Description
The Scuola Grande dei Carmini is a Baroque palace in Dorsoduro, on the corner between Campo Santa Margherita and Campo dei Carmini. It was the seat of a lay confraternity devoted to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and it holds one of Giambattista Tiepolo's great cycles.
The highlight is upstairs, in the chapter hall: the ceiling with nine canvases by Tiepolo, painted between 1739 and 1749. At the center the Virgin in glory hands the scapular to St Simon Stock; around her, the virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, and Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.
Before that you climb the monumental staircase, with two parallel flights and large portals, directed by Longhena. The vault has stuccoes with putti, masks and plant motifs by Alvise Bossi, from 1728-29.
The Archive room has an inlaid marble floor with stars and twelve caryatids of saints and prophets carved by Giacomo Piazzetta. On the walls, biblical heroines such as Abigail, Rebecca and Esther. Here too is the Judith and Holofernes by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.
The Albergo room has carved walnut stalls, the school's old banner and sacred vestments in the display cases. In the chapel, two life-size busts of St Simon Stock and the Virgin, in wood painted to imitate marble.
Construction began in 1627 with Francesco Caustello. Longhena stepped in after 1668, and the building took its present form around 1670. The two-story facade has Corinthian columns and arched portals with angel masks.
The brothers were craftsmen, merchants, even poor people. They looked after charity: the sick, the poor, dowries for girls to be married. The school was the last to become "Grande," in 1767.
Tiepolo was supposed to deliver by Christmas 1740, but the central painting arrived in 1749, nine years late. In one side canvas an angel catches in mid-air a mason falling from the scaffolding.
The highlight is upstairs, in the chapter hall: the ceiling with nine canvases by Tiepolo, painted between 1739 and 1749. At the center the Virgin in glory hands the scapular to St Simon Stock; around her, the virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, and Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.
Before that you climb the monumental staircase, with two parallel flights and large portals, directed by Longhena. The vault has stuccoes with putti, masks and plant motifs by Alvise Bossi, from 1728-29.
The Archive room has an inlaid marble floor with stars and twelve caryatids of saints and prophets carved by Giacomo Piazzetta. On the walls, biblical heroines such as Abigail, Rebecca and Esther. Here too is the Judith and Holofernes by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.
The Albergo room has carved walnut stalls, the school's old banner and sacred vestments in the display cases. In the chapel, two life-size busts of St Simon Stock and the Virgin, in wood painted to imitate marble.
Construction began in 1627 with Francesco Caustello. Longhena stepped in after 1668, and the building took its present form around 1670. The two-story facade has Corinthian columns and arched portals with angel masks.
The brothers were craftsmen, merchants, even poor people. They looked after charity: the sick, the poor, dowries for girls to be married. The school was the last to become "Grande," in 1767.
Tiepolo was supposed to deliver by Christmas 1740, but the central painting arrived in 1749, nine years late. In one side canvas an angel catches in mid-air a mason falling from the scaffolding.