Churches in Venice

This sestiere has 10 churches, including one of the greatest of all. The Frari is one to visit over and over – I can’t imagine being in Venice and not going to see the Bellini altarpiece and those gorgeous Titians (Titian's Pesaro altarpiece to the left).

San Giacometto is a very charming little church nestled in the midst of the Rialto Market; this is probably the site of the first church in Venice, built around 421. San Cassiano has three Tintorettos which John Ruskin thought were among the artist’s finest works anywhere. The high altar of San Giovanni Elemosinaro has a nice Titian that was recently returned to the church from the Accademia.

Chorus Pass churches are the Frari, San Giovanni Elemosinaro, and San Polo.

In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio asks, “What’s new on the Rialto?” Not this church, for sure - it’s ancient. It was probably Venice’s first church - legend has that it was founded in 421, the same year that Venice herself was born. It’s dedicated to San Giacomo (Saint James the Apostle) but known affectionately as San Giacometto.

The very small church we see today is essentially the same as the one rebuilt in 1071 which was around the same time that the surrounding Rialto market was established. In medieval times, the Rialto area was the world’s most vital marketplace. Banking was invented here, merchants traveled here from all over the globe, and San Giacometto became the merchants’ church as shown by the engraving on its apse: “Round about this church may the merchant be equitable, the weights just, and may no fraudulent contract be negotiated.”

Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin (the Assunta) is arguably the greatest Venetian painting in the world.* We’re lucky that we can see it in the church for which Titian painted it almost 500 years ago.

Born in the Dolomites, Tiziano Vecellio was sent to Venice to study art when he was 10 years old. He first studied in a mosaic workshop, then apprenticed to the Bellini family, and later studied and worked with Giorgione. Titian was still very young (in his 20’s) when he was commissioned to paint the Assunta for Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice’s enormous Franciscan church. It was a prestigious commission for any artist, especially a young one, but Titian wasn’t really in the position where he was still trying to prove himself. Bellini and Giorgione had both recently died, so Titian must have known that he was the greatest living artist in town and perhaps this gave him the confidence to do a painting unlike any ever done before.

A hidden Rialto market church with a Titian on the high altar.

San Giovanni Elemosinario (St. John the Almsgiver or Almoner) is a Byzantine saint more commonly honored by the Orthodox rather than the Catholic church. A wealthy 7th century Patriarch of Alexandria known for his generosity to the poor, he’s an unusual saint in that he was married, lived to be an old man, and died of natural causes rather than martyrdom.

No one is sure how old this church is - its campanile collapsed in 1071, so it had probably been around for a few centuries before then. The great Rialto fire of 1514 destroyed the church along with the surrounding market area; this fire occurred on a particularly cold night when the canals and wells were frozen, making fire fighting impossible. Scarpagnino (who also built the Scuola di San Rocco) was hired by the Republic to get the Rialto back in business as quickly as possible, and he probably rebuilt this church along with the entire area.

This church was closed for the last several decades of the 20th century and re-opened in 2002, at which time its Titian was returned from the Accademia.

This painting by Paolo Veneziano is in the Chapter Hall of the Frari. From the main sanctuary, walk through the Sacristy (where the great Bellini altarpiece is) and into this Hall which has windows overlooking the former monastery’s cloisters. The painting is over the funeral monument for Doge Francesco Dandolo and shows the Doge and his wife being presented to the Virgin and Child by Saints Francis and Elizabeth. The Christ Child’s hand is raised, blessing the Doge. Painted in 1339, this is probably the first portrait of a Doge that was painted from real life and also might be the oldest painting in Venice that remains “in situ” (in the place for which the artist painted it).

Paolo Veneziano (Paul the Venetian) isn’t the first Venetian artist but he’s the first with a name and a recognizable style. Before him, there were a number of anonymous artists making mosaics, and painting frescoes and icons. He lived from 1290-1362 and was a contemporary of the Tuscan artist Giotto who revolutionized painting a few miles away in Padua.

Paolo’s paintings are colorful with lots of gold and brocade and show elements of both the older Byzantine and the emerging Gothic styles. He was one of the first artists in Venice to paint on panel and make altarpieces and polyptychs instead of painting frescoes right on the church walls. He painted lots of "Madonna and Childs" and "Virgins Enthroneds" as well as crucifixions on panels in the shape of a cross.

At the bottom of my photo, there are two busts, and every time I go back to this Chapter Hall, I do a double take when I see the bust on the right because it looks so much like JFK! It’s not though – it’s San Pio X who was Patriarch of Venice from 1893-1903 and then Pope from 1903-1914. He became a saint in 1954 and was the first pope to be canonized since the 17th century. He’s quite loved in Venice and you see his image all over the churches there, but it’s only this Frari bust that looks like JFK.

A couple of other quirky resemblances in the Frari. Gary Wills, author of Venice: Lion City, noted that the Saint Dominic in the Bellini painting looks like Sean Connery (and he does!). And the Time Out guidebook points out that the lion on Canova’s tomb looks just like the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (and it does!). Check them out next time you're in the Frari.