Funerary Monument for Doges Lorenzo and Gerolamo Priuli
Church of San Salvador, Venice

The funerary monument, erected in the second chapel on the left of the Church of San Salvador celebrates Lorenzo and Gerolamo Priuli, doges respectively from 1556 to 1559 and from 1559 to 1567. The monument is based on a design by Giovanni Antonio Rusconi, a close associate of Alessandro Vittoria, and was constructed under the direction of Cesare Franco. The two statues in the upper register are signed by IVLII MAURI OPUS (Giulio del Moro), who probably carved the effigies of the two doges. The plinth supports the two sarcophagi with the effigies of the doges situated between a series of columns with composite capitals. In the niches, topped with tympanums, are the statues of the doges’ patron saints: St Lawrence and St Jerome. Work on the monument ended at the beginning of the 17th century. The monument was too blackened to display the colored play of the marbles and the volume of the sculptures. Furthermore, it was difficult to read the engravings on the base of the sarcophagi and the central columns. The plinth and the shafts of the columns are in coloured and stained grey marble from Friuli, the bases and capitals of the Corinthian columns are bronze; between the columns is marble of Chalcedony. The same material has also been used to line the niches of the upper register. The columns are of red-blue marble from Brentonico, the statues are of black stone and the frontispiece, architraves and cornices are of grey marble from Paragone di Salò and Istrian stone. Now, it is possible to see that the effigies of the two doges are polychrome, with some traces of gilding on the brocades.