Artibus et Historiae no. 7 (IV)

1983, ISSN 0391-9064

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WILLIAM L. BARCHAM - The Capella Sagredo in San Francesco della Vigna

This study of the Cappella Sagredo in San Francesco della Vigna, Venice, seeks to relate the Chapel and its works of art to the political fortune of the Venetian family that commissioned them. Military disgraces and political achievements are examined as background to a Chapel that honors three distinguished members of the Sagredo family. Gerolamo Pellegrini, a Roman painter, executed frescoes around 1671 glorifying San Gherardo Sagredo, and the Virgin Mary. An ambitious altar tabernacle, again showing both San Gherardo and Mary, was sculpted c.1685 by Niccolo Sagredo (1606-76) and Patriarch Alvise Sagredo (1617-88) were executed c.1745 by Giovanni Gai, and a series of frescoes was painted in grisaille by Giambattista Tiepolo that show Allegorical Virtues and the Four Evangelists. It is concluded here that the Chapel stands as testimony to the intimate connections in the Serenissima linking patrician pride to artistic commitment and patriotic service.