Restored in 1994 with funding from the Boston Chapter of Save Venice Inc.

During the 1530s, Titian’s older brother Francesco Vecellio painted four canvases for the shutters of San Salvador’s organ. Saint Augustine Giving the Rule to the Canons and Saint Theodore decorate the exterior, and were visible when the organ was not in use. On the interior side of the shutters are representations of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection, which would have been revealed when the organ was played during the celebration of the mass. These paintings are among the artist’s best work, produced during the most creative period of his career.

It is remarkable that these four sixteenth-century paintings, attached to the wooden organ case in the organ loft over the side portal, are still in situ and in good condition. Extensive changes in organ design during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Venice and the Veneto led to the replacement of most older instruments, together with the dispersement of their associated decorative elements.

The paintings were restored by conservators Serafino and Marco Volpin, with the guidance of project director Ettore Merkel 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.

Francesco Vecellio (c. 1475–1560)
Organ Shutters for San Salvador:
Saint Augustine Giving the Rule to the Canons, Saint Theodore (exterior);
Transfiguration, Resurrection (interior)
c. 1530-1534, oil on canvas
432 x 222 cm each

Website of the Church of San Salvador: page dedicated to the organ (in Italian)

Bisson, Massimo. Meravigliose macchine di giubilo. L’architettura e l’arte degli organi a Venezia nel Rinascimento. Venice: Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 2012.