| Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute Basilica of Saint Mary of Health | |
|---|---|
 Santa Maria della Salute at the Grand Canal | |
 Click the map for an interactive, fullscreen view. | |
| 45°25′51″N12°20′04″E / 45.43083°N 12.33444°E /45.43083; 12.33444 | |
| Location | Venice |
| Country | Italy |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| History | |
| Status | Active |
| Consecrated | 1681 |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | Baldassare Longhena |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Baroque |
| Groundbreaking | 1631 |
| Completed | 1687 |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 70 metres (230 ft) |
| Width | 47 metres (154 ft) |
| Materials | Istrian stone,marmorino |
| Administration | |
| Province | Archdiocese of Venice |
Santa Maria della Salute (English:Saint Mary of Health;Venetian:Bazéłega de Santa Maria de ła Sałute), commonly known simply asLa Salute (Italian:[lasaˈlute]), is aRoman Catholicchurch andminor basilica located at thePunta della Dogana in theDorsodurosestiere of the city ofVenice, Italy.
It stands on the narrow finger ofPunta della Dogana, between theGrand Canal and theGiudecca Canal, at the Bacino di San Marco, making the church visible when entering thePiazza San Marco from the water. The Salute is part of theparish of theGesuati and is the most recent of the so-calledplague churches.
In 1630, Venice experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of theplague. As avotive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence, theRepublic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church toOur Lady of Health. The church was designed in the then fashionableBaroque style byBaldassare Longhena, who studied under the architectVincenzo Scamozzi. Construction began in 1631. Most of the objects of art housed in the church bear references to theBlack Death.
Thedome of theSalute was an important addition to the Veniceskyline and soon became emblematic of the city, appearing in artworks both by locals, such asCanaletto andFrancesco Guardi, and visitors, such asJ. M. W. Turner andJohn Singer Sargent.
Beginning in the summer of 1630, awave of the plague assaulted Venice, and until 1631 killed nearly a third of the population. In the city, 46,000 people died whilst in the lagoons the number was far higher, some 94,000.[1] Repeated displays of the sacrament, as well as prayers and processions to churches dedicated toSan Rocco andSan Lorenzo Giustiniani had failed to stem the epidemic. Echoing the architectural response to a prior assault of the plague (1575–76), whenPalladio was asked to design theRedentore church, theVenetian Senate on October 22, 1630, decreed that a new church would be built.[1] It was not to be dedicated to a mere "plague" or patron saint, but to theVirgin Mary, who for many reasons was thought to be a protector of the Republic.[2]
The end of the 1630 plague was attributed to theintercession of an icon of the Virgin Mary that was brought to Venice in 1670 by sea captainFrancesco Morosini as a trophy following the peace terms obtained with the Turks in thewar of Candia (present-dayCrete). The icon was placed in its current position inside the basilica on21 November, the patronal feast day.[3]
It was also decided that the Senate would visit the church each year. On November 21 the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, known as theFesta della Madonna della Salute, the city's officials parade fromSan Marco to the Salute for a service in gratitude for deliverance from the plague is celebrated. This involved crossing theGrand Canal on a specially constructedpontoon bridge and is still a major event in Venice.
The desire to create a suitable monument at a place that allows for easy processional access from Piazza San Marco led senators to select the present site from among eight potential locations. The location was chosen partially due to its relationship toSan Giorgio, San Marco, and Il Redentore, with which it forms an arc. TheSalute, emblematic of the city's piety, stands adjacent to the rusticated single storycustoms house orDogana da Mar, the emblem of its maritime commerce, and near the civic center of the city. A dispute with the patriarch, owner of the church and seminary at the site, was resolved, and razing of some of the buildings began by 1631. Likely, the diplomatPaolo Sarpi and DogeNicolo Contarini shared the intent to link the church to an order less closely associated with the patriarchate, and ultimately the Somascan Fathers, an order founded nearBergamo by a Venetian noblemanJerome Emiliani, were invited to administer the church.[citation needed]
A competition was held to design the building. Of the eleven submissions (including designs byAlessandro Varotari, Matteo Ignoli, and Berteo Belli), only two were chosen for the final round. The architectBaldassare Longhena was selected to design the new church. It was finally completed in 1681 the year before Longhena's death. The other design to make it to the final round was by Antonio Smeraldi (il Fracao) and Zambattista Rubertini. Of the proposals still extant, Belli's and Smeraldi's original plans were conventional counter-reformation linear churches, resembling Palladio's Redentore and San Giorgio Maggiore, while Varotari's was a sketchy geometrical abstraction. Longhena's proposal was a concrete architectural plan, detailing the structure and costs. He wrote:
I have created a church in the form of a rotunda, a work of new invention, not built in Venice, a work very worthy and desired by many. This church, having the mystery of its dedication, being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, made me think, with what little talent God has bestowed upon me of building the church in the ... shape of a crown.
Later in a memorandum, he wrote: "Firstly, it is a virgin work, never before seen, curious, worthy and beautiful, made in the form of a round monument that has never been seen, nor ever before invented, neither altogether, nor in part, in other churches in this most serene city, just as my competitor (il Fracao) has done for his own advantage, being poor in invention."
The Salute, while novel in many ways, still shows the influence of Palladian classicism and the domes of Venice. The Venetian Senate voted 66 in favor, 29 against with 2 abstentions to authorize the designs of the 26-year-old Longhena. While Longhena saw the structure as crown-like, the decorative circular building makes it seem more like areliquary, aciborium, and embroidered invertedchalice that shelters the city's piety.[citation needed]
TheSalute is a vast, octagonal building with two domes and a pair of picturesque bell-towers at the back. Built on a platform made of 1,000,000 wooden piles, it is constructed ofIstrian stone andmarmorino (brick covered with marble dust). At the apex of the pediment stands a statue of the Virgin Mary who presides over the church which was erected in her honour. The façade is decorated with figures ofSaint George,Saint Theodore, the Evangelists, the Prophets, Judith with the head ofHolofernes.[1]
The mainFaçade is richly decorated by statues of the four evangelists recently attributed to Tommaso Rues:[4]
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While its external decoration and location capture the eye, the internal design itself is quite remarkable. The octagonal church, while ringed by a classic vocabulary, hearkens toByzantine designs such as theBasilica of San Vitale. The interior has its architectural elements demarcated by the coloration of the material, and the central nave with its ring of saints atop a balustrade is a novel design. It is full of Marian symbolism – the great dome represents her crown, the cavernous interior her womb, the eight sides the eight points on her symbolic star.
The interior is octagonal with eight radiating chapels on the outer row. The three altars to the right of the main entrance are decorated with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, patroness of the church, byLuca Giordano:The Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple,Assumption of Our Lady, andNativity of Our Lady.[1] The third altar to the left of the entrance hosts a painting byTitian titledThe Descent of the Holy Spirit.TheBaroque high altar arrangement, designed by Longhena himself, shelters an iconicByzantineMadonna and Child of the 12th or 13th century, known asPanagia Mesopantitissa in Greek[5] ("Madonna the mediator" or "Madonna the negotiator") and came fromCandia in 1669 after thefall of the city to the Ottomans. The statuary group at the high altar, depictingThe Queen of Heaven expelling the Plague (1670) is a theatrical Baroque masterpiece by the Flemish sculptorJosse de Corte. It originally heldAlessandro Varotari's painting of the Virgin holding a church that the painter submitted with his architectural proposal.
Tintoretto painted"Marriage at Cana - 1561"., displayed in the greatsacristy, which includes a self-portrait. The most represented artist included in the church isTitian, who paintedSt. Mark Enthroned with Saints Cosmas, Damian, Sebastian and Roch, the altarpiece of the sacristy, as well as ceiling paintings ofDavid and Goliath,Abraham and Isaac andCain and Abel, and eighttondi of theeight Doctors of the Church and the Evangelists, all in the great sacristy, andPentecost in the nave.
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The dome of theSalute was an important addition to the Venetian skyline and soon became emblematic of the city, inspiring painters likeCanaletto,J. M. W. Turner,Claude Monet,John Singer Sargent,Francesco Guardi, and the Serbian poetLaza Kostić to write a poem of the same title.[6]
The church had a large influence on contemporary architects immediately after its completion. The structures modeled after the church include the shrine inGostyń, built by Jerzy Catenazzi, Jan Catenazzi, andPompeo Ferrari between 1675 and 1728, perhaps according to the original design byBaldassarre Longhena.[7]
In 1959, the church was the subject of a design byJohn Piper, later adapted as a textile design byArthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd.[8]
The plans of theRotunda of Xewkija inGozo,Malta were based on Santa Maria della Salute, but on a larger scale.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) page 10-12 in Greek
| Preceded by San Giorgio Maggiore | Venice landmarks Santa Maria della Salute | Succeeded by Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
