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On October 8, 2020, after 154 years, this larger-than-life 15th-century crucifix was welcomed back to the church of San Francesco della Vigna. It had been relegated to the hallway of the dormitory of the Franciscan convent adjacent to the church and long overlooked due to condition problems and garish overpaint. This remarkable wooden sculpture is an exceptional artwork created by an unknown sculptor, probably not native to Venice, collaborating with a highly skilled Venetian artist who painted the figure with extraordinary polychromy.

Beginning in October 2016, conservator Milena Dean painstakingly repaired the maple-wood sculpture and carefully removed eight layers of overpainting to recover the artwork’s original tempera polychromy. During conservation treatment, she discovered that this was a rare animated sculpture, as a fragment of string was found within the figure’s head that was used to move Christ’s tongue (now lost) to simulate speech.  In addition, scorch marks within the head and mouth indicated the burning of incense to represent Christ’s last breath. The animation features of this miraculous “talking Christ” were used during dramatic presentations on Good Friday, prior to the strict liturgical reformations mandated by the Council of Trent in the mid 16th century when such activities were no longer condoned.

This splendid crucifix was most likely displayed on the choir screen of the Franciscan friars’ original Gothic sanctuary prior to Jacopo Sansovino’s 16th-century reconstruction of the church. In 2011, art historian Anne Markham Schulz attributed the work to Antonio Bonvicino. Following the new discoveries made during conservation treatment, scholars are reconsidering this attribution and further studies are now underway to determine the identity of the artist.

The large crucifix continued to have a miraculous reputation for centuries.  In October of 1583, Pope Gregory XIII intervened favorably on behalf of a group of pious Venetian women who risked excommunication because they had entered the forbidden cloistered area of the male convent, where the “Talking Christ” was temporarily displayed, to pray in front of the miraculous image. After that episode, the artwork was relocated to the church where all could freely adorn it without complications, until its aforementioned removal from the public eye in the mid-19th century.

Save Venice’s transformative treatment of the artwork was made possible with generous support from Mary Kathryn and Alex† Navab.  Now displayed in the Badoer-Giustinan Chapel so it can be monitored as it adjusts to the church’s microclimate, it will be permanently installed the high altar of the church by Easter 2021.