Conservation made possible with major funding from Beatrice de Santo Domingo and the Jasmine Charity Trust in honor of Regina Jaglom Wachter. 2012 conservative maintenance and analysis campaign made possible with funding from Richard and Carole Rifkind through the Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation.

Painted from 1516 to 1518, Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin, popularly known as the Assunta, is the largest painting on wood panel in the world and among the most influential altarpieces in European art. Towering to more than 22 feet tall, the altarpiece is painted in oil on 22 horizontal poplar planks. The masterpiece is housed in a monumental Istrian stone frame, attributed to Lorenzo and Giambattista Bregno and designed in collaboration with Titian. Modeled on an ancient Roman triumphal arch, the ensemble is topped by three over-life-sized sculptures of Saint Francis, Saint Anthony, and Christ the Redeemer.

At its unveiling in 1518, Titian’s picture was controversial, with a far more energetic composition, and with much larger figures – over life-sized – than the friars had expected. Today the Assunta is regarded as an absolute masterpiece of the Renaissance, perfectly calibrated for its site.

In devising his composition, Titian took into consideration the surrounding elements that would affect the viewing conditions of the altarpiece. For example, the lancet windows set into the Gothic apse necessarily created a backlit effect, which Titian countered through his brilliant color palette. The preexisting choir precinct at the center of the nave, with its elegant marble screen executed by the Lombardo workshop, was punctuated with a central archway, which Titian effectively transformed into a scenographic frame for his painting on the high altar, taking into account the viewer’s approach from the main portal of the church.

The basic compositional formula consists of two geometric shapes: the Virgin Mary in a circle, and the amazed apostles in a rectangular block. Titian depicted the ascending Virgin, clad in crimson, in an explosion of brilliant light. The bold color of her robe is echoed in the red worn by two of the apostles below, unifying the two halves of the scene through color. The divine Mary is bathed in gold, while the apostles below are set against a blue sky, further separating the heavenly and earthly spheres. God the Father hovers above with an angel, ready to crown Mary as Queen of Heaven. The golden half-dome that frames her recalls the ecclesiastical architecture and gold mosaic tesserae of Byzantium, and, of course, the Basilica of San Marco at the very heart of Venice.

Seeing it glow gloriously once again in the apse of the church following the conservation treatment that was completed in October 2022, one would never imagine that the Assunta survived Napoleonic confiscations, threats during two world wars, and travel far from Venice. Thanks to Save Venice’s support, the Assunta inspires everyone who steps into the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

In the Fall of 2018, the conservation of Titian’s Assunta began in full force. A full-scale reproduction of the altarpiece was installed to cover the front of the worksite scaffolding, allowing worshipers and visitors to experience the visual impact of this iconic ensemble during the restoration.

Following urgent treatment for wood-boring insects, conservator Roberto Saccuman examined the wooden support structure and backing, verifying that the artwork was structurally sound and reinforcing any problematic areas.

An elaborate scaffolding system was then also installed behind the altar, which allowed the monumental panel painting to be carefully pushed back into the space behind the stone frame, where conservator Giulio Bono and his team lead the complex conservation of the painting, which involved securing small areas of lifting paint, cleaning the surface of the painting, and thinning various non-original surface residues that had veiled the full chromatic brilliance of Titian’s color palette for centuries. A comprehensive campaign of diagnostic imaging and photo documentation was meticulously conducted throughout the entire process.

Concurrently, conservator Egidio Arlango and his team lead the process of removing the centuries of dirt and grime that covered the Istrian stone frame and the three large sculptures. The promising results of their efforts revealed the natural white color of the stone, elaborate gilding, and polychrome details on the sculptures and throughout the frame.

The restored painting and frame were unveiled to the public on October 4, 2022. For his work on the Assunta, Venetian conservator Giulio Bono was awarded the Marino Grimani Prize in the autumn of 2022. 

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In 2012, Save Venice financed a 3-month maintenance treatment on the painting to remove surface dust and debris. The maintenance was undertaken along with a diagnostic campaign and extensive archival research to reconstruct the conservation history of the artwork, whose last full restoration dates to the early 1970s. On the surface of the painting, conservators identified small areas of lifting and flaking paint, as well as several non-original surface layers and residues, including discolored varnishes from previous restorations.

The health of the back of the panel and wooden support was also of the greatest concern to conservators. Due to the presence of organ pipes that were installed directly behind the Assunta in recent decades, conservators were unable to fully observe the back of the painting. They did observe, however, that the wooden elements of the organ in close proximity to the painting were infested with wood-boring insects, posing an immediate threat to the Assunta should the infestation spread. During the maintenance campaign, conservators also observed that the altarpiece vibrated when the organ was played. Vibrometric tests were then conducted and determined that certain sections of the altarpiece did in-fact experience significant vibrations, posing further risk to fragile areas of the painting. Officials from the Ministry of Culture authorized the removal of the modern organ in 2018 and the pipes and keyboard have since been donated to a church in Jesolo.

The diagnostic campaign also examined the Istrian stone frame surrounding the painting, determining that thick layers of grime were obscuring the original gilding and polychrome decoration throughout the structure.

Titian (c. 1488/90-1576)
Assumption of the Virgin (Assunta)
1516-18, oil on wood
690 x 360 cm

Giovanni Battista and Lorenzo Bregno and Workshop
Frame and Altar
Saint Francis
Saint Anthony
Christ the Redeemer
1516-1518, Istrian stone and marble

Bono, Giulio, and Giulio Manieri Elia. “Il restauro dell’Assunta di Tiziano. Approccio e risultati.” Studi tizianeschi, 12 (2022): 149-167

Buonanno, Lorenzo G. Revisiting the Frari’s High Altarpiece. The Assunta Frame and Titian as Regisseur. In Corsato, Carlo and Deborah Howard, eds. Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Immagini di devozione, spazi della fede. Padua: Centro Studi Antoniani, 2015, pp. 223-231. Link to the article

Cecchini, Isabella. I Frari senza l’Assunta. Le vicende del trasferimento della pala di Tiziano alle Gallerie dell’Accademia nel 1816-1817. In Catra, Elena, Isabella Collavizza and Vittorio Pajusco, eds. Canova, Tiziano e la Basilica dei Frari a Venezia nell’Ottocento. Treviso: ZeL Edizioni, 2017, pp. 81-97

Goffen, Rona. Piety and Patronage in Renaissance Venice: Bellini, Titian, and the Franciscans. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1986

Humfrey, Peter. “The Prehistory of Titian’s Assunta.” Studies in the History of Art, 45 (1993): 222-243

Joannides, Paul. Titian to 1518. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2001

Rosand, David. Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (1982), revised edition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997