“…far et intagliar, e scolpir il nuovo Tabernacolo”: Alvise Tagliapietra i mramorni tabernakul za nekadašnju katedralu u Osoru
Authors: Pintarić Mario 
Published: April 2024

This paper presents an unknown document about the construction of the marble tabernacle in the Corpus Christi chapel in the former Osor Cathedral, which has been attributed to the Venetian sculptor Alvise Tagliapietra (Venice, 1670–1747) through stylistic analysis. An archival source reveals an agreement concluded in Venice on September 20, 1708, between the representatives of the confraternity of Corpus Christi from Osor and Tagliapietra, whose workshop was located in the parish of San Moisè. The sculptor agreed that he would complete the works within five months. He was also to procure a small, gilded metal door and a statuette of the Risen Christ made of gilded copper. The price of the tabernacle was three hundred ducats, to be paid to Alvise in three instalments. He was to receive the first part upon signing the contract, the second during the work on the tabernacle, and the last upon delivering the tabernacle and installing it in the cathedral. Another contract published here was signed between the confraternity and the Venetian altar maker Zuanne Trognon in Cres on July 20, 1710. The master was to carve a new marble altar for the chapel to place Tagliapietra’s tabernacle on it. Trognon agreed to construct the altar for a total sum of 230 ducats, to be paid in three instalments, the last upon delivering the altar to Osor. Zuanne undertook to complete the entire work by June 1711. Finally, the altar arrived from Venice by boat on June 12, 1711, requiring additional funds from the brethren for its transportation, assembly, and placement in the confraternity chapel. Tagliapietra, like other Venetian sculptors, also received commissions from private clients. These concerned artworks for the sumptuous interiors and exteriors of numerous palaces owned by the Venetian elite. On this occasion, a marble bust of Venus from the Giusti Palace in Verona has been included in his oeuvre. Another hitherto unattributed work by Tagliapietra can be found in the Oratory of St Jacob located within the former Villa D’Arco in Corno Alto near Verona. It is a sculpture of the Immaculate Conception, similar to Tagliapietra’s allegorical depiction of Faith on the Osor tabernacle. The Venetian sculptor and his collaborators often replicated workshop sculptures due to frequent commissions of the same saintly statues for various churches in smaller towns of Friuli and Veneto. This is indicated, among other things, by Alvise’s hitherto unattributed monumental statues of St Nicholas the Bishop and St George from the parish church of the same name in Colloredo di Prato near Udine. In Alvise’s cycle from Rovinj, on which the master was assisted by his sons, the two large marble angels next to the retable of the altar of St Euphemia stand out in quality. The closest stylistic and chronologic analogy are the monumental angels on the main altar of the parish church in Conselve, carved in 1737. Tagliapietra used the same models for the previously unattributed angels on the main altar of the parish church in Pincara near Rovigo. At the end of his career, he also created a marble sculpture of Our Lady of the Rosary for commissioners from Rovinj. On that occasion, he replicated the monumental statue of the same name that he had carved in 1734 for the Venetian church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo, today located in the parish church of Solesino. It should be noted that Alvise Tagliapietra delivered the same sculpture around the 1740s for the oratory of a villa owned by the Venetian Condulmer family in Zerman near Treviso.