The Throne of Saturn
Among the works of art of the National Archaeological Museum of Venice the reliefs depicting two Putti holding Saturn’s sickle and scepter were protagonists of a peculiar event of reuse and collecting. The reliefs, dated to the first half of the 1st century A.D., are attributed to a Roman marble decorative series known as the Thrones. This series consisted of couples of Putti wearing flappy mantles, holding the emblems of twelve divinities and carrying them to their respective thrones. In the background it is possible to see some architectonical elements suggesting an inner location. The archaeologists have reconstructed more than one series of this kind. Some fragments are kept in museums, for example in the Uffizi gallery in Florence or in the Louvre in Paris, or in other sites where they were reused as ornaments, like in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna.
The reliefs of the Putti of the National Archaeological Museum of Venice come exactly from the church of San Vitale. They arrived in Venice at least in the first half of the 14th century, according to a note by Oliviero Forzetta, a collector from Treviso. In 1535 Forzetta craved for these reliefs for his art collection but he did not manage to purchase them. Forzetta's note is the first documented proof about collections of antiquities in Veneto. Hereafter, the Putti were seen again in Venice in 1532 by Marin Sanudo, this time inserted in the wall of a palace near St Mark’s Square. Fifty years later, in 1581, Francesco Sansovino wrote a guide about Venice reporting the presence of the Putti in the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli.
Here they stayed until 1811, when they were moved to the Public Statuary on the behalf of the sculptor Antonio Canova and of Jacopo Morelli, the chief librarian of the Library of St. Mark’s. In the 16th century, the reliefs were attributed to the famous Greek sculptor Praxiteles. Indeed, it often occurred during the Renaissance that esteemed artworks were attributed to well-known Greek artists, even if those artworks dated back to a later period. Thanks to this association the Thrones became object of deep study by sculptors and painters, who used them as model for their artworks. For example, see the Putti with scroll, an oil painting created by Giorgio Vasari in 1542 for the ceiling of Palazzo Corner Spinelli, nowadays kept in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.
