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Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Review

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Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Address: Campo dei Frari, San Polo, Venice, 30125
Phone: 041/2728618; 041/2750462 Chorus

Category: Religious Sites
Location: San Polo and Santa Croce

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Fodor's Review:

This immense Gothic church of russet-color brick, completed in the 1400s after more than a century of work, is deliberately austere, befitting the Franciscan brothers' insistence on spirituality and poverty. However, I Frari (as it's known locally) contains some of the most brilliant paintings in any Venetian church. Visit the sacristy first, to see Giovanni Bellini's 1488 triptych Madonna and Child with Saints in all its mellow luminosity, painted for precisely this spot. The Corner Chapel on the other side of the chancel is graced by Bartolomeo Vivarini's (1415-84) 1474 altarpiece St. Mark Enthroned and Saints John the Baptist, Jerome, Peter, and Nicholas, of similar exquisite detail and color. There is also a fine sculpture of St. John the Baptist here by Jacopo Sansovino. You can see the rapid development of Venetian Renaissance painting by contrasting Bellini and Vivarini with the heroic energy of Titian's Assumption, over the main altar, painted only 30 years later. Unveiled in 1518, this work was not initially accepted by the church, precisely because of the innovative style and bright colors, especially Titian's trademark red, which would make it famous.

Titian's beautiful Madonna di Ca' Pesaro, in the left aisle, was modeled after his wife, who died in childbirth. The painting took almost 10 years to complete, and in it Titian totally disregarded the conventions of his time by moving the Virgin out of center frame and making the saints active participants. On the same side of the church look at the spooky, pyramid-shaped monument to the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Across the nave is a neoclassical 19th-century monument to Titian, executed by two of Canova's pupils.

Cost: EUR 3, Chorus pass EUR 9
Open: Mon.-Sat. 9-6, Sun. 1-6
Vaporetto: San Tomà

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