Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA DEI MIRACOLI
When Nicolò di Pietro's Madonna icon started miraculously weeping in its outdoor shrine around 1480, crowd
control became impossible. With pooled resources and marble scavenged from San Marco slag-heaps, neighbours
built this chapel (1481-89) to house the painting. Pietro and Tullio Lombardo's miraculous design dropped gran-
diose Gothic in favour of human-scale harmonies, introducing Renaissance architecture to Venice.
The father-son team creatively repurposed
polychrome marbles
plundered from Egypt to Syria from the sides
of Basilica di San Marco. Note fine scrollwork capitols, and Venetian fish-scale patterns framing veined-marble
panels.
The lofty vaulted interior and domed apse seem effortless, but they're marvels of Renaissance engineering,
achieved without the Gothic gimmick of buttressing. Look closely at the
chancel staircase
- there are angels and
mermaids carved right into the railings by Tullio Lombardo. In a prime example of Renaissance humanism, Pier
Maria Pennacchi filled each of the 50 wooden
coffered ceiling panels
with a bright-eyed portrait of a saint or
prophet dressed as a Venetian, like a class photo in a school yearbook.
DON'T MISS…
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Pietro Lombardo's Renaissance design
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Tullio Lombardo's chancel staircase
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Pier Maria Pennacchi's 50 saints on the ceiling
PRACTICALITIES
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MAP
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Campo dei Miracoli 6074
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admission €3 or with Chorus Pass
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10am-5pm Mon-Sat
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Fondamenta Nuove
