Restored in 1996 with Save Venice general funds in honor of Ambassador Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat.

Doge Michele Morosini died in 1382 after serving only four months in office. Morosini was considered one of the wealthiest men in Venice at a time when the city was suffering after the War of Chioggia. His intricate tomb in Santi Giovanni e Paolo reflects his personal wealth through the elaborate use of sculpture, painting, and mosaic.

The doge’s sarcophagus is set between two pointed gothic towers complete with standing figures of saints. Above the sarcophagus is a pointed lunette, decorated with a mosaic of the Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saints, and Doge Morosini and the Dogaressa. On the left side of the crucified Christ, the doge is presented to Christ by Saint Michael the Archangel, his name saint; the Virgin also gestures towards the kneeling doge, as if interceding for him as well. On Christ’s other side, Morosini’s wife, Dogaressa Cristina Bondumier, kneels behind Saint John the Evangelist as she is presented by Saint John the Baptist. The inside of the lunette above the Crucifixion is decorated with intricately carved stars, above which there is a triangular mosaic field containing a sculptural relief of God the Father. A statue of the Archangel Michael holding the scales of justice stands at the top of the tomb.

The monument was restored by conservator Toto Bergamo and the Sansovino restoration firm, 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.

Unidentified sculptor
Tomb of Doge Michele Morosini
c. 1382, mosaic and marble
587 cm

Pincus, Debra. The Tombs of the Doges of Venice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.