Friday May 24th

We don’t seem to make very early starts, in spite of my good intentions, though we managed it a little earlier today. We started with a visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari, usually known just as the Frari. The name is because the original church was built by Franciscan friars between 1250 and 1338. 

The current church, huge and gothic, which replaced this early church was built in the mid 15th century, and is imposing inside. There are twelve huge round pillars between the nave and the aisles to represent the apostles, but the division of the nave and aisles is pretty unobtrusive, so you just have the impression of a single space.

Around the walls are masterpieces by Titian and Bellini and a statue by Donatello. It also has monuments to Titian and Canova, and the tomb of Monteverdi.

Titian’s masterpiece, The Assumption of the Virgin, is over the main altar and dominates the church. You can just glimpse in in my photo above, through the carved marble screen which separates the nave from the choir. I believe the original is now somewhere else, and what you currently see above the altar is a photograph.

I preferred the other Titian, Madonna Ca’Pesaro, which is at one side of the nave.

I also liked the Madonna with Child and Saints by Bellini

After that feast of art, we needed to refresh ourselves, and stopped for lunch next to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, which we visited next. Set up originally as a charitable institution for the sick, it was begun in 1515 and financed mostly by donation from wealthy Venetians who hoped Saint Roch would save them from the plague. In 1564 Tintoretto was commissioned to decorate the walls and ceilings, and I think must be one of the most amazing place I have ever been in in my life.

This is the upper hall.

I’m afraid my photograph can’t possibly do justice to the place. You can see how enormous it is, and every inch is painted. You can take a mirror to examine the ceiling paintings, which is a lot better than my usual practice of lying on my back. That’s Paul in the photo, using one of the mirrors, which are rather large and heavy.

A room to the side has the most enormous crucifixion, but I’m afraid my camera was completely unable to do it justice. The fact that the paintings are not well lit does not help, and the painting is so enormous it is hard to get it all in without getting too far away to see anything.

The ground floor hall is rather less overwhelming, as there are only eight enormous paintings, illustrating the life of Mary. 

I particularly liked The Assumption, partly because of the expression on Mary’s face.

We had intended to go into the church of San Rocco next, but decided to look instead for San Pantalon which was fairly close by.

San Pantalon is dark and somewhat awe-inspiring because of the painted ceiling which is remarkable for its illusionistic effects.

There is no way to take a decent photograph of this ceiling, and anyway there is supposed to be a ‘no photographs’ rule. I lay on my back on a pew to take this when the guardian wasn’t looking. There are 40 different scenes in it, depicting the martyrdom of the physician St Pantalon, and the artist took 24 years to complete it.

There is a painting by Veronese, St Pantalon Healing a Boy, in a side chapel, but it is badly in need of cleaning and so poorly lit you can only see it by paying 1€ to light it, otherwise it is just a black rectangle.

In an adjoining chapel, I preferred these three, attributed to Veneziano.

They are The Annunciation, Madonna and Child, and Presentation at the Temple.

By then it was late and after that we became hopelessly lost in the tiny alleyways as we tried to find our way back to the vaporetto stop. With the help of the GPS in Apple Maps we finally found our way, but even the GPS is confused by the narrow alleyways so that the satellite presumably has difficulty in locating you, especially as some of the alleyways are really tunnels - they are just passageways under buildings.

Five o’clock is a bad time to catch a vaporetto, and today was a particularly bad day as we had noticed on our morning journey that two huge cruise ships had arrived. Our boat home was like Southern Rail at peak times, standing room only. It was was stuffed with people with suitcases (presumably a tour group travelling to the station), as well as the usual complement of tourists from many countries, commuters going home, and elderly Venetians with trolley bags of shopping, often accompanied by their dogs!