Restored in 2019-20 with Save Venice general funds.

According to an account from 1286, this wooden votive sculpture miraculously drifted by sea to Venice, coming ashore near the church of San Marziale where it has been venerated ever since. Upon its arrival, the sculpture was immediately credited with miracles and became an object of great devotion throughout the city: the confraternity of Santa Maria delle Grazie was founded in its honor. When the church of San Marziale was rebuilt in the late 17th century, the sculpture was placed on its own altar, complete with a marble altar front relief depicting the Madonna’s story. Two ceiling paintings by Sebastiano Ricci commissioned in 1704 portray scenes of the miraculous Madonna as well.

The conservation of this legendary treasure inspired new scholarship, and these studies have indicated that the San Marziale Madonna belongs to a group of late thirteenth-century artworks created by unknown sculptors from Italy’s Valle d’Aosta mountain region.

The conservation of this late-gothic willow wood sculpture was particularly challenging. Prior to treatment, the artwork was in a perilous state with extensive damage caused by an infestation of wood-boring insects. Pieces of the wooden structure and painted surface had cracked and begun detaching. As the sculpture had undergone several modifications and repainting campaigns over the last seven centuries, as well as a clumsy conservation attempt in 1957, the situation facing conservator Enrica Colombini could not have been more complex.

After repairing and securing the structure of the sculpture, a comprehensive analysis campaign was conducted. This allowed the conservator to identify the exact wood species used, as well as distinguish the many layers of non-original materials that had been added to the surface over the last 700 years and determine if the original polychromy was still intact. Armed with these results, Enrica began the painstaking process of very carefully thinning and removing the more recent layers of overpainting, revealing the original gothic colors and decorative scheme. Layers of clumsy repainting were removed, as well as a cork insert from a past restoration that had deformed the Virgin’s bodice and changed her proportions.

The discoveries that emerged were remarkable, including a Byzantine style throne with painted jewels. The Virgin’s robe, which had originally been gilt with silver, is now a shiny black due to the permanent oxidation of the original material. Red lacquer decorations were discovered on the Christ Child’s robe as well as on the Virgin’s bodice. The Virgin’s original complexion was also restored from beneath clumsy tempera overpainting that had been used to mask the misguided conservation treatment undertaken in the 1950s.

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
Votive Sculpture of the Madonna and Child (Our Lady of Graces)
Late thirteenth century, wood with polychromy