| How does the joint UNESCO-Private
Committees Programme for the Safeguarding of
Venice work? |
In response to the appeal launched by the Director
General of UNESCO in 1966, over 50 private organizations
were established in a number of countries to collect
and channel contributions to restore and preserve
Venice. Over the years, the International Private
Committees have worked closely with the Superintendencies
of Monuments and Galleries of Venice, through UNESCO,
to identify and address priority needs. Since 1969,
they have funded the restoration of more than 100
monuments and 1,000 works of art, provided laboratory
equipment and scientific expertise, sponsored research
and publications and awarded innumerable grants
for craftsmen, restorers and conservators to attend
specialist courses in Venice.
36 years on, the Association of Private Committees
has 26 member organizations representing 11 countries
(6 new Committees, based respectively in Denmark,
the USA (2) and Italy (3), have joined in the
last three years). Since 1997 the Association
has enjoyed special relationship status as an
N.G.O in operational relations with UNESCO.
In the period 1999 to 2002, twenty-two Committees
– from Australia, Austria, Denmark, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Holland, nine from Italy,
Sweden, Switzerland and four from the United States
of America – provided well in excess of
€ 7 million in finance for 138 restoration,
research, maintenance and cultural promotion projects
as well as over 25 bursaries and substantial contributions
to the cost of the 1999, 2001 and 2003 ICCROM-UNESCO
International Courses on the Conservation of Stone.
At the time of writing, in October 2002, a further
34 projects are financed and waiting to start.
The following pages offer an overview of the Private
Committees’ growing commitment to Venice,
with a description of the various projects completed
each year since 1999 and a brief mention of those
currently underway and waiting to start
PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING
1999
Three and a half centuries of neglect and maltreatment
were finally reversed in October 1999 with the
completion of the comprehensive restoration of
the Ancient Jewish Cemetery on the Lido, first
established in 1386. Unused since the end of the
XVIII century, when the “new” cemetery
was opened, the old burial ground had become overgrown
with vegetation and overcrowded with tombstones,
many of them randomly scattered and broken. The
recent work, financed jointly by public authorities
and a consortium of Private Committees led by
SAVE VENICE INC.
and including the
WORLD
MONUMENTS FUND, the
VENICE
IN PERIL FUND and the
COMITATO
PER IL CENTRO STORICO EBRAICO DI VENEZIA,
involved the drainage, excavation and raising
of a large marshy area, the restoration and partial
resiting of hundreds of stones, many dating from
the XVI and XVII centuries, and the gradual rehabilitation
of the vegetation. The Cemetery is now open to
the public every Sunday and on certain other days
by arrangement through the Jewish Museum in the
Ghetto.
A second long-awaited inauguration was that of
the restoration of the XIII Cent. sculpted marble
angel and the archway supporting it in Calle Magno,
Castello, financed by
PRO
VENEZIA SWEDEN and
THE
AUSTRALIAN COMMITTEE FOR VENICE. Working
space was so confined that there was no alternative
but to close the calle entirely for the duration
of the restoration, thus blocking an extremely
popular short-cut for local inhabitants, a telling
example of how intimate a role art and history
play in the fabric of the city.
Another example prompted the
ASSOCIATION
OF PRIVATE COMMITTEES to provide emergency
funds for the immediate recovery and restoration
of a fine XVIII century painting damaged during
the attempted theft of money from a wayside altar
in nearby via Garibaldi, one of the scores of
capitelli that adorn the city.
The first stage of
VENICE
IN PERIL’s exciting venture into
the conservation of historic housing in Venice
also reached completion during the year. This
Superintendency-led project brought together an
international team of undergraduate and doctoral
students, academics and professional engineers
and architects to produce a prototype, conservation-based
plan for the restoration of a typical terraced
house in Cannaregio. The almost derelict building
was last restructured 200 years ago but in parts
dates back at least to the XVI century. One of
the interesting and valuable aspects of the project
is that the plans must take account of the fact
that the building is part of the public housing
stock and so must match the principles of conservation
to the practical needs dictated by the city’s
housing policy. The City Council has undertaken
to use the plans to carry out the restoration
and VIP will publish and distribute a final report.
The
COMITÉ FRANÇAIS
POUR LA SAUVEGARDE DE VENISE often sponsors
the restoration of Venetian monuments with a French
connection, as is the case with the Cappella Clary
in the Church of San Trovaso, the burial place
of a French princess. The most important work
in the chapel is the beautiful XV century relief
carving of three Greek marble panels on the front
of the altar but the project also provided for
cleaning and consolidation of the carved wooden
stalls and for uncovering the tempera paintings
on the vaulting which had been whitewashed out
of sight following a fire in the last century.
The
COMITÉ FRANÇAIS
also financed the restoration of Lorenzo Bregno’s
XVI century funeral monument to Alvise Pasqualigo
in the Church of the Frari in memory of M.me Solange
Gaussen. In November and December the Committee
enabled the organ doors that Bonfacio de’
Pitati painted for the Church of Sant’Alvise
(restored in 1998) to be the subject of a temporary
exhibition in the Accademia Galleries. And again
in 1999, the French Committee combined encouragement
of craft skills in France with support for a Venetian
institution by providing bursaries for a French
craftswoman to attend several courses at the
VENICE
EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR THE TRADES AND CRAFTS OF THE
CONSERVATION OF THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE.
The Centre itself made substantial practical contributions
to several restoration projects in the city, established
links with several European universities and considerably
widened its catchment area into the Asian and
American continents.
Near the Arsenale, in the Naval Museum, the
WORLD
MONUMENTS FUND financed the restoration
of the carved, gilded and painted sides of the
poop deck of a flagship galley sunk by the Turks
in 1657.
SAVE VENICE INC.
brought three projects in the Church of San Francesco
della Vigna to completion during the year. The
Cappella Badoer-Giustinian was restored in memory
of one of the founding fathers of the international
private organizations for Venice, John MacAndrew,
and his wife Betty. The chapel is faced with relief
sculptures that were probably salvaged from an
early-Renaissance choir screen formerly in the
body of the church, as happened in the churches
of S. Giovanni in Bragora and S. Stefano. The
refinement, harmony and elegance revealed in the
early-XV century Madonna dell’Umiltà,
an image in which the Virgin is seated humbly
on the ground or on a cushion rather than enthroned
in glory, make its restoration one of the most
significant of recent years. The third item was
an early alabaster statue of St. Louis of Toulouse,
known as S. Alvise in Venice. Another church that
has received consistent support from
SAVE
VENICE is that of S. Giovanni in Bragora,
where this year work on the Chapel of S. Giovanni
Elemosinario was completed with restoration of
the carved and gilded wood sarcophagus lid. The
American committee confirmed its commitment to
maintenance as the key to staving off the risks
always involved in restoration by attending to
the famous altarpiece by Cima da Conegliano in
the Church of Madonna dell’Orto. And it
ensured that the two fine baroque holy water stoups
at the entrance to the Church of the Salute were
once again ready for use by the Festa della Salute
in November.
In 1999, the
VENICE INTERNATIONAL
FOUNDATION’s wide-ranging support
for the cultural initiatives of Venice City Council
took the form of financial contributions for the
restoration of the “Browning” mezzanine
in Cà Rezzonico, where the English poet
died in 1889, and of the clock tower in St. Mark’s
Square; the Foundation also funded educational
programmes connected with an exhibition of works
by Claes Oldenberg at the Correr Museum and with
the Doge’s Palace.
PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING
2000
Following its long and painstaking restoration,
the remarkable mid-16th Century painted wood Crucifixion
group, with the Virgin and St. John, from the
Church of San Michele, financed by the
AMERICA-ITALY
SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA and the
STICHTING
NEDERLANDS VENETIË COMITÉ,
finally returned to the church in October. A study
of this and similar sculptures in Venice and the
Veneto, prompted by the restoration, is being
prepared for publication. Still on the island
of San Michele, the Philadelphia Committee also
joined forces with the
AUSTRALIAN
COMMITTEE FOR VENICE to restore the original
entrance to the church, with its masterly relief
carving of St. Michael and the dragon. While in
its “home” church of San Zaccaria,
the
STICHTING NEDERLANDS
VENETIË COMITÉ also completed
the restoration of the remaining two gilded XV
century polyptych frames in the Cappella San Tarasio.
The Dutch Committee also took the first step towards
consideration of a major project to restore the
façade of the Church of San Zaccaria by
commissioning a photogrammetric survey and chemical
and physical analyses of the stonework, thereby
enabling the Superintendency to produce detailed
plans and costing for the proposed work. And in
another chapel in San Zaccaria, the Cappella Sant’Atanasio,
the
ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE
COMMITTEES used funds provided by a local
bank to finance archaeological investigations
which have revealed large sections of beautifully
intact opus sectile flooring belonging to the
earlier Gothic church.
Full-scale preparatory surveys and tests on the
building containing the German Synagogue, proved
vital to the success of the
SAVE
VENICE–sponsored consolidation work.
Without such scientific knowledge it would have
been impossible to cope with the often alarming
consequences of the intricacies and improvisations
that characterized building practices in the Ghetto
over the centuries. This second phase of the project
(the first involved repairs to the roof) comprised
the comprehensive consolidation of the building;
preparations for the third phase, the restoration
of the synagogue itself, are already underway.
Following similarly exhaustive preliminary studies,
SAVE VENICE INC.
also saw completion of the exemplary restoration
of a cycle of late-XV century frescoes in the
chancel and apse of the Church of San Samuele.
Another great expression of the early Renaissance
is in the Church of SS.Apostoli, where the American
committee supplemented Italian State funds to
complete the restoration of Coducci’s Cappella
Corner. Work on the two even earlier Renaissance
altars by Antonio Rizzo on either side of the
great chancel screen in St. Mark’s Basilica,
one dedicated to St. Paul and the other to St.
James, was finished early the year, as was the
restoration of two paintings by Pordenone, Titian’s
great rival in the 1520s and '30s. Originally
the doors of a cabinet housing relics belonging
to the Church of San Rocco, the panels depict
St. Christopher and St. Martin.
SAVE VENICE INC.
played an important part in Venice’s Jubilee
Year celebrations by financing the restoration
of ten sculptures (XIV – XVIII cent.) assembled
for an exhibition organized by the Diocese of
Venice. And the end of the year saw completion
of the restoration of the funeral monument to
Jacopo Pesaro in the Church of the Frari, where
several of the Private Committees (the Austrians,
the Swiss, the French and the British, as well
as the Americans) have financed work in recent
years.
In association with the “Inner Wheel”
association of Venice, the
AMICI
DELLA BASILICA DEI SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO
undertook the restoration of a painting of the
“Holy Trinity” by Leandro Bassano.
And a project funded jointly by the
AMICI
and
SAVE VENICE INC.
involved the restoration of the XVIII century
gilded wood throne used by the Doge on visits
to the Basilica, together with a processional
canopy entirely embroidered with tiny glass beads
threaded on fine metal wire.
In another joint effort, the
COMITATO
ITALIANO PER VENEZIA secured funding for
the restoration of the dozens of iron window and
door frames in the ancient Artiglierie building
in the Arsenale, in time for part of it to be
used for the Venice Biennale Art and Architecture
exhibitions in 1999 and 2000 (the Superintendency
used its ministerial budget to restore the roof
and Special Law funding was allocated for other
work required). The Italian Committee continued
to show its special concern for the Church of
S. Stefano with the restoration of the XVII century
monument to Lazzaro Ferro. Other joint projects
completed included one with
VENETIAN
HERITAGE INC., for the high altar of the
Church of San Rocco, though the altar is still
covered by the scaffolding required for further
work on the apse and semi-dome above, and another
with the State for an XVIII century ceiling painting
by F. Migliori in the Church of San Marcuola.
On its own account,
VENETIAN
HERITAGE funded a variety of projects,
including the restoration of a ceremonial sword
and a silver casket belonging to the Treasury
of St. Mark’s Basilica, the purchase of
state-of-the-art thermal imaging equipment for
the Superintendency’s scientific laboratory
and a grant to enable one of Venice’s most
eminent cultural institutions – the Giorgio
Cini Foundation - to lend an important drawing
for exhibition in Athens.
PRO VENEZIA SWITZERLAND
has always been sensitive to the need for constant
monitoring and prompt maintenance of restored
buildings. True to this principle, the Swiss Committee
provided funds for tests to be carried out on
the façade of the Church of S. Maria del
Giglio, which they helped to restore as recently
as 1997 and also for regular inspection of the
pigeon “dissuasion” system.
In July, the
COMITÉ
FRANÇAIS POUR LA SAUVEGARDE DE VENISE
was able to inaugurate the restoration and refurbishment
of two frescoed rooms in the Querini Stampalia
Foundation, once occupied by the Serenissima’s
last ambassador to France. The removal of crude
XIX century overpainting has revealed an almost
complete original decorative scheme that quite
transforms the rooms concerned and returns them
to the museum circuit. And in October the
VENICE
INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION celebrated the
completion of work on the entire cycle of the
frescoes that Giandomenico Tiepolo painted originally
for the family’s country house at Zianigo.
The FOUNDATION‘s financial commitment extends
well beyond the actual restoration to organization
of a temporary exhibition of the frescoes at the
Correr Museum and of their eventual return to
Cà Rezzonico.
VIF‘s
policy of support for the city’s museum
system also took the form of finance for display
panels to publicize its various forms of cultural
promotion.
The Venice branch of
ZONTA
CLUB INTERNATIONAL provided funding for
the restoration of Jacopo Bassano’s famous
painting of the “Nativity” in the
Basilica of S. Giorgio Maggiore and the
ASSOCIATION
OF PRIVATE COMMITTEES used funds donated
by the Japanese Horiuchi Foundation for the restoration
of a painting of St. George and the Dragon by
Carpaccio, which returned to its home in the Cappella
del Conclave, also on the Island of S. Giorgio,
in time for the 200th anniversary celebrations
of the election of Pope Pius VII in the chapel.
This was the first time that funds from Japan
have been devoted to Venice in the framework of
the UNESCO-Private Committees Programme. The
ASSOCIATION
also ensured restoration of a badly damaged painting
of “Armida and Rinaldo” by the XVII
artist Ponzone at the Cini Foundation and responded
with emergency funding when part of the paint
surface on a panel painting by Paolo Veneziano
in the Church of the Frari was suddenly discovered
to be lifting. Following scientific analyses commissioned
by the Superintendency a long-term conservation
approach has now been decided and the work will
be financed by
SAVE VENICE
INC..
And again in 2000, the French and British Committees
combined encouragement of craft skills in their
countries with support for a Venetian institution
by providing bursaries for two experienced craftspeople
to attend courses at the
VENICE
EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR THE TRADES AND CRAFTS OF THE
CONSERVATION OF THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE.
PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING
2001
Following extensive chemical and physical analyses,
the
AMICI DELLA BASILICA
DEI SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO, (with funding
from the Fondazione Ercole Varzi) completed restoration
of the Cappella Sagredo, with frescoes by Giambattista
and GiandomenicoTiepolo and Girolamo Pellegrino,
in the Church of S. Francesco della Vigna. In
the same church
SAVE VENICE
INC. funded the restoration of the great
gilded wood arch, attributed to Longhena, over
the high altar.
Three committees worked in the Church of San Rocco
during the year: the
COMITATO
ITALIANO completed the painting of the
Transfiguration by G. Angeli in the semi-dome
above the high altar,
VENICE
IN PERIL saw to the carved Renaissance
stonework around the side door and
SAVE
VENICE INC. added the Pordenone frescoes
depicting Supplicants to the panel paintings of
St. Christopher and St.Martin restored in 2000.
In the Church of the Carmini the
COMITATO
ITALIANO joined forces with VENETIAN HERITAGE
INC. to transform the appearance of the back wall
of the church with the restoration of the great
funeral monument to the capitano da mar Jacopo
Foscarini;
VENICE IN PERIL
returned to the altar of the Scuola Grande dei
Carmini and added a Sebastiano Ricci painting
to the statues it had provided for in 1998; and
SAVE VENICE INC. pursued its policy of making
funds available for maintenance by undertaking
work on a Tintoretto painting of The Presentation
of Jesus at the Temple.
VENEDIG LEBT of
Vienna saw work completed on the early XVII century
high altar and the altarpiece by Palma il Giovane
in the Church of San Lio. In an exciting, though
expensive, development it was discovered that
the apparently stone statues set in niches on
the altar were in fact wood and that their original
polychrome and gilded finish was still largely
intact beneath several layers of overpainting.
The Dutch
STICHTING NEDERLANDS
VENETIË COMITÉ financed further
action in the Cappella San Tarasio in the Church
of San Zaccaria with the restoration of the mosaic
floor in front of the central polyptych. Elsewhere
in Castello,
PRO VENEZIA
SWEDEN inaugurated the restoration of a
XV century carved stone relief known as the “Madonna
degli Alberetti” set into the wall of the
former Patriarchal Residence in Campo S.Pietro
and
SAVE VENICE
saw work completed on a monumental arch by Sanmicheli
from the Church of S. Antonio Abate, demolished
on the orders of Napoleon to make way for the
Public Gardens in Castello, where the arch now
stands.
Two clocks received attention during the year:
the
AMICI DEI MUSEI E MONUMENTI
VENEZIANI undertook the restoration of
the mechanical parts and of the faces of the clock
in the tower of the Church of S.ta Maria Formosa
and SAVE VENICE INC. commissioned the restoration
of the parchment surround of a small clock by
Francesco Pianta il Giovane in the Church of the
Frari.
The
ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE
COMMITTEES used funds from the Japanese
Sumitomo Foundation to restore three Edo-period
lacquerware items – a helmet, a saddle and
stirrups – in the Museum of Oriental Art
and
SAVE VENICE
backed the expert opinion of its Projects Board
and saw a painting from the stores of the Correr
Museum confirmed as by Carpaccio following the
restoration financed by the committee.
VENETIAN HERITAGE INC.
organized two exhibitions during the year. It
provided spectacular evidence of its efforts to
protect and promote the Venetian cultural heritage
outside the city in an exhibition of “Treasures
from Croatia”, all restored with funds provided
by the committee, at the Church of San Barnaba.
The second focused on “Renaissance and Baroque
bronzes from the collection of Alexis Gregory”
and was held at Palazzo Cini at San Vio.
SAVE VENICE continued
to use funds provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas
Foundation to create a computerized catalogue
of the City Hospital’s historic collection
of books and manuscripts in association with C.I.S.O..
Other ongoing archival work funded by
SAVE
VENICE, again in association with the Delmas
Foundation, includes the cataloguing of historic
parish archives; those of S. Angelo Raffaele and
S. Nicolò dei Mendicoli were completed
in 1999, work is underway on those of S. Felice
and is scheduled to start on the archives of the
Church of the Gesuati in 2002. In all cases the
intention is that the catalogues should be made
available on-line to scholars everywhere. The
American Committee’s fruitful collaboration
with the municipal archives continued with the
restoration and digitalisation of a second segment
of the huge Giacomelli collection of photographic
negatives, purchased by Venice City Council in
1995.
SAVE VENICE’S
involvement is enabling the systematic recovery
of invaluable records of public works projects
in the first half of the XX century. The third
phase of the project, due in 2002, is expected
to culminate with publication of a CD-Rom.
ITALIA NOSTRA, as
so often in issues concerning the protection of
the physical environment of the city, played a
leading role in attracting public attention to
the fact that steel and reinforced concrete were
being widely used to consolidate embankments and
canal edges in the lagoon, where the guideline
legislation recommends traditional wood and brick
installations. Following investigations by a government
commission, the Ministry of Public Works called
a halt to the work and ordered its effects to
be reversed wherever possible.
The
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
FOR THE ARSENALE persisted in its efforts
to promote a historically sensitive and economically
viable future for the great dockyard of the Republic
and was accorded formal consultative status as
a member, with the Superintendency of the Architectural
Heritage and the City Council, of the Naval Command’s
working group responsible for devising an integrated
development plan for the whole area.
And finally, two major restoration projects moved
from preliminary diagnostic surveys and analyses
to conservative action during the year.
THE
VENICE IN PERIL FUND responded to the Superintendency’s
urgent appeal for attention to the Cappella Emiliani,
attached to the façade of the Church of
San Michele, first by funding detailed studies
of the problems. Work has now started on raising
the marble slabs of the floor for desalination
and will proceed to global restoration work expected
to last two years. The Fund also made representations
to the Magistrato alle Acque, the authority responsible
for traffic regulation in the Lagoon, asking for
speed limits to be strictly imposed on boats passing
the island and for breakwaters to be re-installed
in an attempt to reduce the damage constantly
being caused to the building and its foundations
by excessive wash. And
SAVE
VENICE INC., with its particular interest
in early Renaissance buildings, raised scaffolding
against the Pietro Lombardo-Mauro Codussi façade
of the former Scuola Grande San Marco, now the
City Hospital, and enabled the Superintendency
to conduct comprehensive tests and analyses of
the surface and structural condition of the stonework
before moving forward to the current restoration
phase, which is also expected to take up to two
years.
PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING
2002
A group of Committees led by the
AMERICA-ITALY
SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, and including
the
ARBEITSKREIS VENEDIG
DER DEUTSCHEN UNESCO-KOMMISSION, THE WORLD MONUMENTS
FUND, SAVE VENICE INC., THE VENICE IN PERIL FUND
and the
STICHTING NEDERLANDS
VENETIË COMITÉ, responded to
the Superintendency’s suggestion that it
was time to monitor the state of conservation
of the mosaics in the Basilica di S.ta Maria Assunta
on the Island of Torcello, restored some twenty
years ago with funding provided jointly by the
International Torcello Committee and the Italian
State. Comprehensive physical and chemical tests
showed that the mosaics in a sample area around
the main door on the end wall, which had posed
serious problems before and during restoration,
are in an encouragingly healthy state and the
opportunity was taken to carry out maintenance
action. The exercise should now be extended to
rest of the mosaics in the church.
VENICE IN PERIL’s
campaign on behalf of historic housing in Venice
moved into its second phase during the year. In
the first part of the Superintendency-led project
an international team of undergraduate and doctoral
students, academics and professional engineers
and architects produced a prototype, conservation-based
plan for the restoration of a typical terraced
house in Cannaregio. In May 2002 the British committee
organized an international symposium on the conservation
of vernacular residential buildings at the Istituto
Veneto di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti in Venice.
And shortly, using Special Law funding, the City
Council is scheduled to start work on the Cannaregio
house. An important aspect of the project is that
it is designed not to produce a museum but to
add accommodation to the public housing stock
for four family units of different size and type.
VIP will publish
and distribute a final report. In another innovative
approach to helping the city,
VENICE
IN PERIL is funding a 3-year research fellowship
in association with Churchill College at the University
of Cambridge. The intention is to gather all relevant
published and unpublished information on the natural
environment, both physical and biological, of
the Venice Lagoon and the city, with a view to
providing decision-makers with an improved focus
on the best ways of saving the city and its environs.
SAVE VENICE INC.
completed two important projects in the Basilica
of the Frari during the year. X-ray photography
and infrared reflectograph technology were used
to analyse the problems of the 660-year-old Madonna
and Child with Doge Francesco Dandolo by Paolo
Veneziano. The paint surface was cleaned and consolidated
once the wooden panel support had been stabilized
and the painting was returned to its original
position in the lunette above the Doge’s
sarcophagus in the Sala Capitolare (part of its
recent problems had derived from the variations
in temperature and humidity in the Sacristy).
SAVE VENICE also
funded the restoration of one of the apse chapels
containing the monumental tomb of Melchiorre Trevisan,
who led the Venetian fleet against the Turks and
died in 1500 after losing the Battle of Modone.
In Venice’s other great Gothic basilica, the
Church of SS.Giovanni e Paolo
SAVE
VENICE saw work completed on three paintings
in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity – two by
the XVI century artist Salviati and another by Leandro
Bassano – and on the monumental entrance to
the sacristy, a memorial to Jacopo Palma il Giovane
with busts also of Palma’s father and Titian.
A four-year restoration campaign in the elegant
late-XV century Cappella Gussoni in the Church of
San Lio, with its carved altarpiece by Tullio Lombardo,
culminated in the removal of several layers of paint
and plaster-wash from the umbrella-domed ceiling,
thus revealing the original decorative design of
the chapel.. Relining and the removal of discoloured
varnish quite transformed Tintoretto’s altarpiece
The Birth of John the Baptist in the Cappella Sant’Atanasio
in the Church of San Zaccaria. The American committee
also has funding for two large paintings by Palma
Giovane – former organ doors depicting the
Triumph of David over Goliath – that hang
on the side wall of the same chapel.
SAVE VENICE financed
the restoration of Gaspare Diziani’s ceiling
paintings in the headquarters of the Venetian
Guild of Wine Merchants at the Church of San Silvestro
in 2002. Preliminary tests are expected to start
shortly on a XIV century painted and gilded wood
polyptych that also belonged to the guild and
there is a commitment to attend to Tintoretto’s
Baptism of Christ on the other side of the nave.
PRO VENEZIA SWEDEN
continued with its policy of focusing on neglected
popular public art in Castello, commissioning
a prize-winning graduate of the
ISTITUTO
VENETO DEI BENI CULTURALI to restore an
XVIII century marble statuette of the Madonna
in a niche set into the wall of a house in Salizzada
San Provolo.
SAVE VENICE
enabled a XV century wayside relief carving in
Fondamenta Quintavalle to receive much needed
attention, while the
AMICI
DEI MUSEI E MONUMENTI VENEZIANI provided
funds to restore a wooden votive altar in Campiello
dell’Erbarie at the Rialto, recently reopened
to public use following the transfer of the wholesale
fruit and vegetable market. And
VENICE
IN PERIL undertook the thankless task of
funding the restoration of what very little is
left of a relief carving by Antonio Rizzo, the
sculptor of much work in the Doge’s Palace,
on a wall in Rio Terà Barba Frutariol in
Cannaregio.
The
COMITÉ FRANÇAIS
POUR LA SAUVEGARDE DE VENISE, true to its
traditional concern for those parts of the Venetian
heritage that have French associations, arranged
with Venice City Council in 2000 to finance a
major restoration project on parts of the Ala
Napoleonica, including the Sottoportico di San
Geminiano, the monumental staircase with frescoes
by Borsato, the ante-room, the Throne Room and
the ceiling of the Ballroom. Work has kept to
schedule and the colonnaded entrance and the staircase
have reacquired grace and dignity, the latter
now bathed in light setting off the delicate colours
of the marble and plasterwork with the reopening
of four windows.
Another committee with the privilege of being
able to care for its own considerable national
legacy to Venice’s cultural heritage is
PRO VENEZIA SWITZERLAND,
which in 2002 completed preliminary investigations
into the state of conservation of the Swiss architect
Giuseppe Sardi’s double-sided monument to
Alvise Mocenigo in the Church of San Lazzaro dei
Mendicanti, inside the City Hospital. Major conservation
work will begin shortly.
The
COMITATO ITALIANO
provided emergency funding to rid the Scuola Grande
dei Carmini of woodworm and an insect whose canvas-consuming
capacity had caused a famous ceiling painting
by Tiepolo to fall from its frame. And not far
away, the Church of the Eremite took another small
step towards being able to reopen with the completed
restoration of four wall paintings depicting the
Miracles of St.Augustine by Francesco Pittoni
with finance being provided by
THE
VENICE IN PERIL FUND.
VENETIAN HERITAGE INC.
brought four important projects to conclusion
during the year. Comprehensive consolidation and
cleaning of the Baroque façade of the Church
of the Gesuiti proceeded smoothly, except for
the problems posed by the unexpectedly deteriorated
condition of the massive statue of the Virgin
Mary right at the summit of the pediment. The
extremely delicate condition of parts of the statue
of Admiral Vincenzo Cappello, which surmounts
the Renaissance entrance to the Church of S. Elena
also caused problems for the restorers. Analyses
and tests called for by the Superintendency led
to the conclusion that the only safe way to remove
damaging surface deposits was to use a laser cleaning
technique. With restoration now complete, the
Superintendency has arranged for several experts
to meet to discuss all the information gathered
from the experience and perhaps reach decisions
as to the authorship of this masterpiece of Renaissance
statuary. It took seven cycles of soaking in a
specially constructed tank to remove the destructive
salts absorbed by the carved marble of the XIII
century tomb of Doge Marino Morosini in the narthex
of St. Mark’s Basilica. The sections have
now been reassembled and insulated from salt-bearing
damp rising through the walls of the basilica.
And two early XVI century painted and gilded wooden
altars attributed to Paolo Campsa are now back
in place in the Basilica on Torcello. Again, restoration
of the monuments was accompanied by insulation
work on the walls against which they stand.
VENETIAN HERITAGE’s
field of action embraces not only the conservation
of Venetian monuments and works of art anywhere
within the former domains of the Serenissima but
also broader cultural promotion projects within
Venice itself. The American committee has developed
a special relationship with one of the city’s
leading cultural institutes, the Giorgio Cini
Foundation, and in 2002 it enabled the Foundation
to increase the efficiency of its web-site services
with a substantial donation of computer hardware
and software.
Another committee that interprets its role in
the safeguarding of Venice as involving more than
the funding of restoration work (though not excluding
it, as conservation attention to four paintings
– by Diziani, Tiepolo and Roberto Longhi
– testifies) is the
VENICE
INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION; its policy of
support for the city’s museum system involved,
amongst other initiatives, the purchase of stair-lift
facilities for the disabled, production of a brochure
giving information about the municipal museum
circuit, the promotion of two series of lectures
and substantial contributions to the organization
of an exhibition at Cà Rezzonico illustrating
a day in the life of an eighteenth century Venetian
noblewoman.
The Danish
PRO VENEZIAKOMITEÉN
started to explore the possibility of establishing
some form of Danish cultural institute in Venice
and sponsored a detailed survey of a historic
building as part of its feasibility study. And
the Venice Committee of the
DANTE
ALIGHIERI SOCIETY organized an exhibition
and a conference at the Ateneo Veneto around a
remarkable series of portraits by the Czech artist
Lotte Frumi depicting personalities who were prominent
in the cultural life of Venice in the 1960s and
‘70s.
PROJECTS UNDERWAY OR WAITING
TO START (at 15th October 2002)
Besides those already mentioned, projects currently
underway include: the relief in the lunette above
the entrance to the Scuola dei Calegheri and the
façade of the Scuola Dalmata, two chapels
dedicated to the Lando family, one in the Church
of San Sebastiano and the other in the Basilica
of San Pietro di Castello, a painting by Veronese,
also from San Pietro, and 36 precious objects
belonging to the Treasury of the Basilica of St.
Mark’s – all are financed by
SAVE
VENICE INC.. The equestrian monument Domenico
Contarini on the end wall of the Church of S.
Stefano (
COMITATO ITALIANO)
and an important painted wood crucifix in the
Church of San Fantin (
THE
VENICE IN PERIL FUND).
And the following projects are financed and waiting
to start: Verrocchio’s famous bronze equestrian
statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Campo SS. Giovanni
e Paolo (
WORLD MONUMENTS
FUND and
THE ITALIAN
STATE); a survey and feasibility study
in preparation for conservation work on the Protestant
section of the municipal cemetery on the Island
of San Michele (
PRO VENEZIAKOMITÉEN
DENMARK, PRO VENEZIA SWITZERLAND, VENICE IN PERIL,
SAVE VENICE, IST. VENETO PER I BENI CULTURALI,
STICHTING NEDERLANDS VENETIË COMITÉ,
SOC. DANTE ALIGHIERI); wooden crucifixes
from the Basilica on Torccello and Basilica of
SS. Giovanni e Paolo (
VENETIAN
HERITAGE INC.) and a wayside altar with
a wooden crucifix overlooking the bridge near
the Church of S. Angelo Raffaele (
VENICE
IN PERIL); two organs, one in the Basilica
of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (
SAVE
VENICE INC.) and the other in the Chiurch
of the Scalzi (
VENICE IN
PERIL); the frescoes in the Sacristy in
the Church of San Salvador, the Cappella Barnabò
in the Church of San Giovanni Grisostomo, a powerful
fifteenth century crucifix in the Church of San
Domenico in Chioggia and paintings by Domenico
Tintoretto, Salviati, Bonifacio De’ Pitati,
Tizianello, Basaiti and Palma Giovane in various
Venetian churches (
SAVE
VENICE INC.).
