Top of the World
Near Santa Margherita, in the Dorsoduro district, I suggest you visit the church of San Pantalon. Why? Because on the ceiling there is the largest painting on canvas in the world. Nothing compares to the magnificence that you can admire as soon as you turn your gaze in the direction of the ceiling: what may look like a successful fresco, is actually a mastodontic painting executed in oil on canvas (40 canvases joined together), a stunning work of amazing skill that, with its 443 square meters, is considered the largest in the world. The painting presents the Martyrdom and Glory of St. Pantaleon, the work of the Venetian master Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, a painter specialized in the creation of theatrical sets, who made it between 1680 and 1704. The work retraces the moments of the death sentence of St. Pantaleon (the saint, positioned above the main chapel, is portrayed seated in all his bright splendor in the act of suffering the unjust condemnation) by the Emperor Galerius Maximianus (on the right side seated on a throne dressed in purple). The scene of the martyrdom is on the left side: the executioners surround Pantaleon exhibiting the instruments of torture: a stick, a rope, a hook. In the centre is celebrated the triumph of St. Pantaleon, welcomed into Paradise by Christ and a multitude of angels, who offer him the crown of glory and the palm of martyrdom, among garlands of flowers and musical instruments. Under the scenographic setting of the saint's martyrdom, separated by the majestic projecting architrave, are the twelve Apostles, two by two in the series of pendentives above the arches that lead to the chapels. At the corners of the counter-façade the four cardinal Virtues are clearly legible: Fortress and Temperance (right), Law and Prudence (left). Towards the presbytery are the three theological Virtues: Hope leaning against an anchor and Faith with the chalice, on the right; Charity, surrounded by children, which is doubled, in a scene of Assistance to the Sick, to occupy the last free space, on the left. On the left side of the ceiling and above the counter-façade are summarized in the broken objects (a rope, a hook, a stick) in the hands of the executioners, the instruments used for the numerous martyrs to which Chameleon was subjected and which he overcame for the salvific intervention of Jesus himself, present beside him in the likeness of the master Ermolaus. Victory over evil is also depicted, in the right-hand corner of the ceiling, in the punishment of some devils made to fall by an angel with a sword and in the large allegorical Ligurian figures of the lower band. Above the archway towards the presbytery, Faith and Hope support the martyr in the decisive moment of his life; on the right side, Justice and Peace are coupled according to the promise of the Messianic times. On the front, defeated and disappointed, are the Pride and Fury.
