AUTHOR: Pietro Lombardo
CENTURY: XV°
CHURCH: Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli
DATE: 1480
POSITION: Cannaregio, campo Santa Maria dei Miracoli
METHOD: brickwork
MATERIAL: marble
The building was conceived as a votive temple and built in 1480 by Pietro Lombardo, who, in addition to the construction project, also took care of the decoration of the exterior and interior. The architectural complex was born following the Madonna and Child, a work created by Nicolò di Pietro on commission, in 1408, by Francesco Amadi. The intense popular devotion for the image, considered miraculous, determined the need to erect a temple in which the work could find an adequate location.
The rectangular complex is divided into a double order of pilasters: the lower ones are Corinthian and support a flat entablature while those of the second order are Ionic and support arches; at the junction between these there are reliefs representing busts of Prophets within clipei. At the corners of the structure there are reliefs representing Angels, while on the façade the Virgin of the Annunciation and the Archangel Gabriel. The facade ends at the top with a large round arch, with an indented intrados, which takes up the string course frame at its base. The large space is occupied by a large circular opening, around which three smaller oculi are arranged. At the top of the arch is a statue of God the Father (1), accompanied by the two Angels (2) arranged at the ends of the cornice. In the lunette of the portal there is a Madonna with putto, a fifteenth-century work by Giorgio Lascaris. The intercolumns of the facade, as well as the external walls of the entire room, are covered with polychrome marble with geometric figures of crosses, roundels, octagons and small reliefs, which tradition has it come from the Basilica of San Marco.
