A Family Affair: The High Altar of San Giacomo di Rialto, or Alessandro Vittoria’s Last Work
abstract
San Giacomo at Rialto, a church under the patronage of the Doge, was restored by the State in the years around 1600. Three new altars were financed by three different guilds. The high altar was commissioned by the Casaroli guild and adorned with sculptures. In 1604, Giovanni Stringa listed the statue of St. James as a work by Alessandro Vittoria. However, at this date the artist was certainly too elderly to carve stone sculptures by himself. The investigation of the hitherto little-studied Casaroli Altar may shed new light both on the dynamics of the later Vittoria's workshop and on his closest relatives-assistants.
Keywords: Alessandro Vittoria • San Giacomo di Rialto • Andrea dall’Aquila • Venetian Trade Guilds • Venetian Renaissance Sculpture • Vigilio Rubini