Restored in 1990 with funding from Laurence D. Lovett, Nicholas and Winston Geller, The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust, and The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation.

Six years after Save Venice funded its restoration, this stage curtain (sipario storico) was completely destroyed in the 1996 fire at the Teatro La Fenice and today exists only in photographs. It depicted an actual historical event: the rejoicing of the the Venetian citizens at the news of the victory over the Turkish fleet at Lepanto in 1571. Antonio Ermolao Paoletti painted a grand spectacle of tall-masted ships, waving banners, evocative gestures, and dynamic crowds, as the winged lion of Venice on its column in the Piazzetta San Marco stood out against the illuminated façade of the Doge’s Palace.

Paoletti’s stage curtain was actually one in a series of such curtains that tragically burned in fires at the Teatro La Fenice. In 1836, a fire devastated the original theater, designed by Gianantonio Selva in 1792, destroying two stage curtains: an Allegory of the Phoenix by Cosroe Dusi and Enrico Dandolo Renouncing the Crown of the Orient by Giovanni Busato. The Paoletti curtain that burned in 1996 was made to replace yet another one by Eugenio Moretti-Larese from the 1850s that represented Doge Domenico Michiel at the Siege of Tyre. After the 1996 fire, the Fenice replaced the lost stage curtain with an embellished velvet curtain, ending the tradition of the narrative painted curtain.

The work was restored by conservator Ferruccio Volpin, with the guidance of project director Ettore Merkel of the Superintendency of Fine Arts 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.

Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (1834–1912)
Stage Curtain depicting Onfredo Giustiniani Bringing Back to Venice the News of the Naval Victory at Lepanto
1878, acrylic tempera on canvas
1000 x 1400 cm

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