Restored in 2009 with Save Venice general funds.

This marble statue of Saint John the Baptist, executed by an unknown Tuscan sculptor, depicts the saint in an austere manner, with gaunt facial features; he is clothed in a hair shirt made of animal pelts, referring to the extended period that he spent in the wilderness.

The statue is thought to have once belonged to the Scuola di San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini. Florentine bankers and merchants in Venice had a local association to represent their financial interests in front of the Venetian authorities by the end of the fourteenth-century, and in 1435 the Venetian Senate approved a Florentine confraternity dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, Florence’s patron saint. Like the scuole founded by other “nations” such as the Scuola Dalmata or the Scuola dei Milanesi, the Florentine confraternity looked after the Florentines’ religious interests, provided them with a burial site, and organized charity and aid for its members.

First granted an altar for worship in the Dominican church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the Florentines soon changed their plans and decided instead to build a chapel in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. An appeal was made in 1437 to Cosimo de’ Medici for financing, and in 1438 Donatello produced a wooden statue of Saint John the Baptist (restored by Save Venice in 1973) for the chapel’s altar.

Little is known about the construction of the Florentines’ meeting house located next to the Scuola di Sant’Antonio di Padova, adjacent to the church of the Frari. This area now belongs to the Venetian State Archive, established in 1815 to house the historical documents of the Venetian Republic. Despite suppressions and renovations, the sculpture of Saint John remained in situ as a reminder of the Florentine community’s presence in Venice. The weather-worn stone statue might have once been installed above the Florentine scuola’s portal or in its portico, but it is now housed inside due to its fragile condition.

The sculpture was restored by conservator Martina Serafin, with the guidance of project director Adriana Augusti 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 Tuscan sculptor
Saint John the Baptist
c. 1436-1440, marble
121 cm tall