Restored in 1998 with funding from The James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation, through Beatrice Rossi-Landi, Trustee.

Alvise Vivarini’s small panel of The Savior Blessing was originally commissioned for the late fifteenth-century chapel built to house the relics of San Giovanni Elemosinario, or Saint John the Almsgiver, and was mounted above the reliquary box of the saint. It is currently located on the left wall of the church, for it was repositioned during the redecoration of the chapel in the eighteenth century.

The frontally oriented Christ is shown as the Salvator Mundi, or savior of the world, who offers a gesture of blessing to the viewer. He is dressed in red, symbolic of his human nature, and blue, indicative of his divinity. The brilliant light that illuminates the figure and helps it to emerge from the dark background is typical of the artist’s late works.

This small panel painting demonstrates the influence of works by Antonello da Messina and Giovanni Bellini upon the artist. Alvise was the last great painter from the Vivarini family workshop, which had included his father Antonio and his uncle Bartolomeo, and was second only to the Bellini family workshop in importance.

The work was restored by conservator Paola Borghese, with the guidance of project director Sandro Sponza 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.

Alvise Vivarini (c. 1445/46–1505)
The Savior Blessing
1493-1494, tempera and oil on wood
47 x 37 cm

San Giovanni Battista in Bragora: Homepage (in Italian)

San Giovanni Battista in Bragora: Chapel of Saint John the Almsgiver (in Italian)

Steer, John. Alvise Vivarini: His Art and Influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.