Restored in 2007 with funding from the Boston Chapter of Save Venice Inc.

Giuseppe Porta arrived in Venice in 1539 with his teacher Francesco Salviati, whose name he eventually assumed. The artist painted in the Mannerist style that had developed in central Italy in the 1520s based on the example of artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Salviati found his own style by combining elements he learned through studying these artists in Rome, Florence, and Bologna, with the style of Venetian masters such as Titian, Tintoretto, and Sansovino.

Salviati painted this Annunciation in 1570 for the Church of the Incurabili in Venice. After the church was demolished, the painting was moved to San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti in 1832, where it is now displayed on the second altar on the right side of the church. In this work the artist used soft color accents and subtle lighting effects to depict the Virgin Mary as she receives the message from the Archangel Gabriel, while God the Father blesses the Virgin from above in the presence of several putti.

The painting was restored by conservator Valentina Piovan, with the guidance of project director Grazia Fumo of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice.

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.

Giuseppe Porta, called Salviati (c. 1520–1575)
Annunciation
1570, oil on canvas
338 x 178 cm

McTavish, David. Giuseppe Porta Called Giuseppe Salviati. New York: Garland Publishing, 1981.