Description: The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is one of the greatest churches of Venice. It is in the Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo sestieri.
We went to see Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin, and Madonna di Ca Pesaro. Admission is € 2.50, the only church I’ve ever been to that charged admission. It is open Monday through Saturday from 9am to 6pm.
The church, built for the Franciscan order, was completed in 1338. Its campanile, the second tallest in the city after that of San Marco, was completed in 1396.
The church is imposing in its size and built of brick in the Italian Gothic style. As with many Venetian churches, the exterior is rather plain. The interior contains the only rood screen still in place in Venice. The rood screen (also choir screen or chancel screen), a common feature in late medieval church architecture, is an ornate screen, constructed of wood, a substance that does not survive well in Venice’s humid climate.
As I said, I wanted to see two Titian paintings. The Assumption of the Virgin over the high altar is the largest altar painting in Venice and considered by some to be one of the world’s great paintings. The other, his Madonna di Ca Pesaro was painted for a side altar for a prominent Venetian family whose fame initial came from an ancestor who won a naval battle. These are both fairly early works of Titian and the beautiful colours still show through the aging canvas.
Other important art works in the basilica include Giovanni Bellini’s Madonna and Child with SS Nicholas of Bari, Peter, Mark and Benedict, the sacristy altarpiece; and Donatello’s figure of St John the Baptist in the first south choir chapel, Donatello's first documented work in Venice.
It is a lovely place to visit if you like art.
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