Restored in 1999 with funding from the James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation through Beatrice Rossi-Landi, Trustee.

This painting by Cima da Conegliano is a rare example of a fifteenth-century altarpiece that is still in its original frame and on its original altar. While it is known that Cima and his workshop completed dozens of church altarpieces, only four remain in their original setting. The panel features Saint John the Baptist, flanked by Saints Peter and Mark on the left and Saints Jerome and Paul on the right. The rich draperies worn by the figures, the extraordinary architecture of the arcade that has fallen into ruin, and the detailed natural setting reveal Cima’s mastery of vibrant color and texture.

Observations made during the restoration process helped to clarify Cima’s painterly techniques. While painting, the artist changed his mind a number of times and repositioned elements: this can be seen in the head of Saint Peter, the hand and book of Saint Mark, the right arm of Saint John the Baptist, and the branches and leaves of the tree. Cima meticulously applied glazes (layers of translucent paint with a large quantity of binder) to the forms, giving them a striking luminosity. Close inspection also revealed that the gold visible in the pendentives of the architecture was in fact actual gold leaf.

The lighting of Cima’s painting aligns and engages with the actual light entering into the church; installed on the first altar in the right side aisle, the altarpiece is located near a southern-facing window in the façade. Thus the actual sunlight that filtered into the church through the window would have rendered the internal lighting of the altarpiece all the more vivid and real — indeed, even Saint John appears to look towards the light.

The work was restored by conservator Valentina Piovan, with the guidance of project director Fiorella Spadavecchia 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.

Giovanni Battista Cima, called Cima da Conegliano (c. 1459–c. 1517)
Saint John the Baptist with Saints Peter, Mark, Jerome, and Paul
1493-1495, tempera and oil on wood
305 x 205 cm

Ilchman, Frederick. “The Conservation of Cima’s Altarpiece in the Church of the Madonna dell’Orto.” Save Venice Journal (2001): 28-31. Link to the article

Humfrey, Peter. Cima da Conegliano. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.