The Board of Directors of Save Venice has dedicated the conservation of the Saint Catherine of Alexandria altarpiece to Vice President Emerita Terry Stanfill, the longest-serving Board member of the organization, and the founder of the California Chapter. For decades, Terry has been a miracle for Save Venice, which is why her leadership, commitment, and service is being recognized through the conservation treatment of a painting of a miracle — the tortures of Saint Catherine rendered ineffective through the intervention of God.

This large painting depicts the martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, at the moment in which she is spared from torture at the wheel. In true Mannerist style, a cast of characters in unnatural poses fall away from Catherine in disorderly disbelief, awed by the breaking wheel that shattered at her touch. Dark clouds part and angels descend to bestow the martyr’s palm upon Catherine as she prays before her beheading, the punishment inflicted for refusing to renounce her faith in Christ. The painting is housed in a marble and stone altar on the right side of the nave of the Basilica dei Frari, across from Titian’s Madonna di Ca’ Pesaro.

Palma, nephew of the artist Jacopo Palma il Vecchio, painted prolifically in Venice at the time of Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, but being of a later generation, he eventually outlived the great masters and dominated Venice’s artistic scene into the seventeenth century. Artist biographer Carlo Ridolfi wrote in 1648 that the Franciscans of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari initially did not like the violent style of Palma’s Saint Catherine altarpiece. They were convinced of its artistic value by the esteemed sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, who often came to his good friend Palma’s aid in obtaining commissions and approval.

After nearly two centuries had passed since the last documented  treatment in 1821, Save Venice’s conservation of Palma’s altarpiece from 2019–2021 was truly transformational.

The brilliant colors of the artist’s palette had been distorted by thick layers of darkened varnishes and chromatically altered overpainting from previous interventions. Conservator Giulio Bono and his team meticulously thinned and removed these non-original surface layers and residues with innovative solvents. Small losses to the pictorial surface were filled and integrated with removable conservation paint, and a final coat of protective varnish was applied as the last step in the process.

Save Venice’s conservation campaign also focused on the painting’s marble frame and altar, which had also been obscured by a thick layer of grime. Conservator Egidio Arlango and the Arlango firm carefully examined and verified the structural stability of the altar before cleaning the stonework. The results of the cleaning were particularly evident on the Pavonazzetto marble columns, whose distinctive purple veins are now once again visible.

Jacopo Palma il Giovane (1548/50–1628)
Saint Catherine of Alexandria Altarpiece
1595, oil on canvas
482 x 245 cm

Website of the Basilica dei Frari