Participation in the 1972–1974 restoration campaign of the interior and exterior with funding from the Boston Chapter of Save Venice Inc.

San Giovanni Crisostomo, constructed beginning in 1497, was the last church built by Mauro Codussi, one of the most important architects of the early Renaissance in Venice. The original church on the site, founded in 1080, was destroyed by fire in 1475 and Codussi was chosen to complete the reconstruction. The area around the church is especially crowded, and he was thus faced with the challenge of designing a new church with limited space available to him.

Codussi chose to organize the structure following a Greek-cross plan, with four equal, short arms rather than a long nave; this not only fit the spatial constraints of the site, but also allowed for an intimate worship space for the parish’s small working-class congregation. Lack of space led Codussi to flatten the central apse of the church; he also framed the apse with smaller vaulted chapels. Construction was nearly completed around the time of Codussi’s death in 1504, and the church is visible in Jacopo de’ Barbari’s woodcut map of Venice from 1500.

The high altar is adorned with Sebastiano del Piombo’s altarpiece depicting Saint John Chrysostomos Enthroned with Six Saints, which was the final major work that the painter executed in Venice before he moved to Rome in 1511. Many of the church’s original furnishings and artworks are still in situ, including Giovanni Bellini’s remarkable late altarpiece, Saint Jerome with Saints Christopher and Augustine, signed and dated 1513.

In the early 1970s Save Venice, together with the Italian State and the church parish, funded a restoration campaign that repaired the roof and walls and reinforced the structure. This work was undertaken by conservators from the Impresa Edile M. Bagaglio restoration firm, with the guidance of project director Renato Padoan of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice. The interior stonework and plaster, as well as the church’s exterior, were restored again in 2003 with funding from the Catholic Diocese 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.

Mauro Codussi (1440–1504)
Church of San Giovanni Crisostomo
1497–1504