Scuola Grande di San Marco, Venice, was one of the six grand scuole or confraternities that had an important presence in Venetian religious and cultural life. Founded in 1260 for religious and humanitarian purposes, it originally housed in a Gothic building that burned to the ground in 1485. The rebuild was designed in 1488 by architect Pietro Lombardo and Mauro Codussi, who completed the second half of the façade from 1490-1495. Now the building occupies a prominent spot facing the Campo San Giovanni e Paolo.
In 1488 the Lombardo workshop began work on the new building, and by 1490 the lower portion of the façade was completed. Rich with representations of saints, virtues, angels, warriors, winged lions, and fantastical creatures, the façade promoted the various philanthropic activities of the confraternity. Two sculptural elements were salvaged from the Scuola’s earlier building and reused in the new façade: the figure of Charity was placed above the portal, and a relief of Saint Mark Venerated by Members of the Confraternity was inserted in the lunette below. The virtue of Charity was one of the most important icons on the façade, as it depicted one of the main functions of the confraternity: love for God and love for others through divine and human interaction. The extensive Lombardo workshop made the remaining sculptural decoration on the lower part of the façade. Two notable reliefs by Tullio Lombardo, The Miracle of Saint Mark Healing the Hand of the Shoemaker Anianus and The Baptism of Anianus, flank the secondary portal. The reliefs depict episodes in the life of Saint Mark, set in an interesting false perspective view of the arcades of Alexandria.
The Scuola Grande di San Marco was suppressed by Napoleonic decree after the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. The Scuola, along with the adjacent Hospital of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti and the Dominican convent of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, was transformed into a military hospital in 1808. By 1819 it had become the civic hospital of Venice, as it remains today.
Tintoretto's four paintings in the Scuola Grande di San Marco
The walls of the Chapter Hall of the Scuola Grande di San Marco were once adorned with pictures by Tintoretto (later his son Domenico). The Miracle of St Mark Rescuing the Slave, which was installed on the wall of the Chapter Hall in April 1548, is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. The later three-part cycle representing miracles worked posthumously by St Mark, commissioned from Tintoretto in 1562 is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademi in Venice and Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
Jacopo Tintoretto,
The Miracle of St Mark Rescuing the Slave,
1548, Oil on canvas, 415 x 541 cm,
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
info:
In 1488 the Lombardo workshop began work on the new building, and by 1490 the lower portion of the façade was completed. Rich with representations of saints, virtues, angels, warriors, winged lions, and fantastical creatures, the façade promoted the various philanthropic activities of the confraternity. Two sculptural elements were salvaged from the Scuola’s earlier building and reused in the new façade: the figure of Charity was placed above the portal, and a relief of Saint Mark Venerated by Members of the Confraternity was inserted in the lunette below. The virtue of Charity was one of the most important icons on the façade, as it depicted one of the main functions of the confraternity: love for God and love for others through divine and human interaction. The extensive Lombardo workshop made the remaining sculptural decoration on the lower part of the façade. Two notable reliefs by Tullio Lombardo, The Miracle of Saint Mark Healing the Hand of the Shoemaker Anianus and The Baptism of Anianus, flank the secondary portal. The reliefs depict episodes in the life of Saint Mark, set in an interesting false perspective view of the arcades of Alexandria.
The Scuola Grande di San Marco was suppressed by Napoleonic decree after the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. The Scuola, along with the adjacent Hospital of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti and the Dominican convent of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, was transformed into a military hospital in 1808. By 1819 it had become the civic hospital of Venice, as it remains today.
Tintoretto's four paintings in the Scuola Grande di San Marco
The walls of the Chapter Hall of the Scuola Grande di San Marco were once adorned with pictures by Tintoretto (later his son Domenico). The Miracle of St Mark Rescuing the Slave, which was installed on the wall of the Chapter Hall in April 1548, is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. The later three-part cycle representing miracles worked posthumously by St Mark, commissioned from Tintoretto in 1562 is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademi in Venice and Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
The Miracle of St Mark Rescuing the Slave,
1548, Oil on canvas, 415 x 541 cm,
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
info:
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