The Chiesa di San Pantaleone Martire, known as San Pantalon in the Venetian dialect, is a church in the
Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of
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 islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, Italy. It is located on the Campo San Pantalon (square), and is dedicated to
Saint Pantaleon
Saint Pantaleon ( el, Παντελεήμων, russian: Пантелеи́мон, translit=Panteleímon; "all-compassionate"), counted in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Hea ...
.
The 17th-century Chiesa di San Pantalon is a parish church of the Vicariate of San Polo-Santa Croce-Dorsoduro.
Architectural elements
San Pantalon is particularly well known for its immense ceiling painting, depicting ''The Martyrdom and Apotheosis of St Pantalon''. It was painted on canvas by
Gian Antonio Fumiani between 1680 and 1704, when he fell to his death from the scaffolding.
Other notable works include ''Coronation of the Virgin'' by
Antonio Vivarini
Antonio Vivarini (Antonio of Murano) (active c. 14401480) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance-late Gothic period, who worked mostly in the Republic of Venice. He is probably the earliest of a family of painters, which was descended ...
and
Giovanni d'Alemagna in the Chapel of the Holy Nail and ''St Pantalon healing a Boy'', the last work by
Veronese, originally commissioned for the high altar.
Assessments of the Fumiani fresco
Modern critics note that the dramatic
sotto in su
Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective ''di sotto in sù'' and ''quadratura'', is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, an ...
canvas marks the entry of Bolognese
quadratura
Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective ''di sotto in sù'' and ''quadratura'', is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, an ...
to Venice; Fumiani had studied with the perspective painter
Domenico degli Ambrogi.
John Ruskin, in his typical disdain of all post-
Quattrocento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...
works, described the ceiling fresco as a:
John Crowley's novel ''
The Solitudes'', his first volume in the Ægypt series, has an extended response to the painting.
Antonio Vivarini
Antonio Vivarini (Antonio of Murano) (active c. 14401480) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance-late Gothic period, who worked mostly in the Republic of Venice. He is probably the earliest of a family of painters, which was descended ...
and Giovanni d'Alemagna
References
External links
Satellite image from Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pantalon
Roman Catholic churches in Venice
Dorsoduro
17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy