St John the Evangelist
by VITTORIA, Alessandro, Stucco
During 1574 Vittoria paid Andrea Palladio’s son Marcantonio (c. 1538-after 1600) for work on the four great stucco Evangelists set into the inner fa�ade of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, which was designed by Palladio himself. These statues formed the earliest component of the decoration of the church, and their spiraling, ecstatic rhythms show the increased expressiveness and poetic quality of Vittoria’s figural language at this time.
The four Evangelists flank the tomb of Doge Leonardo Donà (1536-1612) on the west wall of San Giorgio Maggiore. A close friend of Paolo Sarpi and Galileo, the scholarly Doge Leonardo Donà was the redoubtable leader of Venice at the time of the Interdict of 1602.
The picture shows St John the Evangelist.