Restored in 1995 with funding from Young Friends of Save Venice.

This sculpture of the Madonna della Misericordia, Our Lady of Mercy, is located on the left side of the exterior of the church of San Tomà, facing Campiello San Tomà. The central figure in the relief is the Virgin Mary, who protects the faithful under her sheltering cloak. Two angels crown her as the Queen of Heaven.

Given its lunette format, this work may have originally adorned a doorway in the convent of the church of Santa Maria della Carità, adjacent to the Scuola Grande della Carità, both of which are now the site of the Accademia Galleries. The robed and hooded figures that the Madonna envelops are most likely the brethren of the Scuola Grande della Carità, a lay confraternity that was founded in 1260 and was dedicated to helping the needy. The scuola was closed under Napoleonic suppression in the early 1800s, and many of its artworks were dispersed throughout Venice, including this sculpture, which was moved to San Tomà toward the end of the nineteenth century.

Although this relief lacks the Carità’s confraternity symbol, a circle within a circle intertwined with a cross, several other sculptures of the Madonna della Misericordia located throughout Venice do. The most powerful scuole had significant property holdings throughout the city by the Renaissance, and such symbols were used to mark the buildings that belonged to each scuola.

The work was restored by conservator Anna Keller, with the guidance of 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.

Unidentified sculptor
Madonna della Misericordia
c. 1345, Istrian stone
138 x 170 cm