The Grimani Chapel conservation was generously funded by Cat Jagger Pollon† in loving memory of her mother Elisabeth N. Pollon.

The construction of the Church of San Sebastiano began in 1506, and the main structure was nearly completed by 1548, when Bernardo Torlioni, a bishop from Verona, became prior of the church. According to documentation published by Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna, under Torlioni’s leadership, a fundraising campaign was launched to support the struggling Hieronymite order. This campaign also involved the construction of six side chapels, three on each side of San Sebastiano’s nave, with the support of wealthy nobles and other influential individuals. In exchange for their contributions, these benefactors were granted burial rights for their families in the respective chapels they sponsored. Additionally, donors were responsible for financing and commissioning the decoration of their chapels, a customary practice in Venetian churches.

The Grimani Chapel is the most important side chapel in the church of San Sebastiano both historically and artistically, and it is located on the left side of the nave. It was granted on 30 January 1544 to Marcantonio Grimani, a Venetian senator, podestà of Padova, and later Procurator of San Marco. Between 1544 and Marcantonio’s death in 1566, the chapel was embellished with fine stuccowork and frescoes, marble sculptures, and precious colored marbles. As the first chapel in the nave to be erected and decorated, it became the prototype for the other two chapels on the left side of the nave, the Pisani Chapel and the Pellegrini Chapel. These were later developed under the direction of the monastery but subsequently subsidized by a donation of 112 lire and 3 soldi from Marcantonio Grimani himself.

The chapel’s vault and lunette feature stuccowork and frescoes portraying the Agony in the Garden, the Arrest of Christ, the Entombment, and the Resurrection. These were originally credited to Paolo Veronese but have now been correctly attributed to Andrea Meldolla, known as Schiavone. Grimani also commissioned Renaissance master Alessandro Vittoria to create his bust (on the left wall) and two marble sculptures of his namesake saints, Mark and Anthony Abbot, that adorn the elaborate and colorful marble altar. Today the altar is decorated with a small votive Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine and Friar Michele Spaventi by Paolo Veronese. This painting used to be displayed in the Onorati Chapel on the right side of the nave, but when the chapel was redecorated in the 18th century, Veronese’s painting was moved to its current location.

From 2017 to 2018, the Co.New Tech firm primarily concentrated its efforts on the conservation of the stuccowork and frescoes in the vault and lunette. Thanks to stratigraphic studies undertaken using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology, traces of the original 16th-century colors of the stucco decoration were identified beneath several layers of overpainting from previous interventions over the centuries. Conservators were able to safely remove these non-original layers, restoring Andrea Schiavone’s original color palette. Schiavone’s frescoes were cleaned, and areas of heavy overpainting were removed, revealing more of the original details and figures. Any cracks or fissures were consolidated and filled, ensuring that the chapel’s decoration is preserved well into the future. The marble elements and sculptures were also cleaned and found to be in good condition.

Andrea Meldolla, known as Schiavone (c. 1510–1563)
Vault and Lunette Frescoes
c. 1548-1552
Agony in the Garden (75 x 53 cm)
Arrest of Christ (115 x 95 cm)
Entombment (75 x 53 cm)
Resurrection (200 x 95 cm)

Alessandro Vittoria (1525–1608)
Bust of Marcantonio Grimani
Sculpture of Saint Mark
Sculpture of Saint Anthony Abbot
Late 1550s, marble

Paolo Veronese (1528–1588)
Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine and Friar Michele Spaventi
c. 1578-80, oil on canvas
56 x 67 cm

Antonio de Gazin (16th century)
Construction of the Grimani Chapel
c. 1544-1551

Augusti Ruggeri, Adriana and Simona Savini Branca. Chiesa di San Sebastiano: arte e devozione. Venice: Marsilio, 1994

Cicogna, Emmanuele Antonio. Delle inscrizioni veneziane, vol. IV. Venice: Giuseppe Picotti Stampatore, 1834

Dal Borgo, Michela. Grimani, Marco Antonio. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 59. Rome: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, 2002, ad vocem. Link to the article

Gentili, Augusto and Michele Di Monte. Veronese nella chiesa di San Sebastiano. Venice: Marsilio, 2005

Ranieri, Paola. “La chiesa di San Sebastiano a Venezia: la rifondazione cinquecentesca e la cappella di Marcantonio Grimani.” Venezia Cinquecento, 12, 24 (2002): 5-140

Salomon, Xavier, Davide Gasparotto, Gabriele Matino, and Melissa Conn. The Church of San Sebastiano in Venice: A Guide, Venice: Marsilio, 2024

Splendori del Rinascimento a Venezia. Schiavone tra Parmigianino, Tintoretto e Tiziano. Milan: 24 Ore Cultura, 2015