The Scuola Grande di San Marco is a building 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 islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, designed by the well-known Venetian architects

Pietro Lombardo Monument of the Doge Pietro Mocenigo 1481 :''Pietro Lombardo is also the Italian version of the name of the theologian Peter Lombard.'' Pietro Lombardo (1435–1515) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect; born in Carona (Ticino), he ...

Mauro Codussi Mauro Codussi (1440–1504) was an Italian architect of the early- Renaissance, active mostly in Venice. The name is also rendered as ''Coducci''. He was one of the first to bring the classical style of the early renaissance to Venice to replace t ...

, and

Bartolomeo Bon Bartolomeo Bon (also spelled Buon; died after 1464) was an Italian sculptor and architect from Campione d'Italia. His career spans the transition between Venetian Gothic architecture and the rather late start of Venetian Renaissance architectu ...

. It was originally the home to one of the

Scuole Grandi of Venice The Scuole Grandi (literally 'Great Schools', plural of ) were confraternity or sodality institutions in Venice, Italy. They were founded as early as the 13th century as charitable and religious organizations for the laity. These institutions h ...

, or six major

confraternities A confraternity ( es, cofradía; pt, confraria) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most c ...

, but is now the city's hospital. It faces the

Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo is a city square in Venice, Italy. Buildings around the square

*Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice *Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni Piazzas and campos in Venice {{Veneto-geo-stub ...

, one of the largest squares in the city.

History

Facade of Scuola Grande di San Marco (Venice) - top part

The edifice was built by the Confraternity of San Marco in 1260 to act as its seat. In 1485, however, it was destroyed by a large fire, and rebuilt in the following twenty years under a new design by

, with a fund established by the members. The façade, a masterwork with delicately decorated niches and pilasters, and with white or polychrome marble statues, was later completed by

. While decorated with the polished marble elements of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

classicism, the proliferation of arches and niches adds a retrogressive

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

flavor, an architectural feature of many conservative Venetian styles. One of the most notable aspects of the façade is the use of

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

archways and portals on the ground floor, all executed in different types of marble. Between 2000 and 2005, the façade underwent conservation treatments funded by

Save Venice Inc. Save Venice Inc. is a U.S. non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of art and architecture and the preservation of cultural heritage sites in Venice, Italy. Headquartered in New York City, it has an office in Venice, a chapter in Bos ...

, the Getty Grant Program, and other donors. Three of the greatest Italian explorers of the fifteenth century who left records of their travels were members of the Scuola: Ambrogio Contarini,

Giosafat Barbaro Giosafat Barbaro (also Giosaphat or Josaphat) (1413–1494) was a member of the Venetian Barbaro family. He was a diplomat, merchant, explorer and travel writer.

, and

Alvise da Mosto Alvise Cadamosto or Alvise da Ca' da Mosto (, also known in Portuguese as ''Luís Cadamosto''; c. 1432 – 18 July 1488) was a Venetian explorer and slave trader, who was hired by the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator and undertook two know ...

.“Venetian narrative painting in the age of Carpaccio”, Patricia Fortini Brown, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1988., pg. 7

Jacopo Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed wit ...

furnished the Scuola with three paintings '' Miracle of the Slave'' (also known as ''The Miracle of St. Mark'', 1548), St Mark's Body Brought to Venice, painted between 1562 and 1566, both paintings are currently housed in the

Gallerie dell'Accademia The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery of ...

, and Finding of the body of St Mark also painted between 1562 and 1566, an now held in the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

Palma Vecchio Palma Vecchio (c. 1480 – 30 July 1528), born Jacopo Palma, also known as Jacopo Negretti, was a Venetian painter of the Italian High Renaissance. He is called Palma Vecchio in English and Palma il Vecchio in Italian ("Palma the Elder") to di ...

also contributed to the cycle with ''

Storm at Sea ''Storm at Sea'' or ''Saints Mark, George and Nicholas Freeing Venice from Demons'' is a c. 1528 oil on canvas painting by Palma Vecchio, now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Giovanni Mariacher, 'Palma il Vecchio', in ''I pittori berga ...

''. In 1819 it became an Austrian military hospital. It is now a civil hospital. Since 2013 it is part of the

Polo Museale della Scuola Grande di San Marco Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

References

External links

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Scuola Grande di San Marco
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scuola Grande Di San Marco Renaissance architecture in Venice 1260 establishments in Europe 13th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice Marco Scuole Grandi of Venice