Description
The Church of the Redentore is Andrea Palladio's white church on the island of the Giudecca: a marble facade, a dome, two slender bell towers. Every third Sunday of July it is the focus of the Festa del Redentore, the great festival of the Venetians.
The tradition began in 1577, with a procession that reached the church over a bridge of boats. But before that there had been a plague. In 1576 the epidemic killed about fifty thousand people in two years, almost one Venetian in three. The Senate vowed to build a church to the Redeemer, and in 1577 the first stone was laid.
The design was by Andrea Palladio, then chief architect of the Republic. He died in 1580 without seeing it finished: it was completed, in 1592, by Antonio da Ponte, the same who built the Rialto Bridge.
The church was to go to the Capuchin friars, who by their rule of poverty did not want precious marbles. So inside even the capitals are of brick, covered with a stucco that imitates marble to perfection.
The white marble facade is made of four triangular pediments and a rectangular attic that fit one into another, among smooth surfaces, pilasters and statues. It is the most mature outcome of Palladio's reflections on church fronts.
Inside, a single nave, with large chapels at the sides, and a transept of three apses around the dome. Palladio drew inspiration from Roman baths. More than the decorations, what strikes is the light, which brings out the volumes.
The altarpieces are devoted to stories from the life of Jesus, by Francesco Bassano, the workshop of Veronese and Domenico Tintoretto. At the entrance, two holy-water fonts with bronze sculptures by Terilli: St John the Baptist and the Redeemer.
Outside, the dome stands between two cylindrical bell towers, with cone-shaped roofs, similar to minarets. The church has always belonged to the Capuchins, who run it.
The tradition began in 1577, with a procession that reached the church over a bridge of boats. But before that there had been a plague. In 1576 the epidemic killed about fifty thousand people in two years, almost one Venetian in three. The Senate vowed to build a church to the Redeemer, and in 1577 the first stone was laid.
The design was by Andrea Palladio, then chief architect of the Republic. He died in 1580 without seeing it finished: it was completed, in 1592, by Antonio da Ponte, the same who built the Rialto Bridge.
The church was to go to the Capuchin friars, who by their rule of poverty did not want precious marbles. So inside even the capitals are of brick, covered with a stucco that imitates marble to perfection.
The white marble facade is made of four triangular pediments and a rectangular attic that fit one into another, among smooth surfaces, pilasters and statues. It is the most mature outcome of Palladio's reflections on church fronts.
Inside, a single nave, with large chapels at the sides, and a transept of three apses around the dome. Palladio drew inspiration from Roman baths. More than the decorations, what strikes is the light, which brings out the volumes.
The altarpieces are devoted to stories from the life of Jesus, by Francesco Bassano, the workshop of Veronese and Domenico Tintoretto. At the entrance, two holy-water fonts with bronze sculptures by Terilli: St John the Baptist and the Redeemer.
Outside, the dome stands between two cylindrical bell towers, with cone-shaped roofs, similar to minarets. The church has always belonged to the Capuchins, who run it.