Save Venice thanks the generous donors of the
Conservation Campaign for the Church of San Sebastiano

Richard & Nancy Riess in memory of Susan Fash Bateman
Beatrice De Santo Domingo, Alejandro Santo Domingo,
and Andrés Santo Domingo in memory of Julio Mario Santo Domingo
Anonymous donor in thanks to Saint Sebastian
The California Chapter of Save Venice
The Boston Chapter of Save Venice
Andrés Santo Domingo in memory of Julio Mario Santo Domingo
2009 Young Friends of Save Venice
Thaw Charitable Trust
Boston Young Friends of Save Venice
Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation
Anonymous donor in memory of Mary & Albert Thibault
The Thompson Family Foundation
Richard & Jill Almeida
Friends in honor of Mary & Howard Frank
Elizabeth Locke
Cat Jagger Pollon✝ in loving memory of Elisabeth N. Pollon
Dr. Rosemary Mazanet
The James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation, Inc., through Beatrice Rossi-Landi, Trustee
Anonymous donor in honor of Nora L. Gibson
Mr. and Mrs. Julio Mario✝ Santo Domingo
Angela Caveness Weisskopf

Jerrold & Ann Mitchell
Arnold M. Bernstein
Forrest E. Mars, Jr.✝
Heavensent Foundation through Josè Luis Nazar
Tanny & Courtney✝ Jones
The Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Inc.
Irina Tolstoy Gans & John G. Gans
José & Beatrice Esteve
Dr. & Mrs. Randolph H. Guthrie
Lou Hammond
Mary Kathryn & Alex✝ Navab
Cat Jagger Pollon✝ in honor of Bea & Bob Guthrie and Terry & Dennis Stanfill
Bassani Spa
Katherine & David Mcrae, through the Boston Chapter
William and Munja Orzolek Foundation in honor of Yongkak (Peter) Kim
Victoria & Frederick Frelow in honor of Michael Laplaca
Mark Hunter Voss in memory of Mr. Edwin P. Voss and Dr. Gordon F. Schwartz
Carla Comelli & Marco Pecori
Costa Crociere
Friends in honor of Axel Hansing
Chris Carlsmith, in honor of his mother Lyn K. Carlsmith, Ph.D., through the Boston Chapter

The William C. Bannerman Foundation
J. Mitchell Crosby & Randal E. Felkel✝ in memory of Pati Crosby Croffead
Carol Lynn Macgregor, Ph.D
Walter Mead✝
Beatrix Ost & Ludwig Kuttner
Joseph O. Rubinelli
Larry S. Davis
Xavier F. Salomon
Anne Fitzpatrick in honor of Melissa Conn and Frederick Ilchman
Peter Freeman in honor of His Father, Donald Freeman, through the Boston Chapter
Andrew Jones & Laura Hodgson
Regina Lee
Linda Cheverton Wick & Walter Wick
Friends and Family in memory of Sidney Stires
James & Laurie Hacking
Frank & Phyllis Angello
Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation
Patricia Nagy Olsen
Peter Fergusson✝ in honor of Frederick Ilchman
Mr. & Mrs. Paul D. Kaplan

The Venetian church of San Sebastiano is a monument to the art of Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), one of the great trio of painters — with Titian and Tintoretto — of the golden age of Venetian Renaissance painting. Beginning in 1555 when he was twenty-seven years old, and over the course of the next decade, the young painter from Verona gradually transformed the church into a brilliant demonstration of his art. Painting in a variety of techniques and surfaces, in oil on canvas and wood, and on plaster in fresco and tempera, his brush filled the space of the church with historical narratives, iconic images, and inventive decorative motifs.

The church of San Sebastiano was designed by architect Antonio Abbondi, known as Scarpagnino, and was constructed between 1506 and 1548.

In addition to Paolo Veronese’s decorative cycle, the church also features artworks by Titian, Andrea Schiavone, Palma il Giovane, Jacopo Sansovino, and Alessandro Vittoria.

Save Venice’s engagement with San Sebastiano began in 2007 with extensive pre-restoration studies that included a photogrammetric survey, pigment analysis, and trial cleaning. Minor structural problems were corrected in the attic above the nave, ensuring the structural stability of Veronese’s painted ceiling. The church’s wooden window frames were weatherized to further protect the building and Veronese’s frescoes from the elements.

From 2009 to 2011, Save Venice funded the restoration of the painted and gilded wooden ceiling and Veronese’s three large ceiling canvases narrating the story of the Old Testament heroine Esther. To provide a worthy framework for his canvases, Veronese painted the vast wooden ceiling elements surrounding his magnificent pictures with personifications of virtues, winged victory figures, putti, grotesques, and garlands. Conservators removed discolored varnish and heavy overpainting in order to recover what remained of Veronese’s original color palette.

From 2012 to 2015 the conservation campaign continued with Paolo Veronese’s fresco cycle of sibyls, prophets, saints, angels, and scenes from the life of Saint Sebastian, all framed by pairs of spiral columns and floral garlands. Throughout 2015 and 2016, the imposing organ loft and shutters designed and painted by Veronese were restored, together with a conservative maintenance of the organ pipes. Beginning in the fall of 2016 and throughout 2017, conservators then turned their attention to the church’s presbytery and marble and Istrian stone high altar, including three more monumental canvas paintings by Paolo Veronese.

In 2018 Save Venice reached a major milestone in the decade-long campaign to restore the church of San Sebastiano with the completion of treatment of the front and side facades. The conservation of the exterior facades, designed by Scarpagnino and completed in 1548, was essential to ensuring the protection of Veronese’s interior fresco decoration, as humidity and rising damp and salt deposits in the brick walls are the frescoes’ greatest threat.

Conservation work on the six side chapels in the nave of the church was completed in 2019.  The wooden stalls in the monks’ loft were restored from 2020 to 2022. Work is now underway on the Saint Jerome and Annunciation (Lando) chapels, which flank the presbytery.

Save Venice has also funded immediate response efforts in the church following the exceptional high tides in November and December 2019, as water entered the lower-lying areas of the church, particularly in the belltower and adjacent rooms behind the presbytery and sacristy. In addition to cleaning and repairs, new preventative measures including flood barriers, pumps, and a new watertight subfloor and floor for the bell tower were installed. 

Save Venice thanks every donor who made the restoration of this magnificent church possible.

Conn, Melissa and David Rosand. Save Venice Inc.: Four Decades of Restoration in Venice. Venice; New York: Save Venice Inc., 2011

Gisolfi, Diana. Paolo Veronese and the Practice of Painting in Late Renaissance Venice. Yale University Press, 2017

Ilchman, Frederick and Linda Borean. Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Publications, 2009

Manieri Elia, Giulio. Veronese: The Stories of Esther Revealed. Venice: Marsilio, 2011

Rosand, David. Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State. Chapel Hill; London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001

Rosand, David. Véronèse. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2012

Salomon, Xavier F. Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice. London: National Gallery Company, 2014

Salomon, Xavier and Davide Gasparotto, Gabriele Matino, Melissa Conn. The Church of San Sebastiano in Venice: A Guide. Venice, Marsilio, 2024

David Rosand, “San Sebastiano: The Church of Paolo Veronese” (2008)

Mary E. Frank, “Veronese’s Esther” (2008)

Frederick Ilchman, “Sebastian, a Saint for Venice” (2008)

Sonia H. Evers, “Saint Jerome and His Order” (2008)

W. R. Rearick, “Veronese’s Establishment in Venice, 1553-1560” (2008)

Patricia Fortini Brown, “Veronese’s Patrons” (2008)

Theodore K. Rabb, “Venice in the Age of Veronese” (2008)

Amalia Donatella Basso, “The Conservation of San Sebastiano” (2008)

Chorus Venezia: Visitors’ Information for the Church of San Sebastiano