Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MAP
GOOGLE MAP
( 041 528 93 87;
www.ikonavenezia.com
; Campo del Ghetto Nuovo 2909; during shows 11am-7pm Sun-Fri;
Guglie)
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Art provides the missing link between the Ghetto's history and its contem-
porary context at Ikona, a showcase for think pieces and themed installations. Recent
shows have featured rare 100-year-old photography of Nijinsky dancing a Diaghilev bal-
let, Eduard Angeli's spare, exquisitely melancholy
Venezia Now
series, and Luigi Viola's
powerful
Kaddish
series, commemorating the Ghetto's vanished generation.
CHIESA DELLA MADONNA DELL'ORTO
Dedicated to the patron saint of
gondolieri
, merchants and travellers - basically, all of Venice - this sublime
1365 Italian Gothic
cathedral
MAP
( Campo della Madonna dell'Orto 3520; admission €3 or Chorus Pass;
10am-5pm Mon-Sat; ; Madonna dell'Orto) remains one of Venice's best-kept secrets. Due to its remote
location, Madonna dell'Orto was eventually downgraded to a parish church. But just across the footbridge was
the home-studio of Venetian Renaissance master Tintoretto, who dedicated masterpieces to his neighbourhood
church.
Tintoretto and his family were buried in Madonna dell'Orto's corner chapel, and he saved some of his best
work for the apse:
Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple,
with throngs of star-struck angels and mortals vying
for a glimpse of Mary; and his 1546
Last Judgment
, where lost souls attempt to hold back a teal tidal wave while
an angel rescues one last person from the ultimate
acque alte
. Tintoretto is better known for dark, brooding
works, but these works show he could handle uplifting technicolour drama with the best Venetian painters.
A side chapel on the left of the nave features a comparatively lightweight Titian:
Archangel Raphael with To-
bia
(c 1530), where a spaniel helps the angel point the hesitant young boy toward his destiny. Madonna dell'Orto
also had a Bellini masterpiece that was stolen in 1993 - note the empty space in the side chapel.
A red-brick marvel edged in white Istrian stone and statuary, Madonna dell'Orto and its adjoining monastery
were originally intended to honour St Christopher. But when the Madonna statue parked in neighbouring sculptor
Giovanni de Santi's
orto
(garden) began to work miracles, the statue won pride of place inside the church, and the
design was upgraded to cathedral quality with a doorway designed by Bartolomeo Bon.
SPEZERIA ANTICA SANTA FOSCA
MAP
HISTORICAL SITE
GOOGLE MAP
(
041 720 600; Campo Santa Fosca 2234a;
9am-12.30pm & 3.30-7.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-12.45pm Sat;
Ca'
d'Oro)
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This perfectly preserved storefront pharmacy illustrates how Venetian medical
advice was dispensed three centuries ago, with curatives in ceramic jars lined up on hand-
carved shelves, and etchings of wise doctors hanging beneath gilded wood-beam ceilings.
An adjoining modern pharmacy and homeopathy centre offers the latest health aids, from
condoms and baby formula to orthopaedic insoles.
