Restored in 1985 with Save Venice general funds.

This altarpiece by Jacopo Palma il Giovane is datable to the same period as the accompanying altar of the Scuola dei Luganegheri (sausage-makers’ guild) with its remarkable marble sculptures, executed by Alessandro Vittoria. According to Carlo Ridolfi, the seventeenth-century biographer of artists active in Venice and the Veneto, it was Vittoria himself who insisted that the commission for the altarpiece be given to Palma il Giovane.

The altarpiece depicts the Virgin and Child appearing in a heavenly vision, surrounded by cherubs, to three saints below: at the center is Anthony Abbot, flanked by John the Baptist on the left and Francis of Assisi on the right. Saint Anthony Abbot was the patron saint of the Scuola dei Luganegheri, for his attribute was a pig — a traditional symbol of temptation, as well as an animal bred by the Antonine monks.

Ridolfi further explains that the painting had blackened so rapidly from candle smoke that Palma himself attempted to “touch it up” only several years after its completion. The quality of the work is uneven, especially in the lower section where the figures of the three saints betray the hand of an artist of lesser skill, likely a workshop assistant.

The work was restored by conservator Maria Stella Volpin, with the guidance of project director Ettore Merkel 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.

Jacopo Palma il Giovane (1548/50–1628)
The Virgin of the Carmelites Appearing to Saints Anthony Abbot, John the Baptist, and Francis of Assisi
c. 1600-03, oil on canvas
404 x 193 cm