Restored in 1993 with funding from the Save Venice Artists in Venice Auction.

In addition to the series of presbytery paintings and the doors for the silver cabinet that he produced for the church of San Rocco, Jacopo Tintoretto was also commissioned to paint a set of organ shutters. This Annunciation originally adorned the interior side of the shutters, and was painted on two separate canvases. Although the date of execution is uncertain, it is likely that the paintings were produced in the early 1580s, possibly with workshop assistance.

The organ was located on the counter-façade of the church, above the main entrance. The shutters remained closed when the instrument was not in use, and were opened when it was to be played in liturgical celebrations, revealing the scene of the Annunciation. In the original installation, the Archangel Gabriel would have appear to the left of the organ pipes, and the Virgin Mary to the right. Despite the distance between them, the balancing of the composition and the use of a unified color palette with its brilliant blues and crimsons would have visually united the two halves of the scene.

By the early eighteenth century, the church was structurally compromised and was in danger of collapse. The facade and side walls were subsequently entirely rebuilt, leaving only the apses intact. The organ was dismantled during the renovations, and the shutter paintings removed. In 1738, painter Santo Piatti reformatted Tintoretto’s canvases, transforming each pair into a single work by sewing them together with additional strips of canvas to render them rectangular in format. He also repainted areas to unify the scene, such as the excerpt in the Annunciation in which the dove of the Holy Spirit appears. They were then framed and hung on the counter-façade, flanking the main portal.

Today the Annunciation hangs in the tall stairwell on the way to the uppermost floor of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, just across the Campo.

The painting was restored by conservator Ferruccio Volpin, with the guidance of project director Adriana Augusti of the Superintendency of Fine Arts of Venice. This was the final project of Volpin’s long and distinguished career; he died in April of 1994, shortly after the completion of this restoration, which serves as a testament to his dedication to the preservation of Venetian art.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Jacopo Tintoretto (c. 1518/19–1594)
The Annunciation
c. 1582, oil on canvas
330 x 310 cm

Scuola Grande di San Rocco: Tintoretto’s Paintings for the Church of San Rocco

Bisson, Massimo. Meravigliose macchine di giubilo. L’architettura e l’arte degli organi a Venezia nel Rinascimento. Venice: Fondazione Giorgio Cini in collaboration with Scripta Edizioni, 2012.

Dalla Costa, Thomas, Robert Echols, and Frederick Ilchman, eds. Tintoretto in Venice: A Guide. Venice: Marsilio, 2018.