News & Stories

Save Venice is thrilled to announce that Jacopo Tintoretto’s great masterpiece of the Crucifixion in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco will undergo conservation treatment thanks to generous funding from Arnold M. Bernstein.

The monumental Crucifixion was painted for the Sala dell’Albergo in 1565, and measures over 12 meters wide by over 5 meters tall. Conservation treatment will be carried out in-situ over the course of approximately two years by a team of restorers from the CBC Conservazione Beni Culturali firm led by Caterina Barnaba.

Together the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Save Venice, and the conservation team aim to use the unique opportunity that this project represents to allow the public to engage further with the painting and follow the progress of the treatment closely. A small-scale reproduction of the work will be installed on the front of the scaffolding enclosure, and the painting will remain partially visible through the top section of scaffolding. A video monitor in the room with regularly updated footage and photography will allow visitors to observe each step of the conservation process.

In March 2023, conservators and imaging specialists began a comprehensive diagnostic campaign utilizing the latest non-invasive technologies including UV fluorescence and infrared scanning. With these initial findings in hand, a treatment plan has been developed to address several issues. These include the presence of uneven and and thick layers of yellowed and oxidized varnishes and glue residues, which are distorting the legibility of the painting’s colors and the correct perspective of the many figures. Several areas of the painting are also very blotchy in appearance as the pictorial integrations applied in previous treatments have since discolored.

Save Venice is thrilled to once again support the Scuola Grande di San Rocco through the conservation of important artworks. From 2008–2009, the organization funded the pre-restoration analysis campaign of the ceiling of the Sala dell’Albergo, and the conservation of three allegorical figures by Tintoretto. In 2017-2018, on the occasion of the Tintoretto 500 celebrations, Save Venice funded the treatment of two paintings by Pordenone and three by Tintoretto in the church of San Rocco. In 2021, the mosaic of the Annunciation by Giovanni Novello was restored and featured in the Venetia 1600: Births and Rebirths exhibition at Palazzo Ducale. In 2022, work began on Titian’s Annunciation, which normally hangs over the staircase in the Scuola, thanks to the support of Richard K. Riess.