CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL GIGLIO

This ancient church of Santa Maria del Giglio, founded in the IX century, consists of its present forms in merit of the reconstructions done during the second half of the 17th century.

The church façade, work of Giuseppe Sardi, is one of the most original and imaginative expressions of Baroque Venetian art and forms a majestic monument of the Barbaro family, representing portrait statues of the five brothers and illustrating maps of the various places in which Antonio Barbaro served the Venetian Republic.

The interior ceiling with a single nave, is decorated with large canvasses by Antonio Zanchi. Along the inside walls various fine paintings, including a noteworthy “Way of the Cross” painted by some of the most gifted Venetian artists (including Francesco Zugno, Gianbattista Crosato, Gaspare Diziani and Jacopo Marieschi among others) between 1755 and 1756, may be revered.

Another painting worthy of mention is Peter Paur Rubens’ “Virgin Mary and Child with Saint Giovannino”, the only Venetian work by the Flemish artist; J. Tintoretto’s fine “Four Evangelists” (which now hangs behind the altar), along with works by Alessandro Vittoria, Sebastiano Ricci, Giambattista Piazzetta, Palma il Giovane, and Gian Maria Morlaiter, all of which make this building an extraordinary compendium of the Venetian art.

(Aldo Bova “Venezia i luoghi della musica”)

The Mascioni organ (1913) has two keyboards inserted into an eighteenth-century console decorated with a jubilation of musical instruments in gilded wood. The choir is decorated with the Musicial Angels by Antonio Zanchi. The Four Evangelists by Tintoretto (1557), currently under the choir, were the inside of the old organ’s doors.