Photogrammetric survey of ceiling, test cleaning of ceiling frame, and restoration of first Female Figure in Flight funded in 2007 with Save Venice general funds.

Allegory of Abundance restored in 2009 with funding from family and friends of Danielle Luzzatto Gardner, including Mr. and Mrs. Julio Mario Santo Domingo and Judge Stephen Schwebel.

Second Female Figure in Flight restored in 2009 with funding from the Board of Directors of Save Venice in honor of Danielle Luzzatto Gardner.

Restoration of remaining canvases and wooden ceiling funded by the Italian State.

In 1564 the confraternity of San Rocco invited various artists to submit designs for a painting of Saint Roch in Glory to decorate the ceiling of its boardroom, the Sala dell’Albergo. The artists were supposed to present their sketches to a committee of Scuola members who would then select the winner. Jacopo Tintoretto instead finished his canvas before the vote and secretly mounted it on the ceiling, offering it as a gift to the Scuola in honor of its patron saint. Despite some loud opposition, the painting was accepted, and Tintoretto was eventually awarded the commission to complete the decoration of the Sala dell’Albergo. He would later adorn the walls and ceiling of the large Sala del Capitolo with numerous paintings, followed by the walls of the main hall on the ground floor.

Surrounding his central painting of Saint Roch in Glory in the Sala dell’Albergo, Tintoretto added allegorical representations of the other major Venetian Scuole Grandi, as well as personifications of the virtues and seasons, as well as female figures. The two Female Figures in Flight are particularly striking for the rendering of their rich draperies, which flutter in the wind. The paintings were executed with the help of Tintoretto’s workshop assistants, and likely offered without charge following the Scuola’s acceptance of the central painting.

In 2007 Save Venice provided funding for a photogrammetric survey of the Sala dell’Albergo ceiling, followed by a test cleaning of a section of the gilded ceiling frames undertaken by conservator Anna Keller and the restoration of a ceiling canvas depicting a Female Figure in Flight, completed by Barbara Ferriani. In 2009, conservator Renzo Lizzi restored a second Female Figure in Flight as well as a canvas depicting the Allegory of Abundance. These restorations were overseen by project director Grazia Fumo 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.

Jacopo Tintoretto (c. 1518/19–1594)
Female Figure in Flight Facing Left
Female Figure in Flight Facing Right
Allegory of Abundance
1564, oil on canvas with gilded wooden frames
103 x 216 cm each

Scuola Grande di San Rocco