Ognissanti (Italian: ''Chiesa di Ognissanti'') is a 16th-century

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in the

Dorsoduro Dorsoduro is one of the six sestieri of Venice, in northern Italy. Dorsoduro includes the highest land areas of the city and also Giudecca island and Isola Sacca Fisola. Its name derives from the Italian for "hard ridge", due to its comparati ...

'' sestiere'' of the Italian city of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

History

In the 15th century, the area of the current church housed a monastery of

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

nuns who had moved here from Torcello, the nearby islands now largely uninhabitable. In 1472 a hospice was built with an annexed small church, which is shown in the plan of Venice made by

Jacopo de' Barbari Jacopo de' Barbari, sometimes known or referred to as de'Barbari, de Barberi, de Barbari, Barbaro, Barberino, Barbarigo or Barberigo (c. 1460/70 – before 1516), was an Italian painter, printmaker and miniaturist with a highly individual style. ...

. This was replaced from 1505 by the current building, consecrated in 1586. The church and the nunnery were suppressed by

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

in 1807 and left abandoned until turned them into a convalescent facility for elderly people. Later the monastery became a hospital, active until the mid-1990s, while the church, contained in the former's perimeter, was used for religious functions for recovered people. It now forms part of the Giustinian Hospital.

Description

The church's façade is divided into three vertical sectors, corresponding to the nave and aisles of the interior. The portal has a simple structure, flanked and surmounted by arched, large windows. The church has a bell tower with a top in

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

top.

Description

The high facade is divided vertically into three. The church is flanked on the left side by the bell tower. Internally, the church has a single nave with no aisle. There is a large gallery for the nuns at the back of the church. Chiesa di Ognissanti - Venezia - Interno.jpg, General view of the interior of the church Chiesa di Ognissanti - Venezia - Altare maggiore.jpg, The high altar Chiesa di Ognissanti - Venezia - Affresco della volta del coro.jpg, Fresco in the apse. Chiesa di Ognissanti - Venezia - Soffitto del coro.jpg, Vault above the altar. Chiesa di Ognissanti - Venezia - Cappella a destra.jpg, Chapel to the right of the choir. Chiesa di Ognissanti - Venezia - Soffitto.jpg, Ceiling of the nave.

Works of Art

On 13 March 1673 Agostino Litterini received an important commission from Abbess Teodora Sansonio for the decoration of the main chapel in collaboration with the painter Bologna Giacomo Grassi. Litterini painted a fresco of ''The Last Supper'' in the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

. He also painted ''The Glory of Paradise'' in the vault of the same chapel. Because of the stylistic similarities, it is possible to assume the same painters worked on the frescoes in the two side chapels of the presbytery. In the left one, which belongs to the Michiel family, Litterini painted God the Father at the back of the chapel and four Virtues in the vault. In the Battaglia Chapel, on the right, are the Virgin in Glory and two angels bearing flowers and fruit.

In Place

* In the apse above the choir is a fresco of ''The Last Supper'' by Agostino Litterini and Giacomo Grassi. * In the vault above the altar is a fresco of ''The Glory of Paradise'' by Agostino Litterini and Giacomo Grassi. * The altarpiece is ''The Trinity and All Saints'' by Marco Moro.

Moved or Lost

Carlo Ridolfi Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period. Biography Ridolfi was born in Lonigo near Vicenza. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi (Aliense). He painted a ''Visitation'' for the Og ...

painted a ''Visitation'' - a painting which harmonised colours "in a completely new way". This is now in the store of the

Accademia Gallery The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, or "Gallery of the Academy of Florence", is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture ''David''. It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a large ...

* ''The Baptism of Christ'' (lost) by

Giacomo Alberelli Giacomo Alberelli or Albarelli was an Italian painter, active mainly in Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small is ...

* ''

Coronation of the Virgin The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God th ...

'' by

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

(c. 1586), now in the Accademia

Unknown Status

Pietro Muttoni Pietro della Vecchia, Pietro della Vècchia or Pietro Vècchia, formerly incorrectly called Pietro MuttoniBernard Aikema. "Vecchia, Pietro della."Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 5 March 2018 (Vicenza, 1603 &nda ...

painted a huge composition in the church. * ''The Slaughter of the Innocents'' by Pietro Liberi. Maria Farquhar. Ralph Nicholson Wornum, ed. Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. Woodfall & Kinder, London. 1855 p. 84. * ''Morto Riuscitato'' (The Resurrection?) by Carlo Sacchi

References

Bibliography

* Umberto Franzoi, Dina Di Stefano, ''The Churches of Venice'' (in Italian), Alfieri, Venice, 1976 * Giampaolo Onesto, ''Interventi di restauro nella Chiesa di Ognissanti a Venezia'', Padova, Il Prato, 2001, . *

External links

Churches of Venice

Youtube video of 2011 mass
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ognissanti Roman Catholic churches in Venice Dorsoduro Renaissance architecture in Venice 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1568 1560s establishments in the Republic of Venice