Description
Madonna dell'Orto is a Gothic brick church in the Cannaregio district of Venice, far from the crowds of St Mark's. It is worth the trip above all for Tintoretto: he lived here, painted ten canvases here, and is buried here.
The first thing you notice is the facade, divided into three parts, with a large rose window, an elaborate portal and niches holding the apostles. The white of the stone and the pink of the marble brighten the brick. At the top, St Christopher, after whom the church was named.
Inside, three aisles with no transept and columns of Greek marble. On either side of the apse hang the two most striking paintings: Tintoretto's Last Judgment and Adoration of the Golden Calf, from 1563, more than five meters high and almost fifteen wide.
Also not to be missed are the Vision of the Cross to St Peter and the Beheading of St Paul, again by Tintoretto. At the end of the right aisle, the apsidal chapel with his tomb. By Cima da Conegliano is St John the Baptist with Four Saints, an altarpiece from 1493-1495.
In the Contarini chapel you can see the busts of family members, including Cardinal Gasparo Contarini. In the Valier chapel, in Renaissance style, tradition has it that Palladio would stop whenever he passed this way. The bell tower, with its onion dome, is about 56 meters tall.
The name comes from a story almost seven centuries old. The sculptor Giovanni De Santi had made a statue of the Madonna for the parish priest of Santa Maria Formosa, who didn't want it. So it ended up in the sculptor's vegetable garden at home.
There his wife noticed strange glows at night. Word spread, pilgrims and miracles followed, and the bishop stepped in. In 1377 the statue entered the church, then dedicated to St Christopher, which everyone has called Madonna dell'Orto ever since.
Another story concerns a Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini, in the Valier chapel: it was stolen on the night of March 1, 1993, and has never been found.
The first thing you notice is the facade, divided into three parts, with a large rose window, an elaborate portal and niches holding the apostles. The white of the stone and the pink of the marble brighten the brick. At the top, St Christopher, after whom the church was named.
Inside, three aisles with no transept and columns of Greek marble. On either side of the apse hang the two most striking paintings: Tintoretto's Last Judgment and Adoration of the Golden Calf, from 1563, more than five meters high and almost fifteen wide.
Also not to be missed are the Vision of the Cross to St Peter and the Beheading of St Paul, again by Tintoretto. At the end of the right aisle, the apsidal chapel with his tomb. By Cima da Conegliano is St John the Baptist with Four Saints, an altarpiece from 1493-1495.
In the Contarini chapel you can see the busts of family members, including Cardinal Gasparo Contarini. In the Valier chapel, in Renaissance style, tradition has it that Palladio would stop whenever he passed this way. The bell tower, with its onion dome, is about 56 meters tall.
The name comes from a story almost seven centuries old. The sculptor Giovanni De Santi had made a statue of the Madonna for the parish priest of Santa Maria Formosa, who didn't want it. So it ended up in the sculptor's vegetable garden at home.
There his wife noticed strange glows at night. Word spread, pilgrims and miracles followed, and the bishop stepped in. In 1377 the statue entered the church, then dedicated to St Christopher, which everyone has called Madonna dell'Orto ever since.
Another story concerns a Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini, in the Valier chapel: it was stolen on the night of March 1, 1993, and has never been found.