SANTA MARIA GLORIOSA DEI FRARI

Description

Essentials about Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in brief

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is, along with Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the largest and most important Gothic church in Venice. The church, often just called “Frari Church”, is located on the Campo dei Frari of the same name in the district of San Polo. Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is famous not only for its impressive architecture, but also for its furnishings, which include a number of outstanding works of art, including two major works by Titian. Last but not least, the Frari church houses the tombs of numerous famous Venetians, including some Doges and also Titian himself.

The history of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Around 1223, the Franciscan Friars Minor settled in an existing monastery building on the edge of the urban development of the time. There, around 1250, they began the construction of a small church dedicated to the Mother of God, Santa Maria de’ Frati Minori, (Saint Mary of the Lesser Brothers), which was consecrated in 1280. In 1340 this church, about 40 meters long, was demolished to make room for a new building, as it had soon become too small due to the large crowds attending the Friars’ sermons.

In 1361 the apse and transept of the church, now facing southwest, were consecrated and the construction of the campanile, completed in 1396, was begun by the master builders Jacopo and Pierpaolo Celega. In 1420, by order of Marco Corner, the Capella Corner was added to the southwest of the Milanese Chapel. Dedicated to the patron saint of its patron, St. Mark, it houses a triptych created by Bartolomeo Vivarini with St. Mark, St. Jerome, St. Peter, St. Nicholas and St. John the Baptist.

To the south of the aisle, between 1432 and 1434, the Cappella Emiliana was built, dedicated to St. Peter, a baptistery used as a burial chapel by the founders, the Emiliana family. Both chapels each have a portal to the Campo dei Frari. In the middle of the 15th century, the sacristy was built as an independent building in the northern transept. In 1468 the church received its choir screens, decorated with fourteen reliefs, in the yoke in front of the crossing. The carved choir stalls, which are worth seeing, were also completed in the same year. Towards the end of the 15th century the facade was completed. In 1518, the famous altarpiece of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Titian, measuring almost 25 square meters, was placed above the high altar.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari from the outside

The simple main facade of the brick building, divided into three parts by pilasters, is decorated by a richly staggered and curved gable. The ornamental elements, such as the frames of the rose window, the oculi, the friezes, the wreath-like cornice finial and the three aedicules of the façade finial, as well as the portal, crowned with statues of the Savior by Alessandro Vittoria on the central pinnacle, St. Francis and a Madonna and Child from the workshop of Bartolomeo Bon on the lateral pinnacles, are made of Istrian stone. The large central rose is additionally made of red Veronese stone. The vault, which appears to be made of stone, was made of plastered tubular mesh to reduce weight because of the problematic subsoil. As with other Venetian churches, the structure is stabilized by wooden tie rods.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari from the inside

The Frari Church is a three-nave pier basilica with a single-nave high transept and a group of six small and one central large choir chapel, all with a polygonal end. Southeast of the apse are the Milanese Chapel, the Chapel of St. Michael (Capella Trevisan) and the Chapel of the Franciscan Saints (Capella di San Francesco). Northwest of the apse are the Baptist Chapel (Cappella dei Fiorentini), the Sacramental Chapel (Cappella del Sacramento) and the Bernardo Family Chapel (Cappella Bernardo) with Bartolomeo Vivarini’s 1482 painting of the Virgin with St. Andrew, St. Nicholas of Bari, St. Paul and St. Peter, which at the same time represents the progenitors of the four lines of the House of Bernardo and which, in comparison with the eight years older triptych in the Cappella Corner, shows well Vivarini’s stylistic development. All parts of the room have a ribbed vault.