Venice, Italy - Day 2, Santa Maria Glorioso dei Frari

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This entry is just about the Frari Church. If your interested in the history of the church and artwork, read below. Otherwise by pass and go check out the pictures of this interesting church.

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Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (Church of the Frari) known simply as "Frari," this immense 13th- to 14th-century Gothic church built by the Franciscans (frari is a dialectal distortion of "frati," or brothers), it is the largest church in Venice after the Basilica of San Marco. The churche's campanile (bell tower) is the second tallest in the city after that of San Marco, was completed in 1396.

As with many Venetian churches, the exterior is rather plain. The imposing Frari is built of brick in the Italian Gothic style. The exterior is deliberately plain in accordance with the Franciscan emphasis on poverty and austerity. The interior is light and spacious. It contains the only rood screen still in place in Venice and many excellent examples of Renaissance art.

The interior contains THE ONLY rood screen STILL IN PLACE in Venice. The rood screen (also choir screen or chancel screen) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate screen, constructed of wood, stone or wrought iron. It divides the chancel ( the area with the main altar in a church) from the nave (the main part of the church for the congregation).

In addition to the rood screen, the church houses a number of important works, including two Titian masterpieces. The more striking is his Assumption of the Virgin over the main altar, painted when the artist was only in his late 20s. His Virgin of the Pesaro Family is in the left nave; Titian's wife posed for the figure of Mary (and then died soon afterward in childbirth) for this work commissioned by one of Venice's most powerful families.

The church's other masterwork is Giovanni Bellini's important triptych on wood, the Madonna and Child, displayed in the sacristy; it is one of his finest portraits of the Madonna. There is also an almost primitive-looking wood carving by Donatello of St. John the Baptist. The grandiose tombs of two famous Venetians are also here: Canova (d. 1822), the Italian sculptor who led the revival of classicism, and Titian, who died in 1576 during a deadly plague.

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Photos

Campo dei Frari
Confetti swirling around in little dust devil