Conservation funded by Arnold M. Bernstein.

Paris Bordon was born in 1500 in Treviso, a city in the Veneto mainland that Venice had ruled since 1339. Extant documents on Bordon indicate that around 1518 he moved to the Serenissima, where he would spend most of his career. According to Giorgio Vasari—the renowned Florentine artist and historian—, Paris trained with Titian and soon became quite a popular painter in Venice, the Veneto, and even abroad, including Augsburg and Paris. His oeuvre is mostly known for its celebrated pastoral scenes and mythologies, and for its highly refined portraits and allegorical figures.

The vast majority of scholars attribute Jonah and the Whale at San Sebastiano to Paris Bordon, dating it roughly to the early 1530s. The canvas hangs on the wall next to the burial altar of Nicolò Crasso, on which stands Titian’s Saint Nicholas of Bari, an altarpiece restored by Save Venice in 1992.

The painting depicts one of the most striking events in the life of prophet Jonah. As described in the Book of Jonah, one day God ordered Jonah to “set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against” the wickedness of its people. Jonah, however, decided to rebel against God and, “found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went […] away from the Lord.” During the journey, “a furious tempest” arose and threatened to sink the ship until Jonah confessed he was to blame and asked the sailors to be thrown “into the sea, that it may quiet down for you.” But God had different plans for Jonah, who was swallowed by “a large fish” and remained “in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” While inside the fish, Jonah prayed to God for forgiveness and salvation, and God eventually ordered the creature to spew the prophet out on the shore.

Two different moments from this story are depicted in Bordon’s painting. In the left background, the rain falls in sheets from the bursting clouds with thunders and flashes of lightning in the distance. The sailors are throwing Jonah overboard as their ship is ravaged by the storm. Emerging from the turbulent waves, an enormous fish waits for Jonah to fall into its mouth—the prophet’s penance is about to start.

In the right foreground, we see the moment when—passed the three days and nights—the whale is freeing Jonah, who is shown standing in the open mouth of the animal in a penitent pose. Barefoot, with the arms outstretched in prayer, Jonah is illuminated, or rather enlightened by the divine light: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh—the Book of Jonah recounts—and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” Far on the left, the “enormously large city” of Nineveh stands along the shore, waiting for God’s message.

Bordon’s composition appears to be very similar to the Jonah and the Whale designed by Lorenzo Lotto in 1525 for the choir stalls in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo. Indeed, almost identical is the large vessel seen from behind, swinging wildly at the mercy of the stormy seas, and similar is also the way Jonah is spewed near the shoreline. Scholars have long pointed out how Lotto’s design probably inspired the Sea Storm once at the Scuola Grande di San Marco, Venice, a canvas left unfinished by Palma Vecchio upon his death in 1528, and completed by Bordon in 1533-1534. Interestingly, extant documents show that Lotto’s design of his Jonah and the Whale remained in Bergamo until 1532, the year when the painter received all his cartoons back in Venice. Accordingly, it would seem reasonable to date Bordon’ Jonah and the Whales around the early 1530s.

The painting had been marred by a thick layer of surface dirt and grime, as well as oxidized varnish, obstructing the original details and colors, particularly in the left background around the sea and ship. During conservation treatment in 2023, these non-original layers were carefully thinned and removed, together with any heavy overpainting from previous restoration attempts. Any losses to the pictorial surface were integrated using removable conservation paints, and a final layer of protective varnish was applied as the last step in the process. The painting’s frame was also treated for an infestation of wood-boring insects.

Paris Bordon (1500–1571) [Attr.]
Jonah and the Whale
Early 1530s, oil on canvas
216 x 162 cm
Church of San Sebastiano

Canova, Giordana. Paris Bordon. Venice: Edizioni Alfieri, 1964.

Cortesi Bosco, Francesca. Il coro intarsiato di Lotto e Capoferri per Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. Bergamo: Credito Bergamasco; Cinisello Balsamo (MI): Amilcare Pizzi, 1987.

Cortesi Bosco, Francesca. Lotto, Lorenzo. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 66. Rome: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, 2006, pp. 200-215. Link to the article

Donati, Andrea. Paris Bordone. Catalogo ragionato. Soncino: Edizioni dei Soncino, 2014.

Humfrey, Peter. The Bellinesque Life of St. Mark Cycle for the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice in Its Original Arrangement. “Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte,” 48, 1985, pp. 225-242

Manente, Chiara. Documenti per Paris Bordon, Zuan Alvise Bonrizzo e la Scuola Grande di San Marco. “Venezia Cinquecento,” 50, 2016, pp. 65-98

Salomon, Xavier, Davide Gasparotto, Gabriele Matino, and Melissa Conn. The Church of San Sebastiano in Venice: A Guide, Venice: Marsilio, 2024

Sohm, Philip L. Palma Vecchio’s Sea Storm: A Political Allegory. “RACAR: Revue d’art canadienne / Canadian Art Review,” 6, 1979-80, pp. 85-96