The church of Santa Maria del Rosario, commonly known as the church of the Gesuati is a religious building located in Venice. The church is part of the Chorus Venezia association.
The name Gesuati comes from the religious order, suppressed in 1668,
which had a church and above all a large convent in the area, later
purchased by the Dominicans. The Compagnia dei Poveri Gesuati was formed
at the end of the 14th century and in 1432 had begun the construction of
the nearby church of Santa Maria della Visitazione with the then title
of San Girolamo and the adjacent convent. With the dissolution of the
order, the complex passed to the Dominicans who shortly after began the
construction of the new temple. With the suppression of religious orders
in 1810, the church became a parish. The events that followed led to the
subdivision of the appurtenances to different orders.
The church
is the main seat of the large parish of the same name, which extends
from Punta della Dogana to San Trovaso. The church of Spirito Santo and
the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute belong to the Gesuati parish as
subsidiary churches. The churches of Sant'Agnese and Santa Maria della
Visitazione (also called degli Artigianelli), which are autonomous
convent churches managed directly by the friars who still have their own
convent in the immediate vicinity, also fall within the territory of the
Gesuati parish.
The current building was built in the period
1724-36 on behalf of the Dominican friars, with the financial help of
the whole city, still organized through the Arts and the
Confraternities.
A first project was drawn up by Andreas Musalus but on his death, although defended by his pupil Giovanni Scalfarotto, the Dominicans shelved it and the design of the church was entrusted to the architect Giorgio Massari who presented a new one in 1724. If under construction presents various references to Palladian motifs Massari smoothed them following the fashion with his pictorial taste and carefully coordinating the interventions of the different artists and the various workers who he called to collaborate with the iconographic indications of the preaching friars.
It is interesting that the large church, in addition to forcing the
demolition of a part of the ancient cloister on the left, must have
extended beyond the arm of the Rio della Carità which bent parallel to
the Giudecca canal to rejoin the Rio di Sant'Agnese. Both streams were
filled in in the 19th century but the bricked-up mouth of the bridge
structure created to let the water flow under the hall towards the edge
of the presbytery is still visible on the right side. The arch is locked
by the emblem of the order supported by the dog with which the
Dominicans often identified themselves.
Just above the arch of
the old canalization there is still the aedicule containing a stepping
Christ in yellowish stone by an anonymous late fifteenth-century
sculptor with reminiscences of Donatello, perhaps coming from the old
church.
Facade
The classical facade is tripartite by
semi-columns with composite capitals which slope down into the wings
forming composite pillars. In the large crowning tympanum there is an
oval eye surmounted by a shell of St. James. Further enlivening the
surface in the lateral intercolumns, inside large niches and supported
by shelves, are the statues of the Four Cardinal Virtues: above,
Prudence by Gaetano Susali and Justice by Francesco Bonazza; below,
divided by a Greek frieze, the Fortress of Giuseppe Bernardi known as
Torretti and the Temperance of Alvise Tagliapietra.
In the
centre, above the arched tympanum of the portal, accompanying its
curvature, a large plaque dedicated to Santa Maria del Rosario appears
suspended from a central modillion decorated with five roses. It is not
an ornament arranged in a bunch but with the flowers arranged distinctly
on the volutes so as to be immediately enumerated: in fact in this
number, also repeated by the steps of the access stairway to the portal,
it is possible to catch a deliberate reference to the groups of five
into which the rosary is divided, a recurring symbology also inside.
The pavement in front of the church, a mix of white Istrian stone
and gray trachyte, and the other large staircase that descends into the
water integrate the scenographic layout of the building.
Looking
from the water or from the other bank, the two short onion-shaped cusped
bell towers and the dome with lantern of the presbytery are
characteristic.
The interior has a single nave with rounded corners, taking up the
model of Gaspari alla Fava but already partially announced in the
Redeemer by Palladio. The arches of the presbytery and the six side
chapels open up along the walls marked by paired semi-columns. Between
the paired columns there are large sculptures surmounted by bas-reliefs
by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, sometimes with assistants, and executed
between 1743 and 1754. The bas-reliefs represent scenes from the Gospel
(counterclockwise starting from the entrance): Jesus and the centurion,
Jesus heals the blind man, Jesus appears to the Magdalene, Apparition of
Jesus to Thomas, (presbytery), Baptism of Christ, The Samaritan woman at
the well, The swimming pool and St. Peter saved from the waters. The
statues in the round and placed in niches are (counterclockwise starting
from the entrance): Abraham, Aaron, St. Paul the Apostle, St. Peter,
Moses and Melchisedech. On the sides of the presbytery there are instead
two pulpits.
Ceiling
The ceiling is occupied by three large
compartments frescoed by Giambattista Tiepolo between 1737 and 1739. In
the central one The institution of the Rosary: towards the top Mary and
the Child in heaven present the Rosary surrounded by angels, in the
center a little angel provides the rosaries to San Domenico who
distributes them to the faithful, below all the heretics sink into hell.
In the sector towards the door the Glory of San Domenico and in the one
towards the altar the Madonna appears to San Domenico. Around the
central compartments are sixteen smaller monochrome compartments,
probably painted with the help of Francesco Zugno and Giovanni Raggi.
Inserted alternately in oval or quadrilobate frames, they represent the
15 traditional Mysteries of the Rosary plus a last one dedicated to the
Glory of the Rosary. The stuccos of all the ceiling frames are the work
of Antonio Pelle.
Right chapels
In the first chapel on
Massari's altar, the altarpiece The Virgin Appears to Saints Rose of
Lima, Catherine of Siena and Agnese of Montepulciano by Tiepolo (1749?)
is exhibited. In the second chapel, the Glory of Angels by Morlaiter
(1738-39), a high relief which frames the small picture of San Domenico
by Giambattista Piazzetta (1743). In the third chapel the Vision of
Saints Lodovico Bertrando, Vincenzo Ferreri and Giacinto Odrovaz painted
almost monochromatically by Piazzetta (c. 1739)
Presbytery
The
main altar, designed by Massari (1742-43) has a large exedra within
whose colonnade in red Sicilian marble is contained the rich tabernacle
studded with lapis lazuli. On the side walls the wooden structures of
the choir lofts, only the one on the left contains a Bazzani organ from
1856 (see below). On the ribbed corners under the dome the symbols of
the four evangelists are a monochrome work by Tiepolo (1737-39).
Choir
The choir designed by Massari and carved by various craftsmen
between 1740 and 1744 is housed in the elliptical hall at the back of
the main altar. On the ceiling is King David playing the harp by
Giambattista Tiepolo and in the monochrome medallions at the corners the
prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah also by Tiepolo (1737-39).
On the walls, San Domenico and other saints by Matteo Ingoli (1630) and
the monochrome frescoed Trinity by Tiepolo.
Left chapels
In
the first chapel the Crucifixion by Jacopo Tintoretto (1563-65?) from
the previous church of San Girolamo dei Gesuati. At the time of
insertion it was restored by the Piazzetta. The putto on the keystone of
the altar is by Massari. In the second chapel inside the Massari altar
is the neoclassical statue of the Madonna del Rosario by Antonio Bosa
(1836). In the third chapel the altarpiece San Pio V, San Tommaso and
San Pietro Martire (1730-33), one of the last works by Sebastiano Ricci.
The altar is the work of Morlaiter (1744-45).
Noteworthy is the organ built by Jacopo Bazzani and his sons, heirs
of Callido, in 1856.
The organ, with mechanical transmission, is
located in the choir loft above the presbytery in cornu evangelii and
has a single manual with 56 keys (C1-G5) divided between basses and
sopranos at the level of C3. The pedal board, straight with 24 pedals,
is constantly combined with the manual.
The instrument features
pedals for Filling and Reeds.
The bell tower on the right houses a concert of 5 bells in Mi3 cast in 1845 by the Daciano Colbachini foundry of Padua. Subsequently the third was recast in 1969 by the Lucio Broili foundry in Udine.