5780-2005 Newsletter-v6.indd - Save Venice Inc

Matteo De FinaMatteo De FinaMatteo De FinaMatteo De FinaMatteo De FinaMadonna and Child with Saints by Cima da ConeglianoGiovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano’soutstanding late-fifteenth-century altarpiece,Madonna and Child with SaintsNicholas, George, Catherine, AnthonyAbbot, Sebastian, and Lucy, has beenrestored and returned to one of thecentral rooms in Venice’s AccademiaGalleries alongside masterpieces byBellini and Carpaccio. Next year, thispainting will feature prominentlyin an Accademia exhibition devotedto Cima.Giovanni Battista was born in 1459to a family of cimatori, or cloth-shearers,in the town of Conegliano, in the foothillsof the Dolomite Mountains on theVenetian mainland. As was typical ofthe time, his family assumed the nameof their trade, Cima. He was known asCima da Conegliano, the Shearer fromConegliano. Although he worked predominantlyin Venice, he maintainedclose links with his town of origin, andthe countryside around Coneglianoappears in the backgrounds of manyof his paintings.It is not known with whom Cimatrained as an artist upon arriving inVenice in the mid-1480s, but GiovanniBellini and Alvise Vivarini were importantinfluences. Cima’s style developedearly and remained largely unchangedthroughout his career. By the 1490s,he was a leading altarpiece painter inVenice, but he and his workshop alsoproduced smaller devotional picturesas well as mythological subjects usedto decorate furniture.Cima da Conegliano lived in theVenetian parish of San Luca, and hispersonal life was as prolific as his artisticoutput; he married twice and hadeight children. He died in 1517, duringhis customary summer holiday in hisbeloved Conegliano.Giorgio Dragan, a Venetian shipowner,commissioned this painting forhis family chapel in the Venetian Churchof Santa Maria della Carità. Althoughnot dated, for stylistic reasons, the paintingis thought to have been completedbetween 1496 and 1499. Art historianshave seen stylistic similarities to Cima’sMiglionico polyptych in Matera, Italy,which has a secure date of 1499, andto a figure of St. Sebastian by Cima inLondon’s National Gallery from about1500. Another clue to the painting’sdate is that the Dragan Chapel wasstill under construction at the time ofGiorgio Dragan’s death in 1499, andDragan did not mention the paintingin his will when giving directions forthe completion of the chapel. This hasled scholars to assume that Cima’s commissionhad already been fulfilled, andpaid, by 1499.The Dragan Chapel and the Cimaaltarpiece’s marble frame were designedand sculpted by Cristoforo Solari ofMilan. The painted architectural elementsin Cima’s picture were probably relatedto the actual surrounding architecture.Unfortunately, Dragan’s chapel wasdestroyed. After the fall of the VenetianRepublic in 1797 and Napoleon’s suppressionof religious orders, the Caritàartworks were destroyed or dispersedand the space became the AccademiaGalleries. Cima’s picture, however, didnot travel far as it was acquired by theAccademia in 1812.This altarpiece’s static grouping ofsaints from various historical periodsaround a Madonna and Child is knownas a sacra conversazione (“sacred conversation”)and reflects an ideal assemblagerather than a narrative event. The painting’sdepiction of St. George is traditionallythought to be a portrait of GiorgioDragan. The other saints portrayedin the picture – Nicholas, Catherine,Anthony Abbot, Sebastian, and Lucy– are probably the name saints of otherDragan family members. The musicianangels, common features in altarpiecesby Giovanni Bellini and other Cima contemporariesin Venice, add a lyrical touchto the painting. The unmistakable hillsof Conegliano create a delicate, serenelandscape background.Under the direction and supervisionof Giulio Manieri Elia of theSuperintendency of State Museums ofVenice, Lucia Tito and the CBC restorationfirm cleaned the surface of thepainting and removed discolored varnishand awkward repainting to revealCima’s original glowing passages anddetails. It was painted on thirteen horizontalpoplar planks, and had previouslysuffered a severe termite invasion. Theinactive holes were filled during a pastrestoration, but they remained intrusiveand were retouched during the currentconservation. The wooden panel wassecured and stabilized.The Madonna and Child with SaintsNicholas, George, Catherine, Anthony Abbot,Sebastian, and Lucy was restored withfunding from The James R. Dougherty,Jr. Foundation and Save Venice generalfunds. It joins an illustrious list ofCima’s works restored by Save Venice:The Baptism of Christ in the Church ofSan Giovanni in Bragora (restored in1989 with co-sponsorship from WorldMonuments Fund), St. John the Baptistand Saints in the Church of Madonnadell’Orto (restored in 1999 with fundingfrom the James R. Dougherty, Jr.Foundation), and St. Mark Enthroned withSaints Louis and Andrew, Temperance andJustice in the Accademia Galleries, whichis currently undergoing conservationtreatment in time to join the Draganaltarpiece in the 2006 Cima exhibition.This page and opposite page: Details of therestored Madonna and Child with Saints byCima da Congeliano in the Accademia Galleries.All images of the Madonna and Child withSaints by Cima da Congeliano were reproducedwith the permission of the Ministero per i beni ele Attività Culturali.2 3