The Veronese paintings in the Sacristy of the Cathedral

The frescoes of the Soranza by Paolo Veronese are located in the Sacristy of the Cathedral. These paintings confirm the presence of the painter in Castelfranco, ten years before his most famous work in Villa Barbaro, Maser.

There are seven scenes painted in 1551: the allegory of Time and Fame, Justice and Temperance and four cherubs flying over the balustrades (one cherub is not by Veronese, but by his school).

These frescoes were detached from the wall through a new process by Filippo Balbi, and offered to the Cathedral of Castelfranco. Other scenes are placed in galleries or part of public and private collections. Dr Francesco Trevisan, mechanics and physics scholar, curated the restoration of this first masterpiece by Veronese. He used the technique of transposition.

Many frescoes were recovered, Balbi owned and located them in a small palace where they could have been admired. Among these paintings there were: a naked Venus wearing a green silk veil, part of a Sacred Family portait; some ovals decorated with cherubs and fruit; some chiaroscuro decorations; a painting of Alessandro cutting the Gordian knot and one of the Dario family imploring Alessandro.

The other frescoes were kept for the Sacristy of the Cathedral, as decided by Balbi. These paintings are still in their original places, together with two plagues commemorative of the gift and the restoration.

It seems that the detached painted sections where more than a hundred, but the Balbi collection got lost, as other frescoes he donated to the abbot Moschini, as well as the ones donated to the University of London.

Despite the effort to recreate the complete cycle of frescoes by Veronese, the pieces in the Sacristy are the last and most significant scenes.

Content retrieved from Giampaolo Bordignon Favero “Castelfranco Veneto e il suo territorio nella storia e nell’arte”, Castelfranco Veneto, 1974.

Opening Hours

Contact the sacristan to visit the Sacristy.