Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of jeering citizens from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto. The minute they touched
Il
Gobbo
, their punishment was complete.
SCUOLA GRANDE DI SAN GIOVANNI EVANGELISTA
MAP
HISTORIC BUILDING
GOOGLE MAP
( 041 71 82 34;
www.scuolasangiovanni.it
; Campiello della Scuola 2454, San Polo; admission €5; vary, check
website; Ferrovia)
Flagellants founded this confraternity in 1261, and it served as social
club to the Council of Ten, Venice's dreaded secret service. Political power had obvious
perks: Pietro Lombardo's 1481 triumphal entry arch, a Codussi-designed double staircase,
and a 1729 1st-floor meeting hall designed by Giorgio Massari and decorated by Giando-
menico Tiepolo, who was obliged to finish contracts begun by his father.
Bellini and Titian turned out world-class works for the
scuola
that have since been
moved to the Gallerie dell'Accademia - but Palma Il Giovane's works still illuminate the
Sala d'Albergo, and Pietro Longhi's wriggling baby Jesus is magnetic in
Adoration of the
Wise Men
. The confraternity was suppressed by Napoleon, and today the
scuola
hosts
conferences and concerts, and opens occasionally to the public during the day.
If you get the chance to visit, ask at the front desk to look inside the chapel across the
street. The deconsecrated Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista has a Tintoretto
Crucifixion
, and the adjoining private chapel founded by the Badoer family in 970 features Pietro
Vecchia's painting of St John the Evangelist holding a pen, eagerly awaiting dictation
from God.
CHIESA DI SAN POLO
MAP
CHURCH
GOOGLE MAP
(
www.chorusvenezia.org
;
Campo San Polo 2118, San Polo; admission €3, or with Chorus Pass; 10am-5pm Mon-
Sat; San Tomà)
Travellers pass this modest 9th-century Byzantine brick church without
guessing that major dramas unfold inside. Under the
carena di nave ceiling
, Tintoretto's
Last
Supper
shows apostles alarmed by Jesus' announcement that one of them will betray him.
Giandomenico Tiepolo's
Stations of the Cross
sacristy
cycle shows onlookers tormenting
Jesus, who leaps triumphantly from his tomb in the ceiling panel.
CHIESA DI SAN STAE
MAP
CHURCH
GOOGLE MAP
(
www.chorusvenezia.org
;
Campo San Stae 1981, Santa Croce; admission €3, or with Chorus Pass; 2-5pm Mon-Sat;
San Stae)
English painter William Turner painted San Stae obsessively, capturing early-
morning Grand Canal mists swirling around the angels gracing its Palladian facade. The
church was founded in 966 but finished in 1709, and though the interiors are surprisingly
