Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Venice (Italy). San Giorgio degli Schiavoni »

In the first decades of the seventeenth century the altar of the Scuola di San Giorgio e Trifone (also known as the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni), at the time situated in the Venetian church of San Giovanni del Tempio, was adorned by an altarpiece by Matteo Ponzone (today in the church of Madonna dell’Orto), mentioned in 1664 by Marco Boschini as being “di Casa Stefani.” Boschini’s definition of Ponzone’s altarpiece as belonging to the Stefani family is explained by a 1582 request by the Guardian Grande Paulo (Paolo) de Stefano, who appealed to the general chapter for permission to construct a family tomb in the church of San Giovanni del Tempio in front of the Dalmatian nation’s altar of St. George. Although the construction of a family tomb in front of the confraternity altar affected its later reception as collective confraternal property, the iconography of Ponzone’s altarpiece depicting the confraternity’s patron saints George, Jerome, and Tryphon represents a distinct statement of Dalmatian identity, which the Scuola sought to exhibit within the multicultural society of Venice.

The multi-dimensional topic of improvisation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has been explored in various recent publications and international conferences. For example, the proceedings of the conference L’improvvisazione nella musica occidentale del Settecento all’Ottocento, held at La Spezia in 2010, were published as Beyond Notes: Improvisation in Western Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), edited by Rudolf Rasch. Rasch (Universiteit Utrecht) was one of several participants at La Spezia who reappeared in Venice for the third in a series of conferences on improvisation, organized like the previous two by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The first two (November 2012, 2013) dealt with different eras. ‘Musical Improvisation in the Age of Beethoven’, held over two days, brought together scholars of varying provenance, from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The first day of papers was followed by an evening recital from Mozart scholar and fortepianist John Irving (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) and violinist Davide Amodio. Scott Burnham (Princeton University), scheduled to speak on the second day, was absent, but a ‘draft outline’ of his paper was read by William Caplin (McGill University) and distributed as a handout. In the face of an unreliable broadband connection, Elaine Sisman (Columbia University) read her paper over Skype and participated frequently in the other sessions.

The polyptych for the altar of St Martin in the Zadar Cathedral, commissioned from Vittore Carpaccio by Canon Martin Mladošić, is one of those works from the painter’s oeuvre whose chronology is still not agreed upon. Various authors dated the Zadar polyptych to almost the entire range of the painter’s activities, from those who considered it a youthful work to those who considered it a late work, created at the very end of his career. The document that was recently found in the Zadar archive sheds a completely new light on the issue of dating the polyptych, excluding all dating in the early years of Carpaccioʼs work, but at the same time exposes the conditions and circumstances of its commission and creation. Namely, on September 12, 1497, in Zadar, Martin Mladošić appointed two representatives, who were supposed to demand from the painter Victor Scarpation (Vittore Carpaccio) in Venice to complete the work on the altarpiece for the altar of St Martin in the cathedral of St Anastasia in Zadar, in accordance with the contract he had previously concluded with the client. It was stated that, if the painter failed to do this, they should take from him the frame carved in Zadar and order the painting from other masters at his expense. However, if he completed and submitted the work, they should cancel the previously concluded contract. Considering Carpaccioʼs signature on the painting, it is obvious that the latter was ultimately achieved. And in the light of the fact that the client and the painter met in person, it can be assumed that the depiction of the donor in the painting is indeed a realistic portrait of a prominent Zadar canon. In combination with the previously known information from Mladošićʼs will, dated April 21, 1496, which referred to the making of the frame, it can be established that the polyptych was commissioned in 1496, and that the painting lasted until the end of 1497 or the beginning of 1498. Dated in this way, the Zadar polyptych can be precisely placed in the time between the two great Carpaccioʼs cycles, that is, after the completion of the Cycle of St Ursula and before starting work on the cycle at the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. The life of Martin Mladošić, in addition to his own notarial books, is witnessed by numerous archival documents, from which it is possible to partially reconstruct his biography, especially his career progression and position within Zadarʼs ecclesiastical circles, where he stood out as one of the most important and influential members of the cathedral chapter. Despite certain disagreements between the chapter and the archbishop, he remained the closest associate and confidant of Archbishop Maffeo Vallaresso. After Vallaressoʼs death, during the vacant episcopal seat, he seems to have been the head of the Zadar church hierarchy, and he retained a key role during the episcopate of Giovanni Robobello. The rise of his ecclesiastical career was accompanied by material prosperity, a luxurious house in the city, and extensive land holdings. So, investing in his own altar in the cathedral was a logical reflection of Mladošićʼs well-being and position. Also, we can assume that Mladošić, satisfied with Carpaccioʼs work, and still connected with the Vallaresso family, played a certain role in his engagement for the work in Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni.

On 20^th and 29^th of May 2012, two powerful earthquakes struck northern Italy. The epicentres were recorded respectively in Finale Emilia (magnitude 5.9 Ml) and Medolla (magnitude 5.8 Ml) in the province of Modena, though the earthquake was formed by a series of seismic shakes located in the district of the Emilian Po Valley, mainly in the provinces of Modena, Ferrara, Mantova, Reggio Emilia, Bologna and Rovigo. Many monuments in the city of Mantova were hit by the earthquake and, among these, Palazzo Ducale with the well-known Castello di San Giorgio which host the noteworthy “Camera degli Sposi”. This building, the most famous of the city, was so damaged that it was closed for more than one year after the earthquake. The emblem of the Palace and Mantova itself, the previously cited “Camera degli Sposi” realized by Andrea Mantegna, was damaged and all the economic and social life of the city was deeply affected. Immediately after the earthquake, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici of Brescia, Cremona and Mantova establish an agreement with the University Iuav of Venice, requiring an analysis and assessment of the damage in order to proceed with the development of an intervention project. This activity turned out to be very important not only from the point of view of the recovery of the architectural and artistic heritage but also because the city's economy is based primarily on tourism. The closure of one of the most important monuments of Mantova has led to a significant and alarming decline in the government income.