Restored in 2010 with funding from Matthew White and Thomas Schumacher.

In 1366 the Patriarch of Constantinople gave a fragment of the True Cross to Philippe de Mézières of Cyprus, who in turn donated it in 1369 to the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, a charitable confraternity founded in Venice in 1261. This soon became the most celebrated Cross relic in Venice.

In the fifteenth century, the scuola had a new reliquary made to house the fragment of the True Cross. The holy relic is held in a small crystal caplet supported by angels that surmount a rock crystal and gilded silver cross decorated in turn with Christ on the Cross, the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and angels. The relic would then be carried through the city in processions in this reliquary, which not only served to protect it, but to attract the viewer’s gaze through its use of precious materials.

To commemorate the many miracles that the relic was credited with performing, the scuola commissioned a cycle of paintings by Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, and Lazzaro Bastiani that formerly decorated the boardroom of the scuola and are now at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. One of these works, Carpaccio’s Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross at the Rialto Bridge, is currently being restored by Save Venice.

The work was restored by conservator Corinna Mattiello, with the guidance of project director Giulio Manieri Elia 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.

Unidentified artist
Reliquary of the True Cross
Fifteenth century, rock crystal, gilded silver and precious stones
79 x 34 cm

Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista: Homepage

Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista: Art and Architecture