Art and the conventual life in Renaissance Venice: The Monastery Church of Santa Caterina de' Sacchi (Italy)

The aim of this dissertation is the resurrection of an important and long forgotten Venetian monument and of the female institution that stood behind its creation.; Santa Caterina de' Sacchi is a little known church in the northern fringes of Venice closed to the public, stripped of its decoration, and neglected by scholars. Little suggests that it was once part of an old and prestigious Augustinian convent or that it featured an interior lavishly decorated by some of the most prominent artists of the day, including Jacopo Pahna il Giovane, Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese who, for its high altar, created what was to become one of the most celebrated masterpieces of Venetian painting: the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria.; When the church was closed to the public at the beginning of the 20 th century, and Veronese's altarpiece was transferred to the Accademia Galleries, the church of Santa Caterina and the rest of its remarkable decoration fell virtually into oblivion while Veronese's work came to be considered in isolation, entirely detached from its original context.; The disregard for the decorative ensemble, the absolute focus on a single painting and, above all, the utter neglect for the institution behind them, has long delayed an accurate evaluation of the social, cultural and artistic importance of the church of Santa Caterina within the context of Renaissance Venice and Venetian art. Its treasures---including Veronese's masterpiece---can not be understood in isolation from the monastic culture that produced them. This dissertation thus aims at reconstructing both the visual and social reality of the church and its treasures during the Renaissance, while investigating the nuns' impact on the visual arts as a group with a distinct identity.