Restored in 1992 with funding from the Boston Chapter of Save Venice Inc. and Humanities West, San Francisco, in memory of Rollin van N. Hadley, former President and Chairman of Save Venice Inc.; maintenance in 1999 with Save Venice general funds.

Bartolomeo Vivarini, his older brother, Antonio, and his nephew, Alvise, were all painters from the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon, and their family workshop was among the most important in Venice. This work that Bartolomeo produced for San Giovanni in Bragora is a traditional polyptych made up of multiple panels, as opposed to a single pictorial support in which the figures occupy a unified space, which would later become the dominant approach in altarpiece composition.

The left panel depicts an almost frail Saint John the Baptist with tattered robes, a reference to his ascetic life in the wilderness. In the center panel the Madonna and Child are seated on a marble throne with classicizing architectural elements. The right panel depicts Saint Andrew as an older bearded man, reading a book and holding his cross. In Venice, Saint John the Baptist was considered to be a patron saint of boatmen and Saint Andrew the patron of mariners and fishermen. The polyptych is signed and dated by the artist on the base of Mary’s throne in the central panel.

Today the triptych hangs on the wall of the right aisle of the church, although it may initially have decorated the altar of one of the chapels prior to the reconfiguration of the church’s interior.

The work was restored by conservators from the CBC restoration firm in 1992, and the 1999 maintenance was completed by Paola Borghese, 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.

Bartolomeo Vivarini (c. 1432–c. 1499)
Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew
1478, tempera on wood
138 x 166 cm

San Giovanni Battista in Bragora: Homepage (in Italian)

San Giovanni Battista in Bragora: The Absidal Chapels (in Italian)