Bartolomeo Vivarini’s Conversano Polyptych at the Gallerie dell’Accademia

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Restored in 1994 with Save Venice general funds

History

Although they painted predominantly for Venetian clients, the Vivarini and their workshop on the island of Murano also executed works for patrons throughout Italy. In 1475, the cathedral of the small town of Conversano, in Puglia, commissioned this late Gothic–style polyptych from Bartolomeo Vivarini. The painting would eventually return to Venice in 1883 when it was purchased on the antique market by the Accademia Galleries.

The central panel depicts the Nativity, in which the praying Mary pays homage to the newborn Christ, and the sleeping Joseph receives God’s warning in a dream – soon the Holy Family will need to flee to Egypt to save the Child from King Herod’s fury. This central panel is both the only narrative scene of the polyptych and the only one set against a naturalistic blue sky, which contrasts with the solid gold background of each of the other side panels. Far in the hilly background, an angel appears to the shepherds announcing the birth of the Son of God. The Nativity scene is flanked on each side by four vertical panels in which saints are represented: to the left are Saints Francis, Andrew, John the Baptist, and Peter, and to the right are Paul, Jerome, Dominic, and Theodore. Directly above the Nativity, there is an image of the so-called Man of Sorrows, the dead Christ mourned by two angels. On the predella below, Christ (in the middle) is shown in the act of blessing surrounded on both sides by twelve half figures of the Apostles.

Bartolomeo Vivarini, "Conversano Polyptych," after conservation.

Conservation

The altarpiece was restored by conservators March Petkovic and Luigi Savio, with the guidance of project director Giovanna Nepi Scirè 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.