Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
OUTSMARTING ACCADEMIA QUEUES
To skip Accademia ticket-booth queues, book ahead online or by phone (booking fee €1.50). Other-
wise, queues tend to be shorter in the afternoon. But don't wait too long: the last entry to the Accade-
mia is 45 minutes before closing. Leave any large items behind, or you'll have to drop them off at the
baggage depot (€0.50 per piece). Also available at the baggage depot is an audioguide (€5) that is
mostly descriptive and largely unnecessary - it's better to avoid the wait and just follow your nose and
the explanatory wall tags.
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1 San Polo & Santa Croce
Scuola Grande di San Rocco
OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP
MUSEUM
( 041 523 48 64; www.scuolagrandesanrocco.it ; Campo San Rocco 3052, San Polo; adult €8, incl
Scuola Grande dei Carmini €12; 9.30am-5.30pm, Tesoro to 5.15pm; San Tomà) Everyone
wanted the commission to paint this building dedicated to the patron saint of the plague-
stricken, so Tintoretto cheated: instead of producing sketches like rival Veronese, he gifted
a splendid ceiling panel of patron St Roch, knowing it couldn't be refused or matched by
other artists.
Old Testament scenes Tintoretto painted from 1575 to 1587 for the Sala Grande Superi-
ore ceiling upstairs read like a modern graphic novel: you can almost hear the swoop!
overhead as an angel dives to feed ailing Elijah. Against the shadowy backdrop of the
Black Death, eerie lightning-bolt illumination strikes Tintoretto's subjects in New Testa-
ment wall scenes. When Tintoretto painted these scenes, Venice's outlook was grim in-
deed: the plague had taken 50,000 Venetians, including the great colourist Titian.
Downstairs in the assembly hall, Tintoretto tells Mary's life story, starting on the left
wall with Annunciation and ending with dark and cataclysmic Ascension opposite.
Gregorian chant concerts are occasionally performed here (ask at the counter), and you
can practically hear their echoes in Tintoretto's haunting paintings.
 
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