Communion of Saint Lucia in the Corner Chapel of the Holy Apostles in Venice

Since the arrival of the body of Saint Lucia in Venice, (stolen from Constantinople in 1279), the Sicilian Saint has always been the object of special devotion on the part of the Venetians. There was a church dedicated to her, where her relics were preserved, which was destroyed in 1861 to build the railway station and which in fact bears her name. There is also a fantastic painting that depicts the act of taking communion, the work of the great painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

This work of art is in the church of the Holy Apostles in the Cannaregio district, in a former chapel, built by the Corner family at the end of 1400s by the great Venetian Renaissance architect Mauro Codussi. When the church was rebuilt in the 1700s, the chapel was so beautiful and famous it had to be preserved and incorporated into the new building.

The altar of this chapel was decorated by Tiepolo's painting, created in 1748 for the Corner family, one of the richest and most illustrious families of the Republic. In this work we see the Saint, young and beautiful and ready to receive communion before her martyrdom, for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. It is undoubtedly one of the richest spirituality paintings by Tiepolo, who was used to painting great secular compositions.