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Several
of the private committees have sponsored
repairs at the great medieval church of
the Dominicans, founded in 1246, including
most of the funerary monuments and the sacristy.
Venice in Peril has undertaken two projects
there: the rare stained-glass window in
the south transept (1977-1983) and the nearby
altarpiece by the Venetian painter Lorenzo
Lotto (1984-85).
The vast (90sq m) window took many years
to complete -from about 1470 to 1515. Its
subject is the orthodoxy of the Dominican
Friars of the Church, with some mythological
scenes and other military ones representing
Venetian successes against the League of
Cambrai. The artists collaborating in its
67 multiple-technique lights -polychrome
glass with grisaille painting- include Giovanni
Antonio Licinio, Bartolomeo Vivarini, Cima
da Conegliano and Girolamo Mocetto (who
signed the cartoon for St Theodore on his
horse).
Tests began in 1977, in collaboration with
English experts in Canterbury and with the
experimental glass laboratory on Murano,
investigating the humidity, physical pressure,
air pollution and variations in temperature
in the church, as well as previous cleaning
and protective techniques used on the window.
Together these had led to serious problems,
including the detachment of the grisaille
layer and the blackening of protective varnish.
The glass panes were dismantled, the colour
layer was fixed and then dirt was removed
from the glass under a microscope.
Lorenzo Lotto's complex picture is dated
1542; then aged 60, he had developed a close
relationship with the Dominicans of the
church (where he wished to be buried) and
had already painted portraits of the monks
dressed as their patron saints. In Sant'Antonino
Distributing Alms Lotto defies Renaissance
conventions of composition and perspective
to describe the workings in this world of
divine Charity. Removal of discoloured varnish
in 1984-85 has revealed the colours of what
now emerges as an original and powerful
work of art.
DIRECTION OF WORKS: Superintendency for
the Environmental and Architectural Heritage
and the Superintendency for the Artistic
and Historical Heritage
CONSERVATOR
Window: Ottorino Nonfarmale
Painting: Ottorino Nonfarmale |
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