The 2013-2017 conservation campaign to restore Titian’s Madonna di Ca’ Pesaro was funded by Save Venice with support from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust for the first phase of conservation treatment. The 2013-2014 restoration of the marble elements of the altar was funded in part by The Thompson Family Foundation, Inc.

Save Venice’s first restoration of the painting was completed by Antonio Lazzarin in 1978, with funding from Save Venice founder John McAndrew, in memory of renowned art historian Erwin Panofsky.

The Madonna di Ca’ Pesaro is among the great early masterpieces of the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian. In 1518, Jacopo Pesaro purchased an altar in the Frari church for his family’s worship and burial. He then commissioned an altarpiece from Titian, which the artist painted in oil on canvas between 1519 and 1526. The Pesaro altarpiece functions both as a votive painting for the family and commemorates Jacopo’s valor in war: as the commander of the papal fleet, he led the allied Christian forces to victory against the Turks in 1502.

Jacopo and his family members are depicted in the foreground of the picture, kneeling in prayer. As is typical of donor portraits, they are shown in profile, with the exception of the young boy on the right who looks out at the viewer. The Pesaro family is presented to the Virgin and Child by a number of saints, including Saint Peter and a warrior saint, possibly Saint George, on the left, and Saint Francis and Saint Anthony of Padua on the right. The devotional focus of the Pesaro altarpiece is the Virgin Mary. Enthroned above the other figures, she holds in her arms the Christ Child, who playfully shares his mother’s veil, confirming her role in salvation. The off-center position of the Madonna and Child, and the columns behind them, responds to the oblique viewing angle from the nave of the basilica; in this way Titian revolutionized the conventional altarpiece composition, which emphasized the center.

In May 2012, the altar which houses Titian’s Madonna di Ca’ Pesaro as well as the window and wall above, were damaged by an earthquake. Fearing that stone pieces from the unstable window above the altar could fall, the painting was immediately removed from the altar and moved to a chapel adjacent to the presbytery where ministry of culture officials and conservators could examine the painting up close for the first time in more than thirty years.

After officials and conservators observed signs of instability throughout the surface of the painting, the altarpiece was moved to a special temporary laboratory that was set up in the Sala del Capitolo of the Frari, where an extensive campaign of scientific analysis and conservative maintenance were conducted by conservators Giulio Bono and Erika Bianchini from 2013 to 2014. The marble elements of the Pesaro altar and the window and wall above were also restored by Alfier Costruzioni S.r.l., from 2013 to 2014.

The analysis of the altarpiece revealed that the painted surface layer was highly unstable and in danger of flaking off. New advances in conservation technologies and techniques allowed the conservators to identify the underlying causes of the flaking problem, including exposure to high humidity levels and drastic fluctuations in humidity and temperature.

A complex two-part restoration treatment of the altarpiece began in 2016: the first stage was undertaken by Bono and Bianchini, the second by Bono. During the restoration, the damage to the painted surface was treated using minimally invasive methods, innovative solvents, and micro-integrations of sturgeon glue to stabilize the flaking paint. A sophisticated tension system designed by conservator Roberto Saccuman was added to the canvas’ stretcher, allowing the painting to maintain optimal tension as temperature and humidity levels change in the nearly 700-year-old church.  A special barrier layer of organic wool was installed on the back of the painting to further insulate and protect the fragile artwork from the brick exterior wall behind the altar.

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.

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (c. 1488/90 – 1576)
Madonna di Ca’ Pesaro
1519-1526, oil on canvas
478 x 266.5 cm

Assumption of the Virgin, Frari
Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Accademia
Annunciation, San Salvador
Transfiguration of Christ, San Salvador
Pietà, Gallerie dell’Accademia
Saint Mark Enthroned with Saints Cosmas and Damian, Roch and Sebastian, Salute
St. Nicholas of Bari, San Sebastiano
Votive Picture of Doge Antonio Grimani, Known as “La Fede”, Palazzo Ducale

Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Basilica dei Frari: Homepage

Rosand, David. Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (1982), revised edition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.