Restored in 2001 with funding from the family and friends of Linda Simunovich.

The Venetian church of San Samuele is dedicated to the Old Testament seer who prophesied that the Messiah would be born into the house of David. Venice is the only city in Italy where Old Testament prophets were venerated as saints, a custom that confirms the city’s strong ties with Byzantium and the Near East.

In the upper portions of the presbytery walls and in the vaults of the church’s gothic apse are previously undocumented frescoes depicting Christ, the Four Evangelists, the four fathers of the church — Saints Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Gregory — and eight Sibyls, female counterparts to the Hebrew prophets. The figures are represented within fictive frames or architectural spaces, and surrounded by a profusion of elegant decorative motifs.

These frescoes, thought to date to the 1490s, were discovered under a coat of whitewash in 1882 and assigned to the school of Mantegna. Later attributions credited them to a Paduan school, whereas more recent observations place them as works by a non-Venetian artist active in the school of Bellini.

The frescoes were restored by conservator Massimo Tisato, with the guidance of project director Annalisa Bristot 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.

Unidentified artist
Christ with the Evangelists, Saints, and Sibyls
1490s, fresco