Bartolomeo Bon (circa 1405- before 1467) Italian, Venice, circa 1425-28

Scuola Vecchia della Misericordia, Venice Fabbrica Nuova della Misericordia, Venice
Abbazia della Misericordia, Venice
Moro-Lin family, Venice
Private Collection, Ferrara

A. Markham Schultz, The Sculptor of Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon and their Workshop, Philadelphia, 1978, pp. 12-23
J. Sisk, ‘Bartolomeo Bon’, in A. Butterfield, ed. Italian Renaissance Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, Salander- O’ Reilly Galleries, New York, 2004-2005, pp. 14-21
A. Markham Schulz, 'L'altar maggiore della chiesa veneziana della Misericordia e le sculture di Giovanni e Bartolomeo Bon per la Scuola Vecchia della Misericordia', Arte Veneta  62, 2005, pp. 33 and 35, figs. 13 and 14
P. Motture and V. H. Lopez Borges, ‘A Venetian Tympanum of the ‘Madonna Della Misericordia’ by Bartolomeo Bon’, in The Burlington Magazine, vo1. 151, no. 1280, November, 2009, pp. 746-754

Bartolomeo Bon's career is well documented; he was one of the most prominent Renaissance sculptors in Venice, described by Pope-Hennessy as, 'the most important Venetian sculptor of the first half of the fifteenth century.' His work remains in situ: at the Ca' d'Oro, where he was responsible for the wellhead in the courtyard, the portals of the Venetian churches of SS Giovanni e Paolo and the Madonna dell'Orto, and the Porta della Carta of the Ducal Palace.  Bon's importance in Venetian architectural history is underscored by his work, never fully realized, for Francesco Sforza's Ca' del Duca on the Grand Canal.  There, Bon designed the first prominent Venetian building to be faced entirely in istrian stone, (Howard, op. cit., p.122) using masonry cut a diamante in a manner new to the city.

The present statues of Hope and Charity were executed for one of Bon's most celebrated projects, the façade of the Scuola Vecchia della Misericordia (the old meeting house), the former seat of a religious charitable institution erected in 1310 and enlarged several times. In 1441, the Guild of the Misericordia (of which Bon was a member) agreed to reconstruct the Scuola Vecchia's façade. These figures of the Virtues originally formed part of an ensemble that was centered by a large tympanum relief of the Madonna della Misericordia (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) (fig. 1) and was situated above the main portal.

Here, Hope is shown with her hands clasped in prayer, while Charity holds two of her attributes; in her right hand a flame and in the crook of her left arm a cornucopia.  Long believed to have been carved in the early 1440s as part of a project to remodel the principal entrance to the Scuola, Anne Markham Schulz has argued convincingly that the two Virtues, together with a lost figure of Faith, were in fact commissioned and made in the mid 1420s.

The portal sculpture of the Scuola Vecchia was moved en masse in 1612 to Jacopo Sansovino's Fabbrica Nuova della Misericordia when the Scuola was acquired by the Silkweaver's Guild.  Before and after its removal, the sculptures were praised in successive editions of Francesco Sansovino's guide to Venice (op.cit.).  Hope and Charity are also illustrated in a drawing of 1754 by Johannes Grevembroch (fig. 2) and are later illustrated again, independent of the rest of the entire ensemble. 

Pope-Hennessy notes that it is likely that, contrary to Grevembroch's drawing, the figures of Hope and Charity were not originally placed within the Scuola Vecchia tympanum.  The shape of the bricked-up lunette above the entrance on the building's façade seems to suggest that only the Madonna della Misericordia was placed there. However, other Venetian façades, including one designed and executed by Bon for the church of the Madonna dell'Orto, includes figures on the columns at each side of the entrance and another above the apex of the ogee arch that surmounts the portal.  Consequently, the most probable original location for these figures of Hope and Charity, is not the tympanum, but rather each side of it, in keeping with Bon's other work.

The placement of the figures has clearly contributed to the style of their carving.  Like the later figures of Justice, Temperance and Fortitude on the Porta della Carta and St. Christopher with the Christ Child above the portal of the Madonna dell'Orto, Hope and Charity were intended to be set substantially above the viewer and the bold treatment of the folds of their robes, their long necks and relatively small heads reflect this viewpoint. Indeed, Bon's approach to the problems posed by designing for such a location is arguably more successful in these two figures than in the figure of Justice, whose seated position was more difficult to resolve. More striking still is the skill and clarity with which Bon delineates the features of the faces, which are described with graphic linearity and striking detail, such as the deeply carved pupils and irises, which allows the figures to achieve distinction and character when seen from a distance. The hair of both figures is similarly strongly drawn. 

Subsequently, the ensemble was divided up and the sections of it spent several decades inside the church of the Misericordia, where Hope and Charity were recorded as Saints Dorothy and Callista.  In 1868, following the closure of the church, they passed into the collection of the Venetian Moro-Lin family.

Hope and Charity represent two of the earliest examples of Renaissance Venetian sculpture. The vigorous carving of these figures marks them as the achievement of a still relatively young sculptor, but one already skilled in both execution and design, sensitive to location and material and, in collaboration with his father, able to undertake a significant public commission. 

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Sansovino, Venetia Citta Nobilissima e Singolare, Venice, 1581, p. 101v
G. Martinioni (ed.), F. Sansovino, Venetia Citta Nobilissima e Singolare, Venice, 1663, p. 286
J. Grevembroch, Monumenta Veneta ex antiquis ruderibus Templorum, aliarumque Aedium Vetustate collapsarum collecta studio et cura Petri Gradonici Jacobi Sen: F. Anno MDCCLIV, MS, Biblioteca Correr, Venice, pars secunda, c. 43
E. Paoletti, Il Fiore di Venezia, vol. III, Venice, 1840, pp. 18-20
J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1964, no. 369, pp. 342-345
W. Wolters, La scultura veneziana gotica (1300-1460), Venice, 1976, vol. I, pp. 290-291, cat. no. 250, fig. 831