The conservation of Jacopo Marieschi’s Saint John the Evangelist has been generously funded by Dr. Alan Bentz and Sallymoon Benz.

The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, one of Venice’s most ancient and prestigious lay confraternities, has gained renown for its architectural and artistic treasures dating back to the early Renaissance period. Among these treasures, the most prominent is the magnificent meeting house, distinguished by the iconic exterior marble screen designed by Pietro Lombardo between 1478 and 1481. Inside, the Scuola boasts a grandiose staircase crafted by Mauro Codussi in 1498, as well as several splendid meeting halls, including the Chapert Hall, the Sala dell’Albergo, and the Oratory of the Holy Cross, all completed around the 1540s. Starting in 1727 and continuing into the 1760s, architect Giorgio Massari undertook the renovation of the Scuola’s Chapter Hall. He heightened the walls, redesigned the sumptuous polychrome marble intarsia floor, and introduced twelve large oval windows to illuminate the room more effectively. During the same period, Giuseppe Angeli painted a spectacular ceiling canvas depicting Saint John Fighting the Antichrist, while Domenico Tintoretto, Jacopo Guarana, and other artists adorned the walls with scenes from the life of Saint John.

Marieschi, a pupil of the Bellunese painter Gaspare Diziani, made significant artistic contributions at the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista in the early 1760s. His work there elevated his reputation to such an extent that he was repeatedly appointed as a professor and restorer at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice, ultimately becoming its President in 1776. For the ceiling of the Scuola’s Chapter Hall, Marieschi created three remarkable canvases dedicated to apocalyptic narratives. These included the striking Saint John’s Vision of the Throne and the Book of the Seven Seals. Positioned on either side of the high altar, flanking Giovanni Maria Morlaiter’s Carrara marble sculpture of Saint John the Evangelist, Marieschi also produced four canvases portraying miracles attributed to the patron saint of the Scuola. Among these works were Saint John the Evangelist Turning Sticks and Stones Into Gold and Gems, which is currently being restored by Save Venice, and Saint John the Evangelist Healing a Child.

The canvas is positioned just above the door to the right of the high altar, enclosed within a carved marble frame. Created around 1760, Marieschi designed a composition that exudes harmony and symmetrical balance. To the right, Saint John stands draped in a crimson mantle, his book left open on the ground beside the eagle, the Evangelist’s two traditional symbols. On the left-hand side of the composition, two couples of figures come into view: a grieving mother holds the lifeless body of her child, which she presents to the Saint; additionally, two men appear to offer the Evangelist a tray filled with an array of colorful small objects, potentially—though not definitively—identifiable as precious gems.

By and large, the widely accepted interpretation of the painting is Saint John the Evangelist Healing a Child. This identification of the subject matter draws from the description found in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, where it is recounted that “at his [John’s] command a youth was revived and the soul returned to his body.” Nevertheless, an element of ambiguity lingers regarding the presence of the two men approaching from behind. Their role remains enigmatic, prompting one to ponder whether they are integral to the scene or if they allude to another passage within the Golden Legend, in which the Evangelist is credited with making “broken jewels whole,” leading the unfaithful to believe “in Jesus, the diamonds were sold, and the proceeds given to the poor.” Should this be the case, the foreground episode could conceivably correspond to the “second reason” articulated by Saint John as a means to “dissuade us from the immoderate desire of earthly goods: man is born naked and dies naked.” According to this hypothesis, the painting could also be viewed as a visual admonition to the Scuola brothers, rather than merely a depiction of a healing miracle.

The pictorial surface of this painting was covered by a thick layer of dust and yellow, oxidized varnish that had distorted the vividness of the original color palette, as well as the dramatic contrast between light and shadow. There were evident deformations along the bottom edge of the painting and caused by tension issues between the canvas and stretcher. This had also caused the buildup of debris in the lifted areas and threatening further damage to the pictorial surface. Conservation work by Claudia Vittori treated the aforementioned issues and the overall discontinuity of the painted surface. The successful treatment restored the vibrancy of the artist’s color palette, the legibility of the intricate details and light and shadow.

Jacopo Marieschi (1711–1794)
Saint John the Evangelist Healing a Child
1760, oil on canvas
204,5 x 143 cm

Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista

Pignatti, Terisio, ed. Le Scuole di Venezia. Milan: Electa 1981

Trastulli, Federico. Marieschi, Jacopo. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 70. Rome: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, 2008, ad vocem. Link to the article

de Voragine, Jacobus. The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. William G. Ryan, trans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2 vols.