Restored in 1997 with funding from the Boston Chapter of Save Venice Inc.

The tomb monument of Orazio Baglioni is mounted on the wall of the left aisle of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in a simple yet grandiose architectural setting. A military leader from Perugia in Umbria, Baglioni served as a mercenary captain, or condottiere, during Venice’s war with the Uskoks at Gradisca in northeastern Italy in 1613–1617. The Uskoks, a group of Christian refugees turned pirates, were settled in Croatia by the Austrians and entrusted with protecting the area from the Turks. After they became an uncontrolled menace to shipping in the Adriatic, Venice led the offensive to defeat the pirates. It was in this siege that Baglioni lost his life, and the Venetian Senate commissioned this monument to commemorate the fallen hero.

Baglioni is dramatically memorialized as a fierce rider on a rearing horse that leaps over dying soldiers. In the dramatic energies of its composition, the monument departs from the more decorous and restrained gait of equestrian monuments of the Renaissance and anticipates the expressive style of the Baroque period.

The work was restored by conservators Maximilian Leuthenmayr and Benito Ghezzo, with the guidance of project director Sandro Sponza 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.

Unidentified sculptor
Equestrian Funerary Monument of Orazio Baglioni
c. 1617, gilded wood
300 cm tall