In 2024 Save Venice’s Immediate Response Fund supported conservation maintenance to treat damage caused by the painting’s exposure to damp debris, caused by the long-term effects of the 2019 exceptional high tides.

The 2001 restoration was made possible with funding from The James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation, through Beatrice Rossi-Landi, Trustee.

Known for his swift execution and bold, energetic style, Jacopo Tintoretto was one of the most prolific and influential painters in sixteenth-century Venice. Produced early in his career for the third altar on the right of the Carmelite church of Santa Maria dei Carmini, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple manifests the dynamic figural style and dramatic lighting that are characteristic of Tintoretto’s art.

The painting depicts Mary and Joseph’s presentation of the infant Jesus to the high priest Simeon in the Temple in Jerusalem. Mosaic law required that the firstborn of all living things be sacrificed to the Lord, children being redeemed by the payment of a sum of five shekels. The rite commemorated the slaying of the firstborn in Egypt when the Jews were spared. The ceremony incorporated a procession of candles, which later was incorporated into the Christian holiday of Candlemas, celebrated forty days after Christmas on February 2; the feast day is also known as the Purification of the Virgin, which coincides with the Presentation of the Christ Child.

The altarpiece was commissioned by the Scuola dei Compravendi Pesce, the confraternity of the fishmongers; Candlemas was their principal feast day, and the mariegola (statue book) of the Scuola specified that all members must attend mass that day. Moreover, their celebrations included a procession that began with the lighting of candles at the very altar that Tintoretto’s painting adorned. The artist emphasized the importance of this feast day to the community by including many candle-holding figures in the background of the Presentation scene, which may even constitute portraits of the confraternity members.

2024 Intervention
In late 2023, the bottom perimeter of Tintoretto’s altarpiece showed condition problems including lifting and flaking paint, caused by exposure to damp debris and salt deposits that had accumulated along the stone frame at the base of the painting. The debris originated from the brick wall behind the altar, and was due to the excessive rising damp in the church in the wake of the 2019 exceptional high tides that struck Venice. The church of the Carmini’s elevation makes it particularly vulnerable to the effects of acqua alta, and in November and December of 2019, it was inundated with corrosive sea water on numerous occasions. Thankfully the damage did not affect Tintoretto’s original work, but was isolated to the more recent repairs and fills that were applied during the 2001 restoration.

Conservator Egidio Arlango and his team led the 2024 maintenance intervention by stabilizing and consolidating the damaged areas, cleaning the painting’s surface, and applying a final layer of protective varnish. The damp debris was cleared from the altar and the wall, and the wall behind the altar was repaired. Lastly, a new supportive framework was applied to the perimeter of the canvas to ensure it is isolated and protected from future exposure to any damp surroundings, while also improving the natural circulation of air between the wall and the altarpiece.

2001

The painting was restored by conservator Maristella Volpin, with the guidance of project director Annalisa Perissa 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.

Jacopo Tintoretto (c. 1518/19–1594)
Presentation of Christ in the Temple
c. 1546-48, oil on canvas
360 x 200 cm

Dalla Costa, Thomas, Robert Echols, and Frederick Ilchman, eds. Tintoretto in Venice: A Guide. Venice: Marsilio, 2018.

Hammond, Joseph. “Tintoretto and the ‘Presentation of Christ:’ The Altar of the Purification in Santa Maria dei Carmini.” Artibus et Historiae 34, no. 68 (2013): 203-217.