Restored in 2003-04 with funding from the Young Friends of Save Venice, New York Chapter; Young Friends of Save Venice, Boston Chapter; and Mr. and Mrs. J. Winston Fowlkes.

The frescoes decorating the walls and ceiling in the sacristy of San Salvador were rediscovered in 1925, when the whitewashing that had covered them since the early 1700s was removed. The traditional attribution to Francesco Vecellio, Titian’s brother, is no longer accepted, and scholars are searching for new clues about their true authorship. Frescoes by the Mantuan artist Camillo Cappelli in Palazzo Grimani depict similar subjects, but differ stylistically from the loose execution and the inventive license of the works in San Salvador.

The frescoes depict birds and foliage — unusual subject matter for a Venetian church — and include a pigeon, a peacock, a rooster, and pheasant. Also present is what appears to be a turkey, a species from the New World that would have been quite exotic in Venice the early sixteenth century.

A fresco of Christ the Savior graces the ceiling of the sacristy. Christ is depicted in a bold mannerist style and framed by an oval-shaped garland that casts a fictive shadow, creating an illusion of greater relief and pictorial depth.

The frescoes were restored by the Emma Colle Restoration Firm, with the guidance of project director Annalisa Bristot of the Superintendency of Monuments 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
Frescoes of Birds and Foliage; Christ the Savior
c. 1540s, fresco

Annalisa Bristot, “Sacristy Frescoes in the Church of San Salvador” (2004)