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The Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo (Italian: Miracolo della Croce caduta nel canale di San Lorenzo) is a painting depicting one of the miracles of the True Cross by Italian Renaissance artist Gentile Bellini, dating from 1500. It is now housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

History

The painting was commissioned for the Grand Hall of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, the seat of the eponymous brotherhood in Venice. The scuola was founded in 1261 and was originally at the church of Santi'Aponal, but was then moved to the Contrada San Stin in 1301. The increase in significance of the scuola was due to the donation to the brotherhood of the relic fragment of the True Cross, from the Cross on which Jesus was crucified on, in 1369 by Philippe de Mézières (or Filippo Maser), chancellor of the Kingdom of Cyprus and Jerusalem in 1369. In the incunabulum, it states that the entitlement of having the fragment of the relic be donated to the confraternity was due to the devotion of the Vendramin brothers, however, also likely due to the Vendramin family's reputation

In 1420, there were two pictorial cycles for the miracles of the True Cross that were commissioned from Jacopo Bellini with the subject of the paintings being the miracles of a fragment of the True Cross, the object of veneration in the city. However, due to damage to Jacopo Bellini's work, there was another commission that included a total of nine large canvasses by prominent artists of the time such as Gentile Bellini (Jacopo Bellini's son), Pietro Perugino, Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Mansueti, Lazzaro Bastiani and Benedetto Rusconi:

• Lazzaro Bastiani 'Offering of the Relic of the Cross to the Members Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista' (1494)
• Vittore Carpaccio 'Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Ponte de Rialto' (1494)
• Giovanni Mansueti 'Miracle of the Relic of the Cross in Campo San Lio' (1494)
• Gentile Bellini 'Procession in Saint Mark's Square' (1496)
• Gentile Bellini 'The Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo' (1500)
• Gentile Bellini 'The Miraculous Healing of Pietro de 'Ludovici'' (1501)
• Giovanni Mansueti 'The Miraculous Healing of the Daughter of Benvegnudo da an Polo' (1505)
• Benedetto Rusconi 'Miracle of Relic of the Holy Cross' (1505-1510)

These canvasses were all executed between 1496–1501. All canvasses aside from the one by Perugino have survived to today and are now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia.

Description

The work, one of three that Bellini created for the cycle, portrays a miracle that took place on March 3, 1970, occurring early in the beginning of the Lenten season, wherein the entire Venetian confraternity of San Giovanni Evangelista brought out the fragment of the True Cross during one of the yearly processions of the True Cross of the Scuola from the Scuola to the church of San Lorenzo. As a result of the large crowd of people involved in the procession on the bridge, the relic fell into the water because the crowd pressed onto the cross-bearer who lost his balance and dropped the relic. Its subsequently escaped all the attempts of people such as brothers of the confraternity, lay onlookers, and a priest of San Lorenzo's to catch it, but was retrieved Andrea Vendramin, the Gran Guardiano ("Grand Guardian") of the school because the Cross moved toward him and allowed itself to be rescued by him .

The painting shows a meticulous depiction of the canale and the bridge near which the reported miracle occurred, and of a number of people who assist to it. The recognizable characters include Caterina Cornaro, the last queen of Cyprus, the 'daughter of Venice', and the Lady of Asolo, as well as Gentile Bellini and his brother Giovanni Bellini on the right.

Caterina Cornaro, seen kneeling on the left, was given the name 'daughter of Venice' because of her marriage to the last Lusignan King, James II, initially by proxy. After she became widowed young, she tried to create networks inside and outside of Cyprus to retain her husband's loyal advisors and offer patronage to counter the pressures from Venice that could either protect or annex her kingdom. As a result of various challenges to her ruling, she was forced to abdicate and return to Venice in 1389, playing a central political role in the Venetian state and Cypriots who sought her help because of her influence within the Venetian state.

The Gran Guardiano, Andrea Vendramin, is depicted as grabbing the relic and being led towards the canal's bank by the Cross. His grandson, Andrea Vendramin, later became a doge and was painted by Gentile Bellini to portray the Gran Guardiano. There is a strong, intimate connection between the Vendramin family and the relic as seen through the family portrait executed by Titian in 1543-1546 depicting the family with fragments of the true Cross. The Gran Guardiano, the earlier Andrea Vendramin, is known to have been one of the most prominent cittadini at the time in Venice, being the Gran Guardiano three times.

At the centre is the Bridge of San Lorenzo ("St. Lawrence Bridge"), full of people who are looking at the event. The fondamente (the roads which flank the Venetian channels) are also crowded, with some people coming on gondolas. Some people have dived and a woman, on the right, is pushing her moorish slave to do the same: however, the Gran Guardiano has already grabbed the relic. The crowd parts on the bridge to reveal three figures that represent three different high-tiered ranks in the Venetian social hierarchy: a noble, knight, and senator.

The black African dressed only in a lioncloth is seen about to go dive into the canal which could be conveyed as the evidence of common knowledge at the time that Africans had greater water skills compared to Venetians.

The use of a gondola can be seen the painting as a way of transportation for the Venetian people. Known as a traditional wooden rowing boat, the first time this type of boat is mentioned is in the doge Vitale Falier's document from 1094. In the painting it is seen as having an unpolished shape, only starting to have its modern appearance in between the 1600s and 1700s. Its color was officially decreed in 1600s as "black as the tar" used for the waterproofing of the hull to limit the excessive glamour originally involved in the decoration of the gondola.

Ponte de San Lorenzo today

The buildings are painted with accurate colors, providing for a "colorful and poetically archaic setting for the event", although with no geometrical perspective. Some of them feature the typical inverted cone chimneys of medieval Venice. The architectural perspective of the painting makes the viewer see that the story is unfolding outwardly, drawing more attention to the bottom of the painting. It is representative of Bellini's artistic style with its radiant and open scenery, leaving the viewer to look around the central figure, the Gran Guardiano.

The painting conveys different elements of individual social mobility during the Gran Guardiano's career through the different representatives of Venetian social classes who jumped or went into the water to retrieve the relic of the Cross. There are three sets of people who go in: the first is the lay onlookers who were standing at the banks of the capital, the second is brothers from the confraternity of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, and the last to go in is the Gran Guardiano. This effort to save the relic intertwines the ideas of both secularism to supernatural power because the lay onlookers do not have the same status of spiritual affiliation that members of the confraternity have and the brothers of the confraternity while they do stand above the general public, lack the official spiritual credentials that a priest has to hold and handle religious objects. The Gran Guardiano is the only one that combines both of these qualities and is the only one able to retrieve the relic, establishing his legitimacy. The physical placement by Bellini of the Gran Guardiano in the middle and closer to the viewer establishes its status as the central, heroic figure of the painting, stressing his own social importance. His expression appears to be undisturbed while the others around him are pointing to the cross and are troubled because of the relic falling into the water.

"Miracles of the Cross" Cycle

• Lazzaro Bastiani 'Offering of the Relic of the Cross to the Members Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista' (1494)
• Vittore Carpaccio 'Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Ponte de Rialto' (1494)
• Giovanni Mansueti 'Miracle of the Relic of the Cross in Campo San Lio' (1494)
• Gentile Bellini 'Procession in Saint Mark's Square' (1496)
• Gentile Bellini 'The Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo' (1500)
• Gentile Bellini 'The Miraculous Healing of Pietro de 'Ludovici'' (1501)
• Giovanni Mansueti 'The Miraculous Healing of the Daughter of Benvegnudo da an Polo' (1505)
• Benedetto Rusconi 'Miracle of Relic of the Holy Cross' (1505-1510)

During the century after receiving the relic, there were nine miracles recorded in the confraternity's books and were ratified by communal authorities.

Lazzaro Bastiani ‘Offering of the Relic of the Cross to the Members Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista’

Lazzaro Bastiani 'Offering of the Relic of the Cross to the Members Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista' from 1494 depicts the moment in which the relic of the Holy Cross is being offered to the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista by Philippe de Mézières in 1369. This event took place inside of the church of the San Giovanni Evangelista.

Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista today

This momentous event occurs as a result of Philippe de Mézières

See also

• Procession in St. Mark's Square