common trait in the age of Baroque –
the virtues, from Religion through to Truth. decided to “pre-empt time and death with an
Celebration of this proud patron is entrusted to two anticipated sepulchre memento”, meticulously
mock sheets, made of marble and held up by macabre dictating the iconographic manifesto and architecture.
skeletons, which extol the qualities that have already In the meantime, the construction was “already being
been profusely conveyed in the allegorical display. Two worked in marble” (Ivanovich 1688). The description,
monstrous dragons, symbolising Eternity, hold up the which comes out in all its fragrant glory in a letter sent
chest on which Pesaro stands like a king. As well as a by Ivanovich on 20 January 1684 to his Neapolitan
precise indication of the sculptors who worked on this friend Padre Giacomo Lubrani, faithfully records the
monument – including Melchiorre Barthel, Giusto Le work, down to the last detail. The memorial still
Court, Francesco Cavrioli and Michele Fabris, called dominates the northern wall of the church of San
Ongaro – Ivanovich insists on the principle that the Moisè, “above the door on the public street that leads
sculptural forms need to “speak” of the greatness and to St Mark’s, between two altars, opposite the pulpit”.
glory of the doge, with explicit reference to Emanuele It is divided “into three orders” and it has no
Tesauro’s Cannocchiale Aristotelico. On the subject of “columns”, for these are replaced by “counter-pilasters”
“argutezza”, Tesauro asserts that “mute objects speak, and it is adorned “with an erudite number of various
senseless things live, deaths rise up; the tombs, figures in high- and bas-relief with allusive academic
marbles, and statues receiving voice, spirit and emblems”. The heart of the composition, “in the niche
PAGE 66: Baldassare Longhena,
movement from this enchantress of spirits, and they in Paragone [black Lydian stone]” on the middle order, Funerary monument to Doge
enter into astute discourse with astute souls” (Tesauro houses “a spherical globe of various colours, above Giovanni Pesaro, Basilica dei Frari.
PAGE 67: Giusto le Court, Detail of
1655). In his Storia ne’ marmi, Ivanovich also admits which there will be a seated the Child Saviour, in the one of the Moors holding up the
trabeation of the funerary monument
his indebtedness to the Turin-born man of letters, who act of blessing with His right hand and, with the left,
to Giovanni Pesaro, Basilica dei Frari.
certainly inspired the creation of the monument, for leaning on the Cross planted in the globe”. Below, there PAGES 68-69: Giusto le Court, Marble
portrait of Doge Giovanni Pesaro and
which “ornamentation, all expressive with inventions are “two small figures that represent two hours, one of
one of his two skeleton standard-
all new” were required. He was well aware that “as an the day with the sun on her forehead, and one of the bearers, Basilica dei Frari.
OPPOSITE: Marco Beltrame,
ordinary shape does not arouse initial curiosity, so a night with a star”. These hold up “the inscription Funerary monument to Canon
lively and peregrine work captures the mind of the cartouche”, recalling that “the daughters of time and of Cristoforo Ivanovich, church of San
Moisè.
observer that much more.” death are obliged to remember”. The inscription recalls PAGES 72-73: Marco Beltrame,
how, during his lifetime – “vivens” – he arranged to be Funerary monument to Canon
Cristoforo Ivanovich, details with
STOPPING THE COURSE OF TIME: THE given eternity in marble and, at the same time, he Death and a marble portrait of the
MONUMENTS TO THE CANON OF ST points out – excusatio non petita – that the entire canon, church of San Moisè.
MARK’S, CRISTOFORO IVANOVICH, IN SAN grandiloquent display was set up “non sibi sed Deo”.
MOISÈ AND TO THE PATRIARCH OF VENICE This was so that it should not be “attributed to a vain
GIOVANNI FRANCESCO MOROSINI IN THE ostentation of glory, but to a simple and necessary
TOLENTINI recognition of the benefits received from God”.
On the same order we see, from the left, the figure
In the 1680s, Cristoforo Ivanovich himself was to of “Time, life-size, with an arenario [an hour glass] in
have the privilege of seeing a monument to himself, by his hands, breaking it” and with his foot “on a wheel

72
and cast down, bearing the motto ‘Semper’” and, on

the right, “doleful Death leaning on his scythe with the
motto ‘Numquam’”, showing how “as rays and gifts of
God, the moral and scientific virtues are immortal”.
On the base of the monument “there will be the
head, and quite a portion of my bust wearing a cotta,
in an oval bas-relief ” (Ivanovich 1688), which “will
look like a living head” (Martinelli 1705). On the right
there is “an amoretto with a cross-shaped beret”
(Ivanovich 1688) and on the left “another amoretto
with an almuce”, both in “bizarre poses”. Above, “the
base of the construction will consist of two lions, one
on each side, as symbols of magnanimity and noble-
mindedness”. Between these, there are two bas-reliefs,
one with “the Delphian with her sacred tripod, and the
motto ‘Hinc oracula’”, and the other with
“Philharmonia with an astrolabe in her hand bearing
the motto ‘Caelorum imitarum concentum’”, both
symbolising Ivanovich’s ties with many literary
academies.
On the pediment, there is a “voluted decoration
with an eagle in the centre, in Bargiglio marble from
RIGHT: Filippo Parodi, Funerary
monument to the patriarch of Venice, Genoa, about to soar up into the sky, with the motto
Francesco Morosini, church of the Renovabitur, alluding to the immortality of the soul”.
Tolentini.
OPPOSITE: Filippo Parodi, Funerary At the feet of the eagle there is a “noble crest”, with “an
monument to the patriarch of Venice,
oak tree with, entwined around its trunk, a snake out
Francesco Morosini, detail with a
statue of Truth. of the mouth of which emerges a naked boy”, while
two spirits dressed as amoretti “will come out of the
volutes next to the crest”. The one on the left is “that of
Religion, holding a book and a cross”, and on the right
skeletal Death, but a flayed corpse, a macabre and
“that of a Virtue studying an open book”. On the
grotesque semblance that appears to come from the
plinth, there was also to be another putto symbolising
anatomical theatre of Padua University or from a
“Honour holding a crown of laurels” in memory of the
coeval treatise on medicine. In 1688, as soon as this
“dottorato” and of the “canonicato” that the patron was
“magnifico deposito” was completed, death snatched
awarded when alive.
Dominating them all are the terrifying figures of away the “most erudite, most renowned poet” Canon
Saturn, caught in the illusory act of stopping time Ivanovich – “litteratissimo e poeta di primo grido”
forever by smashing the hourglass, and of a (Onofri 1688).
horrendous Death the Leveller wrapped in flowing The monument to the patriarch of Venice,
drapery, almost giving in, and resting on the scythe in Giovanni Francesco Morosini, which was placed on
a pose very familiar to the exhausted peasant who the left-hand wall of the chancel of the monastic
stops for a rest from reaping. This is not the classic, church of San Nicolò da Tolentino, “on the side of the

LEFT AND TOP: Filippo Parodi,

Funerary monument to the patriarch
of Venice, Francesco Morosini, details
of Time and of the marble portrait of
the patriarch Morosini.
77
lectionary”, is the most eloquent example of Bernini’s PASTORALI SOLECITUDINE, / PAUPERES BENEFICENTIA, IN
influence in the lagoon. It was made by the Genoese PATRIAM LARGITATE, / IMMORTALE PRAESULUM, AC CIVIUM
sculptor Filippo Parodi, who also worked on the EXEMPLAR: / […] DOMESTICIS OPIBUS TOTO BELLO CRETICO
chapel of reliquaries in the Basilica del Santo in Padua / AD EVERTENDOS TURCAS LIBERALISSIME EROGATIS”. This is
from 1690 (Spiriti 1997). the Truth above all things of the world, and of these
At the Tolentini, the artist created a “macchina” of the most precious, a raiment of the soul that neither
the finest marble, “a most beautiful and extremely conceals nor mystifies the “essence of things”, but
expensive work” (Martinelli 1705), in which one can writes and says “only what is, denying that which is
feel “life emerging from the marble of Bernini, and not” (Ripa 1645). An aged Chronos with a flowing
one might almost take it for a work of his” (Selvatico beard appears in chains on the base. He is defeated,
1847). This work, which had not yet been made in and in a contorted and painful pose which is taken, by
1683, was commissioned by the nephew of the prelate, no accident, from the nearby Saint Jerome, which was
who had died in 1678 (Tumidei 2001-02). The painted over fifty years previously by the Rubens-
mausoleum, held in by two powerful pilaster strips follower Johann Liss. Since he can no longer rise up,
that create the bay, takes up the wall from floor to the terrible Saturn has had to put down his implacable,
trabeation. In his will, which was signed on 8 August but now broken scythe, while an irreverent little putto
1673, Morosini himself had arranged, in agreement has snatched his hourglass and broken it with irons,
with the Theatine fathers, for “the ornamentation of preventing Saturn from carrying out his task, which is
the two sides of the larger chapel of the Santissimo that of inexorably measuring time, wearing out,
Sacramento”, raising “my tomb and others for my damaging, destroying, and ultimately causing all
family” on both sides (ASVE, N.T., b. 488). memory of earthly things to be lost. On the right-hand
The asymmetric tomb is brought to life by lively, side, the generous Charity is nursing a baby boy, while
slender, sinuous lines, “packed with crazy fantasias” another cries at the feet of Chronos, who has not
(Selvatico 1847), and it is of a chiaroscuro mellowness allowed Morosini to do more. Near Truth, a third little
unparalleled in Venice. The oblique view imposed by boy holds up a cartouche which explains that, before
the narrowness of the site, which is dominated by the he died, the patriarch chose the place where he was to
imposing high altar designed by Baldassare Longhena, be buried. Though with greater profusion and
creates an extraordinary upward movement. emphasis, there are a series of symbols similar to those
The figure of the patriarch rises up above, against of the now lost mausoleum of Elena Lucrezia Cornaro
the scene that unfolds underneath the sweeping stucco Piscopia, which was made by the Bassano-born
drapery embellished with golden embroidery. We see sculptor Bernardo Tabacco in the Basilica del Santo in
him rising up from the sepulchre, on which he is Padua between 1684 and 1689 (Rugolo 2004).
resting, as though on an ancient triclinium or Etruscan The vast curtain is held up by a lively group of
urn, his hands joined in prayer, and his eyes gazing up angels bearing the crest of the Morosini family and the
to heaven. Truth (and not Fame, as has been believed episcopal insignia. On the wall, below a short ceiling of
to date), who acts as a link between the lower order clouds inhabited by cherubs, we see St Mark, the
and that of the patriarch, looks out from the left-hand patron saint and symbol of the Republic, together with
side of the sarcophagus. Balancing on the terrestrial his lion, both of them looking down at the scene
globe, she is writing – in golden letters with a quill on below. The Evangelist holds his book open and
a Lydian-stone tombstone – the countless virtues of indicates heaven to the prelate: the place of eternal
the deceased and his support for the war against the repose and salvation, which can be entered primarily
Turks: “MORUM INNOCENTIA, ANIMI CONSTANTIA, through virtuous teachings in favour of Venice, the

glorious Dominante. Once again, the actions of this

statesman and man of the Church are seen as services
rendered to the Republic in the dramatic days of the
Cretan War, and indeed the patriarch Morosini paid
no less than six thousand ducats a year into the almost
empty state coffers for the entire duration of the
conflict (Martinoni 1662).
THE MONUMENT TO THE VALIER FAMILY

AT SANTI GIOVANNI E PAOLO
An extreme example of a celebrative monument to

a doge – and the largest in a city church – can be seen
in the stunning display made to commemorate Doge
Silvestro Valier and his family. It was built between Mark’s lion fighting the Muslim dragon, with the
1705 and 1707 by the architect Andrea Tirali in the celebrated naval crown” (da Mosto 1960). This panel
right-hand aisle of the church of Santi Giovanni e emblematically sums up the work of Doge Bertucci,
Paolo, which had become a sort of pantheon for the who at the time supported the idea of making peace
doges way back in the fourteenth century. Work on with the Turks, and it is on this that the sculptural
planning and design was very protracted, and started group of Virtue crowning Merit stands, flanked by
in the early 1690s when Antonio Gaspari designed a
Wisdom and Wealth. Two pairs of massive black
complete rearrangement of part of the nave. This
Corinthian columns of the Giant Order haughtily rise TOP: Antonio Gaspari, Designs in
included three bays of the ancient Gothic structure sequence for the funerary monument
up all the way to the trabeation, thus flanking the
with the addition of the memorial – which was to the Valier Family and for the
majestic parade of the doges Bertucci and Silvestro arrangement of three bays of the
originally designed for Silvestro’s father, Bertucci, who right-hand aisle of the basilica of Santi
(father and son) and Dogaressa Elisabetta Querini, Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Museo
was doge from 1656 to 1658 – between the entrances
wife of the latter, in an epiphany that is emphasised Correr.
to the chapels of San Domenico and Santissimo Nome PAGE 80: Andrea Tirali, Funerary
and even sacralised by the sumptuous backdrop monument to the Valier Family,
di Dio (MCVE, Raccolta Gaspari, I, 15, 49, 13). As early
basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo.
hangings in yellow marble. Magnificence and
as 1696, Silvestro – who had succeeded Francesco PAGE 81: Antonio Tarsia, Marble
pageantry were typical of Silvestro Valier during his portrait of Doge Silvestro Valier,
Morosini in the highest office of the Republic a couple basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo,
lifetime, and he was famous for his munificent
of years previously – commissioned Gaspari to create a funerary monument to the Valier
donations to the needy, with which he curried the family.
new version of the monument, with the Valiers,
husband and wife, dressed in dogal raiment next to favours of the population, and he had his coronation,
Bertucci. But this design was not approved by the which took place on 25 February 1694, followed “by
patrons, and after 1700 Elisabetta Querini Valier that of his wife, with great pomp, and quite
undertook to fulfil her deceased husband’s wishes, exceptionally, for it was prohibited by the law of 1645”
choosing a design by Tirali, who completed the work (da Mosto 1960).
in 1707 (De Vincenti 2002; Favilla-Rugolo 2006-07). The resolute and ambitious noblewoman, who is
A depiction of the battle of the Dardanelles is portrayed here with stunning naturalism as an old lady
notable among the bas-relief allegories on the tall by Giovanni Bonazza, died on 19 January 1709, after
plinth. It recalls Lorenzo Marcello’s feat on 26 June accomplishing two quite singular achievements: her
1656, “when Victory crowns Venice, depicted as St coronation as dogaressa and undying fame for her

OPPOSITE AND TOP: Giovanni

Bonazza, Marble portrait of
Dogaressa Elisabetta Querini Valier
and Virtue Crowning Merit, basilica
of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, funerary
monument to the Valier family.

extreme consequences. Though much smaller in size,

other tombs were built in later years, such as the one
for the extremely prestigious Corner family of San
Polo in the church of the Tolentini, and the one for the
Foscarini family in San Stae (Bacchi 2000), where
restrained busts are juxtaposed with a pyramid-shaped
structure, creating a Christmas-tree-like effect.
A MONUMENT TO THE WORLD’S FIRST

FEMALE GRADUATE
Only one Venetian woman has achieved even

higher historical acclaim than Dogaressa Querini
Valier; her name was Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia,
the first woman in the world to graduate from a
university. No woman received such praise in her
lifetime as her, and it was solely for her intelligence.
When her mortal existence came to an end in 1684,
she was given the honour of the most imposing
funerary monument ever accorded to a Venetian
woman. Actually, it is the only one, for the monument
in the church of San Salvador in Venice that was to
honour Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, her
illustrious forebear, was never completed. The
monument to Elena was commissioned by her father,
who paid a truly princely price for it – “una spesa
veramente da prencipe” (Lupis 1689) – and was built
between 1684 and 1689 in the Basilica del Santo in
Padua (Maschietto 1978). The masterpiece of the
Bassano-born sculptor, Bernardo Tabacco, no trace
remains of it today, except for the lovely statue of
TOP: Marino Groppelli, Victory prodigious marble portrait which was placed on the
Crowning Venice and Casting Out the
Elena, which is now in Palazzo del Bo. In 1727 the
Turkish Dragon, basilica of Santi same level as that of her husband and her father-in- tomb was dismantled, because it was considered to be
Giovanni e Paolo, monument to the law. After her death, the rules that prohibited the
Valier family.
too voluminous, and it was replaced by a simple bust.
coronation of the doge’s wife were applied to the letter. Elena was born in Venice in 1646, the daughter of
Her case thus remained an exception and, upon the Giovanni Battista Cornaro Piscopia, a member of one
death of Valier, the Great Council was quick to of the most illustrious families in Venice, and of
reaffirm the need to uphold the law. Zanetta Boni, a woman of the most humble origins in
The “prodigioso” Valier monument in the church of Valtellina, and some even say she was a prostitute with
Santi Giovanni e Paolo “di gran bellezza e spesa” whom he had an affair, more uxorio, for many years.
(Freschot 1707) marked the highest, but also the last, Giovanni Battista thus had illegitimate children who
point of an age that had led a glorious tradition to its were excluded from the patriciate. It was only in 1654

legitimisation. Princes and men of letters and of

science came from all over Europe to listen to and
converse with her. Elena, who understood and spoke
more than seven ancient and modern languages, was
considered to be a miracle of nature. There was no
subject, discipline, or art in which she was not an
expert. She was associated with many academies and,
more than anything, she was the first woman in the
world to graduate from a university. She obtained her
degree from the Padua University on 25 June 1678,
even though she discussed her thesis in the cathedral
as the crowds were so great.
The idea of her obtaining a degree, which was
orchestrated by her father with the complicity of all
society, was an extreme challenge and was otherwise
deemed to be impossible: it was to amaze the whole
world. And it was a huge extravagance for the Republic
of Venice to think of giving a degree to a woman. It
was to remain an exception – the one that proved the
rule – and so was by no means some sort of harbinger
of feminism. This is clearly shown by the
contemptuous opposition of Cornaro himself to the
application for a doctorate submitted by Carla Patin,
the daughter of a Frenchman, Carlo Patin, a professor
of Medicine at Padua University. It was unthinkable
that someone might cast the slightest shadow over the
stunning and inimitable masterpiece of the Cornaro
family, on which the most precious seal was put by the LEFT: Giovanni Francesco Neidinger,
Medallion of Elena Lucrezia Cornaro
mausoleum. Elena had been living proof of the eternal Piscopia, Venice, private collection.
that he decided to put things in order and recognise TOP RIGHT: Giuseppe Torretti and
legend of a Minerva who once, and only once, Antonio Tarsia, Funerary monument
his heirs by marrying Zanetta. Just ten years later, after descended among the mortals. And indeed, on 7 to the Corner family, church of the
Tolentini, Corner chapel.
being rejected many times by the Signoria, his sons February 1679, the Riformatori dello Studio, the BOTTOM RIGHT: Giuseppe Torretti,
Francesco and Girolamo were registered in the Libro Marble portrait of Sebastiano
governing body of Padua University, promptly issued a
Foscarini, church of San Stae,
d’oro against payment of 105,000 ducats – more than decree to prevent any woman from ever again having Foscarini chapel.
if they had been “new names”. The situation was access to a degree course. The Republic thus re-
humiliating but there were plenty of opportunities to established the rule which had just been broken. Elena
show off Elena and her quite extraordinary intelligence had indeed violated it but, precisely because she was so
as a precious trophy. Her personal talents were indeed exceptional, it was definitively confirmed that the first
exceptional and her father, who was desperate for woman in the world ever to graduate would also be the
public redemption, could have asked for no better last (Nadin Bassani, undated; Rugolo 2004).

OSTENTATION AND DEVOTION ON THE ALTARS

THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR:
THE ALTARS OF THE SALUTE AND OF
SAN PIETRO DI CASTELLO
Altars too became an arena and medium for

celebrating the glories of the realm, and for exorcising
the terrible spectre of death and decay.
The original ideas for the construction of the
basilica of the Salute gradually gave way to anti-
Turkish sentiment linked to the Cretan War and to the
subsequent victories that came in the eastern
Mediterranean. As a result, the only really evident trace
of the plague can be seen on the high altar, which was
designed in about 1670 by Baldassare Longhena
(Frank 2004). On the right-hand panel, Giusto Le
Court depicts the Plague as a terrifying old hag with
filthy breasts (“mammelle sozze” – Ripa 1645) chased
off into the void by a fierce putto brandishing a
flaming torch, as a mighty Virgin stands triumphant
RIGHT: Baldassare Longhena and
on high in the centre. She is solemnly flanked by the
Giusto Le Court, High altar, basilica
of Santa Maria della Salute. greatest saints of Venetian tradition, who had been
invoked during the epidemic: St Mark and Blessed
Lorenzo Giustiniani, the first patriarch of the city in
1451. At her feet we see a beseeching Venice – in a intermediary with the Divine was again used for the
depiction that is very close to the one shown in the fortunes of the Republic during the Cretan War in
altarpiece painted by Pietro Liberi for the same church 1646, when the Senate resolved to raise an altar in
– attesting to the devotion of the entire city. The honour of the saint in the reconstructed cathedral of
images of the Virgin and of Venice often coincide in San Pietro di Castello. The commission was given to
the long iconographic tradition of the city, but it is by Longhena, the “state” architect, but work was delayed
no means clear who the young noble girl on her knees by a conflict of authority between Giustiniani’s family,
is actually imploring to. Perhaps to her reflected self who demanded the main chapel as the site for the new
and to her overwhelming, narcissistic yearning for altar and, especially, for the burial of its members, and
invincible power? the Venetian government, which preferred a less
Ever since the plague of 1630, the patriarch Lorenzo conspicuous area (Frank 2004). The dispute was
Giustiniani had been placed by the Republic in the resolved only in 1665, when the sculptural works were
ranks of beatified saints and, at the same time, carried out by Francesco Cavrioli, Clemente Moli,
procedures were under way for his canonisation, Giusto le Court, and Bernardo Falconi (Vio 1981). The
which eventually came in 1690 under Ottoboni, a monument was the first step towards a transformation
Venetian, when he was Pope Alexander VIII. An of the entire bay, for it was followed by frescoes on the
86 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – OSTENTATION AND DEVOTION ON THE ALTARS

ceiling and in the semi-dome of the apse by Girolamo

Pellegrini, and canvases for the walls by Gregorio
Lazzarini, Antonio Bellucci, Antonio Molinari, and
Giovanni Segala.
Le Court’s marble figure of St Lorenzo Giustiniani
acts as the focal point of the entire area. The statue is
placed at the top of the altar above an urn which
contains the mortal but miraculous remains of the
saint, and which appears to be effortlessly held up by a
group of angels and putti. The Flemish sculptor has
caught him in the humble act of kneeling and praying
for the destiny of the Republic. With his eyes turned
towards heaven, his mouth slightly open, Giustiniani
addresses his heartfelt pleas to the Holy Trinity, which
stands out in the fresco on the ceiling of the
presbytery. The realistic rendering of the face, with its
beseeching expression, is accompanied by a self-
controlled and restrained pose, as is fitting for a high
prelate. is seen working on his translation of the Holy
Scriptures opens up under the altar. At the top, a stony
AN ALTAR OF CLOUDS AT SAN MARZIALE mass of clouds with throngs of cherubs holds up a
gilded globe on which we see the figure of Christ the TOP: Baldassare Longhena, Giusto Le
The high altar of the church of San Marziale, which Court and assistants, High altar,
Saviour. Two bearded, kneeling figures, who are
was referred to as being in “an ungainly and depraved church (former cathedral) of San
probably apostles, and a little angel below in the Pietro di Castello.
style” by nineteenth-century purist critics, was built to
centre, help hold up the world.
a design by the architect Antonio Gaspari in about the
In this complex, architecture is reduced to no more
mid-1690s. The critics also complained of the “waste
than the flat surface of the altar table and the elaborate
that was made of so much marble” (Selvatico-Lazari
tabernacle, for the rest is dominated by a free and very
1852; Moschini 1815). The spectacular display was
fanciful use of sculpture.
part of an general renovation of the ancient church,
which was completed in 1693. The bunched
arrangement – an “army of statues piled up like rocks GIUSEPPE POZZO’S ALTARS AT THE
on a mountain”, as Selvatico described the altar of San SCALZI AND AT THE GESUITI.
Pietro di Castello (1847) – recalls Gaspari’s design,
which was never actually made, for the altar of San In the late 1680s, the Trentino-born Carmelite
Moisè (1684-1686). In any case, the prototype for this monk Giuseppe Pozzo, born Jacopo Antonio and the
composition is undoubtedly the high altar of younger brother of the more famous Andrea, came to
Sant’Andrea della Zirada, which was sculpted by Venice. He brought with him an extremely lavish type
Giusto Le Court in 1678, at the end of his career. The of altar, which draws inspiration from Bernini’s
sculptures on the San Marziale altar are however baldachin in St Peter’s, Rome (Frank 1996; Suomela
attributed to Tommaso Rues (Rossi 2000). A dark cave Girardi 2008). Longhena had already created
where, accompanied by Faith and Religion, St Jerome monumental altars and, in 1694 Antonio Gaspari too
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – OSTENTATION AND DEVOTION ON THE ALTARS 87

OPPOSITE: Giusto Le Court,

Supplicant Venice, detail, basilica of
Santa Maria della Salute, high altar.
TOP: Giusto Le Court, The Plague
Banished, basilica of Santa Maria
della Salute, high altar.

had designed a monumental display for the chapel of

San Domenico in the church of Santi Giovanni e
Paolo, which attracted Giuseppe Pozzo’s attention
(Favilla-Rugolo 2006-07). In those years, the church of
San Pantalon was being fitted out with some
magnificent and bizarre altars that were lavishly
decorated, close to the style of the sculptor Bernard
Tabacco. In them, precious marbles appear to
germinate into fleshy branches, blooming with
luxuriant and exotic flowers. The scene was therefore
all set for further, even more astonishing inventions.
These were made possible by lavish funding from the
aristocratic and extraordinarily wealthy Manin family,
of Friuli origin, between 1700 and 1717 for the
renovation of the chancel and a chapel in the church
of the Discalceate Carmelites, known as the “Scalzi”.
Later, from 1709 to 1734, further funds became
available for the complete rebuilding of the church of
Santa Maria Assunta dei Gesuiti.
The Manin family originally intended to transform
the presbytery of the Scalzi into their own aristocratic
chapel, but the monks do not appear to have
appreciated their request. After long negotiations, all
that was allowed was for the area to be redecorated.
There was already a majestic tabernacle by Longhena – The tombs, however, actually ended up, in an even TOP AND OPPOSITE: Antonio
Gaspari and Tommaso Rues, High
who had actually designed the entire church and more grandiloquent form, in the cathedral of Udine.
altar of the church of San Marziale,
convent – and this was incorporated in the structure The apse windows in the church of the Jesuits are general view and detail.
PAGES 92-93: Bernardo Tabacco
designed by Pozzo. The family, who had become ingeniously used to reflect the flashes of light from the (style of), Altars of Saint Anne and of
members of the patriciate in 1651, thus made do with waters of the canal behind: this scenic use of light the Cross, details, church of San
Pantalon.
a side chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and enhances the sophisticated juxtaposition of coloured PAGE 94: Giuseppe Pozzo, High altar,
to St Joseph, and here architecture and sculpture blend marbles in a quintessentially Venetian manner. This detail, church of the Scalzi.
PAGES 95-96: Nave and vault of the
together most admirably with painting, which came in theatrical system, which takes its inspiration from main chapel of the church of the
the form of frescoes with a colourful Glory of Angels Bernini, lights up the golden dove of the Holy Spirit Scalzi.
PAGES 98-101: Venier chapel, details
painted by Louis Dorigny in 1716. that stands out among the cherubs above Giuseppe of the decorations, church of the
Scalzi.
Work on the high altar of the Gesuiti started that Torretti’s sculptural group with Jesus Christ and God
year, to a design which had originally been made by the Father seated upon the terrestrial globe. The design
the Carmelite monk for the Scalzi and which was later of the layout, the introduction of a dome, the spiral
adapted in a number of versions. It rises up on the columns, and the illusionistic contrivance of the
raised presbytery which, in its various nooks and imitation carpet in marble that covers the steps all help
crannies, was to contain the tombs of all the Manin create an extraordinary fireworks display.
family, as we can read in an austere plaque inserted in It was to be the last such pyrotechnical show of
the floor at the foot of the steps leading up to the altar. Venetian baroque.


PAGES 102-103: Louis Dorigny, Glory

of Angels, church of the Scalzi, Manin
chapel.
OPPOSITE: Giuseppe Pozzo and
Enrico Merengo, Altar of the Holy
Family, church of the Scalzi, Manin
chapel.
TOP: Louis Dorigny, Glory of Angels,
detail, church of the Scalzi, Manin
chapel.
PAGES 106-107, Giuseppe Pozzo,
High altar of the church of the Gesuiti,
detail and general view.

WOODEN SCULPTURE WITH “OBSCURE SYMBOLS”

AND RELIGIOUS PIETY
FRANCESCO PIANTA’S “HIEROGLYPHS” IN
THE SCUOLA GRANDE DI SAN ROCCO
The series of paintings by the younger Francesco from Virgil, Isidore, Plato, Galen, Cicero, St Thomas
Pianta, which gradually took shape between 1657 and and St Augustine (Lacchin 1930; Praz 1959; Rugolo,
1664 in the upper hall of the Scuola Grande di San 1997; Rossi 1999a).
Rocco, is absolutely stunning to anyone who takes time This is all emphasised by the excess of attributes
to observe it, even with the greatest of detachment. that Pianta gives the sculptures: it is an attempt to
Visitors often hardly even notice the presence of this draw out a new order in the form of an explanation
incredible sculptor, so enraptured are they by the that actually explains nothing, but rather complicates
overpowering force of Jacopo Tintoretto’s huge and wryly undermines all order (Praz 1959). We can
canvases that adorn the entire room. And yet these perceive a loss of reason, which here appears to be
wooden ornaments capture the most attentive and caught up in a static whirl of images, not so much
inquisitive eye for their high stylistic quality, but also because of the pettiness of the creator as because of a
for some indefinable peculiarities which make them characteristic that can be attributed to the historical
such a contrast to the work of Tintoretto, to which moment, when the initial perspicacity of Baroque
they nevertheless appear to be linked. Any comparison rhetoric ended in a conceptual short-circuit. The great
with the great painter would certainly have alarmed hall of the Scuola di San Rocco is inhabited by
OPPOSITE: Francesco Pianta, many artists and quite probably Pianta too was chilled allegorical depictions with a moralising content, and
Mercury, Scuola Grande di San by the very idea when he received the commission. yet they are divorced from any religious reference. The
Rocco, upper hall.
PAGES 110-111: Francesco Pianta, The work contains a whole miscellany of objects, profane, which is a leitmotif of seventeenth-century
Melancholy, general view and detail, including the most commonplace items, misshapen Venetian aesthetics, enters a place of the highest
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, upper
hall. bodies, goggle-eyed looks, fake parchments pouring spirituality, and sits alongside Tintoretto’s dramatic
out long-winded assertions taken mainly from Cesare religiousness.
Ripa’s Iconologia, and abstruse allegories that cannot The journey is set out by Pianta himself in the
always be referred to any particular source of extremely long mock parchment unwound by
inspiration. It all appears as a gallery of the absurd that Mercury, which explains what would otherwise be an
some bizarre mind has patched together in order to unintelligible display. The allegories appear in this
make fun of the perplexed observer, while adopting an order: Melancholy, Honour, Avarice, Ignorance, Science,
apparently serious stance. Seen together, these Distinction between Good and Evil, Wrath and
depictions appear like strange hieroglyphs, according Informer, or Curiosity at the sides of the Library,
to the definition that the author himself gives of them, Scandal and Scruple, Honest Pleasure, Cicero the Orator
as though it were a charade to be worked out. The in Defence of Sculpture – which is also a self portrait of
educational aim, which is the authentic, illustrated the artist, with his enormous truncated foot, “a
rhetoric of the Iconologia, is that of giving images to cannibal butcher’s cut” in the words of Praz (1959),
words by representing the beauty of virtues and the which is used as a bizarre signature/enigma. Then
ugliness of vices. The idea that “these they shun and comes Giacomo Robusti for painting, Abundance,
those they embrace” is obscured by a singular mosaic Stratagem, corrupt Censure and lastly, off the list,
of quotations taken from this source or, as appropriate, Hercules. Right from the first words poured out by
108 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – WOODEN SCULPTURE WITH “OBSCURE SYMBOLS” AND RELIGIOUS PIETY
109
Mercury we can see the opening of Ripa’s Iconologia, the critics, for Pianta himself was reluctant to describe
possibly taken from the first Venetian edition of 1645. it. So the man we see here is both the artificer and the
The ultimate significance of the complex appears to raw material of transmutation (cf. Calvesi 1993).
derive from the interaction that Pianta had to establish Alchemy is also referred to as the “hermetic art”, as
between his own art and that of Tintoretto. From it originated from the mythical Hermes Trismegistus
beginning to end, these depictions are a proud (immediately identified as the Greek god Mercury),
demonstration of the nobility of sculpture, which who first taught it in ancient Egypt, and it does indeed
detracts nothing from the art of painting, but rather consider the world (macrocosm) and Man
declares itself to be superior, working with an almost (microcosm) as being ordered in a precise manner.
alchemical process to transform the harsh reality of The four elements – earth, water, air, and fire –
things into the quintessence of perfection of spiritual aggregate and disaggregate, form the entire universe,
truth. From the darkness (“negrezza”) of the including Man, in an eternal process of transmutation.
unproductive state of melancholy, which we see in the The various states of this process are called nigredo,
first panel, we reach all the way to the radiant truth which is the state of black earth, albedo, the state of
that “shows itself for what it is” (Ripa 1645) in the clear water, citrinitas, the state of bright air, and
contorted figure of Hercules at the end of the series. rubedo, the state of red fire. Symbolising all this, the
While the fundamental aim is to represent the value of example of refining metals in the blacksmith’s
virtuous action as opposed to a life prey to vice, the workshop was adopted at some unspecified time. The
message itself was entrusted to “secret hieroglyphs” philosopher-alchemist also has to work this
and appears as the struggle of the artist who, like transmutation on himself and advance towards
Hercules, carries out his opus magnum and, “through purification until he completes his work. At this point
his labours, arrives at the science of things, and he will free the spiritual principle and find the
achieves the immortality of his name” (the Honour philosopher’s stone, which is the purest element.
panel). Assimilated to gold, it is the most noble and solar of
In the first hieroglyph, we see an original metals. From the black, heavy lead of earth, he will
Melancholy in the figure of a muffled-up, sad-looking thus receive coveted, refulgent gold. This is the true
man staring pensively. As we can see in the cartouche, opus magnum, or great work – the opus alchemicum.
TOP: Portrait of the Necromancer and this comes from the Iconologia, where the The wish of alchemists to express themselves in
Alchemist Federico Gualdo, personification is however female. And yet this does obscure ways found an almost inexhaustible source of
engraving.
BOTTOM: Pietro Longhi, The not explain the presence of the clock, of the bellows, allegorical material in the prolific realm of classical
Alchemist’s Laboratory, Venice, Ca’ and of the fire, which are referred to in Ripa’s text as mythology, and their operations in the great work
Rezzonico.
OPPOSITE: Francesco Pianta, the attributes of Prelacy, Solicitude, and Perturbation. were often linked to the labours of Hercules (Read
Tintoretto in Defence of Painting, This is a rather “incongruous” parallel, since “Pianta 1976).
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, upper
hall. introduces only confusion and an accumulation of The spirit of Federico Gualdo appears to waft
PAGE 114: Francesco Pianta, Cicero irrelevant elements” (Praz 1959: Rossi 1999a). It is through Pianta’s carvings. Gualdo was a universally
in Defence of Sculpture (Self Portrait),
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, upper however possible to see a rough, but sufficient, renowned Rosicrucian of German origin who lived in
hall. Venice in the second half of the seventeenth century,
indication of an alchemist’s laboratory, in which
(together with the bellows, the fire, and the clock, as and was famous for having discovered the elixir of life
well as the symbol of the sun, which refers to the (Gualdi 2008). In 1676 he was investigated by the Holy
process of transformation of matter) the most Office, but was never taken to court. His extraordinary
significant element is the burning furnace in the ability to exploit mines meant that he was contended
centre, which can be seen as the alchemist’s athanor. by illustrious Venetian families, and a number of men
This is an element that has so far escaped the eyes of of the Church had close ties of friendship with him.
Conversely, in his representation of Ignorance,

“with continuous use, fire tongs do not burn in fire,
nor are they turned into fire [i.e. into alchemical gold]
but are consumed”. The fire tongs finds no explanation
in Ripa and for the critics this has become further
proof of Pianta’s incoherent fantasy (Praz 1959; Rossi
1999a). And yet, together with the attributes we find in
Melancholy, it is quoted precisely – suggesting a shared
culture – in the small canvas with The Alchemists
painted by Pietro Longhi in about 1757. Here we see
two monks and a gentleman (cf. Pedrocco 1993),
which shows that alchemy was not incompatible with
religion when practised within certain limits.
This symbolism appears to be adopted by Pianta to
give a metaphorical demonstration of the scientific
nature of art, and that of the rhetorician/sculptor in
particular. The concept of the loquacity of sculptural
forms was taken up by Emanuele Tesauro (1655) and
Pianta worked upon it as his fundamental ideological
premise. In Cicero in Defence of Sculpture, the clock,
which had already appeared in Melancholy, becomes
an attribute of the art of sculpting, which is the other
face of rhetoric. This is because the “clock signifies that
words are the instruments of eloquence, but they must
be used within the order and measure of time”. In this
we hear echoes of the theories put forward by Giulio
Camillo Delmino about identity in Cicero’s rhetoric,
the art of memory, alchemy, and sculpture as an
integral part of his Teatro della memoria (cf. Bolzoni
1974). We do not believe that Francesco Pianta was
some vulgar adept of the science, even though his
library contained a copy of Pratica di spiciarie and of
Nova aggionta alla chimica. The latter is to be
considered as the Nuova guida alla chimica […] con il
PAGE 115: Francesco Pianta, He was the author of Philosophia hermetica and of modo di fare varii colori, belletti et altri rari secreti […]
Ignorance, Science, Scandal and
Scruple, Honest Pleasure, Scuola Critica della morte which were published in Venice in opera utilissima a medici, speciali, alchimisti, pittori,
Grande di San Rocco, upper hall. orefici, et altre persone curiose, by the Modena-born
TOP AND OPPOSITE: Francesco
1690. In them he maintained that “the greatest
Pianta, Hercules and the Sun-Disk,
doctor and alchemist Carlo Lancillotti, which was
difficulty in the herculeus labor is to find this cinerine
general view and detail with the published in Venice in 1681. Even though this came
symbol of the four elements, Scuola earth, in other words to separate out the fixed part of
Grande di San Rocco, upper hall.
after the San Rocco cycle, it does show the artist’s
our matter”, while Pianta writes about fire in his interests in these subjects. Under the conceptual cloak
explanation of Melancholy: “consuming what it needs of mystery of the hermetic tradition – “the Egyptians
to maintain its splendour within its own being”. concealed philosophy beneath the dark veils of fables
and secret hieroglyphs” (Ripa 1645) – Pianta asserts

the importance of his noble profession with the
strongest tones of individualistic exaggeration. This
was perfectly in line with the atmosphere of his times,
drenched as they were in glorification.
For the legendary Hermes Trismegistus (in other
words, Mercury), truth was logos, idea, radiant and
luminous form, and it is sculpture – which is perfect
and eloquent knowledge of the truth of the world –
that comes closest to the perfection of being. Painting,
on the other hand, “is Falsehood whereas sculpture is
Truth” as Cicero maintains in its defence. Ignorance, on
the other hand, means the absence of sunlight, which
is the enlightenment that, in the Distinction between
Good and Evil, makes it possible to investigate “li
secreti della natura”. In this educational journey, the
Defence of Painting is entrusted to Tintoretto, who
asserts that the “fabbrica della pittura” is where bearing the symbols of the traditional elements.
knowledge is attained. Like poetry, so too does Clockwise, from the top, we see the sun as fire, the
painting signify “drawing near to the reality of things eagle as air, the dolphins as water, and the lion as Earth
through study”. Together, Science, Scruple, Honour, and (cf. Rossi 1999a). Twisted round like a tongue of fire,
the others form the perfect work which, in the end, the figure explicitly refers to the figure of Truth, as
lead to salvation and make it possible to study “con described by Ripa, which also brandishes a sun (Praz
grande amore et honor”. In other words, to “honour 1959). With eyes staring at the supreme truth of
mother painting and with Love to honour my Art of matters – for the light of the sun “shows that which is”
sculpture”.
– the sculptor has taken us all the way here while never
And this brings to an end the itineriarium mentis
neglecting the initial motto that accompanies
which has so far been accompanied by Mercury’s
Melancholy (who has the sun as potency on the dial of
explanation. The panel under the windows on the wall
the clock): “in each thought of yours contemplate the
towards the campo bears the words: “Quasi Sol ego
end”. In other words, tend towards the sun, perfecting
Sculptura exaltata sum in mundo”, which leads us to
yourself alchemically in order to “do its work”. At this
the last indescribable vision, for which there is no
point, he can universally proclaim the philosophy of
explanation, of the semi-nude Hercules with the pelt
light. It is tinged with esoteric accents for the curious
of the Nemean lion and the disc of the sun shown in
and typically baroque vagaries of the protagonist, but
his left hand. He is given the privilege of towering up
between the windows, right opposite the altar on the it also has deep roots in the ultimate reason behind the
other side of the hall. At the end of his labours, Scuola di San Rocco itself. It was here, after all, that
Hercules, who is a symbol of time and a dominator of Jacopo Tintoretto had created his sublime work,
the elements, rises up to the Olympus and finally unfolding a cycle of unparalleled effect, and one
becomes a god, facing up to Apollo-Helios, as stated by inspired by the John the Apostle’s theology of light
exegetes ancient and modern, and in writings on (Romanelli 1994).
alchemy (Salutati 1951). As the lord of the elements,
he is shown in the little four-part crest at his feet,
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – WOODEN SCULPTURE WITH “OBSCURE SYMBOLS” AND RELIGIOUS PIETY
117
OPPOSITE: Francesco Pianta,

Tintoretto, detail, Scuola Grande di
San Rocco, upper hall.
TOP: Francesco Pianta, The Spy,
detail, Scuola Grande di San Rocco,
upper hall.
PAGES 120-121: Francesco Pianta,
Bookcase between Fury and the Spy,
general view and detail, Scuola
Grande di San Rocco, upper hall.
119
A SMALL MONUMENT TO TIME: “a young Moor, on whose head shines the sun” (top
FRANCESCO PIANTA’S CLOCK AT THE FRARI right), to maturity, as “a man of proud aspect in the
age of virility” (lower left), to old age or death, in the
Packed with objects and a fine example of horror form of a beautifully carved skeleton – “scheletro vag. e
vacui, this is another work by the rather distracted laboriosissimamente intagliato” (lower right), since
sculptor. It is housed in the basilica of the Frari, which “man is a true microcosm”, as the cartouche informs
also contains the funerary monuments of illustrious us. The evolution of existence inevitably ends with
Venetian families which well illustrate their Death, who occupies the “fourth and last corner”, at
“maraviglia, la curiosità e la divotione”. Among “so the bottom left, when limbs “turn to dust, and the
much pomp and greatness buried among those rocks”, body to spectre”. Pianta’s warning is to follow a
it teaches us to “deplore human transience” (Martinelli virtuous path, shunning all vices, since “a sober
1684) The “mirabile” clock in the sacristy is a small lifestyle extends life on earth and grants eternity”, but in
monument to Time and to its “triumphs”. Pianta any case it is always Time that triumphs. Together with
himself wrote on the fake cartouches on the doors the hands of the clock, curious attributes, which have
(which are now damaged, but the words can be read in sadly disappeared, illustrated this abstruse concept: the
Padre Antonio Sartori’s transcription) about the hours are moved by Vice, in the form of an out-of-
highly elaborate carving – “dagl’intaglio laboriosissimo” proportion, squint-eyed dwarf embracing a Hydra, who
(Sartori 1986; Merkel 2000). The detailed inscription pushes the hours with one hand (“[le] hore sono
also shows how some important decorative elements accelerate da una figura di un nano sproporzionato,
have been irredeemably lost. guercio, e ch’habbraccia un’Hidra, ma con una mano
The obsession with time and with its constant mostra di spingere le medesime hore, e questo è il Vitio”).
passing here reaches fever pitch, with a description of “The pertinacity and malignity of this image is
OPPOSITE AND PAGES 124-127: “the triumphs of a tyrant, of which you are living countered by the opposite one, which is of a handsome
Francesco Pianta, Clock, general view
proof in every moment”. It is a veritable “tearful and majestic winged young man crowned with laurels
and details, basilica of the Frari,
sacristy. Capitol of Time” that is “triumphant over us”. An old and with a sun on his chest, signifying Virtue
winged man – “un huomo vecchio alato” – has taken up resplendent through the centuries [...]. And Virtue does
his post on top of the dial, with various attributes everything possible to stop the hand of the horiuolo”.
including “a coiled snake biting its tail”. On the left “we Ivanovich uses the same elements for his
see a vaguely defined boy, thin and exhausted” who monument in San Moisè, but with the illusion of
“represents times past”. On the opposite side, “we see being able to overcome both Time and Death. A
another, fat boy” which “signifies times future”. “And monument in wood and another in stone: two sides of
both these boys hold a mirror in their hand, to show the same coin.
us that of time we see neither past nor future, but only
present”. At the lower centre, “opposite the winged THE FORTUNE OF VENICE: GIACOMO
Time, there are the figures of two little boys, one with PIAZZETTA, ANDREA BRUSTOLON AND
the sun on his head and the other with the moon on GIUSEPPE TORRETTI, WOODCARVERS
his forehead”. “One of these is Day and the other is
Night”. In the four corners, caught up in an incredible Francesco Pianta remained like a meteor that came
tangle of grotesque figurative elements, some of which and went in the Venetian firmament, but many artists,
are freely taken from Ripa’s Iconologia, we can see the and especially outsiders, worked on the virtuous art of
passing of the four seasons, of the zodiac, of the day woodcarving (Rossi 2009). Sadly, the perishable nature
and, lastly, of the ages of man, from adolescence, “a of the material has meant that we now have only a
young boy with a fine head of hair” (top left), to youth, small number of their works.
123
TOP: Giacomo Piazzetta, Ceiling of It is worth mentioning what remains of the Dominican doctrine, which appeared in the ceiling.
the library of the convent of Santi
Giovanni e Paolo (now Ospedale furnishings made by Giacomo Piazzetta for the This contained canvases by Federico Cervelli, a painter
Civile di Venezia). Dominican library of Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Born in of Milanese origin who was Sebastiano Ricci’s master.
Pederobba in the Treviso area, Piazzetta started While Piazzetta was working, Andrea Brustolon of
working in 1678 on terracotta models – now in a Belluno appeared on the Venetian scene. Towards the
number of museums (De Grassi 2009a) – for the end of the 1680s, Brustolon was commissioned by the
twenty-eight statues that were to decorate the Venier family of San Vo to make ceremonial furniture
partitions on the shelves. The contribution of (now in Ca’ Rezzonico. A date carved on one item
Baldassare Longhena, who designed the library room shows that he completed it in 1706 - De Grassi 2009).
but who died before Piazzetta finished his works, The carver draws a group of almost life-size Moors out
cannot be excluded (Frank 2004). The cabinets were of the ebony and boxwood, with ivory intarsia, and he
dispersed in the nineteenth century, but part of the uses them to bear delicate Chinese vases on their
elaborate ceiling decoration still remains. It appears as shoulders. These are inserted into the frames of large
an intricate intertwining of lush foliage and the heads chairs made to withstand the weight of Venetian
of putti, which create a mass of twisting sprays that patricians. There are also sea monsters, imaginary
frame saints and preachers of the Order. The walruses mounted by graceful putti, a portrayal of the
iconographic scheme created for the library by Padre Four Elements, one of the Seasons and, especially, a
Giacomo Maria Gianvizio (1683) placed defeated Hercules engaged in the superhuman effort of lifting
heretics as the atlantes holding up the weight of the Earth’s crust with his club, while Hydra and
Cerberus lie at his feet. A pyramidal structure of Stin (Favilla-Rugolo 2008e). A comparison between
vase holders in the form of Rivers and chained the drawing and the large stucco shells on the ceiling
Ethiopians rises up from the plinth of this of the country house, in which Ricci painted festive
extravagant and fetching console. The composition putti, is intriguing, for the drawing shows a large
is inspired by a matchless sixteenth-century Baroque shell, held up by hefty sea horses, containing
prototype, but it is drained of significance and the nuptial bed, above which rises a nude Fortune
reduced to a mere playful quotation: Brustolon holding out a billowing sail. Again the artist appears
appears to draw from the central relief on Jacopo to have in mind a public work of great significance:
Sansovino’s loggia in St Mark’s Square with Venetia the bronze Fortune commissioned by the Republic TOP LEFT: Bernardo Falconi, The
Iustitia seated on a Solomonic throne between two from Bernardo Falconi in 1677, which whirls around statue of Fortune on the tower of the
Dogana da Mar.
Rivers. Here, however, in place of the virgin Venice, the gilded globe of Punta della Dogana da Mar in the TOP RIGHT: Sebastiano Ricci, Design
we see three athletic Moors holding up not the heart of the Bacino di San Marco (Lazzari 1840; for a carved bed with Fortune, Venice,
Gallerie dell’Accademia.
immortal destiny of the city-state, but a colourful Moretti 2004). Did Plato’s Republic-come-true BOTTOM: Jacopo Sansovino, Venice-
and exotic work in porcelain. The “legend of Venice” delude itself into thinking it really could have sole Justice, St Mark’s Campanile,
bas-relief in the Loggetta.
had by now been reduced to a little table. possession of the most fickle and elusive of divinities?
Giuseppe Torretti was a classicist sculptor who
from 1680, in the early years of his career, worked
mainly with wood (Vio 1984). Born in Pagnano
d’Asolo in 1664, he was from the foothills of the Alps
near Treviso, like Giacomo Piazzetta. His works were
to have a profound “influence on contemporary
sculptors and those of the following generation”
(Rossi 1999b). While no trace is left of the “carved
bed” made in 1698 for the Zane family (BMCVE, Mss.
P.D.c, 1825), we can however find some consolation
in a drawing that Sebastiano Ricci made for a similar
item (Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia; cf. Perissa
Torrini 2009), for in those years the painter was
working on the decoration of Palazzetto Zane in San
129
And could it show it off to the whole world as a piety those brethren have in venerating the price of
trophy and proof of its elective superiority? our salvation, and how great was their own personal
The wooden statues of St Peter and St Paul, which contribution to the prestige of a Serenissima that
the painter Antonio Molinari commissioned from could never receive too many honours. The crucifix,
Torretti in 1702 for the high altar of Santa Margherita, which appears to be carved in pear wood, can still be
have also been lost (ASPVE, S. Margherita). Destiny has admired in the church of San Moisè, while the Christ
TOP RIGHT: Giuseppe Torretti,
Marble Crucifix, church of San Stae,
however offered us two works that have so far been is fastened with nails that have heads of glass or rock
Foscarini chapel. unidentified. On 3 May 1711, the day when the crystal. The cross is adorned with tortoiseshell intarsia
TOP LEFT: Giuseppe Torretti,
Wooden Procession Crucifix, church Invention of the Cross is celebrated, the Pallade Veneta and with delicate mother-of-pearl inserts, reflecting a
of the Santi Apostoli. stated that a blood-stained fragment of the True Cross taste for a juxtaposition of different types of material
OPPOSITE: Giuseppe Torretti,
Wooden Procession Crucifix with was being put on display in St Mark’s Basilica. It was in order to achieve sophisticated effects of light. The
tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl surrounded by “the splendour of countless candles” in sculptor’s great skill can be seen by comparing it with
encrustations, church of San Moisè.
PAGES 132-133: Andrea Brustolon, the presence of the “eccellentissimi procuratori di San the marble crucifix, also made by him, in the Foscarini
Moorish Halberdier, detail and
Marco”, who “informed all the world that the Republic chapel in San Stae (cf. Bacchi 2000). Another
general view, Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico.
PAGE 133: Andrea Brustolon, Chair, reigns with such interest in the glories of the Cross processional crucifix, now in the church of the Santi
detail of the armrest, Venice, Ca’
Rezzonico.
that it devotes its highest decoration to it”, making it a Apostoli, can be attributed to the later Torretti on clear
PAGE 135: Andrea Brustolon, Vase- “glorious pedestal with its radiant diadem” (ASVE, I.S., stylistic grounds, for the billowing, angular drapery
holding Moor, detail, Venice, Ca’
Rezzonico. b. 713). At the same time, together with members of can be superimposed almost exactly, though in reverse,
PAGES 135-136: Andrea Brustolon, the Suffragio of San Moisè who were honouring the on the work at San Stae.
Console, general view and detail,
Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico. Holy Cross, there was “the processional adoration of
that most precious of spirits which is the ambrosia of
Paradise, having for its vexillum a crucifix sculpted by
the skilled Torretti, sculptor, and affixed to a cross
encrusted with tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl most
exquisitely made”. It was fastened to a gleaming, gilded
rod of “mirabile intaglio”, which revealed “how much
CHAPTER TWO – PAINTING

Light and Darkness, Languid Sentimentality, Grandiloquence and Bon Goût
During the tumultuous upheavals of the century, of reality. And it was often a tough, brutal reality that
the 1630 plague constituted a violent rift between two was exorcised and sublimated through the pictorial
ages, and it was immortalised in the canvases of narrative. This might take the form of pathetic or
Antonio Zanchi and Pietro Negri in the Scuola Grande triumphal mythological or sacred stories, idealised
di San Rocco. Here, Venice once again revealed its family affairs, or enchanted Arcadian fables that at
vocation as a cosmopolitan city that welcomed artists times formed a backdrop for lively literary academies.
from outside. But then, since the Venetians were “i più For nowhere more than in the theatres did the
ricchi huomini d’Italia” it was normal that their wealth spirit of the Baroque make itself more manifest,
should attract “artists who go where money flows and particularly in opera productions, with extraordinary
where people are soft and fat” (Doglioni 1675). And displays being made for every circumstance –
these painters had to compete with the Cinquecento – including funerals. They were staggering
the “golden age” of art. This daunting task was dealt representations in which the provisional, the
with by bringing in “outsiders” – foresti – who as never inconsistent, and even the false became metaphors for
before were decisive in developing Venetian tradition, reality. Painters, architects, and sculptors were called in
which at the same time kept a close eye on Rome and to use their talent on more or less durable materials, OPPOSITE: Antonio Zanchi, Saint
Roch Invoked Against the Plague,
Bologna (Lucco 2001; Pedrocco 2001). Paolo Veronese creating compositions in stone and marble, but even detail, Scuola Grande di San Rocco,
right-hand wall of the staircase.
in particular was a model for artists like Pietro Liberi, out of verzura in the gardens, using cardboard, wood,
who in 1652 displayed his sensual, intimate and canvas, stucco, wax, glass, flowers, sugar, bread, or
luminous form of art in Villa Foscarini in Stra. He also fruit, in the form of daring funerary catafalques, table
inspired Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, who between centrepieces, firework machines for foghi d’allegrezza,
1697 and 1710 created a stunning religious regatta vessels, stages for orchestras, stalls for fairs,
representation on the ceiling of San Pantalon that took unlikely alcoves and all manner of extravagant, bizarre,
from his work as a stage designer. and extraordinary devices capable of astounding and
From the mid-seventeenth century, Venice also teaching (Romanelli 1980). These dazzling displays
became the unchallenged European capital of the reached extraordinary levels, as in 1641 for the
opera, and its effects were to reverberate around the ceremony to celebrate the appointment of the future
entire world of art. The transposition of temporary doge, Giovanni Pesaro, as the procurator of St Mark’s.
trompe l’oeil stage designs from the stage to the more Gli apparati veneti is the title of the report that
permanent walls of churches, palaces, city buildings illustrates the three days of shows, with “continue
and villas shows how the ruling classes wanted to allegrezze” and “majestic and unusual displays”. It
amaze and educate – and indeed this effectively sums became a prototype to be imitated and, if possible, to
up the spirit of all Baroque art. As though in a shrewd be surpassed and, in an ever higher spiral of
play of mirrors, illusions suddenly became a metaphor celebratory hyperbole, Pesaro was compared to Apollo
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – PAINTING 139

and to the emperors Augustus and Titus. It prophesied

his election as doge, and this was certainly well-
deserved, for the delectable enchantments and the
“lavish efforts” were all for “beneficio publico”
(Vincenti 1641).
In 1682 this “public benefit” became confused with
private celebration in the ceiling painted by Nicolò
Bambini in Palazzo Pesaro, and it acquired explicit
form in the definitive consecration of San Lorenzo
Giustiniani in 1690, when Gregorio Lazzarini and
Antonio Bellucci received a public commission for two
large canvases in the presbytery of the cathedral of San
Pietro al Castello.
Filled with admiration for the highly acclaimed art
of Rome and for the incomparable grand goût of the
French, which became fashionable in the second half
of the seventeenth century, Venetian patricians found
ways of expressing their preferences in the decoration
of their residences. At Ca’ Zenobio in the early 1690s,
Antonio Gaspari and Louis Dorigny tried out the new,
double-height hall which replaced the traditional
walk-through portego. Towards the end of the century,
a different, more gentle tone, set by the bon goût of the
nascent rococo style, found its way in and coexisted
with the old. The move was led by Sebastiano Ricci
and Giannantonio Pellegrini, who introduced Venice
to the new style, which became the Venetian version of
the Late Baroque.
TOP: Domenico Mauro, Vessel in the

Form of a Sea Monster, engraving.
BOTTOM: Alessandro Mauro,
Regatta Vessel with China Led in
Triumph by Asia, engraving.
OPPOSITE: Antonio Zanchi, Saint
Roch Invoked Against the Plague,
detail, Scuola Grande di San Rocco,
right-hand wall of the staircase.
140 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – PAINTING

DRAMA, SENSUALITY, AND WHIMSICALITIES

From the Plague to Antonio Zanchi,
and the Gold of Pietro Liberi
THE PRECURSORS
The Saint Jerome Inspired by the Angel in the church

of San Nicola da Tolentino, which was painted in
about 1627 by the German artist Johann Liss, became
a sort of manifesto of Venetian Baroque painting
(Pedrocco 2000). The wonderful blending of colour
and light is achieved by a sensual rendering of a
particularly liquid, transparent, and almost lathered
use of paint, which must have had quite an effect on
his contemporaries, and certainly on the later
exponents of eighteenth-century Late Baroque. The
artist achieved this through careful meditation,
creating a brilliant fusion of his northern training, his
RIGHT: Johann Liss, Saint Jerome experience of Caravaggio in Rome, and the traditional
Inspired by the Angel, church of the Venetian emphasis on colour.
Tolentini.
OPPOSITE: Bernardo Strozzi, Saint Liss died of the plague in Verona in 1631, and two
Lawrence Distributing Sacred
Furnishings to the Poor, church of the
years later Bernardo Strozzi, known as “il Prete
Tolentini. Genovese” after the name of his hometown and his
created out of vigorous impastos rather than pure
affiliation with the Capuchin monks, came to the
colours (Pedrocco 2000).
lagoon. With a background similar to that of the
The transformation of Venetian painting in the first
German painter – even though with a different style
half of the century was slow but relentless; it never
due to the influence of Lombard naturalism – Strozzi
went in a single, unequivocal direction, but took in a
played a leading role in the modernisation of painting
whole range of contributions. The following period,
in Venice that started up in the late 1630s. He was
with its social and political upheavals, brought
much sought after as a portraitist and, together with
“sanguinolent languidness” and “pietosi sentimenti”
other innovators like Nicolas Régnier, Girolamo
Forabosco, and Camillo Procaccini, he also left an (Fabri 1690), when another Genoese, Giovanni
emblematic example of the new, emerging style in the Battista Langetti, who arrived in about 1655,
church of the Tolentini. This can be seen in his Saint introduced neo-Caravaggesque forms that gave rise to
Lawrence Distributing Sacred Furnishings to the Poor, in the “Tenebristi” (Pedrocco 2000; Aikema 2001). This
which perfect draughtsmanship is accompanied by was a style of dramatic realism, and a far remove from
sturdy composition and a robust brushstroke, with an the still basically neo-Cinquecento tastes of Venice, but
exquisite use of colour and chiaroscuro which is it was perfectly suited to the climate of uncertainty
142 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – DRAMA, SENSUALITY, AND WHIMSICALITIES

and anxiety that was being brought about by the

Republic’s alternating fortunes in the Cretan War. In
his Christ Crucified with Mary Magdalene of 1663,
formerly in the church of the Terese and now in Ca’
Rezzonico, Langetti makes powerful use of
chiaroscuro, in which the body nailed to the cross with
arms almost parallel suggests neo-mediaeval
inspiration (Stefani Mantovanelli 1990; Mason 2001).
Against a pitch-black background, Mary Magdalene is
seen in an uncomfortably sweeping, arched pose,
raising her arms in a gesture of desperate emulation.
As a religious representation, the painting exudes an
overload of suffering which takes from the spirituality
of the Discalceate Carmelites, who had dedicated their
monastery in Venice to St Teresa of Ávila, the Spanish
mystic of divine ecstasies.
The work of Pietro Vecchia, a troubled artist with a
penchant for the grotesque, and the creator of bizarre
and at times frightening faces, creates the same
atmospheres. His painting of Francis Borgia Watching
the Exhumation of the Body of Empress Isabella,
formerly in the church of the Gesuiti in Venice and
made in the late 1660s, early 1670s, appears as a
theatrical memento mori (Mason 2001). The horror of
seeing the ghastly decomposed corpse of the once
beautiful queen of Spain provides us with a
tremendous warning about the transience of things.
The ephemeral nature of life is emphasised by the
sophisticated attire and the jewellery, which contrast
with the skeletal face, now deformed into a spine-
chilling grin, while the crown has definitively fallen
from the head of the once illustrious woman. The
painter has not even spared us the stench emanated by
the dead body, for we see the page holding his nose in
disgust. In the canvas, the terrifying sight convinces
Francis Borgia to abandon the world and enter the
Society of Jesus. Masters in the use of the rhetoric of
persuasion, the Jesuits reacted against the rampant
trend of personal celebration with a response that was
however reticent, for it was shown not to the public in
the churches, but in the privacy of monastery cells.

These were powerful themes that aimed to elicit

equally powerful reactions, as we see again in these
years in the celebratory façade by Bartolomeo
Cargnoni at the Ospedaletto, which insistently calls
upon the passer-by to perform acts of charity.
By way of response, the touching Descent from the
Cross painted by the Neapolitan Luca Giordano in
about 1665 for Santa Maria del Pianto, now in the
Gallerie dell’Accademia, creates a violent and chaotic
vortex within a dramatic scene, with the figures at the
sides leaving a bleak and agonising void in the centre
(Pedrocco 2000). With all due caution, the imploring
Madonna, with her arms stretched wide, can be
compared to the seventeenth-century iconography of
supplicant Venetians in votive images. It has nothing
in common with the canvases in the Salute, which
were made by the same painter a few years later, for in
them we find neo-Titianesque tones of Marian
celebration.
THE TENEBRISTI: ANTONIO ZANCHI AND

PIETRO NEGRI IN THE SCUOLA GRANDE DI Sant’Aponal. The directors of the “macchine” were two OPPOSITE: Giovanni Battista
Langetti, Christ Crucified and Mary
SAN ROCCO of the greatest theatre directors of the time, Francesco Magdalene, Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico,
Santurini and Gaspare Mauro. Zanchi had painted the formerly in the church of the Terese.
TOP: Pietro Vecchia, Francesco
Antonio Zanchi, champion of the Tenebrista backdrops with a “Grape Harvest Countryside”, the Borgia Watching the Exhumation of
current, is famous for his “strong and natural manner the Body of His Aunt, Empress
“Square in Memphis”, and “Rodope’s Hall”. We do not Isabella of Spain, Brest, Musée
of colouring” (Angelieri 1743). Born in Este in 1631, have other information about his work as a stage Municipal, formerly Venice, convent
of the Gesuiti.
he was an artist with a taste for solemn grandeur and designer, but we do know that in 1652, and at least
an austere painter of biblical and mythological scenes, until 1687, he worked a number of times on creating
yet even he could not remain totally immune to the compositions for the tiny engravings that decorated
passion for the ephemeral that was such a the frontispieces of opera librettos (Favilla-Rugolo
characteristic of his times. Zanchi arrived in Venice at 2003-04).
the age of twenty, after having studied at a young age We also know that he was capable of creating grand
under the Brescia-born painter Giacomo Pedrali, and displays, for in 1666 Bernardo Broli, Guardian Grande
he worked under Francesco Ruschi of Rome, whom he of the Scuola di San Rocco, commissioned two large
considered as a master who was “not entirely canvases from him for the right-hand wall of the last
corrupted by the excesses of the age, and still indulgent flight on the monumental staircase that leads up to the
towards the glories of the past”. In 1657, in the early upper hall of the headquarters of the prestigious
years of his career, he took part in creating the scenic confraternity (Zampetti 1987). The painter uses a
design for the opera Le fortune di Rodope e Damira, device that divides the scene into two areas divided by
which was staged in the Venetian theatre of a pilaster, but with a perfectly unitary perspective,
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – DRAMA, SENSUALITY, AND WHIMSICALITIES 145

we see the façade of the Redentore, which appears to

peep out from behind the dividing pilaster. As though
from the mouth of the Rio della Fornasa on the Grand
Canal, looking towards the Redentore on the right –
almost in line with the pontoon of boats that was, and
still is, set up every year on the third Sunday in July
between the Zattere and the Giudecca – we see the
tragic scene of death, which in this formal and
symbolic crossroads of the city is adorned by the
supposedly reassuring sight of St Mark’s Campanile.
Up above, the Virgin and St Roch intercede with an
irate Christ to stop the disease, and we see the
lightning bolts of punishment upon the globe in
Christ’s right hand. There can therefore be no doubt
that the protagonist is indeed Christ the Judge – a new
Apollo and cold sower of life and death. He emanates a
terrible light that gleams upon the victims of the
plague, who are charitably assisted by worshippers
from the Scuola di San Rocco. An angel in the
foreground shows the saint’s miraculous pilgrim’s
staff, which is indicated by the helpers themselves as an
instrument of conversion and miraculous healing.
What we see is the first and most violent stage of the
scourge which, as the chronicles of 1630 tell us, was
unleashed by “divine rage”. The events of 1576 had
evidently not been trying enough, for once again
Venice appears to have lapsed into the same errors.
The dismal and spectral, or rather “black” and
“negative” apparition of the church of the Redentore
among the pestilential fumes bears witness to this in
an uncomfortable, scandalous, and distant, and yet
TOP AND TOP OPPOSITE: Antonio creating a “gran teatro” that allows him to stage the also firm and by no means ineffectual manner, for the
Zanchi, Saint Roch Invoked Against
dramatic events of the 1630 plague. We may see here scorching shades of the horrendous storm clouds
the Plague, detail, Scuola Grande di
San Rocco, right-hand wall of the memories of another scourge that devastated the bring to mind the end of Sodom, while the Virgin at
staircase.
OPPOSITE, BELOW: Pietro Negri, lagoon between 1575 and 1577 (Rugolo 1997). The the top, at the feet of her Son, meekly attempts to
Venice Granted the Termination of the gloomy setting, with the crude realism of the plague placate his wrath. Entrusting himself to the inscrutable
Plague, detail, Scuola Grande di San
Rocco, left-hand wall of the staircase. victims and pizzegamorti (the people who took away will of the Everlasting, St Roch unceasingly calls upon
the corpses in Venice) in the close foreground, does his fellow humans to repent and convert. And on the
not prevent us from making out St Mark’s Campanile nearby landing of the staircase, there is a plaque that
in the background on the left, with its unmistakable the Guardian Grande, Domenico Ferro, had engraved
belfry surmounted by a lion. On the right-hand side to commemorate the plague of 1576. “The avenger of

our sins” would move future generations to tears of

commiseration, since the terrible disease had snatched
away no fewer than four hundred brethren from the
school. The inscription describes the desolation of
those days, with bodies strewn around the streets, until
the pestilence was banished with the assistance of the
Virgin Mary and St Roch, who interceded with the
Redemptor Mundi. Those who do not accept the
punitive yet purifying light of Christ have no hope of
salvation, and one of these is the man wrapped in a
black cloak who furtively steals away over the bridge,
holding his nose rather than helping the victims of the
plague. Venice, the new Gomorrah – the loss of Candia
was just round the corner – appears to have
abandoned the field, leaving death to triumph. And yet
death in Venice cannot go on forever, because the
pillars of faith are indestructible and rise up all the way
to the heavens, as we can see just behind the figures of
St Roch and the angels. This foreshadows the vow to
build a sanctuary to the Mother of God, right there on
the very site where, as though by magic, the giant
columns are ascending.
The next, decisive moment in history can be seen in
the large canvases on the left-hand wall of the
monumental staircase. They were hung there in 1673
upon the orders of the Guardian Grande, Angelo
Acquisti, who commissioned them from Pietro Negri,
a painter who had the same training as Antonio
Zanchi. The artist creates a personification of Venice
(assisted by St Mark and surrounded by the Virtues
and by Religion) which in 1630 appealed to St Roch
and then to St Sebastian to intercede with the Virgin
and Child, whom we see seated on a throne of clouds.
The redeeming light of divine grace thus descends
from outside the picture to clear away the stench and
banish the image of the plague - the fatal companion
of death, into the shadows. Brandishing his lance,
Archangel Michael assists the Madonna in her mission.
In the work, which precisely mirrors its companion
painting, we see in the background on the right a
foreshortened view of the Salute with the smaller

Antonio Zanchi, Saint Roch Invoked

Against the Plague, Scuola Grande di
San Rocco, right-hand wall of the
staircase.
149
Pietro Negri, Venice Granted the

Termination of the Plague, Scuola
Grande di San Rocco, left-hand wall
of the staircase.
151
ruler on the ceiling of the Collegio in the Doge’s Palace

during the plague of 1575-77.
In Pietro Negri’s great canvas, the Salute becomes a
visible manifestation of the granting of the city’s wish,
and it is reflected at the bottom of the background on
the left by the procession of the doge towards the
Punta della Dogana. The ship we see alludes to the
rapid revival of maritime traffic. In the distance, the
votive church of the Redentore makes reference to a
similar, but more ancient sacrifice, from which the
“virgin” city emerged unscathed once again and, in
terms of its urban fabric, even wealthier than before.
Palladio’s architecture, which is always present on the
city’s skyline, is tangible proof of this. The comparison
with Palladio, who was already both history and
legend, and the contemporary Longhena (whose
church was still not quite finished), could not be more
explicit. The prototype of the Redentore, which is
repeated twice in these canvases (both by Zanchi and
by Negri), is thus a symbol of a Venice that can never
give in. Indeed, when faced with a recurrence of the
RIGHT: Sebastiano Mazzoni, The dome and part of the larger. It is balanced on the left same evils, the city once again showed its iron will,
Annunciation, Venice, Gallerie
dell’Accademia. by the ancient crenellated tower of the Dogana – in the emerging even stronger and greater, “magnifica et con
version that had already appeared in the Cinquecento pompa”, in the basilica of the Salute.
view by Jacopo de’ Barbari, prior to its renovation by
Giuseppe Benoni from 1677 (Frank 2004) – and on IN THE ALCHEMIST’S CRUCIBLE: PIETRO
the horizon, behind the yards of a ship moored in the LIBERI AT PALAZZO FINI
Giudecca canal, we again see the symbolic, but now
radiant and positive, profile of the Saviour, with a Sebastiano Mazzoni, who was born in Florence in
dome and a small cuspidate bell tower. When we make 1611 and moved to Venice in the early 1640s, possibly
the necessary perspective adjustments, we can see that after his friend Pietro Liberi had returned from the
the scene is observed from somewhere around the Dominante, adopted a well-consolidated Baroque
arcades, which were open at the time, of the style. His Annunciation, painted at the turn of the
Fonteghetto della Farina in St Mark’s. Under these 1650s and now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, is
arcades the artist orchestrates the greatest symbols of bathed in light, with impastos of the softest colours,
the supreme and rock-solid virtues of the Republic of warm and transparent (Benassai 1999). Our eyes are
the Lion (which appears meekly lying down with a immediately caught by the unconventional, dreamlike,
creased Gospel at bottom centre). In order to ensure and troubled iconography, in which an extravagant
the salvation of her repentant citizens, Venice herself angel, “possessed, dishevelled, and fiery, amidst a flurry
steps humbly down from her purple throne, on which of wings and an exuberant fluttering of silken cloths”
Paolo Veronese had formerly placed her as a mighty (Ivanoff 1957) appears more like a genie from a magic

lamp than a divine messenger. Mazzoni joined the Tenebrismo that was “rorida e fulva”, with soft and
debate sparked off in Venice by the historian Marco tawny forms permeated by a delicate sensuality, which
Boschini concerning the supremacy of colour with took from Titian and Veronese. A “savoury” style that
TOP: Pietro Liberi, Honour Greeted
regard to drawing, provoking the resentment of “warms the heart” (Zanetti 1771). A man of sweeping by Glory in Heaven, Palazzo Fini,
room on the Grand Canal, ceiling.
Boschini for having displayed, through his pen and culture, with a whole variety of interests, Liberi
paintbrush, a certain irreverence towards an attitude “almost never depicted stories, but rather many fables
he considered anachronistic (Puppi 1997). In the and countless hieroglyphs, some of which perhaps
scorching atmosphere of the exhausting siege of only he could understand” and, more than anything,
Candia, the poet-painter responded in 1661 by he was “the inventor of his own manner” (Zanetti
publishing his La pittura guerriera, “a sort of polemic 1733). After a long series of travels which took him to
response to the Venice-centric, anti-Vasarian view of Constantinople, Malta, Portugal, Spain, France and,
the coeval Carta del navegar pitoresco” by Boschini lastly, Rome and Florence, where he worked for the
(Rossi 2008; Leone 2008). In Tempo perduto, a Medicis, he returned to Venice. Here, together with
collection of verses dedicated to contemporary artists Antonio Zanchi and Carl Loth, in 1682 he managed to
working in Venice, the Florentine addresses his friend free Venetian artists from the corporations of painters
Pietro Liberi, confident that he will be able to achieve (Favaro in 1975). In 1653 the Republic bestowed the
“immortality”, thanks to the privilege of being title of Knight of St Mark’s upon him and he was later
portrayed by him. Mazzoni is quite even-handed, appointed Count Palatine by Emperor Leopold I. He
because there could be no more “Venetian” painter crowned his prestigious and highly successful career by
than Liberi. building a monumental palazzo on the Grand Canal to
Pietro Liberi, a pupil of Alessandro Varotari, called a design by his painter-poet-architect friend
Padovanino, created a style at the height of Sebastiano Mazzoni. Though most of his works were

easel paintings, Liberi also made frescoes, some of the Temperance with an hour-glass, he is also
finest examples of which are The Apotheosis of St accompanied by Knowledge with her heart in her
Anthony for the sacristy of the Santo in Padua and a hand, and by Fame with a trumpet. He is welcomed by
series of complex allegories for the barchessa Glory, “dressed in gold, all resplendent”, who is seated
outbuilding at Villa Foscarini in Stra (Ruggeri 1996; on a throne of clouds (Ripa 1645). All this can indeed
Favilla-Rugolo 2008b). be linked to the rise of the family towards the celestial
On the ceiling and on the frieze of a room in levels of the Venetian patriciate, which came in 1649 at
Palazzo Fini, which is now the headquarters of the a cost of 100,000 ducats paid by Vincenzo Fini. This
regional council of Veneto and which gives onto the social position was consolidated in 1658 with the
Grand Canal, there is a cycle of paintings made by the purchase of the prestigious post of procurator of St
artist after 1661 for Girolamo Fini, the brother and Mark’s, for the same amount again was paid.
executor of the will of Vincenzo, who had died the Prudence, eloquence, and temperance are also the
previous year and who is immortalised on the façade virtues that, more than others, a man of law like
of the church of San Moisè. It was Girolamo who in Vincenzo must necessarily have, so it is possible that
1661 purchased the Flangini family’s main residence, not only the façade of San Moisè but also the
or “casa dominicale”, and its completion was probably decoration of this hall was dedicated to him.
entrusted to the architect Alessandro Tremignon (Bassi A gold motif runs along the frieze at the top,
1990). The allegory portrayed in the canvas on the between wall and ceiling, showing the consequences of
ceiling can be interpreted in more than one way. It is successful use of the precious metal as opposed to
not possible to see just an Apotheosis of Hercules, since negative use. On the one hand we have a beckoning
the subject contains none of his normal attributes (cf. Cupid next to a Venus in loving contact with a young
Bassi 1990; Ruggeri 1996). The only elements normally Bacchus who is offering her a bunch of grapes, while
attributed to this mythical character are his physique an elegantly dressed dwarf invites both of them to play
and his bearded face. It is more likely to be a a game of cards. Other smaller canvases portray an
personification of Honour, “handsome, dressed in amoretto pouring out wine into a shell – the attributes
purple and crowned with laurels”. Surrounded and of Dionysius and Aphrodite respectively, with a veiled
supported by the virtues of Prudence, with a mirror sexual allusion – while two more are playing with a
and serpent, by Eloquence with a book, and by billy-goat, symbolising lasciviousness. Then there are

two playing with a little bird and a cloak, in two panels is personified by the drowsy Venus and Eros, TOP: Pietro Liberi, Generosity Giving
Money to the Needy, Palazzo Fini,
we see erotes intent on filling and carrying sacks of completely inebriated by the wine they have drunk room on the Grand Canal, wall frieze.
BELOW: Pietro Liberi, Solicitude,
gold and silver coins, and another painting shows a from a flask next to them. In the distance on the right, Palazzo Fini, room on the Grand
neo-Titianesque Venus seen from behind with her three not clearly identifiable female figures Canal, wall frieze.
PAGE 156: Top, Pietro Liberi,
little child. These vices, however inviting and accompanied by two amoretti are filling sacks with Generosity Giving Money to the
Needy, detail, Palazzo Fini, room on
pleasurable they may seem, must be shunned, just as coins from a coffer – a real treasure found in the belly the Grand Canal, wall frieze.
the inconsiderate use of money to satisfy them is an of the earth. On the left, Diligence, with spurs in hand, PAGE 157: Pietro Liberi, Honour
Greeted by Glory in Heaven, detail,
abomination. In a more complex part of the frieze, on takes us into the next panel, where what is probably Palazzo Fini, room on the Grand
Canal, ceiling.
the other hand, we see the virtues of Prudence, Solicitude, with a burning torch, accompanied by
Temperance, and possibly of Fortitude, persuading another figure, points to Liberality, who is seen giving
Avarice to hand over the bag of money that she keeps coins to the needy from bags that are brought to her by
well “tied up and close” to her (Ripa 1645). Here Lust labourers, on the next wall.

Honour is also paid to those who make wise use of Liberi’s passion for alchemy is also attested to by
their assets, like Vincenzo Fini, who declared that he many books on the esoteric art in his library (De
had made his fortune by “converting into gold” the Kunert 1931; Ton 2008). He was also in very close
sweat from his brow (Gaier 2002). Just as the muscular contact with the “necromancer” and Rosicrucian
young man painted by Pietro Liberi on the ceiling may Federico Gualdo, whose ability to exploit mines meant
recall the story of Hercules, who achieves immortality
that he was much sought after by illustrious Venetian
and is transfigured, after his long and exhausting
families, to whom he undertook “to be a good and
labours, on the pyre that he himself lights on Mount
loyal subject”, even giving him a lock of hair as a
Etna, so too could a “new man” like Fini be
pledge (ASVE, S.F., b. 119). His interest was thus not
transformed from a normal citizen of Candia into a
solely theoretical, but also included practical
Venetian patrician and the procurator of St Mark’s,
TOP: Pietro Liberi, Bacchus, Venus, applications. In 1677 Liberi had “invented” a secret
and Play, Palazzo Fini, room on the through his virtues and the payment of a considerable
Grand Canal, wall frieze. process “in cognito” to produce “coloured fabrics in the
BOTTOM: Pietro Liberi, The Virtues
sum of money. He is allegorically compared to
style of Persia and Soria [Syria]”, and had obtained
Persuade Avarice to Surrender Honour-Hercules, who amidst glittering clouds and
Money, Palazzo Fini, room on the twenty-year sole rights for this from the Senate (ASVE,
Grand Canal, wall frieze. glaring flashes ignites the purest and most noble
element, alchemists’ gold, in the fiery red crucible that P.C., b. 7). The painter was known to his
is himself. So the miracle has indeed taken place, and contemporaries for his wealth, and was known for his
we are shown that the basest metal can be transformed golden touch, “un toco d’oro”, like a sort of magnet
into the finest – humble lead into precious gold. that, instead of attracting “el fero”, attracted “cecchini”
Plebeian into aristocrat (Rugolo 1997). – the finest gold. (Boschini 1640).

FROM THE GLORY OF VENICE TO NICOLÒ BAMBINI AND

THE TRIUMPH OF ELOQUENCE IN GIAMBATTISTA TIEPOLO
NICOLÒ BAMBINI AT CA’ PESARO manages to create a further, inextricable bond between
the destiny of one of the most important families in
In 1676, the procurator of St Mark’s, Leonardo Venice and the even greater and more legendary
Pesaro, the nephew of the deceased Doge Giovanni, history of the Republic. In terms of both content and
revealed his “superior intellect” and his “greatness of form, the wealth of decoration recalls the Cinquecento
spirit” (Ivanovich 1688) by organising superb ceilings, even though classical, of the Ducal Palace.
festivities in the unfinished family residence on the
Grand Canal in San Stae. The event celebrated both LOUIS DORIGNY AT CA’ TRON
the visit of the Nuncio and the wedding of his
daughter Elena with Pietro Contarini. Baldassare In 1680 and 1681, Baldassare Longhena worked on
Longhena’s “sumptuous work” for this monumental the site in San Stae, on the Grand Canal, where the
building dragged on for a long time and, at this sixteenth-century residence of the Tron family was
moment, was “advanced” only as regards the façade on being enlarged. This was followed, in about 1685, by a
the canal. Here it was already possible to admire “the commission to paint the portego on the piano nobile.
foundations adorned with the chimeral heads of This was entrusted to the French-born, naturalised
several animals” (cit. in Frank 2004). LEFT: Louis Dorigny, Cain Killing
Abel, Ca’ Tron, portego on the piano
Nicolò Bambini, a pupil of Sebastiano Mazzoni nobile.
and, in Rome, of Carlo Maratta, from whom he
acquired his precision in drawing and the elegance of
his forms, painted some canvases in 1682 for the
ceiling of a corner room in the building. They were set
in an intricate frame adorned with exuberant
woodcarvings. The figure of the illustrious Dominante
stands out in an oval with the Triumph of Venice at the
centre. She is of classical beauty, inspired by the works
of Titian and Veronese as filtered through those of
Pietro Liberi. The figures of subjugated and chained
Turks can be seen in the carved wooden frame on the
short side of the ceiling while Fame, bearing the dogal
cap, is quartered on the noble crest of the family. This
is repeated twice, joining the canvases that portray
Prudence and Fortitude with the central panel. The
inspired blending of sculpture and painting, possibly
under the expert guidance of Longhena, generally
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – FROM THE GLORY OF VENICE TO THE TRIUMPH OF ELOQUENCE 159
Venetian Louis Dorigny, an artist who was well known OPPOSITE: Nicolò Bambini, The
Triumph of Venice, Ca’ Pesaro, corner
for his virtuosity (Favilla-Rugolo 2003b). His skill in room on the Grand Canal, ceiling.
LEFT: Louis Dorigny, Abraham and
foreshortening figures and balancing the use of light
the Three Angels, Ca’ Tron, portego
and shade, his mastery of the science of perspective, the on the piano nobile.
perfection of his draughtsmanship, his “style héroïque

& sublime”, his right to the title of “Peintre du Roi”
(Louis XIV), the fact that he had studied at the
Accademia di San Luca in Rome and, by no means
least, the fact that he was the nephew of Simon Vouet
and the pupil of Charles Le Brun, made Dorigny highly
sought-after by patricians in Venice and on the
mainland in the last quarter of the seventeenth century
(Dal Pozzo 1718; Dézallier D’Argenville 1762).
It is worth pointing out that it was very rare in those
days in Venice for a single artist to be commissioned to
make an entire cycle on canvas. The fifteen paintings
along the walls of the portego in Ca’ Tron, which depict
episodes from the Old Testament are linked to an
important event in the life of the family: the birth, on
21 September 1685, after a full six years of childless
marriage between Andrea Tron and Gracimana Priuli,
of their first son, Nicolò. The subjects are taken from
Genesis and relate to the continuity of a dynasty
through the birth of offspring. Though now in need of
restoration, the canvases show a rich use of paint, with
warm tones and a clear definition of outlines in the
contrasts of light. The volumes of the bodies are built THE LARGE LUNETTES IN SAN ZACCARIA
up by sidelight and softened by dappled use of the
brush. The influence of contemporary figurative art, The large lunettes that decorate the walls of the
from Rome and no less from Venice, is quite clear. The aisles in San Zaccaria are a clear celebration of the
quotations from the Cinquecento are surprising, for we “historia della fondazione” of the ancient Benedictine
find Raphael (and his pupils) of the Vatican Loggias in monastery for nuns. Work had already started on the
the Separation of Chaos, Titian’s Saint Peter Martyr, cycle in late 1683 (Martinelli 1684) when two canvases
formerly in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, and Cain Killing by Andrea Celesti were put in place. These were The
Abel, as seen through the art of Carl Loth and Antonio Doge Giustiniano Partecipazio and Emperor Leo V the
Zanchi. In the gracefulness and ethereality of The Armenian Receiving the Body of Saint Zechariah From
Angels Appearing to Abraham and The Sacrifice of Isaac, the East and The Visit of Pope Benedict III to the
Dorigny appears to anticipate the Late Baroque, Monastery in 855, together with The Translation of the
making his works precious examples that were indeed Bodies of Saint Pancras and Saint Sabina From the Old
taken up by later generations of artists such as Ricci, Church to the New. Paintings completed in the very
Pellegrini and Tiepolo. early years of the eighteenth century include Daniel
Heintz’s The Doge Pietro Lando Attending the dates back to Mantegna’s Dead Christ now in the
Consecration of the Church in 1543, Giovanni Antonio Brera.
Andrea Celesti, Doge Giustiniano
Participazio and Emperor Leo V the Fumiani’s The Visit of Emperor Otto III to the Church in It is worth recalling that the rich and powerful
Armenian Receiving the Body of Saint
the Year 1001, and Giovanni Antonio Zonca’s The monastery of San Zaccaria used to take in the
Zachariah from the East, church of
San Zaccaria, left-hand aisle. Paschal Visit of the Doge to the Church (Bertoli-Perissa daughters of the most important Venetian families.
1994). These monumental canvases are packed with The artist was quite probably inspired by his patrons
people crowded in the foreground. to celebrate the glories of the State as well, by
Andrea Celesti is notable for his dense and yet celebrating those of the monastery: in the first large
enamel-like painting, which is brought to life by canvas on the left, a personification of the Republic
golden reflections of oily consistency, in which we see rises up with great solemnity, decked out in the most
the finest teachings of Sebastiano Mazzoni, with an sumptuous brocades, ermine, and with the dogal cap.
end result of “extraordinary inspiration and a lovely Surrounded by the virtues, she holds a model of the
effect of tenderness” (Zanetti 1771). “A joyous and church in her lap. Her counterpart on the right is the
iridescent flow: strawberry, raspberry, orange, and doge, who is also laden with the insignia of his rank
iridescent blues turning to pinks, all restrained by and flanked by senators all dressed in purple. From the
immaculate whites” (Ivanoff 1967). In the first large height of his throne, and with his head covered, he
lunette, Celesti also pays his debt to the golden age of condescendingly receives the Eastern Roman Emperor,
Venetian painting, harking back in the most daring who is not wearing his crown and who is accompanied
foreshortenings of the figures, and particularly of the by a young man with flowing blond hair, wrapped in
nude body of the saint, to the spirit of Jacopo princely cloaks. This may be the future doge Giovanni
Tintoretto, and thus taking up an unbroken line that Partecipazio.
162 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – FROM THE GLORY OF VENICE TO THE TRIUMPH OF ELOQUENCE
TOP: Andrea Celesti, The Visit of Pope

Benedict III to the Monastery in 855,
church of San Zaccaria, left-hand
aisle.
BOTTOM: Antonio Zanchi, The
Translation of the Bodies of Saint
Pancras and Saint Sabina from the
Old Church to the New, church of
San Zaccaria, left-hand aisle.
Andrea Celesti, Doge Giustiniano On the opposite side, Antonio Zonca brings us camera”. This snapshot of Venetian life includes the
Participazio and Emperor Leo V the
Armenian Receiving the Body of Saint back to earth with a gallery of lively effigies. His abbess with the nuns shown behind the grating of the
Zachariah from the East, detail,
church of San Zaccaria, left-hand
personalities are immortalised, as though in a carefully locutorium. It is almost a Pietro Longhi ahead of his
aisle. arranged group photo, for the doge’s annual visit to time, but without his irony.
the monastery. In this painting one can clearly However, Antonio Zanchi portrays the interior of
appreciate Zonca’s abilities as a portraitist (Delorenzi the church with precise mastery of perspective,
2009). The lunette thus gives us an opportunity to see replicating the fifteenth-century architecture of the
one of the most interesting repertories of faces of the apse where we see the translation in 1628 of the bodies
time, ranging from the aristocratic to the lower classes, of St Pancras and St Sabina from the old church to the
and more than one of them cannot resist turning new. Highly skilled in creating juxtapositions of
towards the spectator, as though “looking into the figures, Zanchi unravels the orderly procession by
picking out two baldachins, though placing the one of below, contrite senators, a devout lady and bustling Antonio Zanchi, The Translation of
the Bodies of Saint Pancras and Saint
St Pancras in the centre, seen obliquely just as it is deacons appear to slither by like slugs on the edge of Sabina from the Old Church to the
New, detail, church of San Zaccaria,
being rather clumsily lifted in order to go up the steps. the frame. The scene is closed to the left by an agitated left-hand aisle.
This is the only – carefully studied – discordant note in female figure with a scarlet cloak and, on the right, by
the overall harmony. This harmony can be seen in the two serious and thoughtful senators in overabundant
perfect arrangement of space and of the figures, and it attire, as though sculpted by Zanchi in an apparent
is again taken up in the choir singers and musicians wish to emulate the grand manner of Titian.
who are crowded together at the top left in a Lastly, with his customary skill in staging scenes in
temporary singers’ gallery decked in red damask. In a markedly Veronese-style manner, with scenographic
the foreground, a delicate boy with a starched ruff and carefully constructed perspective, Giovanni
plucks gently on the strings of an archlute. Down Antonio Fumiani dwells on engaging naturalistic
details in the foreground. One fine example of this is Omphales. These works are now all in Ca’ Rezzonico
the old neo-Titianesque hawker lady dressed in (Craievich 2005).
Daniel Heintz, Doge Pietro Lando at
the Consecration of the Church in transparent, acid colours, who is offering a bussolà Even so, the level of prestige that the thirty-year-old
1543, church of San Zaccaria, right-
pastry to a little girl. Molinari achieved can be seen in a new archive
hand aisle.
discovery that means we can attribute some of the
ANTONIO MOLINARI IN THE MOSAICS Scenes from the Life of the Virgin on the wall and on the
OF ST MARK’S vault of the south transept of St Mark’s, and above the
doors of the Treasury and of the baptistery. Until now
In the early 1680s, preceded by his master, Antonio these had been attributed to Giovanni Antonio
Zanchi, Antonio Molinari made his entrance into the Fumiani (San Marco 1991). On 11 February 1683
Byzantine treasure chest of St Mark’s Basilica. An artist (1682 more veneto), the procurators of St Mark’s de
of “vigorous and original” spirit (Zanetti 1771), he had supra, who administered the basilica, paid “Antonio
free himself from the Tenebrista painting of Zanchi, Molinari pittor” for a painting that was to “act as a
and he formulated an effective fusion of Baroque model for a mosaic above the baptistery door” (ASVE,
tension and classicist restraint. This can be clearly seen P.S.M., reg. 16). Later, on 3 April that year, the last
in The Fight Between the Centaurs and the Lapiths, a payment was made for a Saint Joachim and Saint Anne
painting that very successfully draws inspiration from at the Temple, and on 9 September 1685, for “a
Giordano. He painted it in the late 1690s for the painting made for the mosaics of the Nativity of the
Correr family of San Giovanni Decollato, for which Blessed Virgin with 19 1/2 figures, including full-
Gregorio Lazzarini painted his Orpheus Punished by lengths, halfs, heads and architecture, at five ducats per
the Bacchantes and Antonio Bellucci’s Hercules and figure” (ASVE, P.S.M., reg. 17). Six years later, on 9 April
TOP: Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, The

Visit of Emperor Otto III to the Church
in the Year 1001, church of San
Zaccaria, right-hand aisle.
BOTTOM: Giovanni Antonio Zonca,
The Paschal Visit of the Doge to the
Church, church of San Zaccaria,
right-hand aisle.
TO THE SIDE AND PAGE 170:

Giovanni Antonio Zonca, The Paschal
Visit of the Doge to the Church,
details, church of San Zaccaria, right-
hand aisle.
PAGE 171: Top, Giovanni Antonio
Fumiani, The Visit of Emperor Otto III
to the Church in the Year 1001, detail,
church of San Zaccaria, right-hand
aisle.
169
Domenico Cigola after a model by 1691, Antonio received ninety-two ducats “for having Veronese type solution, in which the gold background
Antonio Molinari, Presentation of
Mary in the Temple, basilica of San made the design for the story of Mary again Virgin naturally predominates, though without
Marco, west transept.
being presented at the Temple, a work that remains in compromising the sculptural rendering of the figures.
the majesty of the vault” above the door that “leads The result is a simple and clear composition. The
into the treasury”. The last two compositions were original iconographic archetype of the ancient mosaics
turned into mosaics by Domenico Cigola, who placed in St Mark’s, and particularly the one of the portal of
his signature and the date on both of them (San Marco St Alipio, were to emerge again at the end of the
1691). The first mosaic was completed in 1690 and the century, as Adriano Mariuz has pointed out, in the
second the following year. It is particularly in the large canvas of The Translation of the Body of Saint
Presentation in the Temple, which has no fewer than Mark in the parish church of Crespano del Grappa
three window openings in it, that we can appreciate near Treviso. It was also taken up in 1728 by
Molinari’s skill. With his “spontaneous creative Sebastiano Ricci, who created a dazzling Veneration of
liveliness” (Mariuz 1982) he both solves the problem the Body of Saint Mark for the arch of the second
of the three openings and he manages to use them to portal from the left, right next to that of St Alipio
the full, by joining up the space with a flight of steps (Daniels 1976).
that crosses the entire scene horizontally. This is a neo- Molinari died on 3 February 1704 and Pallade
Veneta published an obituary: “Signor Antonio large canvases with their sweeping narratives were put Leopoldo dal Pozzo after a model by
Sebastiano Ricci, The Venetian
Molinari, aged 51, famous competitor of nature in the up in 1691 after the canonisation of Giustiniani, and Signoria Venerating the Body of Saint
Mark, basilica of San Marco, façade,
creation of canvases, has relinquished the demands of they completed the decoration of the main chapel, second arch.
fate that make men mortal, though immortality has which was dedicated to the Republic’s new patron
been rendered to him by his countless works on view saint.
in so many basilicas” (BNMVE, Mss. It., VII, 1834). Gregorio Lazzarini, earned the approval of Carlo
Maratta, prince of the Accademia di San Luca in
GREGORIO LAZZARINI AND ANTONIO Rome, and became part of a movement to “normalise”
BELLUCCI FOR SAN LORENZO GIUSTINIANI the Baroque hyperbole which demanded a level of
perfection in draughtsmanship that could match or at
The Almsgiving by Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani, by least surpass the “colour” of the Venetian School
Gregorio Lazzarini, and the Vow of Doge Nicolò (Lucco 2001). His easel paintings were much sought
Contarini to Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani for the End of the after in Italy and abroad for their original and creative
Plague, by Antonio Bellucci, are in the presbytery of compositions, as we can see in the Almsgiving. Here
the cathedral of San Pietro di Castello, both of them the artist includes his own portrait in the crowd and
publicly celebrating the first patriarch of Venice. These we see him watching the saint who, making a
magnanimous gesture, is assisting the needy (da Canal Antonio Bellucci’s Vow of Doge Nicolò Contarini to OPPOSITE, ABOVE: Antonio
Molinari, The Fight between the
1809). We can recognise his face by comparing it with Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani, on the other hand, is an Centaurs and the Lapiths, Ca’
Rezzonico.
the youthful Self Portrait in the Accademia Carrara in example of the mature work of an artist who in his OPPOSITE, BELOW: Gregorio
Bergamo, which appears to be almost cut out of the youth, between 1668 and 1676, had “lived in Sibenik Lazzarini, Orpheus Punished by the
Bacchantes, Ca’ Rezzonico.
Venice canvas. The perspective construction of the together with the aristocratic Angelo Emo (ASPVE, E.M. TOP LEFT: Gregorio Lazzarini, The
Almsgiving of Saint Lorenzo
Almsgiving recalls that of Paolo Veronese, but it is reg. 91), where he developed his talent under the
Giustiniani, detail with a self portrait
mitigated by a form of composure that is taken from guidance of the unknown Dalmatian painter of the artist, church (former
cathedral) of San Pietro di Castello.
Padovanino (Pallucchini 1981). The saint rises up Domenico Difnico (da Canal 1809; Magani 1995). TOP RIGHT: Gregorio Lazzarini, Self
Portrait, Bergamo, Accademia
impassively and radiantly on a perron leading up to a Back in Venice at the age of twenty-two, he soon
Carrara.
building of restrained, classical architecture. In his managed to make a name for himself before going to
painting of the wretches crowding around Giustiniani, Vienna, to the German courts, and to London. In the
Lazzarini uses a form of naturalism that has little end, after long wanderings through Europe, he
emphasis, with a more academic style to tone down returned home and retired to Soligo, in the Treviso
the scene. The entire composition is approached in a area, where he died in 1726. The painter brings to life
manner that is “not furious but natural, firm and well the Vow of Doge Nicolò Contarini with brilliant,
rendered in the shadows” (da Canal 1809). burning chromatic harmonies, sculpting the volumes
OPPOSITE AND TOP: Gregorio

Lazzarini, The Almsgiving of Saint
Lorenzo Giustiniani, general view and
details, church (former cathedral) of
San Pietro di Castello.
with clear draughtsmanship and harmoniously setting life of the saint that took place in the fifteenth century,
TOP AND OPPOSITE: Antonio
Bellucci, Vow of Doge Nicolò
them among monumental buildings. A breezy loggia this one, which is the last in the cycle in the cathedral,
Contarini to Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani in the shade separates the space into a foreground, illustrates the final and most prodigious stage, when he
for the End of the Plague, general
view and detail, church (former with supernumeraries, from an imaginary nave filled intervened in 1632 to save the city and the entire
cathedral) of San Pietro di Castello. with light. Here we see a sumptuous Longhena altar nation. The episode was much used in building up the
bearing an altarpiece with a personification of the legend of Giustiniani. This became a state cult and
Republic kneeling before God the Father. It is almost a part of a process that elevated the “national” power of
reference to the canvas with Venice Making a Vow to religion (Roca De Amicis 2008a). Even though this was
Saint Anthony of Padua to End the Cretan War, which the patron’s intention, Bellucci shows us the event
Pietro Liberi had painted in 1652 for the basilica of the from a detached and historicized point of view: the
Salute. “The light that strikes and illuminates against plague was by now a distant memory, and against a
the light” comes as an echo of the Tenebrista taste of background of Venice in the sunshine, we see a
Antonio Zanchi (Pallucchini 1981). This is particularly mournful funeral passing over a bridge. The painful
true of the group on the right, which surrounds the defeats at Candia are relegated to the past, for
deathlike Plague, who is struck by the shaft of St Francesco Morosini’s initial successes in Morea were
Mark’s flag and, at the same time, is prevented from shedding a new and positive light on the illusion of a
reaping new victims by being scourged. future that would still be glorious for the Republic.
While the first canvas describes an episode from the
OPENING UP SPACE: FRESCOISTS AND Pietro Ricchi of Lucca in the church of Santi Giovanni TOP AND OPPOSITE: Girolamo
Pellegrini, Apotheosis of Saint
PERSPECTIVE PAINTERS IN VENICE e Paolo and in San Giuseppe di Castello, together with Lorenzo Giustiniani, general view and
the quadradurista Pietro Antonio Torri of Bologna, detail, church (former cathedral) of
San Pietro di Castello, semi-dome of
Even though its frescoed façades still made Venice a and then came Girolamo Pellegrini (a pupil of Pietro the apse.
PAGES 182-183: Pietro Ricchi and
colourful city in the seventeenth century, canvases or da Cortona), who worked on the altar of the Pietro Antonio Torri, Ceiling of the
“cuori d’oro” (incised and gilded works in leather) were presbytery and in the semi-dome of the apse in San church of San Giuseppe di Castello,
general view and detail.
still generally preferred for interiors. If we are to Pietro di Castello, in the apse of San Zaccaria, in the PAGES 183-184: Nicolò Bambini,
Sagredo chapel in San Francesco della Vigna and on Antonio Felice Ferrari and Girolamo
believe the view expressed in 1692 by the Neapolitan
Mengozzi Colonna, The Apotheosis of
dealer Simon Giogalli, who represented Luca the dome of Santi Cosma e Damiano on the Giudecca Venice, Ca’ Dolfin, vault of the salon.
Giordano in the city of Venice, local painters “who (Magani 2001). The ceiling in San Lazzaro dei
might pass for good virtuosi in oils”, were “rediculosi” Mendicanti was “frescoed with most lovely
when it came to fresco painting, for “here this form of architecture, the work of Faustin Moretti of Brescia,
painting is little used, because the salt prevents it from with figures by Cavalier Liberi” (Doglioni 1675); in
holding onto the mortar” (cit. in Ravelli 1988). San Martino di Castello it was possible to admire “the
Though he was certainly influenced by his wish to vault of the sacristy”, decorated “in fresco with sublime
promote the skills of Neapolitan fresco painters, his architecture by Simone Guglielmi da Piove [di Sacco]
opinion should not in any case be overestimated. We and figures by Antonio Zanchi”, while Domenico
need only consider the renewed success that this Bruni and Giacomo Pedrali, another two artists from
medium enjoyed in Venice in the second half of the Brescia, had worked on the ceiling of the nave. Wall
century, at least for church interiors: first there was paintings were made in Ognissanti by Agostino
Litterini and in San Luca by Domenico Bruni (Flores

d’Arcais 2001), and in 1675 the newly rebuilt church of
San Silvestro was waiting for its vast vault to be
painted “a fresco con altri ornamenti” (Doglioni 1675).
The young Louis Dorigny, who had just arrived in
Venice after a profitable stay in Central Italy, was
chosen for the task in 1682.
The ceilings of churches and palazzi very often had
a combination of ephemeral architectural
constructions and figures, the former painted by
specialised artists. This device, which clearly came
from the theatre, was used as a virtual enlargement of
the architectural space. From the 1660s, the Bologna
style of trompe l’oeil began to appear in the Republic,
with a more complex and profuse combination of
plant and flower elements than had been used in the
Brescia style, the structural elements of which had a
dense, regular rhythm. The Bologna School established
itself successfully, with such artists as Pietro Antonio
Cerva, Pietro Antonio Torri, Antonio Felice Ferrari,
Ferdinando Fochi and, eventually, in the early years of
the new century, with the work of Girolamo Mengozzi
Colonna of Ferrara, who was to become the masterly
partner of Giambattista Tiepolo.
It was Pietro Antonio Torri who created the
illusionistic and “maestrevole architettura” (Martinelli
1684) on the vault of the church of San Giuseppe di
Castello, while the gigantic figures were painted by
Pietro Ricchi. The fresco, which dates from the 1660s,
divides the vault into three sections, which are held up
by ephemeral columns, with The Apotheosis of Saint
Joseph in the centre, and Saint Monica and Saint
Augustine in the octagons at the side. Torri’s aim was
to double the height of the nave, and he did so by
creating a false neo-Cinquecento-style coffered ceiling.
This is highlighted by painted rails that surround the
frames of the octagons, which are also similar in their
figurative elements to the caisson in the antechamber
of the Libreria Marciana, which houses Titian’s
Wisdom.
The most mature and spectacular trompe l’oeil in
Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, The

Martyrdom and Glorification of Saint
Pantaleon, church of San Pantalon,
ceiling.
186
the Bologna style came over thirty years later at Ca’ in 1697 (Pacifico 1697) but it appears to have been at
Zenobio in a work by Louis Dorigny and, in a manner an advanced stage in October 1706, when it was
that was unusual for Venice, in the main hall of Dolfin unveiled, “even though it is not finished”, upon the
in San Pantalon between 1711 and 1715. Here, Nicolò request of Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, Electress of
Bambini and, in particular, the trompe l’oeil painter Bavaria, on a visit to Venice (cit. in Zava Boccazzi
Antonio Felice Ferrari, assisted by his young pupil 1990). The princess, who was a “great connoisseuse of
Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna, reduced “simulation to a painting”, was very struck and “molto contenta” with
great emulation of truth” (Baruffaldi 1846; Favilla- the site and “tutta la nobiltà” expressed such
Rugolo 2008g). This eloquent manifesto extols the satisfaction that the work remained on display for a
virtues of the Dolfin family, who had made a name for week.
themselves in the latter years of the seventeenth The long work on the painting, which was finished
century in the political, military, and literary worlds. before the end of 1710, the year the painter died,
The Apotheosis of Venice, which unfolds on the ceiling followed the troubled restructuring of the building, on
of the hall has a variegated figurative repertory and is which Baldassare Longhena also worked. The building
shown in an illusory but sumptuous loggia of pink site had been opened in 1667 with the laying of the
marble, livened up by flexuous little balconies opening first stone but it was halted in 1671 as a result of “the
onto bulging balustrades. Behind these, there are poison belched forth entirely by the devil”, in the form
niched white statues and portraits of family members of a quarrel between the parish priest and the Scuola
hatched in monochrome and set in gilded oval frames. del Santissimo Sacramento, which was responsible for
Though Bambini takes inspiration for his figures from administration of the chapel (Frank 2004). In 1684
the highly successful canvases that Sebastiano Ricci only the “capella maggiore” and “just one wing of the
had recently made for the monumental staircase in church” had been built (cit. in Favilla-Rugolo 2004-
Palazzo Mocenigo in San Samuele (now in the 05). In 1697 the nave had just been completed, while
Staatliche Museen, Berlin), the way he conveys the “the altars were being made”, and only the chapel of St
vastness of the open sky recalls the grand manner of Pantaleon was decorated “with beautifully arranged
Pietro da Cortona. Public and private once again come paintings by Antonio Fumiani” (Pacifico 1697). It
together in the subject matter of The Apotheosis of would therefore be reasonable to imagine that, at
Venice: the destiny and glory of the family are about this time, the artist started work on this vast
inextricably linked to that of the State. project until “in the present year, 1704” the church was
“turned almost to perfection” with “buona struttura e
THE LARGEST CANVAS IN THE WORLD: dissegno”. It had seven altars, some of which were
GIOVANNI ANTONIO FUMIANI IN SAN dressed in “finissimi” marbles, while the “ceiling is
PANTALON being totally renovated by the aforementioned
Fumiani” (Martinelli 1705).
An extraordinary theatrical effect is emanated by Fumiani worked on creating stage settings for
The Martyrdom and Glorification of Saint Pantalon, operas, particularly in the ducal theatre in Piacenza in
which covers the entire ceiling of the church of San 1669 (Mancini-Muraro-Povoledo 1995), and the
Pantalon. It was painted by Giovanni Antonio lessons he learned from his teacher, Domenico degli
Fumiani, “a felicitous hand born to draw miracles Ambrogi, whom he had known in Bologna when he
more than paintings” (Fabri 1690). The largest was very young, allowed him to create a “macchina”
canvassed ceiling in the world had not yet been started that was later referred to as “useless” (Longhi 1946). It
was actually a magnificent display and it was used as a MANY STYLES OF PAINTINGS
perpetual religious representation, with the
Nicomedian doctor Pantaleon, a martyr under It would be hard to establish rigid separations
Emperor Diocletian, as its protagonist. Aligned with between the various currents that coexisted in Venice
the high altar on the enormous ceiling, amidst a host in the last quarter of the seventeenth century by
of figures, the saint stands out at the top of a dizzying applying the theoretical divisions that were drawn up
and impracticable flight of steps, showing himself to at a later date. And indeed, there is no reason to
his executioners while awaiting martyrdom, and imagine that, towards the turn of the century, patrons
impassively contemplating the celestial glory that particularly preferred the nascent Late Baroque over a
awaits him. The spectacular work was painted piece by Maratta-style classicism. And while we do not find
piece on the ground, like theatre wings that are then uniformity among the artists working around this
put into place on stage, and consisted of a series of time, since there were “as many styles as there were
canvases sewn together, like a majestic sail filled by a artists painting” in the city (Zanetti 1771; Magani
spiritual rather than physical wind. The trompe l’oeil of 2001; Craievich 2005), this variety was at the time seen
the powerful architectural construction on the vault as anything but conflictual, and indeed it was seen as a
bursts open and turns into a sort of upward resource, and as real added value (Aikema 2006). This
continuation of the sacred hall, which gives the can be seen, for example, in the public competition
launched by the Scuola Grande della Carità. In 1700
illusion of multiplying its height and stretching into
the chapter of the Scuola decided to renovate its
the infinite distance of the light-filled heavens. As in
interior decoration (Moretti 1978). Requests were
the theatre, a skilful orchestration of real light, which
therefore sent to artists of different ages and styles:
here comes from the Diocletian windows, is essential
Gregorio Lazzarini, Antonio Balestra, Giovanni Segala, Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, The
for ensuring the overall effect. We can see an Martyrdom and Glorification of Saint
Angelo Trevisani, Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, Pantaleon, detail, church of San
immediate debt to Paolo Veronese, with colours that
Sebastiano Ricci and Simone Brentana. Pantalon, ceiling.
are at times diaphanous, at times luminous, and often
On 3 April 1704, when the work was finished, Doge
iridescent. There are also reminiscences of
Alvise II Mocenigo went to visit the school and “saw
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, which are reinterpreted
every niche covered in admirable paintings by the
here with entirely Baroque emphasis (Ivanoff 1962).
most famous brushes of the century” (cit. in Favilla-
As well as the perspective lessons of Domenico degli
Rugolo 2009). While public principals did not show a
Ambrogi (Rossetti 1996), there clearly seems to be the
particular preference for one current or another, there
influence of Andrea Pozzo, who frescoed the ceiling of is no reason to suppose that private patrons had a
Sant’Ignazio in Rome between 1691 and 1694, and this particular preference for the “avant-gardes”. One
is in part due to the fact that his Perspectiva Pictorum example of this can be seen in the profuse but
et Architectorum was first published in the city in 1693. balanced mix of classicism and Late Baroque in four
In the end, Fumiani’s name was forever to be linked ovals designed for a room in Palazzo Pisani in Santo
to the church of San Pantalon, for not only did he Stefano (Marinelli 2003; Marinelli 2004; Favilla-
paint the ceiling of the nave, but also that of the main Rugolo 2005a), in which Dorigny and Balestra were
chapel. And he also left canvases on no fewer than five pitted against Ricci and Pellegrini. In their dispute, the
side altars out of seven and, after all this work, he discipline of draughtsmanship successfully prevails,
found a worthy resting place set in the floor of the though without posing limits on the so-called
nave. “colourists”, but rather giving their works unique and
uncommon brilliance. At the same time, the Manin colour, taking inspiration mainly from Raphael,
family commissioned paintings from Nicolò Bambini, Correggio, Annibale Carracci, and Andrea Sacchi. In
Gregorio Lazzarini, Giovanni Segala, Angelo Trevisani, 1691-95, during his stay in Rome, he “drew from
Giannantonio Pellegrini, Sebastiano Ricci, and Raphael, Carracci, and from the ancients continuously,
Balestra himself for their palazzo in Rialto (Frank in the loggia of the Chigis, the Vatican Stanze, and in
1996). In 1709 Balestra was called upon, together with the Galleria Farnese” (cit. in Ghio Baccheschi 1989).
Ricci and Bambini, by Gregorio Barbarigo of Santa Balestra was an artist whose spirit was “allegro
Maria del Giglioto, to create a large canvas “d’un prudentemente” and whose work was “amoroso”
historia” of his “eccellentissima” family, to be placed in (Zanetti 1771), and we find this in his Virgin and Child
the portego of his main residence on the Grand Canal. with Saints Stanislaus Kostka, Aloysius Gonzaga, and
The celebratory paintings of the pomp and splendour Francesco Borgia for the church of Santa Maria
of the Barbarigo family were added to those, referred Assunta dei Gesuiti. Signed and dated 1704, the work
to as “modern paintings”, which were already there, immediately met with huge success for the
and which showed “istorie” of the family. These had unparalleled harmony of its creativity, its
been painted towards the end of the previous century draughtsmanship and its “grazia” and “nobiltà”. The
by Zanchi, Daniel Heintz, Lazzarini, Molinari, Bellucci, poses of the figures show a mild and suasory
Fumiani and Celesti (Favilla-Rugolo, as above). Artists gracefulness, with clean, precise outlines backed up by
new and old, in terms of both age and style, thus a soft rendering of colour which plays on strange but
worked alongside each other and could not avoid enamelled tones. Perfect in every part, a placid but
comparisons and, quite probably, interaction. Indeed, intense pietist vein emerges throughout. At the bottom
as early as 1690 Dorigny, Zanchi, Loth, Fumiani, right, it is a sort of still life that – in the vanitas of the
OPPOSITE: Antonio Balestra, The Cervelli, Bellucci, Lazzarini and Bambini had started skull and of the symbols of royalty abandoned under
Virgin and Child with Saint Stanislaus
Kostka, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, and
to promote the establishment of an “Accademia dei the fiery cardinal’s hat – evoke a distant and blurred
Saint Francis Borgia, church of the corpi humani” in Venice to achieve the definitive memory: the distressing discovery of the transiency of
Gesuiti.
PAGES 192-193: Antonio Balestra, emancipation of painting, which until 1682 had things by the young Francesco Borgia, as harshly
The Adoration of the Shepherds,
depended on the art of “dipintori” (Favaro 1975). narrated by the paintbrush of Pietro Vecchia forty
church of San Zaccaria.
years previously, at the height of Tenebrismo.
ANTONIO BALESTRA AND CLASSICISM Shortly after came The Adoration of the Shepherds
for San Zaccara, the first in a series of nativity scenes
It was into this is highly diversified context that dotted around Venice. His debt to Correggio – a
Antonio Balestra of Verona entered. Ever since his shining example filtered through the teachings of
debut in the closing years of the seventeenth century, Maratta – appears quite evident. As always, the
he took up the path traced out by Lazzarini and draughtsmanship is unparalleled, the luminism and
became the most representative artist in the classicist feeling for colour is brilliant, the composition
current in Veneto. A disciple of Antonio Bellucci in beautifully balanced, the shadows well measured, and
Venice, his main model was Carlo Maratta, who had the forms permeated by a firm, muffled mellowness.
been the uncontested master of the Accademia di San The artist shows a clear desire to achieve an ideal form
Luca in Rome for the last three decades of the century. of perfection that does not however overshadow the
His work is characterised by perfect draughtsmanship, soft and tender, though never cloying gentleness that
carefully balanced masses, elegance of form, emanates from the scene.
magnificence in his draperies, and a “grazioso” use of
191
Sebastiano Ricci, Ceiling of the

church of San Marziale.
194
SEBASTIANO RICCI AND THE LATE

BAROQUE
Sebastiano Ricci is one artist who appears to be at

the opposite end of the spectrum from Balestra, but
who is actually the other side of the same coin. A
painter of international fame, with “a wealth of gifts of
benign nature” (Zanetti 1771), he and Giovanni
Antonio Pellegrini ushered in a “chiarista” current that
in the closing years of the seventeenth century
introduced the lagoon to the rococo style, or rather to
the Venetian interpretation of the Late Baroque, or
“Barocchetto”.
Made around the turn of the century, the canvases
on the ceiling of the church of San Marziale (Moretti
1978) portray the Glory of St Martial and two episodes
from the legend of the miraculous statue of the Virgin
that left from the “lidi di Rimini” and landed in Venice,
right there, close by the parish church, where the city
originally gave onto the northern lagoon (Corner
1758). At the top of the presbytery stands God the
Father and the Holy Spirit. The four scenes are placed
in elaborately carved round wooden frames that stand
out against the lighter colour of the plasterwork. Here
the “most celebrated” Sebastiano Ricci, “singolare per
l’idea, diligentissimo nell’attitudine e tanto espressivo nel
colorito” (cit. in Selfridge Field 1980), had created
some “bellissimi” paintings (Martinelli 1705),
reminiscent of the daring foreshortenings of Veronese
in San Sebastiano.
The virtual sky that opens up in the oculi in the
vault is brightened by a terse luminosity. This is
particularly true of the episode with the angels carving
a sculpture of the Madonna. The legend describes how
a humble and devout shepherd in Rimini decided in
1286 to carve a statue of the Virgin out of a tree trunk,
but his attempt was thwarted by the malicious devil TOP: Sebastiano Ricci, The Arrival in
Venice of the Miraculous Statue of the
who destroyed his work during the night. Two angels, Virgin, detail, church of San Marziale,
who appeared in the form of “handsome and ceiling.
BOTTOM: The Miraculous Statue of
beautifully dressed boys”, intervened to help him finish the Virgin Taken by Boat by the
Angels, church of San Marziale, altar
the work (Corner 1758). Ricci shows them in the of the Blessed Virgin, altar facing.
tondo using their hammer and chisel most gracefully,

fluttering like bees around a flower laden with nectar,
while a third one is intent on keeping a pitch-black
devil at bay with “innocent” violence, pushing him to
the edge of a precipice. The astonished shepherd
observes the supernatural scene from a twisted tree. In
the other canvas, the boat with the statue of the
Madonna has arrived alongside an imaginary lock,
while passers-by on the bridge of San Marziale look on
inquisitively and a man attempts to bring the boat to
the shore, helped with the oar by an athletic ferryman-
angel. The artist uses his brush to soften the shape of
what is actually a coarse Lake Gothic sculpture – it is
still venerated today on the altar made for it in 1697
on the left-hand wall of the nave. The compositions
are filled with mother-of-pearl effects and “silvery
reflections of light” (Moretti 1978), and the shapes
appear firm and finely sculpted in soothing nuances.
In September 1711, Ricci had finished the frescoes (no
longer extant) in the main chapel of San Sebastiano.
On that occasion, the Pallade Veneta made a
comparison with Veronese, admitting with
quintessentially Baroque hyperbole: “it must be said
that, if not superior, [Ricci is] at least equal to that
illustrious emulator of nature” (cit. in Selfridge Field
1980).
Between 1708 and 1709, Ricci opened up another
celestial fragment above the Habitus Mariae altar in
the church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Moretti
1978). Angels circle round in a gilded sky, in a tribute
to the Byzantine tradition that had never completely
died out in Venice. Some of them are resting
there is a mirror (now in a state of decay), which OPPOSITE: Sebastiano Ricci, The
comfortably on soft clouds, and a chubby little angel Angels Carving the Statue of the
shows the Virgin’s scapular. Fragrant and drenched in originally focused the rays of sunlight. Hidden from Virgin and Striking Down the Devil,
church of San Marziale, ceiling.
light, the shifting and ever-changing material is view, as they are mounted high up above the arch that TOP: Sebastiano Ricci, Angels,
characterised by a rendering of extreme liveliness. This separates the chapel from the nave, there are church of Santa Maria del Carmine,
chapel of the Scuola dei Carmini,
is an inspired and spirited painting, of rare virtuosity monochrome canvases depicting two gigantic figures nave wall.
PAGES 198-199: Sebastiano Ricci,
in its violent clash of different tones. The natural light of angels spread out and separated by vase hatched
Angels in Glory, church of Santa
that illuminates the vault comes from three large with a broad, furious, and abridged brushstroke, in a Maria del Carmine, chapel of the
Scuola dei Carmini, vault.
Diocletian windows and, adopting a Bernini-like sfregazzo that pays homage to the mastery of Jacopo
device, from the small lantern, at the top of which Tintoretto.
THE SAN STAE CYCLE
The examples we have seen of cycles of paintings by

artists with the most varied backgrounds cannot have
been isolated cases, and indeed they appear to
constitute the rule. A set of canvases made from 1722,
thanks to the bequest of the aristocratic Andrea Stazio,
brings together a number of well-established names,
together with young, emerging artists, in the church of
San Stae: Nicolò Bambini, Gregorio Lazzarini,
Sebastiano Ricci, Antonio Balestra, Silvestro Manaigo,
Angelo Trevisani, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Pietro
Uberti, Giambattista Piazzetta, Giambattista Pittoni
Giambattista Mariotti and Giambattista Tiepolo
(Moretti 1973). These artists were very different in
terms of training and age: Bambini was aged seventy-
one and Tiepolo – the youngest – was twenty-six. It
was only after 1733 that the twelve paintings, which
were originally at the top of the pillars in the nave,
were taken to the presbytery and mounted in stucco
frames. The scenes, illustrating the martyrdom of
saints, are arranged in narrative pairs, providing an
overview of Venetian painting in the 1720s. They range
from the staid, polished classicism of Lazzarini and
Balestra to the dramatic, chiaroscuro shapes of
TOP: Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini,
Piazzetta and Tiepolo, through to the powerful
The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew,
church of San Stae, presbytery. colouristic resplendence of Ricci, Pellegrini, and
BOTTOM: Gregorio Lazzarini, Saint
Paul, church of San Stae, presbytery.
Pittoni.
OPPOSITE: Giambattista Piazzetta,
The Capture of Saint James, church of
San Stae, presbytery. THE SKIES OF PIAZZETTA AND TIEPOLO
At the same time, in 1723, the chapter of

Dominican Fathers of Santi Giovanni e Paolo called
upon the brethren responsible for building the chapel
of San Domenico, which had last been finished after
thirty years’ work, to select a painter from all those
who had offered to make a canvas painting for the
ceiling of the sacellum (Mariuz 1982b). Giambattista
Piazzetta won the contest, but small models show that
Giambattista Tiepolo and Mattia Bortoloni were
certainly among the participants. On 14 January 1726,
the vault was unveiled before a large public, which

included many painters who were curious “to see such
a distinguished work”, The Glory of San Domenico (cit.
in Moretti 1984-85). Piazzetta, son of the carver
Giacomo, had his roots in the Tenebrista painting of
the seventeenth century, mitigated by Domenico Fetti’s
“sketch painting”, Johann Liss’s “frenetic effervescence
of colour”, and Bernardo Strozzi’s “iridescences”
(Pallucchini 1995). A painstaking easel painter,
Giambattista here embarked upon a decorative
undertaking for the first and last time. Going beyond
the limitations of a powerfully chiaroscuro model, and
using a restrained palette of rusty colours, he built up
a whirling, helical composition with back-lighting
effects. He applies optical discipline in foreshortening
the figures of the monks, who look out from
imaginary steps, with the saint projected like an arrow
towards the sky and held up by angels pedalling in the
air, while others perform a little concert with the most
modern instruments of the day. It was a lesson that
“might have been important for Tiepolo too, even
though he was to go far beyond” (Mariuz 1982b).
On 16 May 1722, Giudici del Piovego granted a
licence to “mastro Valentin Sardi murer” to reconstruct OPPOSITE: Giambattista Tiepolo, The
Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew,
the foundations of the façade of a house owned by the church of San Stae, presbytery.
“nobil huomo eccellenza Sandi” in Sant’Angelo in Corte TOP: Sebastiano Ricci, The
Deliverance of Saint Peter from
dell’Albero, near the Grand Canal (ASVE, G.P., b. 23). Prison, church of San Stae,
presbytery.
The new residence of the Sandi family, originally from
BOTTOM: Antonio Balestra, The
Feltri, who practised law and who were ennobled in Martyrdom of Saint John, church of
San Stae, presbytery.
1685, was being made to a design by the architect
PAGE 204: Andrea Tirali, The Chapel
Domenico Rossi (Selvatico 1847). When the works of San Domenico, basilica of Santi
Giovanni e Paolo.
were completed, in about 1724-25, Tommaso Sandi
PAGES 205-207: Giambattista
called a young painter, Giambattista Tiepolo, and an Piazzetta, Saint Dominic in Glory,
general view and details, basilica of
older one, Nicolò Bambini, to decorate – rather
Santi Giovanni e Paolo, chapel of San
curiously – not the main room in the palazzo, which is Domenico, ceiling.
filled with light and looks onto the calle, but the one at
the back, which gives onto the rio. The cycle of
paintings was quite probably made to mark the
promotion of Tommaso to the prestigious advocacy of
the Signoria and the entry of his son Vettor into the
legal profession (Ton 2004). The subject of the fresco
on the ceiling has been recognised as The Triumph of
Eloquence and it consists of four mythological episodes centrifugal motion is backed up by “excited chromatic PAGES 208-209: Giambattista Tiepolo,
The Triumph of Eloquence, Palazzo
created by Tiepolo: Amphion Building the Walls of harmonies” (Mariuz 1982) that dissolve into the blue Sandi, ceiling of the salon.
Thebes to the Sound of the Lyre, Orpheus Taking background of the sky with multicoloured clouds OPPOSITE AND TOP: Giambattista
Tiepolo, The Triumph of Eloquence,
Eurydice From Hades, Hercules Freeing the Cercopes sweeping by. The steadfast, twisted figures convey a details with Amphion building the
walls of Thebes to the sound of the
When They Make Him Laugh, and Bellerophon Killing dramatic and still Baroque tone. This was to be the last lyre, and with Bellerophon killing the
the Chimera, while Minerva and Mercury stand out in storm before the winds of corrosive Enlightenment Chimera, Palazzo Sandi, ceiling of the
salon.
the centre (Ivanoff 1951; Knox 1993). A monochrome criticism would brighten a clear sky of reason. Palazzo PAGES 212-213: Giambattista Tiepolo,
frieze on canvas runs all the way round underneath the Sandi is a conscious understanding that might at any The Triumph of Eloquence, detail with
Hydra and the Furies, Palazzo Sandi,
fresco, with an interweaving jumble of monstrous, moment precipitate into a state of pre-human ceiling of the salon.
sallow-looking figures attributed to Nicolò Bambini. savagery. All the protagonists, from Amphion to
The pictorial decoration of the room was completed Orpheus, including those in the canvases that were
with paintings on the walls, which are no longer in once on the walls, show that only eloquence and the
place, with Apollo Flaying Martia, Hercules and Antaeus law – two sides of the same coin of civilisation – allow
and Ulysses Recognising Achilles Among the Daughters us to rise up from the ghastly chaos of inhumanity.
of Lycomedes by Tiepolo, and the Three Graces and The series of paintings underscores the value of
Coriolanus before the Gates of Rome by Bambini eloquence as propounded by the Neapolitan
(Aikema 1986). philosopher Giambattista Vico (particularly in his
The ceiling appears to have been blown away by a Diritto universale, which was published between 1720
whirlwind, with figures on the sides, violently and 1722) who had a great following in Venice at the
foreshortened, suspended over the void. The time (Ton 2004). The composition is inspired by an
TOP AND OPPOSITE: Nicolò educational intent that believes in the gradual The frieze beneath, in which an obscene and
Bambini, The Obscure Roots of
Civilisation, details, Palazzo Sandi, advancement of humanity through the ebb and flow amorphous tangle of part-human, part-animal bodies
frieze in the salon. of history – in a way that is never linear but spiralling, unravels without interruption, is drawn with
as in Tiepolo’s sky – in which the monsters of unprecedented power, which astonishes anyone used
irrationality must be subdued, even in our inner self. to Nicolò Bambini’s Da-Cortona-like gracefulness. The
Even Orpheus, the inventor of civilisation, became artist reveals a fertile imagination, with a “lively
prey to this when he gave in to the passion of his sharpness of intellect” (Tesauro 1656), that recalls the
senses, thus losing his beloved Eurydice forever. The monstrous heads grafted by Baldassare Longhena onto
terrifying, fiendish figures looking out from the mouth the base of the façade of Ca’ Pesaro, showing how
of Hades are spectators of this exemplary “fall”, in a reason, and thus civilisation too, have their roots in
passage that presages the work of Goya. Perhaps disorder (Romanelli 2006). The beauty of culture and
Tommaso Sandi was thinking of himself, for upon his the equilibrium of ethical behaviour emanate from,
death, in 1743, it was discovered that he had a twenty- and are inextricably bound to, ugliness and to all that
five-year-old son, born of an extramarital affair with a is deepest and most unutterable and that comes from
the irrationality of the unconscious.
married noblewoman (cf. Dalla Colletta 1995). This
was an “error” which Vettor Sandi had to rectify,
maintaining his stepbrother and his family for many
years.
“BEL COMPOSTO” IN VENICE: A FLORILEGIUM OF

WORKS BY FORIGNY, PELLEGRINI, RICCI AND TIEPOLO
The concept of the “bel composto”, originates with filtered and contaminated by tradition, for he had
Bernini and refers to a synthesis of the visual arts in a attempted to bring to the Dominante an artistic vision
“beautiful whole”, through an elaborate, all-inclusive that combined Bernini and Borromini (Favilla-Rugolo
and apparently infinite spatial succession. It requires 2006-07). The latter, Louis Dorigny, was venturing to
organic continuity between architecture, painting, reconcile the irreconcilable by bringing together the
sculpture (especially in the form of stuccowork) and, it Baroque with the roots of French classicism, which he
must be said, of music, with a particular focus on had gradually built up with examples from Rome and
acoustics: a performance in which both real and Bologna, putting a seal on it in the cult of Paolo
illusory light give substance to the whole. Through Caliari. For these reasons, Dorigny can be considered
Cardinal Federico Cornaro, Venice became the as the quintessential exponent of Baroque classicism in
unwitting protagonist of the success of this new the cultural area of Venice. His aim was to bring
aesthetic, which came about in the mid-seventeenth together Vouet and Bernini, Poussin and Baciccia,
century in the dazzling structure designed by distilling them through the courtly vitality of the great
OPPOSITE: Antonio Gaspari, Louis
Gianlorenzo Bernini for the chapel of Cornaro’s master Charles Le Brun, while elements of Dorigny and Abondio Stazio, Ca’
powerful Venetian family in Santa Maria della Vittoria. Caravaggio’s naturalism unexpectedly emerge here and Zenobio, ballroom.
TOP: Louis Dorigny, Honour and
In 1654 the pseudo-model on canvas entered the there in the most secluded corners of his work. Fortitude and Ignorance, Ca’ Zenobio,
collections in the Corner family home in San Polo In the 1690s, Gaspari experimented with a double- ceiling of the vestibule, details of the
panels.
(Barcham 2001). height salon in Ca’ Zanobio, where it replaces the
traditional walk-through portego, and in Casino Zane.
FROM CA’ ZENOBIO TO PALAZZETTO During the same period, he also built a monumental,
ZANE two-ramp staircase in Palazzo Gozzi ai Gesuiti
(Favilla-Rugolo 2008-09), similar to the one designed
The precious seeds of the bel composto were to by Baldassare Longhena for the Palladian cloisters at
germinate later on, in 1689, in the little church of the San Giorgio. It proved to be a significant prototype for
nobleman Bernardo Nave in Cittadella, in the Padua it was worthy of replication at Versailles (Favetta
area. It was “one of the most complete, harmonic and 2006).
qualitatively distinguished examples of painting and Also in the case of Venice, from the first appearance
sculptural decoration in the late seventeenth century” of bel composto, the architect – or the painter – cannot
(Mariuz-Pavanello 1997a) and, after 1695, it also be taken out of the formulation of complete
caught on in the hall of Ca’ Zenobio in Venice. ensembles, nor can we think that they were left to
In both cases, an architect and a painter worked in impromptu decisions, or that the decoration was
symbiosis. The former, Antonio Gaspari, was a applied at a much later date. In the Nave oratory the
convinced proponent in the city of the most fact that the sculptures are quite probably retrieved
exquisitely Roman form of Baroque, even though from elsewhere makes no difference, for they are a full,
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – “BEL COMPOSTO” IN VENICE 217

harmonious part of the decorative system, resonating

with the elegant grisailles of the simulated frieze that
encircles the ceiling. We find the same characteristics
in Ca’ Zenobio, where Dorigny’s allegory of Aurora
Preceding Apollo’s Chariot in the oval of the ceiling
appears as the final synthesis of a programme that
includes the vestibule of the salon, where we see stucco
frames surrounding the ceiling paintings of Honour
Accompanied by Fortitude and Prudence Exalted by
Fame; Affability and Wealth Together with Nobility and
Justice Lead to Fame and Virtue and, lastly, Pride,
Ignorance, and Avarice Defeated and Banished (Favilla-
Rugolo 2003 and 2005b). The elegant neo-Mannerist
figure of Honour, nonchalantly sitting on a cloud with
legs crossed, is a conscious tribute by Dorigny to his
homeland and, at the same time, to the Italian
Cinquecento, for it takes inspiration from the Apollo
painted by Primaticcio in the fourth compartment of
the Ulysses Gallery in the chateau of Fontainebleau.
In this setting, stucco interacts most successfully
with painting. It is worth mentioning the two painted
cartouches containing pink-toned monochromes of
The Fall of Phaeton and Apollo and Diana Attacking the
Niobids. These are agitated scenes in an essential,
fleeting style that take up and compete with the four
overdoors in real gilded stucco, which were made by
Abondio Stazio (Aikema 1997), with tondos telling the
two stories of Apollo in a total of four episodes: The
Contest Between Apollo and Marsyas, with the dispute
presided over by King Midas in the first tondo, and
The Punishment of Marsyas in the second, and then
Apollo in Love with Daphne and The Metamorphosis of
Daphne into a Laurel Tree in the others. The ideology
behind the entire set of works calls for conscious
interdependence between painting and sculpture, for it recently been registered in the Libro d’Oro of Venetian OPPOSITE, FROM THE TOP: Louis
Dorigny, The Fall of Phaethon
is an invitation to exaltation in moderation, patricians (Favilla-Rugolo 2008c). Between Two Muses; Apollo and
Diana Attacking the Niobids Between
accompanied by a stern warning not to give in to As a further consideration, we may recall that 1696
Two Muses, Ca’ Zenobio, ballroom.
hibris, for even the main figure in the cycle, Apollo, is was the year that Angelo Correr’s little house, or FROM THE TOP: Abondio Stazio,
Apollo in Love with Daphne and The
subject to and victim of the punishment of pride. This casino, in Murano was decorated. The stucco Metamorphosis of Daphne into a
warning not to be haughty was extremely fitting for a modelling of the surfaces, which is attributed to Pietro Laurel Tree, Ca’ Zenobio, ballroom,
overdoors.
“new” family like that of the Zenobios, who had only Roncaioli (De Grassi 1999), consisted of fake oval

TOP: Sebastiano Ricci, Hercules frames and tapestries on the walls. It was painted at the stairwell there is a fresco of Time Ravishing Truth
Between Glory and Virtue, Casino
Zane, salon ceiling. the time by Giannantonio Pellegrini (Favilla-Rugolo in a round frame accompanied by architectural trompe
BOTTOM: Giovanni Antonio
2008d), who was making his debut in “an agitated and l’oeil. Precise documentary verification has shown that
Pellegrini, Alexander and Cleitus the
Black, Murano, Casino Correr. muscular style” that was still close to that of his master, these paintings are certainly by Sebastiano Ricci
OPPOSITE: Sebastiano Ricci, Time
Ravishing Truth, Casino Zane, Paolo Pagani (Mariuz 1998b). The work is not without (Favilla-Rugolo 2008e). The cycle was made just after
staircase ceiling. its traces of immaturity, but it already reveals the 1698, when he had just returned to Venice from his
unmistakable calibre of a young artist who was to stays in Parma, Rome, and Milan, and it is the clearest
become a “spirit with a resolute brush” and highly example in his homeland of his talent for fresco.
sought-after throughout Europe (Zanetti 1771). Together with the one for the chapel of the Scuola dei
We also find a harmonious example of stucco and Carmini, it is also the only one to have survived in
painting in Marino Zane’s casino in San Stin, which Venice. The stucco decoration of the rooms is the first
was completed in 1697 to a design by Antonio Gaspari documented work by “Abondio Statio stucadore”,
(Bassi 1961; Favilla-Rugolo 2008e). A Hercules Between together with Andrea Pelli, while the trompe l’oeil work
Glory and Virtue appears in the central panel on the on the stairs and in some of the adjacent rooms, which
ceiling of the double-height salon, and in the corners have now partly emerged from restoration, are by
of the vault there are pairs of monochrome medallions Ferdinando Fochi (Favilla-Rugolo 2008e). In the early
with Mercury and Diana, Amphitrite and Neptune, years of the eighteenth century, Fochi worked with
Juno and Pan, and Hercules and Jove, possibly Giannantonio Pellegrini on the decorations for the
symbolising the four elements – earth, water, air, and Biblioteca del Santo in Padua (Mariuz 1998b). The
fire They appear in stucco frames interlaced with ravages of time have sadly affected some of the works.
garlands of oak and laurel, held up by graceful putti. Time Ravishing Truth is however the episode that has
As monochrome works, they are ideal examples of the suffered the least and it shows a particularly successful
interconnection between plastic and graphic forms. interlocking of firm bodies, skilfully shaped by light
The four large shells modelled in stucco, which are from below, with a brawny Saturn bent on grasping
inhabited by lively coloured infants playing with a lion the young, nude girl.
and a tiger, are unusual for Venice. On the ceiling of In the long panel on the ceiling of the portego, the
220 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – “BEL COMPOSTO” IN VENICE

figure of the young Hercules is designed to glorify the

noble virtues of the patron, while the monochrome
works in the four corners of the room, which act as the
cardinal points of this microcosm, show us an already
revisited Olympus, with the bearded Hercules fully at
home in the celestial assembly. The putti engaged in
innocent pastimes in the large stucco shells may allude
to the wedding of Marino’s son Vettor Zane and Elena
Michiel on 8 February 1697, which it must have been
hoped would bring fertility and thus immortality to
the family (cf. Aikema 1997). However, these hopes
were dashed, for within a few years the male line of the
family died out.
STUCCOES AND PAINTINGS: FROM

PALAZZO BARBARO TO CA’ SAGREDO
During this period Alvise Barbaro, a member of an

ancient family of prestigious lineage, entrusted
Antonio Gaspari with enlarging his palazzo on the
Grand Canal in San Vidal. The architect created a
building that was stylistically independent from the
main part, which was still in the Late-Gothic style.
Inside the new wing, Barbaro created a large double-
height ballroom that took from the coeval model of
Ca’ Zenobio, which Gaspari had himself designed. The
cameron was already finished in late 1695 (Aikema
1987) and at about this time came the creation of a
close-packed pattern of plant-motif stuccowork with
gilded inserts on the ceiling. This is attributed to
Pietro Roncaioli, the brilliant stuccoist of the chapel
with relics of the saint in the Santo, Padua (De Grassi
1999). Five oval canvases showing famous women with
representational faces from ancient history are set into been completed in February 1699 (Aikema 1987; De OPPOSITE: Sebastiano Ricci,
the umbrella vault. For this purpose, the proprietor Mercury and Diana, framed by
Grassi 1999). The death of Alvise Barbaro on 2 stuccowork by Abondio Stazio and
called Antonio Zanchi. He was the doyen of Venetian Andrea Pelli, Casino Zane, salon
December 1698 brought a momentary halt to the ceiling.
painters, and the one who was to live longest, for he
FROM THE TOP: Sebastiano Ricci,
decoration work, which was started up again in the
died at over the age of ninety in 1722. Group of Putti, framed by stucco
early years of the eighteenth century, with Roncaioli shells by Abondio Stazio and Andrea
The walls called for the work of an emerging artist, Pelli, Casino Zane, salon ceiling.
Sebastiano Ricci, who composed a Rape of the Sabines, again working on the stuccoes on the walls. Here we
close to the style of Luca Giordano, and it had already see the family crest repeated in a whirl of fluttering,

TOP AND OPPOSITE: Antonio playful putti accompanied by shells, garlands of oak museums around the world (Pedrocco 2002).
Gaspari, Salone of Palazzo Barbaro,
general view and details of and laurel leaves, and festoons laden with fruits and Compared with Ca’ Zenobio, the immaculate
stuccowork decorations by Pietro
Roncaioli.
flowers. stuccowork with its gold filaments here constitute a
PAGE 226 TOP AND PAGE 227: In 1709 Antonio Balestra delivered his Coriolanus sort of precious shell with a porous and variegated
Sebastiano Ricci, The Rape of the
Sabines, general view and detail, Beseeched by the Women of Rome for the same setting. surface in which the paintings and ovals with their
Palazzo Barbaro, salon.
PAGE 226 BOTTOM LEFT AND
It was the work of a “mature painter, carefully studied warm, variously contrasting colours are set like
RIGHT: Antonio Zanchi, Illustrious in every part” (da Canal 1810), with a firmness of precious jewels.
Women of the Ancient World, Palazzo
Barbaro, salon ceiling. forms that rise up like Bernini’s marbles, especially in The subjects of these paintings refer to the history
the drapery, which has a well-controlled, theatrical of ancient Republican Rome. Once again, even in the
movement. closed world of the salons, Venice appears as the only
It was only in the 1740s that the vast room was true heir to the glorious past of the Eternal City,
completed with Giambattista Piazzetta’s Mucius though its model is always that of the period that came
Scaevola at the Altar (Mariuz 1982) and with the before the despotic involution of the imperial age.
overdoor canvases of virtuous women of Antiquity by In the early years of the new century, the Albrizzi
Giambattista Tiepolo. These are now in various family, who had entered the patriciate in 1667, decided


PAGE 228: Antonio Zanchi, Scenes to renovate the interiors of their palazzo in San this malleable material can be appreciated in another
from Ancient History, Palazzo
Barbaro, salon ceiling. Cassiano. They gave the commission to Abondio room, where the stucco – “ milky white and ductile,
PAGE 229: Antonio Balestra,
Stazio, an artist famous for his unparalleled skill in and made subtly luminescent by marble dust in the
Coriolanus Beseeched by the Women
of Rome, Palazzo Barbaro, salon. modelling stucco (Aikema 1997). A number of rooms impasto” became the sole, unchallenged star (Mariuz-
TOP: Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini,
The Virtues Banishing the Vices, with on the piano nobile were decorated, starting with the Pavanello 1997b). Using an illusionistic stratagem, the
stuccowork by Abondio Stazio, walk-through portego, the most typical feature of artist unleashes hordes of puttini who diligently hold
Palazzo Albrizzi, ceiling of the
portego. Venetian residences. In this case, the existing canvases up an imaginary curtain in place of the vault: a highly
OPPOSITE: Palazzo Albrizzi, Portego.
painted by illustrious seventeenth-century masters – effective ploy from Bernini, which creates “a joyous
Pietro Liberi, Sebastiano Mazzoni, Carl Loth, Antonio and ephemeral vision captured forever”. All was ready
Zanchi, and Ludovico David – were preserved, while for its unveiling to celebrate the solemn proclamation
the young Giannantonio Pellegrini was commissioned of Giambattista Albrizzi as procurator of St Mark’s on
to paint the three ceiling panels. 30 January 1702. The Pallade Veneta recalled that, on
Stazio decorated the entire surface of the long hall this occasion, the most striking aspect was the
with stuccoes, and the effect is one of an amazing “magnificent display of his palace with gilded stuccoes,
horror vacui, for an astonishing jumble of concretions golden furnishings and precious paintings” (BNMVE,
transform the portego into a fabulous grotto – a cavern Mss. It. VII, 1834).
of glimmering white stalactites that contrast with the In early January 1716, the Pallade Veneta also
bright tones of the paintings. Stazio’s skill in working informed its readers that a fire had broken out in “one

of the new stuccoed rooms” in Palazzo Sagredo in

Santa Sofia, where a “gran foghera” had been lit to dry
out the decorations as quickly as possible (ASVE, I.S.,
b. 713). The flames spread rapidly because oil had
been used in the impasto and “tutta la diligenza” of
those fighting the fire had not sufficed to put it out.
Much of the building, including the “preciosi arredi”,
was reduced to ashes. This news item shows how the
ancient Sagredo family, who also had a saint among
their ancestors, were at the time modernising some of
the interiors of their originally Gothic-Byzantine
residence on the Grand Canal. Once again the
commission went to Abondio Stazio, now
accompanied by the younger Carpoforo Mazzetti
Tencalla. Together they completed the work in 1718,
placing date and signature on the stuccowork in a
small room (Mazza 2004). This time it was not the
reception rooms of the palazzo that were decorated,
but the smaller, more private ones, such as the attic
mezzanines and the boudoirs: more secluded and
intimate places which were used for meeting friends
and conversing. They included the bedroom with the
alcove, which was dismantled and taken to the United
States, the room of Trophies, and those of the Arts
OPPOSITE, TOP AND PAGES 234-
and the Rivers, one of the Judgement of Paris and one 236: Abondio Stazio and Carpoforo
Mazzetti, The Oseliera Room and
of the “aviary”, or Oseliera. In them, complex,
details of the stuccowork, Palazzo
grandiloquent allegories of educational or celebrative Sagredo.
BOTTOM AND PAGE 237, TOP: The
subjects were replaced by lighter, more relaxed forms Rivers Room and detail of the
with an abundance of naturalistic elements and stuccowork, Palazzo Sagredo.
PAGE 237, BOTTOM: Trophies Room,
graceful ornamentation. The colours too were toned detail of the stuccowork, Palazzo
Sagredo.
down: the dazzling white interlaced with gold gave
way to soft, relaxing pastel shades. Notable among
the rooms is the Oseliera, a fantastic, breezy aviary
with a huge variety of multicoloured birds perched
on delicate branches and trained by an imaginary
and extremely expert master. Above the doors that
give into the room, there are dogs and felines that
peep out from beneath heavy curtains. They look
downwards, observing the incomprehensible world
of humans with sceptical detachment. In this little
domestic menagerie, there is even a mischievous

Barbary ape climbing up a drape, and a squirrel busy on the left and in the position of the arm of one of the
nibbling an acorn. two singers in the centre. The half-open mouth of the
one of the right is rendered with a touch, almost a
FROM JESUITS TO GESUATI smear, of brown ink. It would not be unreasonable to
consider that this extremely rapid, impulsive, and
While the bel composto had started out from indeed furious way of putting thought to paper as the
Bernini, it was mainly Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called work of “Hurry up, Luca!” [Giordano] himself, and yet
Baciccia, who took this aesthetic concept to its extreme the end result could hardly be more distant. By this
consequences, with very appealing emotional impact. time Louis’s style had long since settled into a cliché of
This can be seen in the Gesù, the mother church of the thunderstruck, vacuous, and pre-metaphysical
Society of Jesus in Rome, with its vision “of incredible mannequins, brought to life only by an independent,
allusiveness”, in which “tangles of twisted figures in the almost neo-Gothic, sinuous, arabesqued line, and by
style of Bernini” dematerialise the dimension of space abstract, sometimes cold and spectral lighting, with an
(Vicini 1999). This famous manifesto taught a lesson insistence on sweeping, highly polished and intact
that lasted a century, in Italy and abroad. The surfaces with forms that today would be likened to
omnivorous Dorigny went wild copying the old those of some shrewd comic-strip artist (Marinelli
masters during his stay in Rome in 1673, taking from 2003). Examples of this can also be seen in the tondo
such works as the “divine” Raphael’s Battle of Ostia with The Triumph of the Name of Jesus on the vault of
(Corubolo 1997) and, we might surmise, from the crossing of the Gesuiti. While working on the
Michelangelo, the Carraccis, Guido Reni, Giovanni titanic task of painting the Gothic vaulting of Trento
Lanfranco and all the Emilians. He quite probably Cathedral, the seventy-year-old Dorigny handed on
studied their initial sketches and, always in search of the baton to the younger Francesco Fontebasso, who in LEFT: Nave of the church of the
Gesuiti.
new emotions, might also have climbed up the 1734 made the bright and breezy frescoes in the nave PAGE 239: Francesco Fontebasso,
scaffolding of the Gesù, which Bacicca was working on of the Gesuiti (Magrini 1988). Abraham and the Three Angels and
The Vision of Saint John the
at the time. In the 1720s, Louis had definitively allowed his Evangelist, with stuccowork by
Abondio Stazio and Carpoforo
Many years later, when he was sixty-six, Louis paid most extreme classicist spirit to prevail in the final
Mazzetti, church of the Gesuiti,
explicit homage to Gaulli in the church of the Jesuits rendering of his compositions, with the result that he ceiling of the nave.
PAGE 240: Francesco Bonazza, Pulpit,
in Venice. This can be seen in a drawing of a Choir of did not allow the various arts of the bel composto to church of the Gesuiti.
Musician Angels, formerly attributed to Luca Giordano interact. Indeed, they end up by appearing to
but in actual fact related to the oval created by Dorigny contradict Bacicco’s original model, to which he had
for the ceiling of the presbytery in Santa Maria intended to pay homage, but actually this approach
Assunta dei Gesuiti in Venice. It was frescoed in a floral was part of a lively debate on the need to return to the
frame by Abondio Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti architectural lessons imparted by Andrea Palladio.
Tencalla (who made all the stucco decorations) for the Dorigny responded to this need for formal discipline
Manin family in the summer of 1720 (Favilla-Rugolo and restraint with his own personal idea of painting,
2008-2009). The sanguine drawing has highlights in for he was sincerely convinced that he had managed to
pen and brown ink, and it is squared for transfer to the return to the teachings of Paolo Veronese. He did this
surface of the wall. The sheet, with a very rapid, after working without any sign of reticence in the
sketched-out pictorial style, from which the shapes sancta sanctorum of Palladian architecture – in the
only just emerge, shows some variations next to the round salon of Villa Capra in Vicenza. Here he
finished fresco: in the detail of the winged violin player transformed the surfaces of the walls by creating a fake

241
OPPOSITE: Abondio Stazio and

Carpoforo Mazzetti, Stuccowork on
the ceiling of the nave, church of the
Gesuiti.
TOP: Marble carpet, detail, church of
the Gesuiti, presbytery.
PAGE 244: Vault of the crossing and of
the presbytery, church of the Gesuiti.
PAGE 245: Louis Dorigny, The
Triumph of the Name of Jesus, with
stuccowork by Abondio Stazio and
Carpoforo Mazzetti, church of the
Gesuiti, ceiling of the crossing.
PAGES 246-247: Louis Dorigny, The
Triumph of the Name of Jesus, details,
church of the Gesuiti, ceiling of the
crossing.


colonnade from which gigantic, well-sculpted figures

of Olympian divinities emerge with overwhelming
Bernini-like exuberance. Behind an apparent
repetition of Bacicco-style Baroque forms and worn-
out, perforated Bologna-style trompe-l’oeils, his
language is brought up to date by distilling
increasingly pure, autonomous, and abstract forms
closed up in a style that leaves no way out. It is like a
precious intarsia that is gradually transformed into
authentic monads – chrysalides sheathed in beautifully
honed shells.
At the same time, a new register, in the form of a
more relaxed inflection than had been seen in the past,
came to Venice in the later years of the century as part
of the bon goût dictated by the nascent rococo style.
With its new approach, alongside the most exquisite
Berninism, it made what was already a very dynamic
powerhouse of ideas even more exciting. There was a
gradual transition, led by Dorigny himself and Nicolò
Bambini – as we can see in the bright and airy frescoes
of about 1711 in the salon of Palazzo Orsetti in Treviso
and in those of about the same time in Ca’ Dolfin in
Venice (Favilla-Rugolo 2008f-g) – but especially by
Sebastiano Ricci and Giannantonio Pellegrini. The
“manifold and luxuriant beauty of the colour and
imagination” (Zanetti 1771) became even lighter and
more sensual not only in terms of content but also in
terms of line, colour, and brushstroke. This was the
run-up to Tiepolo.
received final settlement for “all the fresco paintings on OPPOSITE: Louis Dorigny, Angel
Giambattista Tiepolo openly plundered the legacy Musicians, with stuccoes by Abondio
the ceiling of the church” (Favilla-Rugolo 2008-09). Stazio and Carpoforo Mazzetti,
and experiments of the generations that had preceded church of the Gesuiti, ceiling of the
So, since we do not have more certain data, if presbytery.
him and he took them to their highest conclusions. We
Tiepolo did indeed paint “tutte le pitture a fresco del TOP: Louis Dorigny, Bacchanal,
can take as an example his work on the Gesuati detail, Treviso, Palazzo Orsetti Dolfin
soffitto della chiesa”, we must assume that “tutte” also Giacomelli.
(Arslan 1932; Niero 1979b and 2006; Pedrocco 2002).
BOTTOM: Louis Dorigny, Angel
includes the monochrome works. These works depict
Just four years after Dorigny’s work in the Gesuiti, the Musicians, drawing, antiquarian
the fifteen mysteries of the rosary and, in mixtilinear market.
architect Giorgio Massari received a commission from
the reformed Dominicans to rebuild their church at oval frames in stucco, the three large polychrome
Zattere, the Santa Maria del Rosario, known as the panels at the top of the vault, with The Glory of Saint
“Gesuati”. In February 1738, “il signor Gio. Battista Dominic, The Institution of the Rosary, and The Virgin
Tiepoletto pitor” received his first down payment and, Appearing to Saint Dominic. Because of their
in September 1739, he took down the scaffolding and apparently secondary role next to the central panels,

critics have so far excluded the monochromes from the

master’s works or, at most, have considered them as
having been carried out together with his studio (Pilo
1998). In actual fact, they should be considered as
essential parts of the entire set of works, partly in view
of the anti-Quietism and anti-Jansenism that emerges
from the cycle, which aimed to revive and promote
Marian devotion, “a unitary whole that conveys the
idea of a figurative rosary, interpreted according to
rococo canons” (Niero 2006). The idea of “arranging it
on a ceiling in order to help the faithful recite it while
looking up [...], as though in an act of choral
contemplation” is highly original. “Tiepolo has created
a great scenographic ‘macchina’ with what is still a
Baroque effect” (Pallucchini 1996), even though the bel
composto is toned down into a new poetic vision. The
overall view is more restrained, the excess of gilded
stuccoes has gone, and everything is played out on the
gentler and more relaxing tones of white and greys.
From the niched sculptures and the brilliant white
reliefs in Carrara marble by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter,
up along the smooth surfaces of the walls, we pass
through these precious, barely ruffled cameo-like
grisailles to the three ceiling panels which, together
with the magnificent altar paintings and the floor, in
which they are mirrored as though in a kaleidoscope,
we see that they are the highest, most vivid notes of
colour in the entire space, and they are emphasised
“G.Bta Tiepolo” in an irregular ellipse, which is a OPPOSITE AND TOP: Vault and nave
precisely by their overall monochromy. To express this of the church of the Gesuati.
preparatory work for the monochrome with The
in an exquisitely rococo similitude, the decoration of
Coronation of the Virgin. It shows that it was the
the Gesuati could be compared to the firework effect
of a single Bengal light: from the fulcrum of the master himself who at least provided the idea for this
polychrome panels, it appears that all the other and – we presume – for the other compositions. The
decorations emanate as though in a descending, unmistakably agile and exceptionally free ductus of the
sparkling shower. pen, the thickening of the ink in the shadows, which
The monochrome works thus form an ideal link becomes diluted and almost transparent in the half
between essentially sculptural and painterly forms, and lights, bears clear similarities with the sketches made
are thus by no means secondary features that can be for the central panels. This drawing also reveals other
attributed solely to the execution or, even less, to the elements that exclude the assistance of any others,
creativity of the studio. The latter hypothesis can be except possibly in the backgrounds and in the initial
excluded straightaway, for there is a drawing signed tone of shadow. The fact that greater emphasis is given

Giambattista Tiepolo, The Institution

of the Rosary, church of the Gesuati,
central panel of the vault.
252
to the Virgin in the final version can be attributed to

the artist’s infinite talent (cf. Alpers-Baxandall 1995)
and, quite probably, to a desire to satisfy the wishes of
the patrons, the Dominican Fathers, who intended to
place particular stress on the role of the Virgin and of
devotion to her. The wonderful Way to Calvary, just to
give a further example, could never be attributable to
an imitator either, in view of its extraordinary stylistic
quality and creativity, which has an immediate and
comparable precedent in the large canvas of the same
subject made few years earlier by “signor Gio. Battista
Tiepoletto” for the convent church of Sant’Alvise (cit.
in Favilla-Rugolo 2008-09). Though in condensed
form, it has the same compositional economy, a
similar ease and torment of execution, and thus the
same “emotional vibration”, just as “the clarity of
vision is accompanied by extreme, almost raw-nerved
pathos” (Mariuz 1998a). The grinning masks of
bearded old men looking out from the backdrop are
unmistakable.
As at the Gesuiti, so too at the Gesuati do the “sister FROM THE TOP: Giovanni Maria
Morlaiter, The Baptism of Christ and
arts” appear quite interdependent, even though they The Prophet Melchizadek, church of
the Gesuati.
are strictly separate. Just as had occurred with
PAGE 254 TOP LEFT: Giambattista
Mannerism, the Baroque of Rome entered into the Tiepolo, The Coronation of the Virgin,
drawing, whereabouts unknown.
robust but permeable tradition of Venice, creating PAGE 254 TOP RIGHT: Giambattista
Tiepolo, The Coronation of the Virgin,
variations of its own. In the melting pot of the Gesuati
church of the Gesuati, ceiling,
– the manifesto and climax of Venetian rococo – it monochrome fresco.
PAGE 254 BOTTOM LEFT:
appears that Tiepolo wishes to amalgamate Baciccia Giambattista Tiepolo, The Way to
Calvary, detail, church of Sant’Alvise.
and Andrea Pozzo, for he adds impossible architectural
PAGE 254 BOTTOM RIGHT:
elements, soaring up towards the dazzling figures with Giambattista Tiepolo, The Way to
Calvary, church of the Gesuati,
a foreshortening and acceleration that is directly monochrome fresco.
PAGE 255 FROM THE TOP:
inspired by Veronese’s ceilings. The quintessentially
Giambattista Tiepolo, The Adoration
Veronese-style upward sweep, which is essential for the of the Shepherds and Jesus Preaching
in the Temple, church of the Gesuati,
economy of the composition, has suggested limited ceiling, monochrome fresco.
intervention by the brilliant trompe l’oeil artist

Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna, or even of the architect
Giorgio Massari (Domenichini 2004).

ANOTHER VENICE
THE MINIATURE WORLD OF ROSALBA

CARRIERA AND PIETRO LONGHI
In his guide to Venice, the Guida de’ Forestieri per

succintamente osservare tutto il più riguardevole nella
città di Venetia of 1697, Padre Vincenzo Coronelli did
not fail to consider as “celebri pennelli” those painters
who were famous in his day for their miniatures. These
“famous brushes” included “M. Jean, Pietro Menarola,
Giuseppe Juster, Calamati, Gio. Fechel, Angelo
Muriani, Ridolfo Manzoni, Rosalba and Giovanna
Carriera Sorelle”. Precious information is provided by
an erudite Franciscan, the official cosmographer of the
Serenissima, who tells us of a small group of artists in
the Dominante who were particularly skilled in the
most “delicata” form of painting (Trattato di miniatura OPPOSITE: Pietro Longhi, The
Sagredo Family, Venice, Fondazione
1755). The slim volume, “indispensable and to be kept
Querini Stampalia.
always in one’s bag” (Coronelli 1713), was an effective TO THE SIDE: Rosalba Carriera, Lid
of an ivory tobacco box with a portrait
form of publicity that helped direct the most astute
of a young girl, exterior and interior,
foresti – the privileged travellers of the age – who Venice, Museo Correr.
wished to avoid making rash purchases, by going to

top-quality painters specialised in “Ritratti, nelle
Istorie, nelle Battaglie, negli Animali, ne’ Paesi, nelle
Miniature, nella Prospettiva ed Architettura” (Coronelli
1697). We do not know if the author gave the names
according to the order of fame the individual artists
had acquired at the time. In actual fact, the
miniaturists mentioned are now almost unknown
today (Favilla-Rugolo 2007). It is certain, however, that
the last name in Coronelli’s list, together with her sister
Giovanna, is Rosalba Carriera, who, thanks to “les
qualités de l’ame, & par les talens supérieurs dont la
nature l’avoit porvûe” (Dézallier d’Argenville 1762)
made her mark on the history of portrait painting
with works of a personal and highly distinctive style.
We know that, after initially designing lace (Turlon
BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – ANOTHER VENICE 257

imposed by the pointillism technique traditionally

used for this genre, which called for the use solely of
the sharp tip of the brush, for she realised that “it is
through touch that the painter gives the work its
freedom and power” (Lacombe 1781).
Comprehending the singular and innovative scope of
her style, in the 1700 edition of his Guida de’ forestieri,
Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of the Duke
Coronelli places the name of “Cittella [spinster]
of Whorton, miniature on ivory,
Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico. Rosalba” at the top of the list of famous miniaturists,
and she maintained this position unchallenged in later
editions, including the one edited by the monk’s
nephew, Vincenzo Maria, in 1713.
Dating from the early years of her career in the late
seventeenth century is a small portrait, now in storage
at the Museo Correr, which adorns the inside of the lid
of a tobacco box, while the outside is decorated with
burin engravings and tortoiseshell, coral, and silver
encrustations (Favilla-Rugolo 2007). The delicate
image of the girl has an atmosphere of spontaneous
gracefulness that comes from her demure gesture of
raising her hand to her breast. The rich figure of Philip
Duke of Wharton, now on display at Ca’ Rezzonico,
dates from her mature period, towards 1720 (Pasian
2002) and an apprenticeship under Antonio Balestra, 2007). Here Rosalba depicts the turban-style headgear,
with whom she maintained her bond of friendship, which was used to replace the wig in private, with
exquisite agility, while golden brushstrokes highlight
“she devoted herself with greater attention to
the fabric of his zamberlucco cloak. His smiling face
miniatures”, possibly upon the advice of Jean Steve, an
suggests a veneer of flippancy and yet, at the same
artist specialised in decorating tobacco cases (Memorie
time, of psychological depth that only she was able to
1843). She used her talent to paint miniature portraits
bring out in her sitters.
on ivory supports, for use on the lids and bottoms of
The miniature responded to the principle of “tant
tobacco boxes – a poorly paid activity. However,
plus petit, tant plus beau” (Zava Boccazzi 1996) and at
towards 1698 “she began to be noted for her skill, and
the time of its greatest popularity and flourishing, it
many of the most famous painters and amateurs, both
fully reflected the rococo aesthetic of a reversal of
Venetian and otherwise, visited her and admired her terms – in which what was minute became majestic,
work, thus raising her prices.” The mention she sublime, and heroic, and vice versa, thus opposing the
received in the Guida of 1697 appears to be the first resounding grandiloquence of the Baroque. The art of
explicit sign of the fame of this young artist, who was the miniature became the very symbol of the new
then just over twenty-three, and it became a means for eighteenth century: tortoiseshell combs, pearl earrings,
spreading it even further. With her rich and lively pocket watches, exquisite porcelain, cascading lace
brushstrokes, Rosalba measured up “in picciolo” to the sleeves, pliable fans and all sorts of tobacco boxes took
examples set by Sebastiano Ricci and her brother-in- part in this aesthetic process, which became the
law Gianantonio Pellegrini. She overcame the limits leading metaphorical vehicle for a miniaturised,
258 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER II – ANOTHER VENICE

everyday world. This can be seen in Alexander Pope’s time, the interiors became filled with signs of pride
The Rape of the Lock, when the protagonist, Belinda, and ambiguous eloquence, as well as anxieties and
beats “this bold Lord [...] with one finger and a thumb fatal forebodings. At the end of this period, the city
subdu’d” by throwing a charge of snuff into his nose at was no longer a theatre of grandeur rejoicing in itself
the end of an anti-epic battle in which, in place of and in the Republic, but a place governed by set rules
Homeric arms and eighteenth-century armour plate, that had been laid down once and for all. The myth of
“fans clap, silks russle, and tough whalebones crack” Venice now appeared in its supposed timelessness,
(Pope 1714). And this is why, still in 1793, the almost drained of the content that Francesco Sansovino had
unknown Lepoldo Zuccolo, master of painting at the laid claim to in his Venetia città nobilissima et singolare
College of the Barnabites of Udine, could complain of 1581. It was a myth that from now on could be re-
that “the walls of homes fill up with shiny, affected defined solely in the virtual world of painting. From
nothings: now that people mainly love miniatures, tiny the end of the seventeenth century to the fall of the
portraits, and little gallantries that make the world Republic, the new, highly restrained public and private
seem as though it has grown smaller” (Zuccolo 1793). architectural works were never to experience the
A typical example of this can be seen in the case of feverish rhythms of the previous age. Regulatory
Pietro Longhi, another of Antonio Balestra’s pupils. In intentions, in the name of “good taste” and also of a
1734, on his return to Venice from a stay in Bologna, reassessment of Palladio’s theories, prevented
where he learnt from Giuseppe Maria Crespi, he made traumatic rearrangements of the urban fabric and
a fresco of a resounding Fall of the Giants on the walls prohibited the exhibitionist “profanities” of
and ceiling of the monumental staircase in Palazzo individuals. Only modest works of exquisite
Sagredo, designed by Andrea Tirali (Pedrocco 2008). It retouching were allowed in splendid façades
was to remain the only work of its kind made by him. (including Domenico Rossi’s Gesuiti and Giorgio
The conversion brought by the Enlightenment from Massari’s Gesuati) with a tranquil, though original
rhetoric to anti-rhetoric was immediate. When he had classicism that, from the mid-eighteenth century, led
put aside his Baroque digression once and for all, he to Tommaso Temanza’s works of “scientific simplicity”
mainly focused on “photographing” domestic interiors (Favilla-Rugolo 2008a). If anything, the redesign of the
of a more human Venice, where even the female city was entrusted to landscape painters and,
members of the Sagredo family are portrayed with especially, to the fanciful creativity of Antonio Canal,
affable perspicacity. From now on, only Giambattista better known as Canaletto. The display of personal
Tiepolo remained to invent and dominate the limitless glory took refuge in aristocratic homes, entrusting the
expanses of the skies. glorification of intelligence and reason, which were
often more flaunted than practised, to the brushes of
CANALETTO’S OTHER VENICE great artists, and especially to the indefatigable genius
of Giambattista Tiepolo.
In the early eighteenth century, Venice witnessed a Luca Carlevarijs and Canaletto embarked on an
rapid decline in the passions that, even though filled “objective” study of the urban fabric of the
with illusions and mere ambitions, had nevertheless Serenissima. The former presented himself as an
made the period from the 1630s to the 1690s both engraver, with the skills of one who measures and
lavish and glorious. The city had been adorned not surveys, in his dedication to Doge Alvise II Mocenigo
only with the magnificent Salute, but also with in Le Fabriche e Vedute di Venetia of 1703, thus putting
countless other displays that had changed its the emphasis on the “action of the intellect” in his
appearance, including signs of triumph, which were work (Concina 1995). Links with the cultural circles of
the most pompous and least justified. At the same anti-Baroque modernisation, which revolved around

Andrea Musalo, clearly appear to be searching for Liechtenstein Collection. The paintings in Ca’
absolute discipline in perspective. Carlevarijs’s Rezzonico with The Rio dei Mendicanti and The Grand
OPPOSITE, FROM THE TOP:
approach to urban views was no match for the Canal from Ca’ Foscari towards Rialto, which date from Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, The
sensational work of Canaletto who, right from the between 1720 and 1726 (Puppi 1968; Corboz 1985; Grand Canal from Ca’ Foscari
Towards Rialto and The Rio dei
outset, overshadowed the lesser star, whose only fault Pedrocco 1995), still have an “agitated and Mendicanti Towards the Scuola
Grande di San Marco, Venice, Ca’
was that of having preceded a giant. flamboyant” air about them, which is an authentic
Rezzonico.
Even in his early works, the aim of Canal the hangover from the Baroque (Pallucchini 1960). Clouds TOP: Antonio Canal, called Canaletto,
The Grand Canal from Ca’ Foscari
vedutista was more one of cataloguing, as though his laden with rain race by in the skies and – as a
Towards Rialto, detail, Venice, Ca’
boundless love for the city had led him to draft an precursor of Asimov – the painter invents two Rezzonico.
anything but sterile sentimental inventory, in which he “science-fiction” suns that cast opposing shadows on
could capture a breathing, urban organism. The the waters of the Grand Canal. And in the eternal,
chipped brick, the flaking plasterwork, the appearance sunny, dazzling afternoon, when shadows are shortest
of Gothic windows long since walled up, stains on the and the air is always terse and clear, just when his
walls oozing with humidity, the water in the green mature works were about to appear (in and after the
canals, the saltiness on the dilapidated walls, the 1730s), we see the germs of the inescapable destiny of
tumbledown boat-houses, the overloaded barges in the the future in Canaletto, which had appeared in all its
foreground beached in the heavy shade, the hard- “scandalous” clarity in his dramatic early works.
working or idle housewives looking out from the
balconies, beggars urinating on the foundations in
front of churches, the workers, artisans, chimney
sweeps, aristocrats and plebeians – all appear on the
same level in Canaletto’s early views, formerly in the

BIBLIOGRAPHY forte dal Rinascimento alla modernità”, in Lo stucco. pittorica della “carità” della cappella Colleoni di Berg-
Cultura, tecnologia, conoscenza. Study conference amo, in Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo centenario
Manuscript and documentary sources proceedings (Bressanone, 10-13 July 2001), ed. G. dalla nascita, proceedings of the international study
Biscontin – G. Driussi, Marghera-Venice, 2001 (in conference (Venice-Vicenza-Udine-Paris, 29 Octo-
MCVE = Museo Civico Correr di Venezia Scienza e Beni Culturali, 17, 2001), pp. 1-18. ber-4 November 1996), ed. L. Puppi, I, Padua, 1998,
BMCVE, Mss. P.D.c, 1825 = Biblioteca del Museo Correr F. Amendolagine, “Presentazione alla prima edizione”, pp. 365-369.
di Venezia, Manoscritti Provenienze Diverse c, 1825, in M. Fogliata – M. L. Sartor, L’arte dello stucco. Sto- G. Benzoni, “Antonio Barbaro o l’esasperazione indi-
Zane private archives, “1694. Primo marzo. Riceveri ria, tecnica, metodologie della tradizione veneziana, vidualistica”, in Una famiglia veneziana nella storia,
di artefici, salariati et altri sino tutto novembre Treviso, 2004, pp. XIII-XX. i Barbaro, proceedings of the study conference on
1710”, cc. unnumbered. Andrea Brustolon 1662-1732 “Il Michelangelo del the occasion of the fifth centenary of the death of
BNMVE, Mss. It. VII, 1834 = Biblioteca Nazionale Mar- legno”, exhibition catalogue (Belluno, Palazzo the humanist Ermolao (Venice, 4-6 November
ciana di Venezia, Manoscritti Italiani, VII 1834 Crepadona 28 March – 12 July 2009), ed. A.M. Spi- 1993), compiled by M. Marangoni – M. Pastore
(7622), “Pallade Veneta”. azzi – M. De Grassi – G. Galasso, Geneva-Milan, Stocchi, Venice, 1996, pp. 461-511.
ASPVE, E.M., reg. 91 = Archivio Storico del Patriarcato 2009. G. Benzoni, “Venezia, città che colleziona significati”,
di Venezia, Examinum Matrimoniorum Forensium, S. Andretta, La Repubblica inquieta. Venezia nel Sei- in Studi Veneziani, unn., 48, 2004, pp. 241-247.
reg. 91, 1678, I, c. 223v, 23 August 1679. cento tra Italia ed Europa, Rome, 2000. B. Bertoli – A. Perissa, Chiesa di San Zaccaria, arte e de-
ASPVE, S.M. Formosa = Archivio Storico del Patriarcato A. Angelieri, Brevi notizie intorno alla terra d’Este, Este vozione, Venice, 1994.
di Venezia, Parrocchia di Santa Maria Formosa, Am- 1743. M. Bleyl, Deckenmalerei des 18. Jahrhunderts in
ministrazione, b. 105, fasc. marked “1688. Libro de’ E. Arrighetti – R. Bonomi; “Elementi nell’approccio Venedig. Die hoe Kunst der Dekoration im Zeitalter
conti sive Resti delli creditori et debitori della fabrica metodologico delle sculture lignee: l’esperienza della Tiepolos, Munich, 2005.
della chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa”, no. 3. Scuola per il Restauro e la Valorizzazione dei Beni C. Boccato – M.T. Pasqualini Canato, Il potere nel sacro.
ASPVE, S. Margherita = Archivio Storico del Patriarcato Culturali Enaip di Botticino”, in La scultura lignea. I rettori veneziani nella Rotonda di Rovigo (1621-
di Venezia, Parrocchia di Santa Margherita, Ammin- Tecniche esecutive, conservazione e restauro, study- 1682), 2 vols., with a preface by G. Benzoni and in-
istrazione, b. 2, fasc. 5, 2 December 1702. day proceedings (Belluno, Istituto tecnico statale “G. troduction by M. Favilla, R. Rugolo, Rovigo,
ASVE, P.C., b. 7 = Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Provved- Segato”, 14 January 2005), ed. A. M. Spiazzi – L. 2001-2004
itori di Comun, b. 7, “Scritture 1672-1687”, at 5 Oc- Maioli, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 2006, pp. 25-42. G. Boerio, Dizionario del dialetto veneto, Florence,
tober 1677. W. Arslan, “Gian Battista Tiepolo e G.M. Morlaiter ai 1983.
ASVE, I.S., b. 713 = Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Inquisi- Gesuati”, in Rivista di Venezia, 11/I, 1932, pp. 19-26. L. Bolzoni, “Eloquenza e alchimia in un testo inedito di
tori di Stato, b. 713, “Pallade Veneta”. A. Augusti, “Il monumento Garzoni nella basilica dei Giulio Camillo Delminio”, in Rinascimento, unn., 14,
ASVE, N.T., b. 488 = Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Notar- Frari”, in Quaderni della Soprintendenza per il patri- 1974, pp. 244-245.
ile Testamenti, b. 488, n. 260. monio Storico e Demoantropologico di Venezia, 22, R. Bonomi, “Analisi chimiche e stratigrafiche”, in Le
ASVE, P.S.M., reg. 16= Archivio di Stato di Venezia, 2001, pp. 152-155. sculture restaurate di Andrea Brustolon nella chiesa
Procuratori di San Marco de Supra, serie Chiesa, reg. A. Bacchi, La scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova, dei SS. Fermo e Rustico, ed. A. M. Spiazzi, Belluno,
16 (1674-1684), under date entries. Milan, 2000. 1993, pp. 77-88.
ASVE, P.S.M., reg. 17= Archivio di Stato di Venezia, A. Bacchi, “Vaghezza di colonne, statue e intagli. L. Borean, “Il monumento Mocenigo in San Lazzaro
Procuratori di San Marco de Supra, serie Chiesa, reg. Orazio Marinali nella facciata degli Scalzi di dei Mendicanti”, in Arte veneta, 52, 1998, pp. 55-69.
17 (1684-1698), under date entries. Venezia”, in Bollettino d’arte, 142, 2007, pp. 89-102. A. Borgomaniero, “Venezia dopo la peste: l’architettura
ASVE, S.F., b. 119 = Archivio di Stato di Venezia, San- W.L. Barcham, The Religious Paintings of Giambattista civile”, in Storia dell’architettura nel Veneto. Il Sei-
t’Uffizio, b. 119, fasc. II, “Federico Gualdo”. Tiepolo: Piety and Tradition in Eighteenth-century cento, ed. A. Roca De Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp. 36-
ASVE, G.P., b. 23 = Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Giudici Venice, Oxford, 1989. 55.
del Piovego, b. 23, reg. 16, c. 30, n. 278. W.L. Barcham, Grand in Design. The Life and Career of M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pitoresco […], Venice,
Federico Cornaro, Prince of the Church, Patriarch of 1640.
Printed sources Venice and Patron of the Arts, Venice, 2001. G. Botticelli, Metodologia del restauro delle pitture mu-
G. Baruffaldi, Vite de’ pittori e scultori ferraresi […], rali, Florence, 1996.
B. Aikema, “Nicolò Bambini e Giambattista Tiepolo Ferrara, 1846. M. Brusatin, Venezia nel Settecento: Stato, architettura,
nel salone di palazzo Sandi a Venezia”, in Arte veneta, E. Bassi, “Un episodio dell’edilizia veneziana del secolo territorio, Turin, 1980.
40, 1986, pp. 167-171. XVII: i palazzi Zane a San Stin”, in Arte Veneta, 15, M. Calvesi, La Melanconia di Albrecht Dürer, Turin,
B. Aikema, “Le decorazioni di palazzo Barbaro-Curtis 1961, pp. 155-164. 1993.
a Venezia fino alla metà del Settecento”, in Arte E. Bassi, Architettura del Seicento e del Settecento a Canaletto. Venezia e i suoi splendori, exhibition cata-
veneta, 41, 1987, pp. 147-153. Venezia, Naples, 1962. logue (Treviso, Casa dei Carraresi, 23 October 2008
B. Aikema, “Il famoso Abondio. Abbondio Stazio e la E. Bassi, “Episodi dell’architettura veneta nell’opera di – 5 April 2009), ed. G. Pavanello – A. Craievich,
decorazione a stucco dei palazzi veneziani, circa Antonio Gaspari”, in Saggi e memorie di storia del- Venice, 2008.
1685-1750”, in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 21, l’arte, 3, 1963, pp. 56-108. N. Cantilena, Vincentiados Libri Quatuor, quibus egre-
1997, pp. 85-122. E. Bassi, “Ca’ Flangini e Ca’ Morosini sul Canal Grande giae illustrissimi D. Vincentii Cappelli ex genere patri-
B. Aikema, “Il secolo dei contrasti: le tenebre”, in La pit- a San Moisè”, in E. Bassi et al., Palazzo Ferro Fini, la cio Herois Veneti Laudes Elegis numeris adumbrantur,
tura nel Veneto, Il Seicento, II, ed. M. Lucco, Milan, storia, l’architettura, il restauro, Venice, 1990, pp. 23- Venice, 1618.
2001, pp. 543-572. 96. V. Cartari, Imagini delli dei de gl’antichi […] cavate da’
B. Aikema, “Molinari & co.: riflessioni sul momento F. Becker, Costruire Venezia. Cinquecento anni di tecnica marmi, bronzi, medaglie, gioie et altre memorie an-
internazionale della pittura veneziana fra Sei e Sette- edilizia in laguna. Le case a schiera, Rome, 2002. tiche, […] da Lorenzo Pignoria, Venice, 1647.
cento”, in Arte veneta, 63, 2006, pp. 203-208. D. Beltrami, Storia della popolazione di Venezia dalla M. Casini, “Cerimoniali”, in Storia di Venezia. Dalle
S. Alpers – M. Baxandall, Tiepolo e l’intelligenza figura- fine del secolo XVI alla caduta della Repubblica, origini alla caduta della Serenissima, VII, La Venezia
tiva, Turin, 1995 (orig. ed.: London – New Haven Padua, 1954. barocca, ed. G. Benzoni – G. Cozzi, Rome, 1997, pp.
1994). P. Benassai, Sebastiano Mazzoni, Florence, 1999. 107-159.
F. Amendolagine, “Le tecniche e i materiali dello stucco P. Bensi, “Con grazia partigianesca”: note sulla tecnica M. Casini, “Immagini dei capitani generali ‘Da Mar’ a
262
Venezia in età barocca”, in Il “Perfetto capitano”. Im- V. da Canal, “Della maniera del dipingere moderno. bassanesi”, “illustri scultori della città di Venezia”, in
magini e realtà (secoli XV-XVII), Seminar proceed- Memoria […] ora per la prima volta pubblicata”, in Arte Veneta, 63, 2006, p. 97-121.
ings, Georgetown University at Villa Le Balze Mercurio filosofico, letterario e poetico, March 1810, J.-A. Dézallier d’Argenville, Abrégé de la vie des plus
(Istituto di Studi Rinascimentali di Ferrara, 1995- pp. 3-20. fameaux peintres avec leurs portraits gravés […], I,
1997), ed. M. Fantoni, Rome, 2001, pp. 219-270. A. da Mosto, I dogi di Venezia nella vita pubblica e pri- Paris, 1762.
B. Cogo, Antonio Gaspari architetto veneziano. Dati bi- vata, Milan, 1960. N. Doglioni, Le cose notabili et maravigliose della città
ografici (1656-1723). Il suo capolavoro, Este, 2003. B. dal Pozzo, Le vite de’ pittori, de gli scultori et architetti di Venetia […], Venice, 1675.
Il collezionismo d’arte a Venezia. Il Seicento, ed. L. veronesi […], Verona 1718. R. Domenichini, “Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna”, in Saggi
Borean and S. Mason, Venice, 2007. F. Dalla Colletta, I principi di storia civile di Vettor e memorie di storia dell’arte, 28, 2004, pp. 169-291.
E. Concina, Pietre parole storia. Glossario della Sandi. Diritto, istituzioni e storia nella Venezia di G.B. Fabri, La conchiglia celeste [...], Venice, 1690.
costruzione nelle fonti veneziane (secoli XV-XVIII), metà Settecento, Venice, 1995. P. Faccio – M. Pretelli, “Analisi del comportamento
Venice, 1988. J. Daniels, L’opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci, Milan, strutturale della facciata”, in Santa Maria del Giglio.
E. Concina, Venezia nell’età moderna, struttura e fun- 1976. Il restauro della facciata, ed. M. Fresa, Venice, 1997,
zioni, Venice, 1989. D. Davanzo Poli, Le arti decorative a Venezia, Azzano pp. 118-127.
E. Concina, “Luca Carlevarijs, pittor nostro e matem- San Polo (Bergamo) 1999. V. Fassina, “L’uso delle vernici nei dipinti”, in Dal
atico”, in Luca Carlevarijs, Le Fabriche e Vedute di S. De Kunert, “Notizie e documenti su Pietro Liberi”, in museo alla città. Itinerari didattici della Soprinten-
Venetia, exhibition catalogue (Udine, 4 December Rivista d’arte, 13, 1931, pp. 539-575. denza ai Beni Artistici e Storici di Venezia, 4, 1983, pp.
1995 – 20 January 1996) ed. I. Reale, Venice, 1995, M. De Grassi, “Filippo Parodi, Pietro Roncaioli e lo 147-153.
pp. 9-15. stucco tardobarocco a Venezia”, in Arte Veneta, 54, V. Fassina, “Studio dei processi d’alterazione dei ma-
E. Concina, Storia dell’architettura di Venezia dal VII 1999, pp. 55-79. teriali lapidei della facciata”, in Santa Maria del
al XX secolo, Milan, 2004. M. De Grassi (a), Andrea Brustolon: gli esordi, in Andrea Giglio. Il restauro della facciata, ed. M. Fresa, Venice,
V. Conticelli, “Architettura e celebrazione a Venezia: i Brustolon 1662-1732 “Il Michelangelo del legno”, ex- 1997, pp. 95-109.
progetti di Antonio Gaspari per Francesco Mo- hibition catalogue (Belluno, Palazzo Crepadona 28 E. Favaro, L’arte dei pittori in Venezia e i suoi statuti,
rosini”, in Studi Veneziani, unn., 38, 1999, pp. 129- March – 12 July 2009), ed. A.M. Spiazzi – M. De Florence, 1975.
177. Grassi – G. Galasso, Ginevra-Milan, 2009, pp. 17-27. M. Favetta, “Baldassare Longhena. L’architetto del
A. Corboz, Canaletto. Una Venezia immaginaria, 2 vols, M. De Grassi (b), in Andrea Brustolon 1662-1732 “Il barocco veneziano”, in Lettera da San Giorgio, VIII,
Milan, 1985. Michelangelo del legno”, exhibition catalogue (Bel- 14 (March-August 2006), pp. 24-27.
A. Corubolo, “Le incisioni di Louis Dorigny”, in Verona luno, Palazzo Crepadona 28 March – 12 July 2009), M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (a), “La Verità sul caso Gaspari”,
Illustrata, 10, 1997, pp. 41-55. ed. A.M. Spiazzi – M. De Grassi – G. Galasso, in Studi Veneziani, unn., 45, 2003, pp. 243-263.
V. Coronelli, Guida de’ Forestieri per succintamente os- Geneva-Milan, 2009, pp. 319-323, nos. 17-18. M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (b), “Dorigny e Venezia. Da Ca’
servare tutto il più riguardevole nella Città di Venetia M. De Vincenti, “Piacere ai dotti e ai migliori. Scultori Tron a Ca’ Zenobio e ritorno”, in Louis Dorigny 1654-
colla di lei pianta per passeggiarla in gondola, e per classicisti del primo ’700”, in La scultura veneta del 1742. Un pittore della corte francese a Verona, exhibi-
terra […], Venice, 1697. Seicento e del Settecento. Nuovi studi, ed. G. Pa- tion catalogue (Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio, 28
V.M. Coronelli junior, Guida de Forestieri. Per osservare vanello, Venice, 2002, pp. 221-250. June – 2 November 2003), ed. G. and P. Marini,
il più riguardevole nella città di Venezia […], Venice, P. Delorenzi, La galleria di Minerva. Il ritratto di rapp- Venice, 2003, pp. 37-59.
1713. resentanza nella Venezia del Settecento, Venice- M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Un tenebroso all’opera. Ap-
F. Corner, Notizie storiche delle chiese e monasteri di Verona, 2009. punti su Antonio Zanchi”, in Venezia Arti, 17-18,
Venezia […], Padua, 1758. E. Demo, “Venezia e il Veneto nel secolo del presunto 2003-2004, pp. 57-78.
G. Cozzi, “Federico Contarini: un antiquario declino”, in Storia dell’architettura nel Veneto. Il Sei- M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Colpo d’occhio su Dorigny”,
veneziano tra Rinascimento e Controriforma”, in cento, ed. A. Roca De Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp. 4-7. in Verona Illustrata, 17, 2004, pp. 87-115.
Bollettino dell’Istituto di Storia della società e dello T. Diplovataccio, “Tractatus de Venete urbis libertate M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Frammenti dalla Venezia
Stato veneziano, 3, 1961, pp. 190-220. et eiusdem Imperii dignitate et privilegiis” [1524], barocca”, in Atti dell’Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere
G. Cozzi, “Venezia. Una Repubblica di Principi?”, in da U. Petronio, Civitas Venetiarum est edificata in ed Arti, 163, 2004-2005, Classe di scienze morali, let-
Studi Veneziani, unn., 11, 1986, pp. 150-165. mari, in Studi veneti offerti a Gaetano Cozzi, Venice, tere ed arti, pp. 47-138.
G. Cozzi, “Giuspatronato del doge e prerogative del 1992, pp. 171-185. M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (a), “Un pittore ‘reale’. Rifles-
primicerio sulla cappella ducale di San Marco (secoli Discorso a monsignor d’Elci arcivescovo di Pisa eletto sioni su Louis Dorigny”, in Studi Veneziani, unn., 50,
XVI-XVIII). Controversie con i procuratori di San nunzio a Venezia da papa Innocenzi X l’anno 1646; 2005, pp. 137-171.
Marco de supra e i patriarchi di Venezia”, in Atti dell’Is- Ms. Vat. lat. 10419, c. 211v; in S. Andretta, La Repub- M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (b), “In Arcadia e in firma-
tituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 151, 1992-1993, blica inquieta. Venezia nel Seicento tra Italia ed Eu- mento: Louis Dorigny in Friuli”, in Artisti in viaggio
“Classe di scienze morali lettere ed arti”, pp. 1-69. ropa, Rome, 2000, pp. 201-238. (1600-1750). Presenze foreste in Friuli-Venezia Giu-
G. Cozzi, Venezia barocca. Conflitti di uomini e idee M. Dean, I quattro evangelisti che reggono la sfera celeste lia, conference proceedings, Udine-Passariano (21-
nella crisi del Seicento veneziano, Venice, 1995. – Il restauro, in Le sculture restaurate di Andrea Brus- 23 October 2004), ed. M.P. Frattolin, Udine-Venice,
A. Craievich, Antonio Molinari, Soncino (Cremona), tolon nella chiesa dei SS. Fermo e Rustico, ed. A. M. 2005, pp. 118-142.
2005. Spiazzi, Belluno, 1993, pp. 60-64. M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Gaspari Antonio Domenico”,
A. Craievich, “Antonio Molinari: gli esordi 1671-1682”, M. Dean – R. Bonomi, “Andrea Brustolon. Note sulla in Allgemeines Künstlerlexicon, L, München-Leipzig
in Arte veneta 63, 2006, pp. 235-242. tecnica costruttiva”, in Scultura lignea barocca nel 2006, pp. 8-9.
A. Craievich, “Gregorio Lazzarini: bozzetti, modelletti, Veneto, ed. A. M. Spiazzi, n.p., 1997, pp. 317-327. M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Progetti di Antonio Gaspari
repliche”, in Arte in Friuli arte a Trieste, 26, 2007, pp. M. De Vincenti, “Antonio Tarsia (1622-1739)”, in architetto della Venezia barocca”, in Atti dell’Istituto
85-98. Venezia Arti, 10, 1996, p. 49-56. Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 165, 2006-2007,
C. Crosera, “Opere profane di Gregorio Lazzarini”, in M. De Vincenti, “Piacere ai dotti e ai migliori. Scultori Classe di scienze morali, lettere ed arti, pp. 139-191.
Arte in Friuli arte a Trieste, 18-19, 1999, pp. 39-52. classicisti del primo ’700”, in La scultura veneta del M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Tant plus petit tant plus beau.
V. Da Canal, Vita di Gregorio Lazzarini […]. Pubblicata Seicento e del Settecento. Nuovi studi, ed. G. Pa- I ritratti in miniatura dal Seicento all’Ottocento dei
per la prima volta nelle nozze da Mula-Lavagnoli, vanello, Venice, 2002, pp. 221-250. Musei Civici veneziani”, in Bollettino dei Musei Civici
Venice, 1809. M. De Vincenti, “Domino Horatio et Fratelli Marinali Veneziani, s. III, 2, 2007, pp. 8-35.
263
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (a), “Un’architettura di ‘scien- di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 144, 1985-1986, Classe di di Candia”, in Venezia e la difesa del Levante, da Lep-
tifica semplicità’: Tommaso Temanza e la chiesa della scienze morali, lettere ed arti, pp. 109-126. anto a Candia, 1570-1670, Venice, 1986, p. 146.
Maddalena”, in Studi veneziani, unn., 55, 2008, pp. M. Frank, Virtù e fortuna. Il mecenatismo e le commit- F. Haskell, Mecenati e pittori. Studio sui rapporti tra arte
203-282. tenze artistiche della famiglia Manin tra Friuli e e società italiana nell’età barocca, Florence, 1985
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (b), “Pietro Liberi-Domenico Venezia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Venice, 1996. (orig. ed. 1963).
Bruni, Stra, Villa Foscarini Negrelli Rossi”, in Gli af- M. Frank, “La Concordia delle Muse nei palazzi A. Hopkins, Santa Maria della Salute: architecture and
freschi nei palazzi e nelle ville venete dal ‘500 al ‘700, veneziani tra Sei e Settecento”, in Officina veneziana. ceremony in Baroque Venice, Cambridge, 2000.
ed. F. Pedrocco, Schio (Vicenza), 2008, pp. 154-161. Maestri e botteghe nella Venezia del Settecento, cata- A. Hopkins, Baldassare Longhena, Milan, 2006.
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (c), “Louis Dorigny, Venezia, Ca’ logue of the exhibition curated by F. Magani – F. Pe- A. Hopkins, “Santa Maria della Salute l’architettura
Zenobio”, in Gli affreschi nei palazzi e nelle ville venete drocco, Milan, 2002, pp. 81-87. sacra”, in Storia dell’architettura nel Veneto. Il Seicento,
dal ‘500 al ‘700, ed. F. Pedrocco, Schio (Vicenza), M. Frank, “Louis Dorigny a Vienna”, in Louis Dorigny ed. A. Roca De Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp. 56-81.
2008, pp. 162-171. 1654-1742. Un pittore della corte francese a Verona, N. Ivanoff, “Una postilla tiepolesca”, in Ateneo veneto,
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (d), “Giovanni Antonio Pelle- exhibition catalogue (Verona, Museo di Castelvec- s. V, 135, 1951, pp. 70-72.
grini, Murano, casino Correr”, in Gli affreschi nei chio, 28 June – 2 November 2003), ed. G. and P. N. Ivanoff, “Esordi di Sebastiano Mazzoni”, in Empo-
palazzi e nelle ville venete dal ‘500 al ‘700, ed. F. Pe- Marini, Venice, 2003, pp. 62-71. rium, 63/V, 1957, pp. 194-201.
drocco, Schio (Vicenza), 2008, pp. 172-177. M. Frank, Baldassare Longhena, Venice, 2004. N. Ivanoff, “La Sacra Rappresentazione di Giovanni
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (e), “Sebastiano Ricci, Venezia, M. Frank, “Committenza pubblica e privata”, in Storia Antonio Fumiani”, in Emporium, 135, 1962, pp. 249-
casino Zane”, in Gli affreschi nei palazzi e nelle ville dell’architettura nel Veneto. Il Seicento, ed. A. Roca 255.
venete dal ‘500 al ‘700, ed. F. Pedrocco, Schio (Vi- De Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp. 8-12. N. Ivanoff, “Pitture e sculture de la Rotonda”, in La Ro-
cenza), 2008, pp. 178-183. C. Freschot, Li pregi della nobiltà veneta. Abbozzati in tonda di Rovigo, Vicenza, 1967, pp. 73-105.
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (f), “Louis Dorigny, Treviso, palazzo un gioco d’arme di tutte le famiglie […], Venice, 1682. C. Ivanovich, Minerva al tavolino, lettere diverse di pro-
Orsetti Dolfin Giacomelli”, in Gli affreschi nei palazzi e C. Freschot, La nobiltà veneta, o sia tutte le famiglie pa- posta e risposta a varii personaggi sparse d’alcuni com-
nelle ville venete dal ‘500 al ‘700, ed. F. Pedrocco, Schio trizie con le figure de’ suoi scudi et armi […], Venice, ponimenti in prosa et in verso, concernenti per lo più
(Vicenza), 2008, pp. 206-215. 1707. alle vittorie della Lega contra il turco fino questo anno,
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo (g), “Nicolò Bambini, Venezia, A. Fuga, Tecniche e materiali delle arti, Milan, 2008. Venice, 1688.
Ca’ Dolfin”, in Gli affreschi nei palazzi e nelle ville J. Gallego, “Façades Venitiennes à perspective verticale”, C. Jeannerat, “Le origini del ritratto a miniatura su
venete dal ‘500 al ‘700, ed. F. Pedrocco, Schio (Vi- in Annales, 23/III, 1968, pp. 586-594. avorio”, in Dedalo, 31, 1930, pp. 767-781.
cenza), 2008, pp. 216-223. M. Gemin, La chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute e la G. Knox, “Ca’ Sandi. La forza dell’eloquenza”, in Arte
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Divagazioni tardobarocche da cabala di Paolo Sarpi, Abano Terme (Padua) 1982. documento, 7, 1993, pp. 135-142.
Dorigny a Tiepolo”, in Atti dell’Istituto Veneto di Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo centenario della nascita, G. Knox, Antonio Pellegrini 1675-1741, Oxford, 1995.
Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 167, 2008-2009, Classe di international study conference proceedings (Venice, L’arte dello stucco in Friuli nei secoli XVII-XVIII. Storia,
scienze morali, lettere ed arti, mimeo. Vicenza, Udine, Paris, 29 October – 4 November tecnica, restauro, interconnessioni, international con-
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Con pena e con penello, Si- 1996), I, ed. L. Puppi, Venice, 1998. ference proceedings (Passariano-Udine, 24-26 Feb-
mone Brentana e Sebastiano Ricci”, in Verona Illus- V. Gheroldi, “Pratica artistica e scienza nel Settecento. ruary 2009), ed. G. Bergamini – P. Goi, Udine 2001.
trata, 22, 2009, mimeo. Le convenzioni tecniche della pittura alla prova La scultura lignea. Tecniche esecutive, conservazione e
M. Favilla – R. Rugolo, “Per Antonio Balestra”, in Arte dell’ottica newtoniana”, in Lezioni di storia dell’arte. restauro, study-day proceedings (Belluno, 14 January
veneta, mimeo. Dal trionfo del barocco all’età romantica, III, Milan, 2005), ed. A.M. Spiazzi – L. Maioli, Cinisello Bal-
O. Fini, Nell’occasione dell’ambasciata di Capodistria. 2003, pp. 187-215. samo, 2006.
Sonetti […], Venice [1675]. L. Ghio – E. Baccheschi, Antonio Balestra, Bergamo E. Lacchin, Di Francesco Pianta junior bizzarro e capric-
F. Flores d’Arcais, “La grande decorazione nel Veneto”, 1989. cioso scultore in legno del barocco veneziano e dei suoi
in La pittura nel Veneto. Il Seicento, II, ed. M. Lucco, A. Giusti, “Da Firenze all’Europa: i fasti delle pietre “geroglifici” nella Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, 1930.
Milan, 2001, pp. 645-670. dure”, in Eternità e nobiltà di materia. Itinerario artis- J. Lacombe, Dizionario portatile delle belle arti […], It.
M. Fogliata, “Tecnica costruttiva degli apparati decora- tico fra le pietre policrome, ed. A. Giusti, Florence, trad. Bassano, 1781.
tivi a stucco di marmorino”, in L’arte dello stucco in 2003, pp. 231-270. F. Lazzari, Notizie di Giuseppe Benoni architetto e in-
Friuli nei secoli XVII-XVIII. Storia, tecnica, restauro, G.M. Gianvizio, Biblioteca almi conventus SS. Joannis gegnere della Veneta Repubblica, Venice-Alvisopoli,
interconnessioni, international conference proceed- et Pauli, venetiarum originis praedicatorum […], 1840.
ings (Passariano – Udine, 24-26 February 2000), ed. Venice, 1683. L. Lazzarini, “I marmi di Venezia: provenienza, cause di
G. Bergamini – P. Goi, Udine 2001, pp. 1-10. P. Goi, “Sculture settecentesche nella chiesa dei Gesuiti alterazione, trattamenti conservativi”, in Marmo
M. Fogliata – M. L. Sartor, L’arte dello stucco. Storia, a Venezia”, in I Gesuiti a Venezia. Momenti e problemi restauro: situazione e prospettive, conference proceed-
tecnica, metodologie della tradizione veneziana, Tre- di storia veneziana della Compagnia di Gesù, study ings (Carrara, 31 May 1983), ed. E. Dolci, Carrara,
viso 2004. conference proceedings (Venice 2-5 October 1990), 1983, pp. 103-112.
V. Fontana, “Dal “pòrtego” al salone. Proporzioni e ar- ed. M. Zanardi, Venice, 1994, pp. 727-778. L. Lazzarini, “I materiali lapidei dell’edilizia storica
monie dell’architettura civile veneziana fra Seicento F. Gualdi, Philosophia Hermetica, ed. A. Boella – A. veneziana”, in Restauro e città, 3-4, 1986, pp. 84-100.
e Settecento”, in Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo cente- Galli, Rome, 2008. Le tecniche artistiche, ed. C. Maltese, Milan, 1981.
nario della nascita, international study conference F. Griselini, Dizionario delle arti e de’ mestieri compilato M. Leone, “Sebastiano Mazzoni tra poesia e pittura”,
proceedings (Venice, Vicenza, Udine, Paris, 29 Oc- innanzi da Francesco Griselini e ora continuato dal- in S. Mazzoni, “La pittura guerriera” e altri versi sul-
tober – 4 November 1996), I, ed. L. Puppi, Venice, l’abate Marco Fassadoni, 18 vols, Venice, 1768-1778. l’arte, introduction by M. Rossi, with an essay by M.
1998, pp. 115-123. S. Guerriero, “Di tua virtù che infonde spirto a i sassi: Leone, Venice-Verona 2008, pp. XIII-XXXIV.
G. Fossaluzza, “Novità e considerazioni su Louis per la prima attività veneziana di Giusto Le Court”, G.B. Lucini, Per l’esaltazione del serenissimo Francesco
Dorigny disegnatore”, in Arte Veneta, 53, 1998, pp. in Arte veneta, 55, 1999, pp. 48-71. Morosini doge di Venezia. Orazione […], Rome, 1688.
52-71. G. Guidarelli, “L’architettura civile”, in Storia dell’ar- M. Lucco, “Lazzarini Gregorio”, in La pittura nel Veneto.
M. Frank, “Spazio pubblico, prospetti di chiese a glo- chitettura nel Veneto. Il Seicento, ed. A. Roca De Am- Il Seicento, II, ed. M. Lucco, Milan, 2001, p. 841.
rificazione gentilizia nella Venezia del Seicento. Rif- icis, Venice, 2008, pp. 224-247. A. Lupis, L’eroina veneta, overo la vita di Elena Lucretia
lessioni su una tipologia”, in Atti dell’Istituto Veneto G. Gullino, “Tradimento e ragion di Stato nella caduta Cornara Piscopia, Venice, 1689.
264
R. Longhi, Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana, A. Mariuz – G. Pavanello (a), “La chiesetta di Bernardo L. Mucchi (a), “Tecnica e semiotica radiografica”, in L.
Florence, 1946. Nave a Cittadella”, in Arte veneta, 50, 1997, pp. 68- Mucchi – A. Bertuzzi, Nella profondità dei dipinti. La
F. Magani, Antonio Bellucci, Rimini 1995. 85. radiografia nell’indagine pittorica, Milan, 1983, pp.
F. Magani, “Abbondio Stazio e Carpoforo Mazzetti: una A. Mariuz – G. Pavanello (b), “La decorazione interna 16-58.
società di stuccatori tra Venezia e il Friuli”, in L’arte dei palazzi veneziani: dalla magnificenza barocca L. Mucchi (b), “Quattro vedutisti veneziani ai raggi X”,
dello stucco in Friuli nei secoli XVII-XVIII, interna- all’eleganza rococò”, in Venezia: l’arte nei secoli, ed. G. in L. Mucchi – A. Bertuzzi, Nella profondità dei dip-
tional conference proceedings (Passariano-Udine, Romanelli, Udine, 1997, pp. 582-639. inti. La radiografia nell’indagine pittorica, Milan,
24-26 February 2000), ed. G. Bergamini – P. Goi, F.L. Maschietto, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646- 1983, pp. 60-84.
Udine, 2001, pp. 249-258. 1684), prima donna laureata nel mondo, Padua, 1978. M. Muraro, “Iconografia e ideologia del tempio della
F. Magani, “Vaghezza, decoro, lume “spiritoso” e chiaro. S. Mason, “L’immaginario della morte e della peste Salute a Venezia”, in Barocco fra Italia e Polonia,
Percorsi del classicismo nella pittura del Seicento nella pittura del Seicento”, in La pittura nel Veneto, Il Varsavia 1977, pp. 71-78.
veneto”, in La pittura nel Veneto, Il Seicento, II, ed. M. Seicento, II, ed. M. Lucco, Milan, 2001, pp. 523-542. M. Muraro – G. Fiocco – N. Ivanoff, Pitture murali nel
Lucco, Milan, 2001, pp. 573-616. C. Mazza, I Sagredo, committenti e collezionisti d’arte Veneto e tecnica dell’affresco, Venice, 1960.
S. Magnani, “Indagini conoscitive”, in La cappella nella Venezia del Sei e Settecento, Venice, 2004. Musei Civici di Padova: Museo d’Arte. Arti applicate e
Sagredo nella chiesa di san Francesco della Vigna. Sto- N. Melchiori, Notizie di pittori e altri scritti, ed. G. Bor- decorative, ed. F. Pellegrini, Padua-Milan, 2004.
ria, arte e restauro, ed. E. Zucchetta, Padua, 2003, pp. dignon Favero, Venice-Rome, 1964. L. Nadin Bassani, “L’ambiguo mito di Elena Lucrezia
35-38. A. Menniti Ippolito, La Repubblica di Venezia e il clero Cornaro Piscopia”, in Miscellanea di studi in occa-
M. Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso (1707-1769), Vicenza veneto. Un eterno interdetto?, proceedings of the 29th sione dell’intitolazione dell’Istituto liceo ginnasio
1988. conference of history studies (Rovigo, 3-4 November “Elena Corner” (Mirano, Venezia), Spinea-Venice,
D. Magris, “Novembre 1999-maggio 2000: Il restauro 2006), ed. G. Benzoni, Rovigo, 2008, pp. 51-65. n.d.
del ciclo pittorico di Jacopo Guarana nel duomo di “Memorie intorno alla vita di Rosalba Carriera celebre G.B. Nani, Historia della Republica veneta, II, Venice,
Crespano del Grappa”, in Progetto Restauro, 26, 2003, pittrice veneziana scritte dall’abate N.N. nel MDC- 1679.
pp. 18-19. CLV”, in Per le illustri nozze Cabianca-Fioravanti On- Nel regno dei poveri. Arte e storia dei grandi ospedali
F. Mancini – M.T. Muraro – E. Povoledo, I teatri di esti, ed. G. Valeri, Padua, 1843. veneziani in età moderna 1474-1797, ed. B. Aikema –
Venezia, I, Teatri effimeri e nobili imprenditori, E. Merkel, “Il restauro del soffitto affrescato della chiesa D. Meijers, Venice, 1989.
Venice, 1995. di Sant’Alvise a Venezia”, in Quaderni della Soprint- G. Nepi Scirè (a), “L’affresco”, in Dal Museo alla città.
P. Maretto, La casa veneziana nella storia della città dalle endenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici di Venezia, 19, 1994, Itinerari didattici della Soprintendenza ai Beni Artis-
origini all’Ottocento, Venice, 1986. pp. 105-113. tici e Storici di Venezia, 4, 1983, pp. 10-29.
D. Martinelli, Il Ritratto di Venezia […], Venice, 1684. E. Merkel, “Francesco Pianta il giovane, stravagante in- G. Nepi Scirè (b), “La pittura su tela”, in Dal Museo alla
D. Martinelli, Il Ritratto di Venezia […], Venice, 1704. tagliatore veneziano”, in Archivio veneto, s.V, 189, città. Itinerari didattici della Soprintendenza ai Beni
G. Martinioni, in F. Sansovino, Venetia città nobilissima 2000, pp. 39-76. Artistici e Storici di Venezia, 4, 1983, pp. 70-88.
et singolare […], Venice, 1663. J. Montagu, La scultura barocca romana. Un’industria A. Niero (a), “I templi del Redentore e della Salute”, in
S. Marinelli, “Dall’accademia al fumetto: Louis dell’arte, Turin, 1991. Venezia e la Peste. 1348/1797, exhibition catalogue,
Dorigny da riscrivere”, in Louis Dorigny (1654-1742). L. Moretti, “La data degli Apostoli della chiesa di San Venice, 1979, pp. 294-298.
Un pittore della corte francese a Verona, exhibition Stae”, in Arte veneta, 27, 1973, pp. 318-320. A. Niero (b), Tre artisti per un tempio. Santa Maria del
catalogue (Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio, 28 June L. Moretti, “Documenti e appunti su Sebastiano Ricci Rosario-Gesuati, Venezia, Venice, 1979.
– 2 November 2003), ed. G. and P. Marini, Venice, (con qualche altro cenno su altri pittori del Sette- A. Niero (a), “Una chiesa votiva della guerra di Candia:
2003, pp. 15-23. cento)”, in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 11, Santa Maria del Pianto”, in Venezia e la difesa del Lev-
S. Marinelli “L’arrivo di Dorigny nelle sue nuove pa- 1978, pp. 95-125. ante. Da Lepanto a Candia 1570-1670, exhibition
trie”, in Verona illustrata, 17, 2004, pp. 79-85. L. Moretti, “Notizie e appunti su G.B. Piazzetta, alcuni catalogue, Venice, 1986, pp. 174-176.
P. Marini, “Louis Dorigny frescante a Verona e nel piazzetteschi e G.B. Tiepolo”, in Atti dell’Istituto A. Niero (b), “Il monumento Mocenigo in S. Lazzaro
Veneto”, in Louis Dorigny (1654-1742). Un pittore della Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 143, 1984-1985, dei Mendicanti”, in Venezia e la difesa del Levante. Da
corte francese a Verona, exhibition catalogue (Verona, Classe di scienze morali, lettere ed arti, pp. 359-395. Lepanto a Candia 1570-1670, Exhibition catalogue,
Museo di Castelvecchio, 28 June – 2 November 2003), S. Moretti, “Fondamenti sodi et non pensier vani”: Venice, 1986, pp. 177-181.
ed. G. and P. Marini, Venice, 2003, pp. 24-35. Giuseppe Benoni ingegnere e architetto tra Venezia e A. Niero, Tre artisti per un tempio. Santa Maria del
A. Mariuz, “La ‘magnifica sala’ di palazzo Dolfin a Friuli nella seconda metà del XVII secolo al servizio Rosario-Gesuati, Venezia, ed. R. Rugolo, Venice, 2006.
Venezia: gli affreschi di Nicolò Bambini e Antonio della Dominante, in “Architetto sia l’ingegniero che L. Olivato, “Nuovi ordini e nuovi ricchi. La chiesa dei
Felice Ferrari”, in Arte veneta, 35, 1981, pp. 182-186. discorre”. Ingegneri, architetti e proti nell’età della Re- Gesuiti a Venezia”, in Louis Dorigny 1654-1742. Un
A. Mariuz (a), “La traslazione del corpo di san Marco pubblica, ed. G. Mazzi – S. Zaggia, Venice, 2004, pp. pittore della corte francese a Verona, exhibition cata-
di Antonio Molinari e il suo modelletto”, in Arte 153-199. logue (Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio, 28 June – 2
veneta, 36, 1982, pp. 222-224. S. Moretti, “Le licenze edilizie dei Giudici del Piovego: November 2003), ed. G. and P. Marini, Venice, 2003,
A. Mariuz (b), L’opera completa del Piazzetta, presen- un approccio complesso alla città del Sei e Sette- pp. 78-85.
tazione di R. Palluccchini, Milan, 1982. cento”, in Fare la città. Salvaguardia e manutenzione F. Onofri, Cronologia veneta […], Venice, 1688.
A. Mariuz (a), “Alcune fonti visive di Giambattista urbana a Venezia in età moderna, ed. S. Zaggia, P.A. Orlandi, Abecedario Pittorico […] Notabilmente e
Tiepolo”, in Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo centenario Milan, 2006, pp. 41-70. di nuove notizie accresciuto da Pietro Guarienti,
della nascita, international study conference pro- P. Morachiello, “L’architettura”, in Storia di Venezia, Venice, 1758.
ceedings (Venice, Vicenza, Udine, Paris, 29 October Temi: L’Arte, II, ed. R. Pallucchini, Rome, 1995, pp. L. Orsini, “Il disegno di architettura”, in Storia dell’ar-
– 4 November 1996), I, ed. L. Puppi, Venice, 1998, 163-249. chitettura nel Veneto. Il Seicento, ed. A. Roca De Am-
pp. 33-38. P. and L. Mora – P. Philippot, La conservazione delle pit- icis, Venice, 2008, pp. 280-285.
A. Mariuz (b), “Antonio Pellegrini a Padova”, in Anto- ture murali, Bologna, 2001. P.A. Pacifico, Cronica Veneta, overo Succinto racconto di
nio Pellegrini. Il maestro del Rococò alle corti d’Eu- G. Moschini Guida per la città di Venezia […], Venice, tutte le cose più cospicue, & antiche della città di Vene-
ropa, exhibition catalogue (Padua, Palazzo della 1815. tia […], Venice, 1697.
Ragione, 20 September 1998 – 10 January 1999) ed. F. Moücke, Serie de’ ritratti degli eccellenti pittori […], R. Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del Settecento,
A. Bettagno, Venice, 1998, pp. 23-37. IV, Florence, 1762. Venice-Rome, 1960.
265
R. Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del Seicento, I, A. Pozzo, “Breve istruzione per dipingere a fresco”, in P. A. Roca De Amicis (b), “L’architettura degli ordini re-
Venice, 1981. and L. Mora – P. Philippot, La conservazione delle pit- ligiosi”, in Storia dell’architettura nel Veneto. Il Sei-
R. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, I, ed. ture murali, Bologna 2001, pp. 420-426. cento, ed. A. Roca De Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp.
M. Lucco – A. Mariuz – G. Pavanello – F. Zava, M. Praz, Le bizzarre sculture di Francesco Pianta, Vi- 174-187.
Milan, 1995. cenza 1959. A. Roca De Amicis (c), “Apporti esterni”, in Storia del-
A. Pasian, in Rosalba Carriera: “prima pittrice de’ l’Eu- L. Puppi, L’opera completa del Canaletto, Milan, 1968. l’architettura nel Veneto. Il Seicento, ed. A. Roca De
ropa”, exhibition catalogue (Venice, Palazzo Cini, I L. Puppi, Verso Gerusalemme. Immagini e temi di ur- Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp. 188-205.
September – 28 October 2007) ed. G. Pavanello, banistica e di architettura simboliche tra il XIV e il A. Roca De Amicis (d), “Antonio Gaspari e un dialogo
Venice, 2007, p. 166, n. 47. XVIII secolo, Rome-Reggio Calabria 1982. con il barocco Romano”, in Storia dell’architettura
G. Pavanello, “La scultura”, in Storia di Venezia, Temi: L. Puppi, Nel mito di Venezia. Autocoscienza urbana e nel Veneto. Il Seicento, ed. A. Roca De Amicis, Venice,
L’Arte, II, ed. R. Pallucchini, Rome, 1995, pp. 443- costruzione delle immagini: saggi di lettura, Venice, 2008, pp. 206-221.
484. 1994. P. Rockwell, Tecnologie della lavorazione della pietra,
G. Pavanello, “La grande decorazione in Europa”, in L. Puppi – R. Rugolo, “Un’ordinaria forma non alletta. Venice, 1996.
Lezioni di Storia dell’Arte. Dal trionfo del Barocco al- Arte, riflessione sull’arte e società”, in Storia di P. Rockwell, “Rilievo delle tecniche scultoree”, in Santa
l’età romantica, Milan, 2003, pp. 155-177. Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta ella Serenissima, Maria del Giglio. Il restauro della facciata ed. M.
G. Pavanello, “Temi mitologici nella decorazione mon- VII, La Venezia barocca, ed. G. Benzoni – G. Cozzi, Fresa, Venice, 1997, pp. 278-281.
umentale veneziana fra Sei e Settecento”, in Meta- Rome 1997, pp. 595-699. G. Romanelli, “I mostri effimeri”, in Bissone, peote e
morfosi del mito. Pittura barocca tra Napoli Genova e L. Puppi, in L. Puppi – R. Rugolo, “Un’ordinaria forma galleggianti. Addobbi e costumi per cortei e regate, ex-
Venezia, exhibition catalogue (Genoa, Palazzo non alletta. Arte, riflessione sull’arte e società”, in hibition catalogue (Venice, Museo Correr, 15 Febru-
Ducale, 22 March – 6 July 2003, Salerno, Pinacoteca Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta ella ary – 15 April 1980), Venice, 1980, pp. 5-7.
Provinciale, 19 July – 19 October 2003) ed. M.A. Serenissima, VII, La Venezia barocca, ed. G. Benzoni G. Romanelli, Tintoretto. La Scuola Grande di San
Pavone, Milan, 2003, pp. 41-51. – G. Cozzi, Rome 1997, pp. 595-612, 613-620, 653- Rocco, Milan, 1994.
L. Pascoli, “Antonio Balestra”, with commentary by F. 679. G. Romanelli, “I mostri sapienti. Venezia e il Barocco”,
D’Arcais, extract from Vite de’ pittori, scultori ed ar- R. Radassao, “Nicolò Bambini “pittore pronto spedito [conference at the closing of the Venezia barocca art-
chitetti viventi dai manoscritti 1383 e 1743 della Bib- ed universale”“, in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, history seminar organised by the Istituto Veneto di
lioteca Comunale “Augusta” di Perugia, Treviso, 1979. 22, 1998, pp. 131-287. Scienze, Lettere ed Arti – École du Louvre, 13 July
F. Pedrocco, Pietro Longhi, Florence, 1993. D. Raines, L’invention du mythe aristocratique. L’image 2006].
F. Pedrocco, Canaletto, Florence, 1995. de soi du patriciat vénitien au temps de la Serenissime, S. Romano, “Palazzi veneziani: scoperte. Un ciclo di
F. Pedrocco, “Venezia”, in La pittura nel Veneto, Il Sei- 2 vols, Venice, 2006. Niccolò Bambini nel palazzetto Zane a Venezia”, in
cento, I, ed. M. Lucco, Milan, 2000, pp. 13-119. L. Ravaioli, “Il concorso per la facciata di S. Stae a Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte, 17, 1982, pp. 85-90.
F. Pedrocco, Giambattista Tiepolo, Milan, 2002. Venezia”, in Disegno di architettura, 7, 1993, pp. 57-70. L. Rossetti, “Annotazioni su Giovanni Antonio Fumi-
F. Pedrocco, “Pietro Longhi, Venezia, palazzo Sagredo”, L. Ravelli, “Un pittore partenopeo a Bergamo: Nicola ani”, in Arte documento, 9, 1996, pp. 143-151.
in Gli affreschi nei palazzi e nelle ville venete dal ‘500 Malinconico e le sue “Historiae Sacrae” per Santa M. Rossetti – S. Vianello, “La scultura lignea e la pittura
al ‘700, ed. F. Pedrocco, Schio (Vicenza) 2008, pp. Maria Maggiore”, in Atti dell’Ateneo di Scienze, Let- su tavola, tecniche d’esecuzione, materiali, e tecniche
286-291. tere ed arti di Bergamo, 48, 1987-88, pp. 103-258. d’indagine: cenni su alcuni casi studiati”, in Progetto
A. Perissa Torrini, in Andrea Brustolon 1662-1732 “Il J. Read, “Alchimia e magia e la “separazione delle due Restauro, 10, 1999, pp. 35-41.
Michelangelo del legno”, exhibition catalogue (Bel- vie”“, in Magia e scienza nella civiltà umanistica, ed. M. Rossi, “Raffigurazioni e riscritture della ‘Liberata’
luno, palazzo Crepadona, 28 March – 12 July 2009), C. Vasoli, pp. 83-108, Bologna 1976. da Firenze a Venezia: un intervento di Bernardo
ed. A.M. Spiazzi – M. De Grassi – G. Galasso, Restituzioni ‘90. Dodici opere restaurate: Vicenza, Castello recuperato”, in Studi veneziani, unn. 34,
Ginevra-Milan, 2009, pp. 333-334, no. 50. Palazzo Leoni Montanari, 1 dicembre 1999 – 20 gen- 1997, pp. 165-187.
M. Petrocchi, Il quietismo italiano del Seicento, Rome, naio 1991, n.p. 1990. M. Rossi, “Introduzione”, in S. Mazzoni, “La pittura
1948. Restituzioni ‘92. Sedici opere restaurate: Vicenza, Palazzo guerriera” e altri versi sull’arte, introduction by M.
M. Piana, “Accorgimenti costruttivi e sistemi statici Leoni Montanari, 12 settembre – 31 ottobre 1992, n.p. Rossi, with an essay by M. Leone, Venice-Verona
dell’architettura veneziana”, in Dietro i palazzi. Tre 1992. 2008, pp. VII-XII.
secoli di architettura minore a Venezia, 1492-1803, Restituzioni ‘93. Opere restaurate: Vicenza, Palazzo P. Rossi, “I “marmi loquaci” del monumento Pesaro ai
[ed.] G. Gianighian – P. Pavanini, Venice, 1984, pp. Leoni Montanari, 16 settembre – 31 ottobre 1993, n.p. Frari”, in Venezia arti, 4, 1990, pp. 84-93.
33-37. 1993. P. Rossi, “La scultura”, in Storia di Venezia, Temi, L’arte,
M. Piana, “La chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute”, in S. Restituzioni ‘94. Opere restaurate: Vicenza, Palazzo II, ed. R. Pallucchini, Rome, 1995, pp. 119-160.
Langé – M. Piana, Santa Maria della Salute a Venezia, Leoni Montanari, 17 settembre – 31 ottobre 1994, n.p. P. Rossi, “La decorazione scultorea della facciata”, in
Milan, 2006, pp. 13-35, 50-57. 1994. Santa Maria del Giglio. Il restauro della facciata, ed.
G.M. Pilo, “Per un catalogo di Giovan Battista Tiepolo”, Restituzioni ‘95. Opere restaurate: Vicenza, Palazzo M. Fresa, Venice, 1997, pp. 15-39.
in Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo centenario della Leoni Montanari, 16 settembre – 31 ottobre 1995, n.p. P. Rossi (a), Geroglifici e figure “di pittoresco aspetto”.
nascita, international study conference proceedings 1995. Francesco Pianta alla Scuola Grande di San Rocco,
(Venice, Vicenza, Udine, Paris, 29 October – 4 No- Restituzioni 1999. Capolavori restaurate: Galleria di Venice, 1999.
vember 1996), I, ed. L. Puppi, Venice, 1998, pp. 13- Palazzo Leoni Montanari, n.p. 1999. P. Rossi (b), “Per il catalogo delle opere veneziane di
19. Restituzioni 2004. Tesori d’arte restaurati, n.p. 2004. Giuseppe Torretti”, in Arte documento, 13, 1999, pp.
C. Pin, Capo, maestro e consultore d’un infamissimo A. Riccoboni, “Antonio Zanchi e la Pittura Veneziana 285-289.
scisma. Paolo Sarpi e l’Interdetto di Venezia del 1606- del Seicento”, in Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’Arte, P. Rossi, “I tesori della Fede: le sculture dei secoli XVII
1607, proceedings of the 29th conference of history 5, 1966, pp. 54-229. e XVIII (con un cenno sul patrimonio delle chiese
studies (Rovigo, 3-4 November 2006), ed. G. Ben- C. Ripa, Iconologia […], Venice, 1645. veneziane)”, in I tesori della fede: oreficeria e scultura
zoni, Rovigo 2008, pp. 189-219. A. Roca De Amicis (a), “Le chiese e le facciate com- delle chiese di Venezia, Venice, 2000, pp. 37-43.
A. Pope, Il Riccio rapito, Introduction, translation, and memorative”, in Storia dell’architettura nel Veneto. Il P. Rossi, “Il ruolo della scultura nel Seicento e la sua
notes by V. Papetti, Milan, 1984 (orig. ed. London, Seicento, ed. A. Roca De Amicis, Venice, 2008, pp. interrelazione con la pittura”, in La pittura nel Veneto.
1714). 248-271. Il Seicento, II, ed. M. Lucco, Milan, 2001, pp. 617-644.
266
P. Rossi, “La scultura a Venezia al tempo del Brustolon”, tega. Itinerari in provincia di Belluno, Belluno-Milan, E. Bassi – S. Biadene – S. Guerriero, Venice, 1989.
in Andrea Brustolon 1662-1732 “Il Michelangelo del 2009. D. Vicenti, Gli apparati veneti, overo le feste fatte nel-
legno”, exhibition catalogue (Belluno, Palazzo N. Spinosa, “La rappresentazione dello spazio dall’em- l’elezione in procuratore dell’illustrissimo signor Gio-
Crepadona, 28 March – 12 July 2009), ed. A.M. Spi- pirismo trecentesco all’illusionismo barocco”, in vanni da Pesaro, Venice, 1641.
azzi – M. De Grassi – G. Galasso, Ginevra-Milan, Lezioni di Storia dell’Arte, pp. 79-101. M.L. Vicini, in Giovan Battista Gaulli. Il Baciccio, 1639-
2009, pp. 69-81, nn. 17-18. A. Spiriti, “Cultura europea e ragioni del luogo: consid- 1709, exhibition catalogue (Ariccia Palazzo Chigi 11
O. Rossi Pinelli, David e l’arte della rivoluzione francese, erazioni sul monumento Morosini ai Tolentini”, in December 1999-12 May 2000), ed. M. Fagiolo del-
Florence, 1989. Arte e documento, 11, 1997, pp. 132-137. l’Arco – D. Graf – F. Petrucci, Milan, 1999, pp. 144-
P. Rotondi, “Il restauro degli affreschi del salone”, in B. M. Stefani Mantovanelli, “Giovanni Battista Langetti”, 145.
Maioli – A. Scattolin – P. Rotondi, Palazzo Labia oggi, in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 17, 1990, pp. G. Vio, “L’altare di S. Lorenzo Giustiniani in S. Pietro
Turin, 1970, pp. 102-133. 41-105. di Castello”, in Arte Veneta, 36, 1982, pp. 209-216.
A. Ruggeri, “La scultura”, in Dal museo alla città. Itin- Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta della Serenis- G. Vio, “Giuseppe Torretti intagliatore in legno e scul-
erari didattici della Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e sima, VII, La Venezia barocca, ed. G. Benzoni and G. tore in marmo”, in Arte Veneta, 38, 1984, pp. 204-209.
Storici di Venezia, 4, 1983, pp. 91-111. Cozzi, Rome, 1997. A. Wildt, L’arte del marmo, Milan, 2002.
U. Ruggeri, Pietro e Marco Liberi: pittori nella Venezia G. Strozzi, La Venetia edificata, Venice, 1624. R. Wittkower, “S. Maria della Salute”, in Saggi e mem-
del Seicento, Rimini, 1996. [G. Strozzi], Esequie fatte in Venetia dalla Natione orie di storia dell’arte, 3, 1963, pp. 33-54.
R. Rugolo, “Sul mito di Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Pis- fiorentina al Serenissimo D. Cosimo II quarto Gran R. Wittkower, La scultura raccontata da Rudolf Wit-
copia”, in Donne a Venezia, ed. S. Winter, Rome, Duca di Toscana il dì 25 maggio 1621, Venice, 1621. tkower. Dall’antichità al Novecento, Turin, 1993.
2004, pp. 85-131. F. Suomela Girardi, ed., I disegni di Jacopo Antonio P. Zampetti, “Antonio Zanchi”, in I pittori Bergamaschi
R. Rugolo, in L. Puppi – R. Rugolo, “Un’ordinaria Pozzo: l’album di Milano, Trento, 2008. dal XIII al XIX secolo, IV, Il Seicento, Bergamo 1987,
forma non alletta. Arte, riflessione sull’arte e società”, M. Tagliapietra (a), “Il Giudizio di Paride. Note di pp. 389-707.
in Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla caduta ella restauro”, in Orazio Marinali e la scultura veneta fra A.M. Zanetti, Descrizione di tutte le pubbliche pitture
Serenissima, VII, La Venezia barocca, ed. G. Benzoni Sei e Settecento, ed. M. De Vincenti – S. Guerriero – della città di Venezia […]: o sia rinnovazione delle
– G. Cozzi, Rome, 1997, pp. 612-613, 620-653, 679- F. Rigon, Cittadella, 2002, pp. 38-39. Ricche Minere di Marco Boschini […], Venice, 1733.
691. M. Tagliapietra (b), “Il Merito e l’Onore. Note di A.M. Zanetti, Della pittura veneziana e delle opere pub-
E. Safarik, “Pietro Negri”, in Saggi e memorie di storia restauro”, in Orazio Marinali e la scultura veneta fra bliche de’ veneziani maestri, Venice, 1771.
dell’arte, 11, 1978, pp. 83-93. Sei e Settecento, catalogue of the exhibition curated M. Zanetto, “Mito di Venezia” ed “antimito” negli scritti
C. Salutati, De laboribus Herculis, I, ed. B.L. Ullmann, by M. De Vincenti – S. Guerriero – F. Rigon, Cit- del Seicento veneziano, Venice, 1991.
Turici, 1951. tadella, 2002, p. 81. A. Zanussi, “L’impiego del ferro nell’edilizia storica
San Marco, i mosaici, le iscrizioni, la Pala d’Oro, ed. M. P. Tempesta, “L’altare delle reliquie della Basilica dei veneziana”, in Architettura e tecnologia. Acqua, tec-
Andaloro, M. Da Villa Urbani, I. Florent- Frari rivive nell’antico splendore”, in Progetto niche e cantieri nell’architettura rinascimentale e
Goudouneix, R. Polacco, E. Vio, Milan, 1991. Restauro, 8, 1998, pp. 28-30. barocca, ed. C. Conforti – A. Hopkins, Rome, 2002,
B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera. Lettere, diari, frammenti, II, E. Tesauro, Il cannocchiale aristotelico […], Venice, pp. 126-139.
Florence, 1985. 1655. F. Zava Boccazzi, “Rosalba Carriera (Venice, 1673-
B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera 1673-1757. Maestra del Trattato di miniatura per imparare a dipingere senza 1757)”, in Le tele svelate. Antologia di pittrici venete
pastello nell’Europa ancien régime, Turin, 2007. maestro, Venice, 1755. dal Cinquecento al Novecento, ed. C. Limentani
F. Sansovino, Venetia città nobilissima et singolare, D. Ton, “Tiepolo e Vico: il ‘Trionfo dell’Eloquenza’ in Virdis, Mirano 1996, pp. 120-139.
Venice, 1581. palazzo Sandi”, in Arte veneta, 61, 2004, pp. 110-123. E. Zucchetta, “La cappella Sagredo in San Francesco
M. Sanudo, “Le vite dei dogi”, ed. G. Monticolo, in D. Ton, “Pietro Liberi: una proposta per una ‘moralità’ della Vigna: Storia e arte”, in La cappella Sagredo nella
Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, XXII/4, Città di Castello di Ca’ Lazari e un’allegoria della Pace”, in Il cielo, o chiesa di san Francesco della Vigna. Storia, arte e
1900-1911, pp. 1-3. qualcosa di più, Scritti in onore di Adriano Mariuz, restauro, ed. E. Zucchetta, Padua, 2003, pp. 11-34.
A. Sartori, Archivio Sartori. Documenti di storia e arte ed. E. Saccomani, Cittadella (Pd) 2007, pp. 336-341. L. Zuccolo, Riflessioni pittoresche, Udine, 1793.
francescana, II/2, La provincia del Santo dei frati mi- M. Tosa, Intarsi e tarsie della chiesa di Santa Maria As-
nori conventuali, ed. P. G. Luisetto, Padua, 1986, pp. sunta a Venezia, Venice, 2003-2004: <http://digilan-
1823-1824. der.libero.it/accademiaverestauro/ricerche/Gesuiti/G
C. Scarpa, “La tecnica del commesso marmoreo. Da esuiti.htm>
Firenze a Venezia”, in Arte Documento, 9, 1999, pp. E.C. Turlon, “La collezione Vianelli di Chioggia”, in
138-142. Paragone, 44, 2002, pp. 65-78.
A. Scarpa, Sebastiano Ricci, Milan, 2006. S. Tumidei, “Una segnalazione veneziana per Filippo
Scultura lignea barocca nel Veneto, ed. A. M. Spiazzi, Parodi”, in Nuovi studi, 6-7/IX, 2001-02, pp. 177-182.
n.p. 1997. L. Urban Padoan, “Feste ufficiali e trattenimenti pri-
E. Selfridge Field, “Fragments of Art Criticism from a vati”, in Storia della cultura veneta, IV/1, Il Seicento,
Forgotten Venetian Journal”, in Arte veneta, 34, 1980, ed. G. Arnaldi – M. Pastore Stocchi, Vicenza 1983,
p. 181. pp. 575-600.
P. Selvatico, Sull’architettura e sulla scultura in Venezia L. Urban, Processioni e feste dogali. “Venetia est
dal Medio Evo sino ai nostri giorni […], Venice, 1847. mundus”, Vicenza 1998.
P. Selvatico – V. Lazari, Guida di Venezia e delle isole cir- G. Vannacci, Applausi poetici al valore del Serenissimo
convicine, Venice, 1852. Francesco Morosino […]. Recitati da’ Signori Accad-
A.M. Spiazzi, “Altari e arredi sacri di Andrea Brustoln emici Disuniti, Rome, 1688.
civis celeberrimi, sculptoris egregii, patriae et honor”, G. Vasari, Le vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori ed ar-
in Andrea Brustolon. 1662-1732. “Il Michelangelo del chitetti/con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano
legno”, ed. A. M. Spiazzi – M. De Grassi – G. Galasso, Milanesi, 9 vols, Florence, 1885.
Belluno-Milan, 2009, pp. 29-45. Venezia Barocca. Proposte per cinque itinerari secen-
A.M. Spiazzi – M. Mazza, Andrea Brustolon e la sua bot- teschi in città, with introduction by G. Romanelli, ed.
267
268
INDEX OF NAMES Bruni, Domenico, 181, 182 David, Ludovico, 230

Brustolon, Andrea, 122, 128, 129, 262 De’ Barbari, Jacopo, 152
Buonarrotti, Michelangelo, 239 De Kunert, Silvio, 158
Abel, 161 Bushnell, John, 61 De Grassi, Massimo, 128, 219, 223
Abraham, 161 de’ Medici, Cosimo II (grand duke of Tuscany), 54
Acquisti, Angelo, 147 Cabianca, Francesco, 60 de’ Rossi, Maria Benedetta, 16
Augustine (saint), 108, 182 Cain, 161 De Vincenti, Monica, 79
Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, 33 Calamati, see Calumati Bortolo, 257 Dean, Milena, 262
Aikema, Bernard, 142, 189, 211, 219, 223, 230 Caliari, Paolo, known as Veronese, 139, 152, 153, 159, Degli Ambrogi, Domenico, 187, 189
Albrizzi (family), 230 175, 189, 195, 197, 217, 239, 253 Delmino, Giulio Camillo, 116
Albrizzi, Giambattista, 230 Calumati, Bortolo, 257 Delorenzi, Paolo, 164
Aleandro, Girolamo, 30 Calvesi, Maurizio, 112 Dézallier d’Argenville, Joseph-Antoine, 161, 257
Alexander VIII (pope), 86 Canal, Antonio, known as Canaletto , 259, 261, 263 Difnico, Domenico, 175
Allegri, Antonio, known as Correggio, 190 Canaletto, see Canal, Antonio Diocletian (emperor), 189
Alpers, Svetlana, 253 Canciani, Giovanni, 60 Diplovataccio, Tommaso, 30
Amphion (Theban king), 211 Cappello, Vincenzo, 31, 33, 46 Doglioni, Nicolò, 139, 182
Andretta, Stefano, 31 Cargnoni, Bartolomeo, 46, 145 Dolfin (family), 187
Angelieri, Antonio, 145 Carlevarijs, Luca, 259, 261 Domenichini, Riccardo, 253
Anne (saint), 166 Carracci (family), 239 Dominic (saint), 203, 249
Antony of Padua (saint), 154, 178 Carracci, Annibale, 190 Donà, Leonardo (doge)
Arslan, Wart, 249 Carriera, Giovanna, 257 Dorigny, Louis, 91, 140, 159, 161, 182, 187, 189, 190,
Asimov, Isaac, 261 Carriera, Rosalba, 257, 258 217, 219, 239, 249, 263
Augustus (emperor), 33, 140 Casini, Matteo, 30, 46
Cavalieri, Giovanni Battista, 33 Emo, Angelo, 175
Baccheschi, Edi, 190 Cavazza, Girolamo, 37 Eurydice, 211
Bacchi, Andrea, 61, 71, 84, 130 Cavrioli, Francesco, 71, 86
Baciccia, see Gaulli Giovanni Battista Celesti, Andrea, 162, 190 Fabri, Giovanni Battista, 142, 187
Balestra, Antonio, 189, 190, 195, 200, 224, 258, 259 Cerva, Pietro Antonio,182 Fabris, Michele, known as l’Ongaro, 61, 71
Bambini, Nicolò, 140, 159, 187, 190, 200, 203, 211, 214, Cervelli, Federico, 128, 190 Faccio, Paolo, 262
249 Cicero, 108, 116, 117 Falconi, Bernardo, 86, 130
Baratti, Alvise, 37 Cigola, Domenico, 172 Favaro, Elena, 153, 190
Barbaro, di San Vidal (family), 262 Colleoni, Bartolomeo, 31 Favetta, Marco, 217
Barbaro, di Santa Maria del Giglio (family), 46 Comin, Giovanni, 60 Favilla, Massimo, 11, 31, 34, 37, 52, 53, 54, 60, 79, 91,
Barbaro, Alvise, 223 Concina, Ennio, 18, 55, 261 129, 145, 154, 161, 187, 189, 190, 217, 219, 220, 239,
Barbaro, Antonio, 30, 34, 37, 46, 53 Contarini, Nicolò (Doge), 173, 175 249, 253, 257, 258, 259, 263
Barbaro, Carlo, 37 Contarini, Pietro, 159 Fechel, Giovanni, 257
Barbaro, Francesco, 37 Conticelli, Valentina, 52, 60, 61 Ferrari, Antonio Felice, 182, 187
Barbaro, Giovanni Maria, 37 Contin, Francesco, 16 Ferro, Domenico, 146
Barbaro, Marino, 37 Corboz, André, 261 Fetti, Domenico, 203
Barbarigo, Gregorio (cardinal), 46 Coriolanus, (Roman leader), 211, 224 Fini, Girolamo, 33, 34
Barbarigo, Gregorio, 190 Cornaro, see Corner Fini, Vincenzo, 33, 46, 154, 155, 158
Barcham, L. William, 217 Corner, di San Polo (family), 84, 217 Fini, Vincenzo Girolamo, 34, 154
Barthel, Melchiorre (Barthel Melchior), 71 Corner, Caterina, 84 Fini, Orazio, 24
Baruffaldi, Girolamo, 187 Corner, Flaminio, 195 Fiocco, Giuseppe, 263
Bassi, Elena, 24, 154, 220 Corner, Federico, 217 Fischer von Erlach, Johann Bernard, 53, 54
Baxandall, Michael, 251 Corner, Piscopia Elena Lucrezia, 78, 84, 85 Flangini (family), 154
Bellucci, Antonio, 87, 140, 166, 173, 175, 178, 190 Corner, Piscopia Francesco, 85 Flores d’Arcais, Francesca, 182
Beltrame, Marco, 71 Corner, Piscopia Giovanni Battista, 84 Fochi, Ferdinando, 182, 220
Benassai, Paolo, 152 Corner, Piscopia Girolamo, 85 Fogliata, Mario, 263
Benedict III (pope), 162 Coronelli, Vincenzo, 257, 258 Fontebasso, Francesco, 239
Benoni, Giuseppe, 152 Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria, 257, 258 Forabosco, Girolamo, 142
Bensi, Paolo, 263 Correggio, see Allegri, Antonio Fortuny, Mariano, 158
Benzoni, Gino, 30, 31, 34, 53 Correr, di San Giovanni Decollato (family), 166 Foscarini, di San Stae (family), 84
Bernini, Gianlorenzo, 54, 60, 78, 217, 239 Correr, Angelo, 219 Frank, Martina, 16, 18, 24, 34, 48, 55, 61, 63, 86, 87, 128,
Berrettini, Pietro, see Da Cortona Pietro Corubolo, Alessandro, 239 152, 159, 187
Bertoli, Bruno, 162 Cozzi, Gaetano, 13 Freschot, Casimiro, 46, 63, 84
Bolzoni, Lina, 116 Craievich, Alberto, 166, 189 Fumiani, Giovanni Antonio, 139, 162, 165, 166, 187,
Bonazza, Giovanni, 61, 79 Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, 259 189, 190
Boni, Zanetta, 84
Bonomi, Roberto, 262 da Canal, Vincenzo, 173, 175, 224 Gaier, Martin, 31, 33, 46, 52, 54, 55, 61, 158
Borean, Linda, 61 Da Cortona, Pietro, 181, 187 Galen, 108
Borgia, Francis (saint), 144, 190 da Mosto, Alvise, 55, 79 Gallego, Julián, 33
Borgomaniero, Alessandro, 24 Da Narni, Erasmo, 31 Garzoni, Girolamo, 61
Borromini, Francesco, 54, 217 Dal Pozzo, Bartolomeo, 161 Gaspari, Antonio, 52, 53, 54, 60, 61, 79, 87, 91, 140, 217,
Bortoloni, Mattia, 200 Dalla Colletta, Francesco, 214 220, 223
Boschini, Marco, 153, 158 Damira, 145 Gattamelata, see Da Narni Erasmo
Brentana, Simone, 189 Daniels, Jeffery, 172 Gaulli, Giovanni Battista, known as Baciccia, 217, 239,
Broli, Bernardo, 145 David, Jaques Louis, 30 253
269
Gemin, Massimo, 18, 24 Lubrani, Giacomo, 71 Orpheus, 166, 211, 214

Ghio, Lilli, 190 Lucco, Mauro, 139, 173 Ottavianus Augustus, see Augustus
Gianvizio, Giacomo Maria, 128 Lucini, Giovanni Battista, 30 Otto III (emperor), 162
Gioacchino (saint), 166 Lupis, Antonio, 84
Giogalli, Simon, 181 Pacifico, Pietro Antonio, 187
Giordano, Luca, 145, 181, 223, 239 Magani, Fabrizio, 175, 181, 189 Padovanino, see Varotari Alessandro
Giuseppe (saint), 91, 182 Magrini, Marina, 239 Pagani, Paolo, 220
Giustiniani, Lorenzo (saint), 86, 87, 140, 173, 175, 178 Manaigo, Silvestro, 200 Palladio, Andrea, 18, 53, 55, 152, 239
Goi, Paolo, 263 Mancini, Franco, 187 Pallucchini, Rodolfo, 175, 178, 203, 251, 261
Goya, Francisco, 214 Manin (family), 91, 190, 239 Pancras (saint), 162, 164, 165
Gonzaga, Luigi (saint), 190 Mantegna, Andrea, 162 Pantaleon (saint), 187, 189
Grimani (family), 33 Manzoni, Ridolfo, 257 Parodi, Filippo, 54, 60, 78
Griselini, Francesco, 262, 263 Maratta, Carlo, 159, 173, 190 Partecipazio, Giovanni (doge), 164
Gritti, Triadan, 34 Marcello, Lorenzo, 53, 79 Partecipazio, Giustiniano (doge), 161
Groppelli, Giovanni Battista, 60 Marcus Aurelius (emperor), 31 Pasian, Alessio, 258
Groppelli, Marino, 60 Marinelli Sergio, 189, 239 Patin, Carla, 85
Gualdi, Federico, see Gualdo Federico Mariotti, Giambattista, 200 Patin, Carlo, 85
Gualdo, Federico, 112, 158 Mariuz, Adriano, 153, 172, 200, 203, 217, 220, 230, 253 Paul V (pope)
Guerriero, Simone, 87 Mark (saint), 78 Pavanello, Giuseppe, 217, 230
Guidarelli, Gianmario, 24 Martinelli, Domenico, 74, 78, 122, 182, 187, 195 Pedrali, Giacomo, 145, 181
Gullino, Giuseppe, 52 Martinioni, Giustiniano, 53, 79, 262 Pedrocco, Filippo, 116, 139, 142, 145, 224, 249, 259, 261
Guglielmi, Simone, 181 Mary (mother of Jesus), 18, 24, 91, 145, 146, 147, 166, Pellegrini, Girolamo, 87, 181
172, 190, 195, 197, 249, 251, 253 Pellegrini, Giannantonio, 140, 161, 190, 195, 217, 200,
Heintz, Daniel, 162, 190 Mary Magdalene (saint), 144 220, 230, 249, 258
Hercules (Greek hero), 108, 112, 117, 154, 158, 166, 211, Maschietto, Francesco Ludovico, 84 Pelli, Andrea, 220
220, 223 Mason, Stefania, 144 Penso, Francesco, see Cabianca Francesco
Hermes Trismegistus, 112, 117 Massari, Giorgio, 55, 249, 253, 259 Perissa Annalisa, see Perissa Torrini Annalisa
Hopkins, Andrew, 16 Matthew (saint), 48 Perissa, Torrini Annalisa, 129, 162
Mauro, Gaspare, 145 Pesaro, Elena, 159
Isidore of Seville, 108 Mazza, Cristiana, 233 Pesaro, Giovanni (doge), 63, 139, 159
Ivanoff, Nicola, 152, 162, 189, 211, 263 Mazzetti Tencalla, Carpoforo, 233, 239 Pesaro, Leonardo, 159
Ivanovich, Cristoforo, 63, 71, 74, 159 Mazzoni, Sebastiano, 152, 153, 159, 162, 230 Peter Martyr (saint), 161
Isabella of Portugal (empress), 144 Menarola, Pietro, 257 Petrelli, Marco, 262
Mengozzi Colonna, Girolamo, 182, 187, 253 Piana, Mario, 262
James (saint), 46, 48 Menniti, Ippolito Antonio, 63 Pianta, Alessandro, 262
Jean monsieur, see Steve, Jean Merengo, Enrico (Meyring Heinrich), 34, 37 Pianta, Antonio, 262
Jesus of Nazareth, 37, 91, 144, 146, 147, 162, 190, 239 Merkel, Ettore, 122 Pianta, Francesco, junior, 108, 112, 116, 122, 262
Juster, Giuseppe, 257 Michiel, Elena, 223 Piazzetta, Giacomo, 122, 128, 203
Midas (king), 219 Piazzetta, Giambattista, 200, 203, 224, 263
Knox, George, 211 Mocenigo, Alvise, da Sant’Alvise, 53, 61 Pilo, Giuseppe Maria, 251
Kostka, Stanislaus (saint), 190 Mocenigo, Alvise II, da San Stae (doge), 189, 259 Pin, Corrado, 63
Moli, Clemente, 86 Pittoni, Giambattista, 200
Lacchin, Enrico, 108 Molinari, Antonio, 87, 130, 166, 172, 173, 190 Plato, 108, 130
Lacombe, Jacques, 258 Monica (saint), 182 Pope, Alexander, 259
Lancillotti, Carlo, 116 Moretti, Faustino, 181 Poussin, Nicolas, 217
Lando, Pietro (doge), 162 Moretti, Lino, 189, 195, 197, 200, 203 Povoledo, Elena, 187
Lanfranco, Giovanni, 239 Moretti, Silvia, 130 Pozzo, Andrea, 87, 189, 253, 263
Langetti, Giovanni Battista, 142, 144 Morlaiter, Giovanni Maria, 251, 262 Pozzo, Giuseppe (Jacopo Antonio), 87, 91
Lawrence (saint), 142 Morosini, di San Canciano (family), 78 Praz, Mario, 108, 112, 116, 117
Lazari, Vincenzo, 87 Morosini, Giovanni Francesco, 71, 74, 79 Primaticcio, Francesco, 219
Lazzari, Francesco, 130 Morosini, Francesco (doge), 13, 24, 30, 52, 53, 54, 60, 78, Priuli, Gracimana, 161
Lazzarini, Gregorio, 86, 140, 166, 173, 175, 189, 190, 200 79, 178 Procaccini, Camillo, 142
Lazzarini, Lorenzo, 262 Morosini, Lorenzo, 52, 54 Puppi, Lionello, 18, 153, 261
Le Brun, Charles, 161, 217 Moschini, Giannantonio, 87
Le Court, Giusto (De Corte Josse), 37, 61, 63, 71, 86, 87 Mucchi, Ludovico, 263 Querini Valier, Elisabetta, 79, 84
Leo V the Armenian (emperor), 161 Mucius Scaevola, 224
Leone, Marco, 153 Muraro, Maria Teresa, 187, 263 Raffaello, see Sanzio Raffaello
Leopold I (emperor), 153 Muriani, Angelo, 257 Ravaioli, Laura, 55
Liberi, Pietro, 86, 139, 142, 152, 153, 158, 159, 178, 181, Musalo, Andrea, 55, 261 Ravelli, Lanfranco, 181
230 Read, John, 112
Liss, Johann, 78, 142, 203 Nadin Bassani, Lucia, 85 Régnier, Nicolas, 142
Litterini, Agostino, 182 Nave, Bernardo, 217 Reni, Guido, 239
Longhena, Baldassare, 11, 13, 16, 18, 24, 46, 63, 78, 86, Negri, Pietro, 139, 145, 147, 152 Ricchi, Pietro, 181, 182
87, 91, 187, 128, 152, 159, 214, 217 Niero, Antonio, 16, 24, 61, 249, 251 Ripa, Cesare, 34, 37, 61, 78, 86, 108, 112, 116, 117, 122,
Longhi, Pietro, 116, 164, 257, 259 154, 155
Longhi, Roberto, 189 Olivato, Loredana, 55 Ricci, Sebastiano, 55, 128, 129, 140, 161, 172, 187, 189,
Loth, Johann Carl, 153, 161, 190, 230 Onfale, 166 190, 195, 197, 200, 217, 220, 223, 249, 258
Louis XIV (king), 161 Onofri, Fedele, 74 Robusti, Jacopo, known as Tintoretto, 108, 112, 117,
270
162, 197 Tron, di San Stae (family), 159

Roca, De Amicis A., 178 Tron, Andrea, 161
Roch (saint), 146, 147 Tron, Nicolò, 161
Rockwell, Peter, 262 Tumidei, Stefano, 78
Rodope (queen of Thrace) 145 Turlon, Elisa Chiara, 257
Romanelli, Giandomenico, 117, 139, 214
Roncaioli, Pietro, 219, 223, 224 Uberti, Pietro, 200
Rossetti, Luisa, 189 Ulysses, 211
Rossi, Domenico, 55, 203, 259
Rossi, Massimiliano, 153 Valier, di San Giobbe (family), 79
Rossi, Paola, 37, 61, 63, 87, 108, 112, 116, 117, 128, 129 Valier, Bertucci (doge), 79
Rossi Pinelli, Orietta, 30 Valier, Silvestro (doge), 79, 84
Rues, Tommaso, 37, 87 Vannacci, Giuseppe, 60
Ruggeri, Ugo, 154 Varotari, Alessandro, known as Padovanino, 153, 175
Ruschi, Francesco, 145 Vecchia, Pietro, 144, 190
Rugolo, Ruggero, 11, 16, 31, 34, 37, 52, 53, 54, 60, 78, 79, Vecellio, Tiziano, 153, 161, 165, 187
85, 91, 108, 129, 145, 146, 154, 158, 161, 187, 189, 190, Vendramin, Francesco, 61, 63
217, 219, 220, 239, 249, 253, 257, 258, 259, 263 Venier, di San Vio (family), 128
Veronese, see Caliari, Paolo
Sabina (saint), 162, 164 Vicini, Maria Lucrezia, 239
Sacchi, Andrea, 190 Vico, Giambattista, 211
Sagredo (family), 233, 259 Vincenti, Domenico, 140
Salutati, Coluccio, 117 Vio, Gastone, 86, 129
Sandi (family), 203 Virgil, 108
Sandi, Tommaso, 203, 214 Viviani, Lorenzo, 60
Sandi, Vettor, 211, 214 Vouet, Simon, 161, 217
Sannazaro, Jacopo, 30
Sansovino, Francesco, 13, 33, 259 Wittkower, Rudolf, 262
Sansovino, Jacopo, 129 Wharton, Philip (duke of), 258
Santurini, Francesco, 145
Sanzio, Raffaello, 161, 190, 239 Zechariah (saint), 161
Sardi, Giuseppe, 34, 37, 61 Zampetti, Pietro, 145
Sardi, Valentin, 203 Zanchi, Antonio, 139, 142, 145, 147, 152, 153, 161, 162,
Sartori, Antonio, 122 164, 165, 166, 178, 181, 190, 223, 230
Sassi, Luca, 11 Zane, di San Stin (family), 129
Sebastian (saint), 147 Zane, Marino, 220, 223
Segala, Giovanni, 87, 189, 190 Zane, Vettor, 223
Selfridge Field, Eleanor, 195, 197 Zanetti, Antonio Maria, 153, 162, 166, 189, 190, 195,
Selvatico, Pietro, 55, 78, 87, 203 220, 249
Sobieska, Teresa Cunegonda, 187 Zanetto, Marco, 30
Spiriti, Andrea, 78 Zava, Boccazzi Franca, 187, 258
Stazio, Abondio, 219, 220, 230, 233, 239 Zenobio (family), 219
Stazio, Andrea, 200 Zonca, Giovanni Antonio, 162, 164
Stefani Mantovanelli, Marina, 144 Zuccolo, Leopoldo, 259
Steve, Jean, 257, 258
Strozzi, Bernardo, 142, 203
Strozzi, Giulio, 30, 33, 54
Suomela Girardi, Francesco, 87
Tabacco, Bernardo, 78, 84, 91

Temanza, Tommaso, 259
Teresa of Ávila (saint), 144
Tesauro, Emanuele, 63, 71, 116, 214
Tesseri, Teodoro, 54
Tiepolo, Giambattista, 11, 159, 161, 182, 200, 203, 211,
214, 217, 224, 249, 251, 253, 259
Tintoretto, see Robusti Jacopo
Tirali, Andrea, 54, 55, 79, 259
Tirali, Piero, 60
Titus (emperor), 139
Thomas, Aquinas (saint), 108
Ton, Denis, 211, 214
Torretti, Giuseppe, 91, 122, 129, 130
Torri, Pietro Antonio, 181
Toschini, Giovanni, 60
Trabucco, Antonio, 60
Tremignon, Alessandro, 33, 154
Trevisani, Angelo, 189, 190, 200
271
Giovanni Battista Cavalieri, Deformed Head, Campanile of Santa Maria Formosa.
PHOTO CREDITS AND AKNOLEDGEMENTS

All photos are by Luca Sassi and are thus the property of Sassi Editore srl, except for the following:
© Cameraphoto Arte / Venice, pages 4-5, 13, 144-145, 148-149, 150-151, 152, 160 © Photoservice Electa / Anelli, page 145 © Courtesy of Procuratoria di San Marco – Venice, page 172 ©
Fondazione Querini Stampalia Onlus, Venice, page 256. The following pictures are from the archives of Massimo Favilla and Ruggero Rugolo: pages 16, 33 top, 52 top, 53, 54, 60, 79, 85
top and bottom left, 112 top, 129 top and bottom right, 140, 159, 161, 175 right, 217, 249 bottom, 257, 258 © Arsenale Editrice, page 231.
We wish to express our thanks to Prof. Giandomenico Romanelli, for granting permission to publish the illustrations pertaining to the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.
Our gratitude also goes to the Ufficio per la Promozione dei Beni Culturali of the Curia Patriarcale di Venezia for granting authorisation to take the many photographs in the churches of
Venice, and to the parish priests of the individual churches for making the photography sessions possible, to Vicario Ingegner Demetrio Sonaglioni of the Arciconfraternita della Scuola
Grande di San Rocco for the photographs of the interiors of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Dottor Claudio De Donatis and Dottoressa Barolini of the Consiglio Regionale del Veneto
for the photographs of Palazzo Ferro-Fini, Dottor Vespignani of ANCE for Palazzo Sandi, Signor Sandro of the church of San Zaccaria, Dottor Padoan and Dottoressa Schiffini of
Azienda U.L.S.S. 12 Veneziana for the hospital of S.S. Giovanni e Paolo and for San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, Padre Aldo Genesio for the church of the Jesuits, Padre Roberto Magni for the
church of the Scalzi, Dottoressa Lain for Ca’ Sagredo, and Ivano Beggio for Palazzo Barbaro Curtis.
Special thanks are due to the directors and staff of: the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, the Biblioteca del Seminario Patriarcale, the Biblioteca dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte, Fondazione
Giorgio Cini, the Archivio Storico del Patriarcato e dell’Archivio di Stato in Venice, and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence; we are also most grateful to: Manuela Barausse, Roberta
Battaglia, William Lee Barcham, Frank Becker, Giovanna Cafiero, Dennis Cecchin, Alberto Craievich, Cristina Crisafulli, Roberto Degano, Monica De Vincenti, Barbara Del Vicario Fo-
scari, Paolo Delorenzi, Riccardo Drusi, Antonio Foscari, Martina Frank, Rossella Granziero, Simone Guerriero, Laura Levantino, Tommaso Magni, Leonardo Mezzaroba, Lucia Pick, Ida
Santisi, Mita Scomazzon, Anna Maria Spiazzi, Enrico Tagliapietra, Vincenzo Tagliapietra, Andrea Tomezzoli, Camillo Tonini, Debora Tosato, Davide Trivellato, Carlo Urbani, Catherine
Whistler, Silvia Zanchi, Anna Pia Zanon, and Emanuela Zucchetta.
We remember with fondest memory Don Mario Dal Tin, former parish priest of the Gesuati, a sincere and enthusiastic appreciator of the treasures in his church.
272

M.FAVILLA - R.RUGOLO Baroque Venice. SPL PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

M.FAVILLA - R.RUGOLO Baroque Venice. SPL PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Venezia Barocca UK:Layout 1 17-08-2009 23:28 Page 1

Massimo Favilla Ruggero Rugolo

PAGE. 2, Baldassare Longhena,

Published for the first time in Italy

Sassi Editore Srl, Viale Roma 122/b,

Editorial coordination: Luca Sassi

13 CHAPTER I – ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 139 CHAPTER II – PAINTING

30 CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 142 – Precursors

BAROQUE VENICE – INTRODUCTION 11

CHAPTER ONE - ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE

The seventeenth century brought Venice’s last

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 13

transformation, in a world – that of the lagoon –

14 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE

THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

On 22 October 1630, the plague was still raging

16 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

though complementary shape. Totally inward-looking,

20 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

TOP: Baldassare Longhena, Basilica

22 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

24 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

26 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR 27

28 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – THE PLAGUE AND THE CRETAN WAR 29

CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

30 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 31

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 33

the use of festoons, garlands, allegories, putti, rosettes,

34 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 37

46 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

Baldassare Longhena, Façade of the

48 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

TOP: Giusto Le Court (attr.), Atlantes

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

accumulate eternal treasures in heaven.

THE FAÇADE FOR FRANCESCO MOROSINI

An ambitious but much less successful project was

52 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

compositions and, ultimately, his receipt of the Corno

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 53

triaxial format of the triumphal arch (MCVE, Raccolta

54 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION

projects had been taken up, the city would have

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 55

OPPOSITE: Domenico Rossi, Façade

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – CHURCH FAÇADES FOR PERSONAL CELEBRATION 59

PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES

The designs for the astonishing façade of San Vidal

60 BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES

by Gaspari himself, with the help of the Genoese stone

THE MONUMENT TO ALVISE MOCENIGO

The pyramid-obelisk motif, a “symbol of glory”

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES 61

Francesco Vendramin. He creates a Bernini-style stage

THE MONUMENT TO DOGE GIOVANNI

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES 63

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES 69

BAROQUE VENICE – CHAPTER I – PERSONAL CELEBRATION IN CHURCHES 71

and cast down, bearing the motto ‘Semper’” and, on