San Giovanni Evangelista
The entrance to the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista
The Scuola Grande di San
Giovanni Evangelista is located in the Santa Croce district on the Rio
Marin, approximately two hundred metres from its junction with the Grand
Canal at the Ponte Scalzi.
The Scuola was founded in 1261. It achieved prominence in 1369 when it
acquired the "relic of the true cross" from the King of Jerusalem, a
French mercenary named Philippe de Méziéres.
The Scuola still displays this relic on the oratory altar in the Hall of
the Cross.
The entrance to the Scuola is through an exquisite marble portal
designed and decorated with an intricate leaf-spray by Pietro Lombardo
in 1478. The semi-circular pediment and crowning eagle were added twenty
years later by Bartolomeo Bon.
The interior of the Scuola was redesigned by Mauro Codussi in the 1490s.
Codussi incorporated a grand staircase with two converging wings which
terminates in the spectacularly vast Sala di San Giovanni.
The Scuola once housed a cycle of nine pictures, inspired by the relic
of the Holy Cross, painted by Gentile Bellini, Bastiani, Carpaccio and
others. These paintings were removed to the Accademia after the French
invasion of 1797.
Twenty-one views of Venice by Titian, which formerly graced the ceiling
of the Sala d'Albergo (boardroom), were also removed at the same time.
The Procession of the Sacred Relic of the Holy Cross by Gentile Bellini (1496) Accademia, Venice
Presentation of the Sacred Relic of the Holy Cross by Bastiani (1494) Accademia, Venice
The Sala di Giovanni still
houses a cycle of paintings by Massari, Cignaroli and Domenico
Tintoretto featuring scenes from the life of the Apostle Saint John.
These pictures are not for the squeamish. They include a horrific
depiction of Saint John being boiled alive in a cauldron of hot water
and of several unfortunates being crushed by falling masonry during the
collapse of the Temple of Ephesus.
The ceiling of the Sala di Giovanni is also decorated by a feverishly
apocalyptic 18th century Day of Judgement.
After Venice was incorporated into the Austrian Empire in 1806, plans
were made to dismantle the marble floors, staircase and portal and to
transport them to Vienna.
However, sufficient funds were raised by public subscription in order to
buy back the Scuola from the Austrians who had confiscated it.
The Scuola is not routinely open to the public
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