The Last Gold Beater in Venice

In Venice, a person is surrounded by gold.

It clothes the statue of the archangel Gabriel atop the bell tower on St. Mark’s Square and glistens in the mosaics on the facade of St. Mark’s Basilica, aptly nicknamed “the Golden Church.” It sometimes appears in the artisanal glass from the island of Murano, on gondola ornaments, the better-quality masks for Carnival and even on top of rice dishes and desserts in restaurants across the city.

All of these examples use beaten gold, thin sheets of the precious metal, also called gold leaf. And much of it comes from the workshop of Marino Menegazzo, widely acknowledged as the last goldbeater — or battiloro, in Italian — to produce golden leaves using traditional techniques in Venice and one of very few remaining in Europe.

The art of gold ornamentation is believed to have been developed by the ancient Egyptians, then used by the Greeks for their chryselephantine statues — made of gold, or chrysos, and ivory, or elephantine — such as Zeus at the Temple of Olympia or Athena Parthenos at the Parthenon.

Historians say the technique first was seen in Venice in the 11th century and flourished during the republic’s 18th century heyday. But then the decline in the number of skilled artisans began.