humfrey-mackenney - venetian trade guilds as patrons

The Venetian Trade Guilds as Patrons of Art in the RenaissanceAuthor(s): Peter Humfrey and Richard MacKenneyReviewed work(s):Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 128, No. 998 (May, 1986), pp. 317-327+329-330Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/882490 .Accessed: 27/01/2012 14:09

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PETER HUMFREY AND RICHARD MACKENNEY

The Venetian trade guilds as patrons of art in the renaissance

ALTHOUGH a full-length study of art patronage in renaissance Venice remains to be written, one would not expect it to devote much space to the activities of the trade guilds, or arti. Any neglect would be understandable, for there can be little doubt that numerous other types of individual or corporate patron - government committees and magistracies, for example, or the regular and secular clergy, or the scuole grandi, or wealthy individual patri- cians and cittadini - played a more significant part than did the guilds in promoting the greatest works of Venetian painting, sculpture and architecture.' These guilds made little or no contribution to the exterior embellishment of Venice's major civic monuments, and in this respect they also compare unfavourably with their Florentine counterparts, which, as is well known, were responsible for supervising several of the most important public commissions of the early renaissance.2

It is not difficult to account for this comparatively poor showing by the Venetian guilds: economically and politi- cally they wielded considerably less power than either the Florentine guilds or most other social groups at home. Yet it would be a mistake to conclude from this that their r6le as patrons of art was therefore negligible. Part of the pur- pose of the present article is to provide a more positive assessment of their patronage of painting and sculpture, as a basis for which we have compiled a list of more than fifty altar-pieces commissioned before c. 1610 (see Appendix). Some of these are identified as guild commissions here for the first time; and even a brief glance at the list, and at the accompanying illustrations (Figs.2-13), will show that they include a respectable, if not spectacular, number of important works of art. Taken as a whole, the list may also add to our knowledge of the guilds themselves: their financial means, their devotional and aesthetic tastes, and the public image they wished to project. As we shall see, there often turn out to be telling differences in these respects not only between the guilds and other types of local patron, but also among the guilds themselves, reflecting broader developments in the social history of renaissance Venice.

Two main features may be identified as typical of the Venetian guilds in general.3 The first is their diversity. Instead of being divided, as in Florence, into a restricted

number of arti maggiori and arti minori, each of which normally incorporated several different trades or professions, the Venetian guilds consisted of a much larger number of smaller groupings whose members belonged to closely similar occupations. Thus in Venice the painters, for instance, had their own guild, which was quite distinct from that of the carvers in stone or the carvers in wood, let alone from that of the physicians and pharmacists, under whose broad umbrella their Florentine counterparts were placed.4 It is true that by the later sixteenth century some of these smaller groupings had been forced by the pressures of foreign competition (and administrative con- venience) to combine into larger agglomerates.5 This development is well exemplified by the mercers' guild, which came to include as many as eighty different occupations, and hence to exercise considerable power in the Venetian economy; and it is surely no coincidence that the mercers also became, as we shall see, unusually prominent as patrons of art. On the whole, however, the Venetian guilds tended to be small, and each of them remained economically relatively insignificant.

The second characteristic feature of the Venetian guilds is that by the fifteenth century the arte, or professional body, had become more or less synonymous with its respective scuola, or devotional confraternity.6 Apart from the five (later six) scuole grandi, there existed in late medi- aeval and renaissance Venice innumerable scuole piccole, the primary aims of which were to offer their members spiritual consolation through special masses and memo- rial services, and to offer material support for their own sick and poor, widows and orphans. Some, like the guild scuole (or scuole dell'arte, as they were called), and the scuole belonging to foreign communities, were associated with particular social groups; others, like the rapidly prolif- erating scuole del sacramento, which during the course of the sixteenth century established themselves in virtually every parish church in Venice,7 were more purely devotional in character, and could draw their membership from a wide social range, including the patriciate. A scuola piccola with aristocratic connections such as the Scuola di S. Orsola stood in a particularly strong position to advertise its devotional and philanthropic activities by commissioning impressive pictorial decorations, such as Carpaccio's life

1 See the chapter on 'Patronage and Collecting' by O. LOGAN: Culture and Society in Venice 1470-1790, London [1972], pp.148-219; and 'Patronage in Venice', by J. M. FLETCHER in The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, exh. cat., eds. j. MARTINEAU and c. HOPE, Royal Academy, London [1983], pp.16-20. 2 See M. WACKERNAGEL: The World of the Florentine Renaissance artist, Princeton [1981], pp.211-19 (English translation of Der Lebensraum des Kiinstlers in der

florentinischen Renaissance, Leipzig [1938]). 3 See F. LANE: Venice: a maritime republic, Baltimore [1973], especially pp. 104-09, 164-65, 318-21; R. RAPP: Industry and decline in seventeenth-century Venice, Cam- bridge, Mass. [1976], pp. 14-22; R. MACKENNEY: 'Arti e Stato a Venezia tra tardo medio evo e '600', Studi Veneziani, N.S, V [1981], pp.127-43; IDEM: 'Guilds and guildsmen in sixteenth-century Venice', Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Stud-

ies, II [1984], No.2, pp.7-18. 4 For the Venetian Arte dei Depentori, see D. ROSAND: Painting in Cinquecento Venice: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, New Haven [1982], pp.9-10. SFor the 'agglomerate' guilds, see RAPP, op. cit. at note 3 above, pp.19-20. 6 For the scuole, see B. PULLAN: 'Natura e carattere delle Scuole' in Le Scuole di Venezia, ed. T. PIGNATTI, Milan [1981], pp.9-26. For the relationship between the scuole and the arti, see F. LANE: Navires et constructeurs d Venise pendant la Renais- sance, Paris [1965], pp.67-79. ' For the Venetian scuole of the Sacrament as patrons of art, see P. HILLS: 'Piety and patronage in Cinquecento Venice: Tintoretto and the Scuole del Sacra- mento', Art History, VI [1983], pp.30-43.

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THE VENETIAN TRADE GUILDS AS PATRONS OF ART IN THE RENAISSANCE

cycle of its patron saint;8 and it seems reasonable to assume that the scuole dell'arte aspired to imitate their example. At the same time, it is not difficult to see why their efforts in this field were almost bound to suffer by comparison with those of their larger and wealthier rivals. With their professional affiliations, the scuole dell'arte could hardly expect to attract the quantity of donations and pious bequests received by the most favoured of the purely devotional confraternities; with their membership drawn mainly from the artisan classes, and with the demands constantly being made on their limited resources by their commitments to charity, they would not normally have found it easy to finance even the most modest decorative enterprises.

The limited financial resources of the guilds, together with the strongly devotional character of their communal life, may go far to explain why the works of art listed in our Appendix include only altar-pieces, and not other types of painting commonly associated with the Venetian scuole, such as narrative cycles or painted ceilings. The focal point of guild life was not usually the meeting-house, but the church altar, and it was here that the guilds natu- rally tended to concentrate their energies. All of them (or virtually all) would by the fifteenth century have acquired patronage rights to a side-altar in one of the c. 130 parish and conventual churches of Venice;9 and as well as pro- viding funds for a priest to officiate at religious ceremo- nies, they also normally undertook to provide the altar with liturgical accessories and a fitting decoration.1' An examination of the account books of the Scuola degli Orefici (goldsmiths) for the years 1540-43 shows that up to half the annual income of a scuola dell'arte might be spent on items connected with devotion." During this period, for example, 21.85% of the Scuola's income was spent on candles and oil for the altar lamp (cesendelo); 9.25% on other liturgical equipment; 8.76% on payments to the priests and sacristan at S. Silvestro; and 3.56% for hiring musicians and singers to accompany the cele- bration of mass on the annual feast-day of the scuola's patron St Anthony Abbot. The 9.25% spent on liturgical equipment includes a sum of 329 lire (about 54 ducats) spent on a silver crucifix in 1543; and it is indicative of the slender resources of even a relatively prosperous scuola dell'arte such as the goldsmiths' that its annual budget for that year went into deficit as a result of the purchase. Under these circumstances, the expense of commissioning an altar-piece - hardly an annual event - would

presumably have had to be met by raising a special subscription. In 1455, for example, the calafati (caulkers) imposed a special tax on their members to cover the costs of decorating their recently acquired chapel in S. Stefano.12

Since for most guilds entrance fees and annual sub- scriptions constituted a high proportion of the Scuola's income (calculable at 49.87% in the case of the goldsmiths), the ability to meet occasional extra expenses and to raise special funds would, of course, have been much easier for guilds with a large membership. Thus it is not surprising to learn that the most lavishly decorated guild chapel in the years around 1500 was that of the tessitori di seta (silk-weavers) in the church of the Crociferi. This was a particularly numerous body of craftsmen, as well as one involved in the kind of luxury trade most liable.to prosper within the Venetian economic system;13 and after having commissioned an altar-piece from Cima in 1495 (Fig.2), they went on to commission a narrative cycle of four scenes in honour of their co-patron St Mark.'4 On the other hand, the sabbionai (sand-merchants), which num- bered no more than twenty members, apparently had no

difficulty in finding the means to replace their altar-piece by Bartolomeo Vivarini when it had become stylistically outdated (see Appendix Nos.9, 15);15 and it is likely that

only the very smallest and poorest of guilds could not have stretched themselves, if they had wanted, to commission some sort of painted altar-piece.

So, whatever its size, the most pressing priority for any scuola dell'arte was to secure rights to a church altar, and a burial place for its members; and only when this had been achieved could it contemplate acquiring a meeting-house of its own. By the sixteenth century many of the guilds had, in fact, successfully acquired a meeting-house, often as the result of a bequest by a former member, and usually of rather modest dimensions. Yet even here, the installation of an altar and the provision of the necessary liturgical accessories would have taken precedence over the pictorial decoration of walls and ceilings. Thus while altar-pieces are recorded in the premises of a number of guilds, the only trade-associated scuola to have commissioned a narrative cycle and painted ceiling in the manner of the scuole grandi before the end of the sixteenth century was the exceptionally well-endowed Scuola di S. Cristoforo dei Mercanti at the Madonna dell'Orto, the members of which seem to have been mainly of the merchant-entrepreneur type rather than master crafts-

8 Now in the Accademia, Venice. Prominently placed in the foreground of the Martyrdom scene is the escutcheon of the patrician Loredan family. 9 In a report sent to Rome in 1581 by a group of Venetian senators, mention of the guilds was made as follows: 'Di piut le arti di questa cittd, che sono innumerabili, hanno ciascuna di esse uno Altare in una chiesa, con la loro Scola particulare, governate e mantenute dalli proprij laici ...'. See s. TRAMONTIN: 'La visita apostolica del 1581 a Venezia', Studi Veneziani, IX [1967], p.478. Sometimes the guilds owned patronage rights to the high altars of parish churches; see for instance, the beccai (butchers) at S.Matteo (No.20), or the remeri (oar-makers) at S.Bartolomeo (No.38), or the casaroli (cheese-merchants) at S.Giacomo di Rialto (No.51). 0o See, for example, the contracts between the calegheri tedeschi (German cob-

blers) and the Augustinian Hermits of S.Stefano in 1383 and 1483, and between the ligadori (packers) and the Dominicans of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in 1431 and 1472, published by H. sIMONSFELD: Der Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venedig und die deutschvenetianischen Handelsbeziehungen, Stuttgart [1887], II, Docs. 42, 66; I, 322, 523. See also Appendix, Nos.2, 42.

" Venice, Archivio di Stato (henceforth ASV), Arti, B. 425, Orefici, cassa amministrazione 1540-53. This is one of only two account-books of the arti to have survived before 1620. See further MACKENNEY [1981], loc. cit. at note 3 above,

p.134. "2 See LANE, op. cit. at note 6 above, p.70. 13 See RAPP, op. cit. at note 3 above, p.7; MACKENNEY [1984], loc. cit. at note 3

above, p. 10. 14Appendix No.11. 1 The sabbionai had 12 members in 1595; see RAPP, op. cit. at note 3 above, p.61. From the lists of levies imposed on the guilds in 1539 and 1595 by the Milizia da Mar (ibid., p.73), it is apparent that their membership declined only slightly during the course of the 16th century. Their altar-piece by Bissolo (Appendix 15) would probably have cost them no more than 40 ducats; this is the price received by the painter for his rather larger Coronation of St. Catherine of Siena of 1513-14. See s. MOSCHINI MARCONI: Le Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia: Opere d'arte dei secoli XIV e XV, Rome [1955], p.93.

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2. Annunciation, by Cima da Conegliano. Canvas (transferred from panel), 143 by 113cm. (Hermitage, Leningrad.)

3. St Lanfranc and saints, by Cima da Conegliano. Panel, 145 by 130 cm. (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.)

4. Baptism of Christ, by Tintoretto. 283 by 162 cm. (S. Silvestro, Venice).

5. Decollation of St John the Baptist, by Palma Giovane. 300 by 220 cm. (Gesuiti, Venice).

6. St Barbara and saints, by Palma Vecchio (in eighteenth century frame). Main panel: 214 by 85 cm. (S. Maria Formosa, Venice).

7. Reception of officials of the Scuola dei Calegheri by the Doge, by anonymous Venetian painter (mid-sixteenth century). 181 by 167 cm. (Museo Correr, Venice.)

8. Virgin and Child with saints, by Bonifazio Veronese. 130 by 149 cm. (Accademia, Venice).

9. Stone relief detail from altar of the Barcaiuoli, (S. Giobbe, Venice).


men or tradesmen.16 At the same time, it is evident that this kind of decorative ensemble constituted an ideal for all the scuole, to be pursued if and when funds permitted. The Scuola dei Sartori (tailors), for example, had a cycle of ceiling paintings by Damiano Mazza on the ground floor of their premises at the Crociferi.'7 Francesco Sansovino records a series of twelve paintings, presumably a narrative cycle, in the Scuola dei Pescatori (fishermen) at S. Andrea della Zirada.'8 A mid-sixteenth century canvas (now Museo Correr; Fig.7) from the Scuola dei Calegheri (cobblers) at S. Toma, representing the reception of the guild officers by the Doge, clearly sets out to imitate the ceremonial tableaux of the scuole grandi and of the Doge's Palace itself, with its procession-like figure composition, its numerous portraits, and its view of the basilica of S. Marco in the background.'9 Another instance of a wall painting from a guild meeting-house that attempts in its modest way to emulate the decorations of the Doge's Palace may be a Coronation of the Virgin from the Cima workshop, apparently commissioned for the premises of the silk-weavers.2? But such examples remain isolated, and cannot properly be compared with the ambitious and coherent decorative programmes undertaken by some of the non-professional scuolepiccole such as the Scuola di S. Orsola and the Scuola degli Schiavoni in the years around 1500, or later by the Scuola della Trinitia or the Scuola di S. Fantin.21 Nor is their artistic quality of the highest, a fact which may reflect a relatively low cost.

It is true that generalisations such as these are neces- sarily based on very incomplete information. The archives of the Venetian trade guilds for the period before 1600 survive in a no more than fragmentary form - or rather, perhaps because of the loose organisation of guild institu- tional life, detailed records were not always kept - and lamentably few commissions for works of art are actually documented. These facts must also, or course, be borne in mind when we consider the list of altar-pieces in our Appendix. Of the 56 listed, contemporary documents are known for no more than three: that of the marzeri (mercers) (No.34), for which there survive deliberazioni relating to the choices of painter (Palma Giovane) and architect for the overall design, and payments to the sculptor Vittoria; that of the orefici (goldsmiths) (No.52), for which there survive payments to Girolamo Campagna, the stonemason Stefano di Tomaso, and various assistants; and that of the tessitori di tela (linen-weavers) (No.36), for which again there survive payments (to Tintoretto). In all other examples on our list, our knowledge of altar-pieces

commissioned by the guilds has to be based on second- hand information relating to their provenance, such as that provided by inventories made at the time of the Napoleonic suppressions, or by the early sources and guidebooks. Sometimes several different sources of information have to be collated, as in the interesting but generally overlooked instance of Tintoretto's Baptism in S. Silvestro (Fig.4). Thus in 1581 the apostolic visitors to the church noted that the altar dedicated to St. John the Bap- tist was in the custody of the Scuola dei Peateri (bargemen); the only altar-piece recorded by the early guidebooks that would fit such a dedication is the Baptism (even though they make no mention of its ownership); it may be concluded, therefore, that Tintoretto painted the picture for this Scuola.22

Although there is no reason seriously to doubt connections established in this indirect way, the scarcity of direct documentation is bound to make our list of examples very incomplete, and therefore potentially mis- leading. Of the hundred or so guilds in renaissance Venice, only a fraction is included, even though the great majority would certainly have owned rights to a church altar, and would presumably have equipped it with some sort of altar-piece. Many of these may actually survive, unaccompanied by information on their original owners. It is likely, too, that many were not sufficiently prized for their aesthetic merits to be preserved for posterity. One lost example of which some account happens to survive is that of the Scuola dei Calegheri Tedeschi (German cobblers) in S. Stefano. This consisted of a pair of polychrome wooden statues representing the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate; the figure of the Virgin was also carried in procession by the Scuola on festivals, dressed in real clothes provided for the occasion by a group of ter- tiaries living nearby.23 It should be stressed that an altar- piece need not have been the only - or even the most important - element in the scuola's liturgical equipment. Indeed, items that would impress the public when carried in procession might have been given higher priority than the kind of high quality painting and sculpture that the early sources and guidebooks considered worth recording. Thus, the first five items on an inventory kept by thefabbri (blacksmiths) in the late sixteenth century are a silver cross, a ceremonial sword, five standards with five brass rests and three painted crosses. The stagneri e peltreri (tin- smiths and pewterers) kept crosses of silver, brass and wood, six gilt torches, six brass candlesticks and two gilt angels.24 In some guilds it may even have been a matter of pride to fashion and display items that members them-

16 The survival of the Scuola's membership lists for the period 1377-1520 (ASV, Scuole Piccole, B.406, Santa Maria e San Cristofalo, mariegola 1377-1545) usefully gives an idea of its social composition. For the decorations of its three main rooms by Domenico Tintoretto, Antonio Vassilacchi (Aliense) and others, see G. LUDWIG: Archivalische Beitradge zur Geschichte der venezianischen Kunst, ed. w. BODE, G. GRONAU and D. V. HADELN (Italienische Forschungen, IV), Berlin [1911], pp.126, 129-31; j. SCHULZ: Venetian painted ceilings of the Renaissance, Berkeley [1968], pp. 136-8; s. GRAMIGNA and A. PERISSA: Scuole di arti, mestieri e devozione a Venezia, Venice [1981], pp.118-9. 17 See SCHULZ, op. cit. p.91. 18 F. SANSOVINo: Venetia citta nobilissima, ed. G. Martinioni, Venice [1664], p.209.

G9 . MARIACHER: II Museo Correr di Venezia: Dipinti dal XIV al XVI secolo, Venice [1957], p.190 (as Venetian school, late sixteenth century); w. WOLTERS: Der Bilderschmuck des Dogenpalastes, Wiesbaden [1983], p.155. 20 P. HUMFREY: Cima da Conegliano, Cambridge [1983], pp. 159-60.

21 On occasion, an urge to emulate the narrative cycles of the Doge's Palace and the devotional scuole is even apparent in church altar-pieces commissioned by the guilds, as in the self-consciously Carpaccesque Calling of St. Matthew by Girolamo da Santacroce (Fig. 11), painted for the altar of the beccai (butchers; No.20). 22 Appendix No.35. This is one of several instances of the connection between a particular scuola dell'arte and an altar-piece being pointed out here for the first time. For other instances, see Nos.7, 9, 10, 15, 18, 20, 23, 26, 32, 33, 37, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51. 23 See F. APOLLONIO: La chiesa e il convento di Santo Stefano in Venezia, Venice [1911], p.20. 24 ASV, Arti, B. 110, Fabbri, Intenvarii 1595-1720, fol. lr; B. 436, Peltreri e stagneri, Mariegola 1477-1803, following preamble. See also LANE, op. cit. at note 6 above, p.70, for a sumptuous holy image in silver gilt belonging to the calafati (caulkers).

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selves had made: ostentatious devotions may have had the welcome effect of advertising a guild's skills to onlookers.

But it is equally probable that many high quality altar- pieces have disappeared which did not happen to conform to cinquecento or seicento taste. Even our list, notably bottom-heavy towards the later sixteenth century, includes several instances of a quattrocento work sub- sequently being replaced by another in a more modern style. Around 1610, for example, the Scuola dei Varoteri (furriers) clearly considered their century-old altar-piece by Cima (No.14; Fig.3) no longer worthy of their altar in the Crociferi, and had it replaced with one by Palma Gio- vane which represented an identical array of saints, but now showed the Baptist in a dramatic and narrative rather than timeless situation (No.54, Fig.5). Similarly, the altar-piece executed by Palma in collaboration with Vittoria for the mercers (No.34; Figs. 13 and 11) was commissioned to replace an older one by Gentile Bellini, which was then demoted to the Scuola's meeting-house nearby.25 There must have been many other cases when the older work was sold off, or simply thrown away; such a procedure would have been likely in the not uncommon event of a guild transferring its altar from one church to another. Only extensive losses of these kinds can account for the total lack of surviving examples from the first half of the fifteenth century.

But once account has been taken of the gaps in our information, there do seem to be certain conclusions that may be legitimately drawn from the list of altar-pieces in our Appendix. It may be noted, for instance, that very few of the items listed before the final decades of the sixteenth century are works of art of the first rank or of the grandest scale. The greatest representatives of Venetian renaissance painting and sculpture, such as Giovanni Bellini, the Lombardi, Titian, Jacopo Sansovino and Veronese - the artists who in their prime could command the highest prices - are rather sparsely represented, contributing works that were either small (Bellini; No.60), or executed with extensive shop collaboration (Veronese for the laneri, No.37). The main exception would seem to be Tintoretto, who painted at least three guild altar-pieces (Nos.26, 35, 36), and is recorded as having received for one of them (No.36) the extraordinarily low fee of 20 ducats; yet perhaps this is not so surprising in the case of a personality whose very nickname advertised his origins in, and his sympathies with, the artisan classes.26 Otherwise, the finest works to be commissioned by the guilds tended to be by artists of a slightly lower status: Cima's Annunciation, for example, for the tessitori di seta (No.11; Fig.2); or Palma

Vecchio's St Barbara for the bombardieri (gunners) (No.22; Fig.6); or Bonifazio's Virgin and saints for the sartori (No.24; Fig.8); and even these are relatively small in scale, and artistically less ambitious than certain other works by their respective authors. But more characteristic of the artists chosen by the guilds are minor figures of the order of Francesco Bissolo, Bernardino da Murano, Marco d'Agnolo, Damiano Mazza and Pietro Malombra. Such choices would have been guided partly by the relatively low fees demanded, and partly too, perhaps, by a conservative taste on the part of the clients. Many of the artists seem also to have been chosen as late perpetuators of a well-established manner: the Bellinesque Girolamo da Santacroce, for example (Fig.10); or Domenico Tintoretto; or Titian's relative Marco Vecellio; or Alvise dal Friso (nephew of Veronese). A conservative taste is also apparent in the choice of a polyptych format, as by the marzeri in 1500 (Gentile Bellini; No.12), and especially by the bombardieri as late as the 1520s (Palma Vecchio; No.22, Fig.6), long after it had been abandoned in the most advanced examples of Venetian altar-pieces. Con- servative compositional demands by the artist's employers may also account for the somewhat monotonous array of saints produced for the barcaiuoli (boatmen) by Paris Bordon (No.29) or for the tintori (dyers) by Leonardo Corona (No.46), or for the tessitori di tela by Tintoretto (No.36), or for thefilacanevi by Palma Giovane (No.50). It is scarcely to be doubted that all four of these painters would have been inspired to greater feats of invention by narrative subjects.

Towards the very end of the sixteenth century, however, there are signs of a more ambitious approach towards art patronage, on the part at least of some of the guilds, which seem to reflect social and economic changes in the character of the guilds themselves. The average dimensions of their altar-pieces become larger; and, apparently in imitation of the chapels of the Scuole del Sacramento, paintings for the side walls of guild chapels (laterali) are more frequently commissioned, in conjunc- tion with the altar-piece.27 A number of Venice's leading artists, including the sculptors Alessandro Vittoria and Girolamo Campagna, are now employed by the guilds; while Palma Giovane, who dominated the whole field of Venetian painting after the deaths of Veronese in 1588 and Tintoretto in 1594, is recorded as executing no less than seven guild altar-pieces. Some of the works by these artists - the altar-piece for the marzeri, for example (No.34; Figs.13 and 11), or that for the luganegheri (sausage-makers; No.53), or that for the orefici (No.52;

25 For a third possible example of a new work replacing an older one, see Appendix Nos.1, 33. 26For Tintoretto's involvement with the Venetian Scuole del Sacramento, whose members similarly consisted predominantly of artisans and tradesmen, see ROSAND, op. cit. at note 4 above, pp.210-11, 304 n. 80; HILLS, loc. cit. at note 7 above, pp.32-3. For further possible examples of the painter's work for the trade guilds, see the following note. 27 See, for example, Appendix Nos.37, 38, 41, 45, 52. For the influence of the Scuole del Sacramento in the development of laterali in 16th century Venice, see HILLS, loc. cit. at note 7 above, pp.30-31. It may be pointed out that some of the examples by Tintoretto listed by Hills, p.40 nos.1-2, may in fact have been commissioned by trade guilds: the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (now Accademia), for instance, and its pendant, Schiavone's Visitation (now lost), which originally flanked the high altar of the church of the Crociferi, were

apparently donated by the guilds of the bottai (coopers) and varotari (furriers) respectively. (For the joint ownership of patronage rights to the high altar by these two guilds, see F. HONOFRI: Cronologia veneta, Venice [1663], pp.165-6. For the dedication of the bottai to the Purification of the Virgin - synonymous with the Presentation of Christ in the Temple - see G. MONTICOLO: I Capitolari delle Arti

veneziane sottoposte alla Giustizia e pei alla Giustizia Vecchia, II, Rome [1905], pp.XCVI-II, note; GRAMIGNA and PERIsSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.108. For the dedication of the varoteri to the Visitation, see their mariegola in ASV, Arti, B.719, Varoteri Mariegole e capitolari 1626-1806, f. 13v-14r.) Tintoretto's pair of scenes from the life of the Magdalen which flanked the high altar of S. Maria Maddalene may similarly have been commissioned by the guild of fenestreri (glaziers), who were dedicated to this saint and who had their altar in this church (see HONOFRI, ibid., p.157; GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, ibid., p.120).

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Fig. 12) must have been very expensive indeed; and it is perhaps another sign of the growing self-importance of guild officials that whereas previously (as in Cima's Annunciation; No.11, Fig.2), they were content to have their names inscribed on a small cartellino, they now have themselves portrayed in full scale as donors. Good examples are provided by Tintoretto's St. Helena and saints for the tessitori di tela (No.36), which includes their gastaldo Cristoforo Spolverini, and by Palma Giovane's Decollation of the Baptist for the varoteri, which appears to include portraits of all three of the current office-holders (No.54; Fig.5). And whereas previously, guild altar-pieces or their surrounding decorations frequently made direct allusion to the trades of their members - as with the very prominent scissors in the foreground of Bonifazio's painting for the sartori (No.24; Fig.8), or the carved roundel on the altar of the barcaiuoli (No.29; Fig.9), with its view of boats in the lagoon - references to manual labour now tend to disappear.

Perhaps it would be unwise to make too much of these: comparable tendencies towards an increase of scale and sumptuousness, and the increasing frequency of donor portraits, are even more evident in the altar-pieces of the period commissioned by the other main sections of Venetian society. The unprecedented increase in the sheer quantity of Venetian church decorations from the 1580s was in large part the result of a growing response to Tri- dentine reforms;28 and here, too, the guilds may be seen as following existing trends. Thus, although Palma Giovane may loom large on our list, he was an incredibly prolific artist, working extensively for all types of patron; and his altar-pieces for the guilds constitute a minor part of his total output. Nevertheless, it does seem that some of the changes we have noted in the later sixteenth century do reflect changes peculiar to the guilds themselves. Tra- ditionally, social divisions between bosses and workers within the guilds, and between one guild and another, had not been strongly marked. The typical scuola dell'arte, formed for the mutual benefit of practitioners of a particular trade or craft, had been generally effective in empha- sising their solidarity as Venetians and Christians, rather than their differences as masters or assistants. Now, however, as a result of various economic and even political pressures, including the imposition of obligatory galley service by the State, many of the guilds came increasingly to resemble the scuole grandi in their composition, with a clear differentiation between the poorer members (the lav- oranti, who were forced to take their turn on the galleys) and the better off (the merchants who could afford to pay

for substitutes).29 Such tendencies are illustrated particularly clearly by

the guild of the marzeri (mercers), one of the first guilds to be excused personal galley service,30 and also the one that in the early 1580s commissioned the most sumptuous altar-piece on our list (No.34; Figs.13 and 11). Its members' returns on the State galley tax show that the scuola, for which Gentile Bellini had painted an old-fashioned polyptych in 1500 (No.12) was by 1539 still only mod- erately well-off, and wealth was still fairly evenly distrib- uted.31 But by 1568, a handful of members had become very rich indeed, with fortunes of 30,000 ducats or more, made in the international market for luxury goods.32 Already one of the largest guilds, comprising an unusually broad range of occupations, including haberdashers and perfumers, as well as mercers proper, it was growing even larger as a result of an increased demand at home and from abroad for exclusive wares of this kind.33 It would have been in a spirit of self-advertisement to potential customers that the Scuola decided to spend 200 ducats in 1574 on displays of expensive cloth and the hiring of musicians to celebrate the visit of Henry III of France,34 and a further 500 ducats in 1597 to celebrate in an even more lavish manner the coronation of the dogaressa.35 The Scuola's new altar-piece in S. Zulian was evidently con- ceived in a similar spirit of opulent display. It is a positive Gesamtkunstwerk, consisting of an elaborate architectonic marble surround by Francesco Smeraldi, a pair of free- standing statues and an altar frontal by Alessandro Vittoria, and a painted canvas by Palma Giovane, which successfully unifies the various elements into an overall harmony. The commission must have been unusually attractive and remunerative, since Palma won it in open competition against Alvise dal Friso, Francesco Bassano and no less a figure than Jacopo Tintoretto; and although his victory clearly owed much to the partisan assistance of Vittoria, the Scuola would a!so have been well aware of the young artist's recent spectacular success in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Doge's Palace, with his large oval ceiling painting representing Venice crowned by Vic- tory.36 An additional stimulus to the mercers may have been the elevation in 1554 of the Scuola di S. Teodoro, a devotional confraternity with which they had enjoyed a close association since 1454, to the status of scuola grande.37 The installation of the altar-piece in S. Zulian, followed in 1614-17 by negotiations with Palma for the commission of a narrative cycle in their meeting-house,38 could then be interpreted in part as an attempt to confirm an association that had become particularly prestigious.

28 S. MASON RINALDI, Palma il Giovane, Milan (1984), p.18. 29 See MACKENNEY [1981], loc. cit. at note 3 above, pp. 135-42. 30o Ibid, p.140. 31 This may be judged from the list of members, with the sums paid by each, in ASV, Arti, B.397, Marzeri, Nomi difratelli 1586-1692, registro 1. 32 MACKENNEY, [1984], p.1 1; [1981], pp.134-35, cited at note 3 above. Detailed information on the wealth of individual mercers is provided by the records of the government magistracy of the Milizia da Mar: ASV, Milizia da Mar, B. 446, Dechiarazioni testimoniali sullo stato economico di alcuni essercenti per lapplicazione della tansa 1567-8. 33 For the dramatic expansion of the mercers' activities between 1561 and 1568, see MACKENNEY [1984], cited at note 3 above, p.10. 34ASV, Arti, B.312, Marzeri, mariegola 1471-1787, fols.79v-82v. 35 Ibid, fols. 70r-72r.

36 MASON RINALDI, OP. Cit. at note 28 above, p.'14. 37 See MACKENNEY [1981], cited at note 3 above, p.34. It would, in any case, have been natural for the most prominent members of the Scuola also to have sought office in the scuole grandi. A typical instance may be that of Bartolomeo Bontempelli ('dal Calice'), a wealthy mercer of Brescian origin, who served as gastaldo of the Scuola dei Marzeri in 1582 (and so would have been partly responsible for supervising the commission for the altar-piece in S. Zulian), and who went on to become Guardian Grande of the Scuola di San Rocco in 1599: see B. PULLAN: Rich andpoor in Renaissance Venice, Oxford [1971], pp.81-2, n.78. The altar-piece he commissioned for his own private altar from Sante Peranda, which includes portraits of himself and his brother Graziano as donors, is still in situ in the church of S. Salvador. 38 The project came to nothing. See s. MASON RINALDI: 'Tre momenti documen- tati dell'

attivit, di Palma Giovane', Arte Veneta, XXIX [1975], p.202, note.

323


Similar considerations may also account for the exceptionally splendid altar-piece in richly coloured marble and bronze commissioned in the first years of the seventeenth century by the Scuola degli Orefici (No.52; Fig.12) for their altar in S. Giacomo di Rialto. As has already been seen, their silver cross costing 329 lire was still an exceptional item of expenditure in 1543; but by 1602-07 the guild was paying Girolamo Campagna a total of 3,348 lire (540 ducats) for the bronze-work alone of the new altar-piece. Although their tax records do not survive, it is perhaps fair to assume that in the meantime many goldsmiths, like the mercers, had grown very rich in the same luxury trade; certainly the goldsmiths, too, were excused personal galley service at an early date. 39 Their choice of artists for their altar-piece, as well as its materi- als, reveals the extent of their ambition: Vincenzo Sca- mozzi, architect to the Procurators of St Mark's, and an international celebrity recently returned from a tour of northern Europe; and Girolamo Compagna, Venice's leading sculptor in the prestigious medium of bronze, and currently working on the tomb of Doge Marino Grimani in S. Giuseppe di Castello.40 The style approximates to that of international courtly Mannerism, with post- Michelangelesque youths reclining on the pediment, and the guild's patron St Anthony shown with elegantly slender and elongated proportions. To the side of the altar- piece was placed a narrative scene, The Temptation of St Anthony, which included portraits of scuola officers painted by the reigning specialist in ducal and patrician por- traiture, Domenico Tintoretto (see No.52). It may be assumed from all this that the goldsmiths were setting out not simply to outshine the cappella maggiore in S. Giacomo, recently adorned with a statue by Vittoria at the expense of the casaroli (cheese-sellers; No.51), or the chapel of the garbelladori (spicers) opposite, with their sub-Titian altar- piece (No.41) (not to mention the altar decorations con- trived by several rather humbler guilds in the same church), but to rival the splendour of the family chapels of the Venetian patriciate itself.

All this is not to insist on too crude a correlation between the size and/or wealth of a particular guild, and the artistic quality or sumptuousness of the altar-piece it commissioned. It is perhaps only to be expected that the only two arti to number more than 1000 members - the

tessitori di seta (silk-weavers) and the laneri (wool-workers) - should both appear on our list; and in both cases, the altar-piece of the guild chapel was complemented by a laterale by Veronese, a painter who may well have been associated in the public mind with the patriciate rather than the scuole (although significantly, modern criticism does not rate either work particularly highly, and assigns both to his shop; see Nos.l1, 37). On the other hand, certain other guilds with a large membership, such as the cimolini (wool-shearers), the drappieri (drapers) and the fabbri (blacksmiths) apparently failed to commission any altar-piece of importance at all; whereas some of the smaller ones, such as the garbelladori and the ligadori (packers), both of which had less than 30 members (as well as the sabbionai, which have already been mentioned), provided their chapels with decorations that

,Were rather

impressive.42 Again, one would hesitate to bracket the luganegheri (sausage-makers) with the mercers and goldsmiths as suppliers of expensive and glamorous wares for export; yet their splendid altar-piece in S. Salvatore was commissioned from the same forces as that of the mercers, no doubt in direct imitation, but at no less cost. Perhaps the most one can say is that the comparative wealth of guilds such as the mercers, and the goldsmiths (or the mercanti di vin, another guild to seek early exemption from personal galley service),43 put them in a position of special advantage when it came to commissioning a public work of art that would express the heightened social ambitions of their leading members. Or perhaps the very absence of any simple pattern of patronage is in itself instructive. The line drawn by social historians between 'popular' and 'elite' culture can sometimes be misleadingly sharp.44 In the case of altar-pieces commissioned by the Venetian guilds, which counted poor craftsmen as well as rich merchants among their members, there clearly did exist elements of imitation of, and even competition with, the 'lite; at the same time, however, these elements may be seen as co-existing with the survival of popular devotion and guild traditions. In terms of cultural history, therefore, we can detect a com- plicated overlap of values rather than a clear distinction; and in terms of the Venetian experience, we have yet another example of curious harmony rather than straight- forward clash.

39MACKENNEY [1981], cited at note 3 above, p.140. For the growing wealth of the orefici, see RAPP, op. cit. at note 4 above, p.30. 40 See w. TIMOFIEWITSCH: 'Der Altar der "Scuola degli Orefici", in S. Giaco- metto di Rialto in Venedig', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XI [1963-5], p.287. 41 Because of its close proximity to the Rialto market, the church of S. Giacomo was the natural choice of many guilds for the placing of their altars. In addition to those of the orefici, casaroli and garbelladori, it housed the altars of the travasadori de olio (oil-measurers), the biavaroli (grain-merchants) and the ligadori de comun (packers). See u. FRANZOI and D. DI STEFANO, Le chiese di Venezia: Venice [1975],

p.13. 42 For lists of the numbers enrolled in the various guilds in 1595, see RAPP, op. cit. at note 4 above, pp.58-62. See also ibid., pp.70-74, for lists of the manpower levies imposed by the government magistracy of the Milizia da Mar in 1539 and 1595; these provide a rough guide to the increase or decrease in membership during the course of the sixteenth century. 43 See MACKENNEY [1981], cited at note 3 above, p. 140. 44 See, for example, P. BURKE: Popular culture in early modern Europe 1500-1800, London [1978], pp.270-80; C. GINZBURG: The cheese and the worms, London

[1980], pp.125-6 (English translation of Ilformaggio e le vermi, Turin [1976]).

324


Appendix: Altar-pieces commissioned by Venetian trade guilds c.1360-1610

Scuola Place of altar Subject Approx. date Artist Present whereabouts Reference

Mercanti di Vin (wine- Scuola at S. Silvestro Polyptych with Madonna c.1360-90 ? S. Silvestro 1 merchants) (ex-church?) & saints

Calegheri Tedeschi S. Stefano Madonna & saints c. 1383 ? Lost or unidentified 2 (German cobblers)

Fornari (bakers) Scuola at Madonna dell' Polyptych with Madonna 1385 Stefano di Sant'Agnese S. Zaccaria & Museo 3 Orto & saints Correr (fragments)

Marangoni (carpenters) S. Samuele Polyptych with Madonna 1460 Donato Bragadin & Lost 4 & saints Francesco Moranzone

(frame) Barbieri (barbers) S.M. dei Servi Stone figures of Sts c. 1470-75 Shop of Antonio Rizzo S. Sofia 5

Cosmas, Damian, Luke & Andrew

Cinturari (belt makers) Scuola at S. Felice Madonna and child c.1460-1510 Giovanni Bellini Lost or unidentified 6 (ex-church)

Strazzaruoli (dealers in S. Zulian St James & saints and c.1460-1510 Lazzaro Bastiani Lost 7 second-hand clothes) predella

Tagliapietra (stone-masons) Scuola at S. Giovanni Polyptych with St 1477 Bartolomeo Vivarini & Accademia 8 Evangelista? Ambrose & saints Jacopo da Faenza (frame)

Sabbionai (sand-merchants) S. Giovanni in Bragora Triptych with Madonna 1478 Bartolomeo Vivarini In situ 9 & saints

Barcaiuoli (Traghetto del Corpus Domini St Veneranda & saints c.1480 Lazzaro Bastiani Accademia 10 Corpus Domini) (boatmen)

Tessitori di Seta (silk-weavers) S.M. dei Crociferi Annunciation (Fig.2) 1495 Cima Leningrad, Hermitage 11 Marzeri (mercers) Scuola at S. Zulian Polyptych with Madonna 1500 Gentile Bellini Lost 12

(ex-church) & saints Mureri (builders) Scuola at S. Samuele Incredulity of Thomas c. 1504-06 Cima Accademia 13 Varoteri (furriers) S.M. dei Crociferi St Lanfranc & saints c. 1515 Cima Cambridge, Fitzwilliam 14

(Fig.3) Museum Sabbionai (sand-merchants) S. Giovanni in Bragora Triptych with St Andrew c.1500-20 Bissolo In situ 15

& saints and predella Tessitori di Lana (wool- Scuola at S. Simon Madonna & 4 donors c.1490-1520 Carpaccio Lost 16

weavers) Piccolo

References to Appendix For a useful list of the principal Venetian guilds, with English translations

and explanations, see RAPP, op. cit. at note 3 above pp.171-75. 1 For the provenance of the polyptych (now in the sacristy) from the meeting- house, see A. ZORZI: Venezia scomparsa, Milan [1972], II, p.553 (with illustration); it is possible that it was originally in the church, but later moved to give way to the altar-piece by Damiano Mazza (No.33 below). Prominently displayed in the centre of the upper register above the Madonna is the figure of St. Helena, in keeping with the dedication of the scuola to the Holy Cross; she is also the principal figure in Mazza's picture. For a discussion of date and authorship, see R. PALLUCCHINI: La pittura venezia del Trecento, Venice [1964], p.214 (illustrated in Fig.669). 2 In 1383 the scuola undertook to commission an altar-piece (see above, note 10); no further information on the work has survived. 3The central Madonna (signed and dated) now forms part of the Vivarini polyptych on the main altar of the chapel of S. Tarasio in S. Zaccaria; a St. Christopher from the same complex is in the Museo Correr. For their provenance from the Scuola dei Fornari, see v. MOSCHINI: 'Alcune pitture nei depositi demaniali di Venezia', Rivista della Cittd di Venezia [1933], p.237. 4Recorded by SANSOVINO, ed. cit. at note 18 above, p. 115. 5See A. MARKHAM SCHULZ, Antonio Rizzo, Princeton [1983], pp.41-3, 180-1. 6Recorded by several seventeenth century sources; c. RIDOLFI, Le maraviglie dell'arte (1648), ed. D. v. Hadeln, Berlin [1914], I, p.64, says that it was moved from the scuola's altar in the church to its meeting-house nearby. 7The scuola had an altar dedicated to St James in S. Zulian, which received an altar-piece of the Ecstasy of St. James by Odoardo Fialetti in the early 17th century; see GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.66. It seems likely that this was commissioned to replace the triptych of St. James by Lazzaro Bastiani recorded by sANSOVINO ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.126. 8The central figure of St. Ambrose was not a patron of the scuola, and was apparently chosen as the name-saint of the gastaldo for the year 1477, Ambrogio Vivani. The scuola was at S. Giovanni Evangelista before moving to S. Aponal in 1515. See MOSCHINI MARCONI, op. cit. at note 16 above, I, pp.159-60. 9For the presence of the sabbionai at S. Giovanni in Bragora, with an altar dedicated to St. Andrew, see G. ANDREIS: Cenni storici sulla chiesa e parrocchia di S. Giovanni Battista in Bragora, Venice [1885], p.18. Bartolomeo's triptych (signed and dated 1478) with the Madonna flanked by the Baptist (the titular of the church) and St. Andrew perfectly fits the dedication (see the illustration in R. PALLUCCHINI, I Vivarini, Venice [1962], pl. 184). So, however, does the slightly

later triptych attributed to Bissolo (below, No.15), with its central St. Andrew; this is recorded by A. M. ZANETTI, Della pittura veneziana, Venice [1771], p.34 (with an attribution to Carpaccio) in the chapel to the left of the cappella maggiore. It may be that the scuola commissioned this new altar-piece following the extensive redecorations undertaken at the east end of the church between c.1490 and c.1505; for this campaign, see P. HUMFREY: 'Cima da Conegliano, Sebastiano Mariani and Alvise Vivarini at the east end of S. Giovanni in Bragora in Venice', The Art Bulletin, LXII [1980], pp.350-63.

o0 For the provenance and dating, see MOSCHINI MARCONI, Op. cit. at note 15 above, I, pp.53-54. For the dedication of the boatmen of the Corpus Domini ferry to St. Veneranda, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.167. "

The work is inscribed with the names of the scuola officers for 1495 on a cartellino. On the walls of the chapel were four scenes from the life of St. Mark by Cima, Lattanzio da Rimini, Mansueti (similarly inscribed with the names of the officers for 1499) and another painter. See HUMFREY, Op. cit. at note 20 above, pp.106-08, cat.59. Later the chapel also received a Nativity by Veronese (now in the Cappella del Rosario in SS. Giovanni a Paolo); according to T. PIGNATTI: Veronese: L'opera completa, Venice [1976], p.131, no.158, this is a work of extensive collaboration. 12 Recorded by ZANETTI, op cit. at ref. 9 above, p.59, as a signed and dated work by Gentile in the scuola's meeting-house. sANSOVINo ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.126 (with a mistaken attribution to Giovanni Bellini), specifically states that it was painted for the old church of S. Zulian; as the son of the architect of the new church, his information is probably reliable on this point. The two saints flanking the Madonna in Gentile's polyptych, Catherine and Daniel, also flank the Marian scene in the new altarpiece (below, No.34). The work disappeared after 1811, when it was considered to be in too poor a condition to be accepted by the Accademia or the Brera (see ZORZI, op. cit. at ref. I above, I, p.108; II, p.552); the central Madonna has sometimes been identified with Gentile's Madonna now in the National Gallery, London (No.3911), but the identification is not very plausible. 13 See MOSCHINI MARCONI, Op. cit. at note 16 above, I, p.114; HUMFREY, Op. cit. at note 20 above, pp.151-52 cat.143. "4Ibid. pp.90-91, cat.30. 15 Illustrated in B. BERENSON: Italian pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian school, London [1957], I, pl. 625. For the relationship between painting and Scuola, see above, No.9. 16See J. LAUTS: Carpaccio, London [1962], pp.257-58, cat. no.117.

325


Appendix: Altar-pieces commissioned by Venetian trade guilds c.1360-1610 - continued


Barcaiuoli (Murano) S. Cristoforo in Isola Madonna & saints c.1490-1510 Giovanni Agostino da S. Pietro Martire, Murano 17 (boatmen) Lodi

Vaginari (scabbard-makers) S. Geminiano St Helena & saints c. 1500-30 Bernardino da Murano Accademia 18 Tagliapietra (stone-masons) Scuola at S. Aponal Four Crowned Saints c. 1515 Catena(?) Accademia 19 Beccai (butchers) S. Matteo Calling of St Matthew 1519 Girolamo da Santacroce Bassano del Grappa, 20

(Fig. 10) Museo Civico Mastellai (coopers) S. Silvestro St Thomas of Canterbury 1522 Girolamo da Santacroce In situ 21

& saints

Bombardieri (gunners) S. Maria Formosa Polyptych with St c.1523-24 Palma Vecchio In situ 22 Barbara & saints (Fig.6)

Osti (innkeepers) S. Cassiano St John the Baptist & c.1520-29 Rocco Marconi In situ 23 saints

Sartori (tailors) Scuola at S.M. dei Madonna & saints (Fig.8) c.1533 Bonifazio Veronese Accademia 24 Crociferi

Corrieri (couriers) S. Giovanni Elemosinario St Sebastian & saints c.1535 Pordenone In situ 25 Pescivendoli (fishmongers) S.M. dei Carmini Purification c.1541-42 Jacopo Tintoretto In situ 26

Cappellai (hatters) S. Lio St James Major c.1545-70 Titian In situ 27 Fornari (bakers) Madonna dell' Orto Adoration of the Magi c. 1552 ? ? 28

Barcaiuoli (Mestre & S. Giobbe St Andrew & saints c.1554 Paris Bordon In situ 29 Marghera) (boatmen)

Tagliapietra (stone-masons) S. Aponal Four crowned saints - Andrea Schiavone? Lost 30

Pollaiuoli (poulterers) S. Giovanni Elemosinario Madonna in glory with - Shop of Bonifazio? In situ 31 saints

Portadori di Vin (wine- S. Bartolomeo Paradise 1570 Marco d'Agnolo ('del Ognissanti 32 porters) Moro') porters) Moro')

17 For the provenance, see ZORZI, Op. cit. at ref. 1 above, II, 402; the Scuola also owned a wooden polyptych of the Nativity of the Virgin. For the dating, see M. LUccO: 'Venezia fra quattrocento e cinquecento' in Storia dell'arte italiana, V, p.463, with illustration. A roundel on the base of the Virgin's throne depicting St. Christopher clearly refers to the activity of the scuola's members as ferry- men. s For the provenance and the attribution to the otherwise unknown Ber-

nardino, see s. MOSCHINI MARCONI: Gallerie dell' Accademia di Venezia: Opere d'arte del secolo XVI, Rome [1962], pp.30-31. For the dedication of the altar of the Vaginari in S. Geminiano to St. Helena, see HONOFRI, Op. cit. at note 27 above, p.121. 19 See MOSCHINI MARCONI, op. cit. at note 18 above I, pp.110-11; the attribution to Catena is not convincing. 20 For the patronage rights of the beccari to the church and high altar of S. Matteo, see SANSOVINO, ed. cit. at note 18 above, p. 186; and TRAMONTIN, p.515. Martinioni also records that the pala on the high altar was by Girolamo da Santa Croce, and M. BOSCHINI, Le ricche minere della pittura, Venice [1674], S. Polo p.33, describes its subject ('L'Altar Maggiore ha una azione di Christo con gli Apostoli, della scuola di Santo Croce'). The Calling of St. Matthew now in Bassano del Grappa is a signed work by Girolamo, and it also carries the date 1519 and the names of a series of scuola officials. For these inscriptions, and the known provenance which dates back only to 1866, see L. MAGAGNATO and B. PASSAMANI: II Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa, Venice [1978], p.108. It seems reasonable therefore, to identify this work with the altar-piece of beccari. 21 See ZORZI, op. cit. at note 1 above, II, p.552. 22 See G. MARIACHER: Palma il Vecchio, Milan [1968], pp.62-63; GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.42. 23 For the transfer of the osti from S. Matteo to S. Cassiano in 1488, see ASV, Arti, B. 430, Osti, mariegola, see 16, fol. 49r; for the dedication of their altar there to St. John the Baptist, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.183. Rocco Marconi's painting, with its prominent central Baptist, is mentioned by several sources, including Martinioni (ed. of SANSOVINO, cited at note 18 above, p.206, with an attribution to Palma Vecchio). 24 See MOSCHINI MARCONI, op. cit. at note 15 above, II, pp.31-2. 25 See C. FURLAN in Da Tiziano a El Greco: Per la storia del Manierismo a Venezia 1540-1590, (exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Milan [1981], p.74. The chapel of the corrieri was later decorated with scenes from the lives of Sts. Roch and Catherine by Palma Giovane in the 1590s: see MASON RINALDI, op. cit at note 28 above, Palma Giovane, pp.123-24. 26 For the dedication of the scuola to the Purification, see MONTICOLO, op. cit. at note 27 above pp.LXXXVI-VII, note; GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, Op. cit. at note 27 above, p.67. Tintoretto's altar-piece, which clearly refers to this mystery, has an inscription on its frame with the date 1548 and the name of the scuola's gastaldo. For a slightly earlier dating of the picture, and a re-affirmation of the sometimes

controversial attribution to Tintoretto, see R. PALLUCCHINI and p. ROssr: Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane, Milan [1982], p. 136, Cat. No.40. A. NIERO: La Chiesa dei Carmini, Venice [1965], pp.51-52, identifies the altarpiece of the pescivendoli with Lotto's St. Nicholas and saints; this seems, however, to have belonged to a quite different scuola (see No.62 below). 27 For the ownership of Titian's picture by the cappellai, dedicated to St. James, in the seventeenth century, see s. SPONZA in Da Tiziano a El Greco, cited at note 25 above, p.1 12. The author insists that it was acquired by the scuola only just before 1604, when it is mentioned for the first time in Stringa's edition of Sansovino; the fact, however, that it is omitted from the original 1581 edition is no proof that the picture was not already in position on the scuola altar. Nor is it likely that it was installed to replace a St. Michael by Tintoretto; the 1581 apostolic visitation lists altars dedicated to St. Michael and St James in S. Lio (see TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.516). 28The altar-piece frame, which is still in situ in the apsidal chapel in cornu evangelii and which since 1869 has contained a reduced copy of Pordenone's S. Lorenzo Giustinian and saints, is inscribed with the date 1552 and the name of the current gastaldo of thefornari. See E. CICOGNA: Delle iscrizioni veneziane, Venice [1824-53], II, p.264 no.23; L. MORETTI: The Church of the Madonna dell'Orto in Venice [1982], n.p. The only source to mention the original painting is G. A. MOSCHINI: Guida per la cittd di Venezia, Venice [1815], II, p.17 who speaks of 'una tavola con la Adorazione de' Magi. t opera del secolo XVI. d'ignoto autore: non i per altro che un lavoro mediocre' (our thanks to Professor Moretti for this reference). This work was evidently removed from the church some time between 1815 and 1869, and its present whereabouts is unknown. 29 See G. CANOVA: Paris Bordon, Venice [1964], p.93. sANSOVINO, ed. cit. at note 18

above, p.156, also records in S. Giobbe a 'Palla di S. Andrea' painted by Francesco de' Franceschi, with a frame by Gaspare Moranzone; this, too, may well have been the property of the barcaiuoli. 30 Recorded by several seventeenth-century sources, including MARTINIONI (ed. of Sansovino, cited at note 18 above, p. 185); they also mention an Annunciation by Schiavone on the adjacent pilastri (of the frame?). 31 The sources mention Mazza as well as Bonifazio as the author; see D. V. HADELN: 'Damiano Mazza', Zeitschrift fir bildende Kunst, XXIV [1913], p.254. Also commissioned by the Scuola is another painting still in the church: a large lunette representing God in glory with Doge Marco Grimani and Dogaressa Morosina Morosini, and members of the Scuola by Domenico Tintoretto. 32 For the dedication of the altar of the scuola to All Saints, see HONOFRI, Op. cit. at note 27 above, pp.126-27; TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above pp.517-18. The All Saints altarpiece by Marco dall'Angolo ('del Moro') is mentioned by several sources, including MARTINIONI (ed. of Sansovino, cited at p.18 above, p.125). After being removed from its original position in the early 19th century, it was placed on the high altar of the Ognissanti in 1817: op. cit. at note 15 above, see MOSCHINI MARCONI, II, pp.7, 94.

326

10. Calling of St Matthew, by Girolamo da Santacroce. 242 by 165 cm. (Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa.)

11. Assumption, by Palma Giovane. 280 by 150 cm. (S. Zulian, Venice). Cf. Fig. 13.

12. Altar of the Orefici, with sculpture by Girolamo Campagna. Bronze figure of St Anthony Abbot: 189 cm. high. (S. Giacomo di Rialto, Venice).

13. Altar of the Marzeri, with marble sculpture by Vittoria. (S. Zulian, Venice).




Mercanti di Vin (wine- S. Silvestro St Helena & saints c.1570-80 Damiano Mazza Bologna, Pinacoteca 33 merchants) Nazionale

Marzeri (mercers) S. Zulian Assumption of the Virgin; 1579-84 Palma Giovane; Vittoria In situ 34 Sts Catherine & Daniel (Figs. 11 and 13)

Peateri (bargemen) S. Silvestro Baptism of Christ (Fig.4) c.1580 Jacopo Tintoretto In situ 35 Tessitori di Tela (linen- S. Marziale St Helena & saints 1584 Jacopo Tintoretto Milan, Brera 36

weavers) Laneri (wool-workers) S. Pantalon S Bernardino in glory c. 1580-90 Shop of Paolo Veronese In situ 37 Remeri (oar-makers) S. Bartolomeo Martyrdom of St 1593 Palma Giovane In situ 38

Bartholomew

Calegheri (cobblers) S. Toma Healing of Anianus c. 1593 Palma Giovane Accademia 39 Caselleri (box-makers) Scuola at S. Maria Madonna c. 1581-1609 Marco Vecellio Lost 40

Formosa Garbelladori (spicers) S. Giacomo di Rialto Annunciation c.1581-1609 Marco Vecellio In situ 41

Ligadori (packers) SS. Giovanni e Paolo Trinity with saints c.1590-1600 Leandro Bassano In situ 42 Linaroli (linen-workers) SS. Filippo e Giacomo Martyrdom of St c. 1584-1608 Alvise dal Friso Lost 43

Apollonia

Spezieri da Grosso (spicers) S. Aponal Election of St Gottard c.1584-1608 Alvise dal Friso Bukovina (USSR/ 44 Roumania)?

Burchieri (boatmen) S. Gregorio Assumption of the Virgin c.1590-1610 Antonio Foler Lost 45 Tintori (dyers) S.M. dei Servi St Honophrius with c.1595 Leonardo Corona Castelfranco, Duomo 46

St James and a benefactress (?)

Bombaseri (cotton- S. Bartolomeo St Michael and the c.1586-1617 Pietro Malombra Lost? 47 merchants) demons

Barcaiuoli (boatmen) S.M. dei Servi St Lawrence & saints c.1590-1630 Domenico Tintoretto Lost 48 Bombardieri (gunners) Scuola at S. Maria St Barbara in glory c.1590-1630 Domenico Tintoretto Lost 49

Formosa

Filacanevi (rope-makers) S. Chiara S. Ubaldo & saints 1601 Palma Giovane Selvazzano parish 50 church (province of Padua)

3 For the dedication of the altar of the mercanti di vin to the Holy Cross, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.173; TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.503. M. BOsCHINI: Le minere della pittura, Venice [1664], 254-55, correctly attributes the painting on the altar 'della Croce' to Mazza; from his description this is clearly identifiably with the work now in Bologna. SANSOVINO (ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.185), attributes the frame of the altar-piece of the mercanti di vin to the architect Rusconi, but was evidently mistaken in giving the painting to Giuseppe Salviati. 34 See MASON RINALDI, loc. cit. at note 28 above, pp. 197-99, with references to the documents; these confirm the sometimes disputed attribution of the architec- tural design to Francesco di Bernardino da San Vio (Francesco Smeraldi). See also EADEM, Palma Giovane, cited at note 28 above, pp.32; 134-35, Cat.497. 35 For the dedication of the altar of the peateri to St. John the Baptist, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.173; TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.503 (translated into Italian as 'naviganti'). For the dating of Tintoretto's picture, which is recorded in situ by all the main sources, see PALLUCCHINI and ROSSI, op. cit. at ref. 26 above, p.218, Cat. 408. 36 Ibid., pp.227-28, Cat. 446, including reference to payments to Tintoretto. 37 For the dedication of the altar of the laneri to San Bernardino, see TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.505; also SANSOVINO, ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.246), who mentions, in addition to the altar-piece, the laterale of San Bernardino assisting the plague-stricken in Siena, also still in situ. PIGNATTI, op. cit. at ref. 11 above, Cat. A 336, attributes the execution of the former to Alvise dal Friso, and Cat. A 337, describes the latter as late and overpainted. 38 See MASON RINALDI, op. cit. at note 28 above, p. 118, Cat. 357. The two laterali by Palma depicting further scenes from the life of St. Bartolomeo are contemporary with the altarpiece (ibid., Cat. 355-56). 39Ibid., 136, Cat. 505. o See GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.43.

41 Signed by the artist, and recorded by MARTINIONI (SANSOVINO, ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.199) on the altar of the garbelladori. Martinioni also records two laterali with Marian scenes: these are the Birth of the Virgin by Leandro Bassano and the Marriage of the Virgin by Marco Vecellio, also still in situ. 42 For the documents according patronage rights to the scuola for a chapel dedicated to the Trinity, see above, no. 10. For the dating of Leandro Bassano's signed altarpiece of the Trinity, see F. ZAVA BOCAZZI: La basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venezia, Venice [1965], pp.286-87 (with illustration.).

43 For the dedication of the Scuola to St. Apollonia (as well as to Sts. Philip and James, patrons of the church), see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.152; GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.45. The Martyrdom of St. Apollonia altarpiece by Alvise dal Friso is recorded by RIDOLFI (ed. Hadeln, II, 143) and by MARTINIONI (SANSOVINO, ed. cit at note 18 above, p.48), who also mentions another St. Apollonia scene by Sante Peranda. 44 For the dedication of the altar of the spezieri to St. Gothard, see MONTICOLO, op. cit. at note 27 above, pp.XXXV-VI, note; TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.502; GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.93. Several of the sources mention Alvise (Benfatto) dal Friso as the author of the altarpiece; this and other paintings by him from S. Aponal were handed over by the authorities of the Accademia in 1852 to the Archbishop of Lvov for distribution among churches within his diocese in Bukovina (now within the USSR and Roumania). See G. LUDWIG: 'Dokumente fiber Bildersendungen nach Wien', Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhochsten Kaiserhauses, XXII [1901], p.XIX, lot VII, no.6. 45 For the dedication of a confraternity of boatmen at S. Gregorio to the Assumption, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.198. Foler's altarpiece, flanked by two Passion scenes also by him, is recorded by several sources, including MARTINIONI (SANSOVINo ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.250). 46 See E. MANZATO: 'Leonardo Corona da Murano', Arte Veneta, XXIV [1970], pp. 143-44 (with illustration). The author suggests that the female figure, who is not apparently a saint, is some benefactress of the scuola. 47 For the dedication of the altar of the scuola to St. Michael, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, pp.126-27; TRAMONTIN, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.517-18. A St. Michael altarpiece by Malombra is mentioned by several sources, including MARTINIONI (ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.126). This was replaced in 1798 by the work by P. A. Novelli still in situ. 48 See A. VINCENTINI: S. Maria dei Servi, Triviglio [1920], p.54. 49 See ZORZI, op. cit. at ref. 1 above, II, p.546; GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.42. o For the presence of the filacanevi at S. Chiara and their dedication to St.

Ubaldo, see HONOFRI, op. cit. at note 27 above, p. 191; MONTICOLO, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.LXXII, note. For Palma's altarpiece which is inscribed with the names of the scuola officers who commissioned it, and its provenance from S. Chiara, see MASON RINALDI, op. cit. at note 28 above, p.111, cat.289.

329




Casaroli (cheese-sellers) S. Giacomo di Rialto St James (in stone) c. 1602 Shop of Vittoria In situ 51 Orefici (goldsmiths and S. Giacomo di Rialto St Anthony Abbot 1601-05 Girolamo Campagna & In situ 52

jewellers) (Fig. 12) Vincenzo Scamozzi (frame)

Luganegheri (sausage- S. Salvador Madonna in glory with 1600-03 Palma Giovane; In situ 53 makers) saints; Sts Roch & Vittoria

Sebastian

Varoteri (furriers) S.M. dei Crociferi Decollation of St John c.1610 Palma Giovane In situ (Gesuiti) 54 the Baptist (Fig.5)

Garzotti (wool-carders) S. Simeon Grande Annunciation 1611 ? In situ 55 Fonticari S. Aponal Birth of the Virgin c. 1613 Palma Giovane Greenville (South 56

Carolina), Bob Jones University

The following devotional confraternities, although not properly speaking scuole dell'arte, had close associations with particular trades or crafts.

S. Niccol6 dei Mercanti Scuola at Carmini St Nicholas (in carved Early four- ? Lost 57 relief) with scenes teenth

century Volto Santo di Lucca Scuola at Servi Carved altar-piece with Mid fifteenth ? Lost 58

Holy Face and scenes century S. Cristoforo dei Mercanti Scuola at Madonna Polyptych with St c. 1500-15 Shop of Cima Accademia (central 59

dell' Orto Christopher and saints fragment) S. Stefano ('Laneri') Scuola at S. Stefano St Stephen and saints c.1510? Bissolo Milan, Brera 60

Vergine Assunta Scuola at S. Maria Assumption 1514 Palma Vecchio Accademia 61 ('Strazzaruoli') Maggiore

S. Niccol6 dei Mercanti S.M. dei Carmini St Nicholas in glory 1529 Lotto In situ 62 with saints

S. Cristoforo dei Mercanti Scuola at Madonna dell' Presentation of Christ 1581(?) Palma Giovane S. Croce 63 Orto

S. Cristoforo dei Mercanti Scuola at Madonna dell' Nativity of the Virgin c. 1591-92 Shop of Jacopo Mantua, Palazzo 64 Orto Tintoretto (Domenico?) Ducale

S. Cristoforo dei Mercanti Scuola at Madonna dell' Madonna with St c.1600 Domenico Tintoretto Alzano Maggiore 65 Orto Christopher & donors (Bergamo)

1 For the presence of the casaroli (or ternieri) at S. Giacomo di Rialto, their dedication to St. James, and their ownership of patronage rights to the high altar see MONTICOLO, op. cit. at note 27 above, p.LXXXVIII-IX, note. p. A.

PACIFICO: Cronica Veneta, Venice [1697], p.371, states specifically that the figure was commissioned by the guild. Modern critics agree in regarding the work as late and of shop quality. 52 See w. TIMOFIEWITSCH: Girolamo Campagna, Munich [1972], pp.276-78, with

payments to Campagna and the stonemason Stefano di Tomaso. MARTINIONI

(SANSOVINO, ed. cit. at note 18 above, p.199) also mentions a painting placed nearby representing the Temptation of St. Anthony with goldsmiths as donors by Domenico Tintoretto. 53 See MASON RINALDI, op. cit. at note 28 above, p.132, cat.477.

54Ibid., p.127, cat.432. Palma's compositional drawing (now in the Albertina, Vienna; ibid, p.164, cat. D198) concentrates on the dramatic action and shows fewer figures than in the completed painting; and it may be assumed that the rather awkwardly inserted heads on either side of the executioner constitute

portraits of the Scuola's three current office-holders.

5 The work bears the signature of one 'Blanc'. See FRANZOI and DI STEFANO, op. cit. at note 41 above, p.75. 56 See MASON RINALDI, op. cit. at note 28 above, p.86, cat. 109.

5 Recorded by ZANETTI, op. cit. at note 9 above, p.5, in the scuola's meeting- house; according to him, it closely resembled in style and arrangement the S. Donato altarpiece of 1310 still in SS Maria e Donato on Murano. Perhaps it was

originally in the church, and was replaced there by Lotto's painting of 1529

(below, no.62). 58The Lucchese community in Venice was closely associated with the silk

industry. See GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, pp.119-20. 59 See HUMFREY, op. cit. at note 20 above, pp.152-53, cat.144. 60 For the association between the scuola and the wool industry, see GRAMIGNA

and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16 above, p.55; for the altarpiece and Carpaccio's five scenes of the Life of St. Stephen, see LAUTS, op. cit. at note 16 above,

pp.235-36. 61 For the association between the scuola and the strazzaruoli (dealers in second- hand clothes), see GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at ref. 16 above, p.66. For the documents referring to Palma's altarpiece, see P. RYLANDs: 'Palma Vecchio's

Assumption of the Virgin', THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, CXIX [1977], pp.245-50. 62 For the activities of the scuola, see GRAMIGNA and PERISSA, op. cit. at note 16

above, p.70. An inscription on the altar dated 1527 records the names of the officials who commissioned Lotto's altarpiece; references are made in the painting to their name-saints (John the Baptist and George). 63 See MASON RINALDI, op. cit. at note 28 above, p. 119, cat.364. 64 This was in the upper hall of the meeting house; see PALLUCCHINI and ROSSI,

op. cit. at note 26 above, pp.247-48, cat.A63. 65 This was on the ground floor of the meeting house; ibid., p.239, Cat.A3. For the other decorations of the Scuola, see above, note 16.

330

humfrey-mackenney - venetian trade guilds as patrons

Documents