The Ospedale degli Incurabili is a large sixteenth-century building in Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district on the Fondamenta delle Zattere allo Spirito Santo. It is the headquarters of the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.
By the end of the fifteenth century, the arrival of syphilis had
already led to the foundation in some Italian cities of hospitals for
those suffering from this new disease which was then considered
incurable.
The Venetian hospital was founded in 1522 by Gaetano
Thiene following the initiative of the noblewomen Maria Malipiera
Malipiero and Marina Grimani who in 1517 had created a small shelter for
three women plagued by syphilis. The religious found the availability of
the large space at the Zattere near the church of the Spirito Santo,
used at the time by some squeri. In 1531, Girolamo Emiliani took over
the management with his Somaschi family.
At the beginning the
hospital buildings were hastily built in wood and so was the oratory,
already authorized by the apostolic penitentiary Lorenzo Pucci in 1523.
It was immediately decided to expand it but the first news is scarce,
except for the few that Cicogna drew from Sanudo regarding the purchase
of some houses and land and according to which it was «fato fabriche per
1000 ducats». These were probably the first masonry interventions
commissioned by Pietro Contarini.
After that, no other documents
on the structure were received in the first period. Only in 1565 did the
hospital governors request a customs fee for the reconstruction of the
brick and stone church. Having received three hundred ducats from the
senate, already in January 1566 the knight Antonio Zantani, «deputado
sopra la fabricha di la jexia di hospedal di Incurabili» recorded that
the walls had been «alzadi fina signal dil cornizon di sopra» of the
«corte di le nuns» . The roof, thanks to further public funding, was put
in place in 1568. The positioning of the church inside the courtyard,
rather than traditionally on the façade, suggests that most of the
extended quadrilateral structure was already set in masonry and at the
same time time it was not possible to give up the space for the patients
who in 1565 were over 350 and two years later 450. In fact, given "the
large number of poor sick people" in 1588 the senate assigned another
1500 ducats for the "fabrica that begun to do to enlarge and expand the
hospital».
Again in 1604 the conspicuous bequest of Lorenzo
Zantani (grandson of Antonio) was intended "to finish the buildings of
the same hospital, and once the buildings were finished that there was
no more to be built, go spending on the decoration of the Gesia of the
same hospital". that of the completion of the front rear bodies also of
the enlargement of the lateral ones with the endowment of warehouses and
laundry on the ground floor.As far as the church was concerned, above
all it was a question of the rich pictorial decoration of the ceiling
(1628-1636) and, shortly before, of the reconstruction of the high altar
in wood (1616) subsequently rebuilt in stone thanks to a further bequest
in 1719-1722.
The Republic limited itself to occasionally issuing some, albeit
conspicuous, public funding. Consequently the funds needed to maintain
the hospital came mainly from private charity. These were alms and
bequests promoted by the indulgences for donors granted (and
specifically requested) to the Venetian institution from the outset, and
reaffirmed and integrated by various popes during the three centuries of
life of the hospital. The indulgences were joined by the provision of
the Senate which required notaries to remind testators of the existence
and needs of large hospitals, a rule which had already been introduced,
with its heavy penalties in case of omission, for leper hospitals.
A particular way to attract a wider audience to the church, and
therefore a greater number of possible donors, was the activity of
particularly well-known preachers of great oratorical skill such as the
Jesuit Benedetto Palmio, towards the end of the 1550s, or the observant
Franciscan Giovanni Battista Calzo from Pesaro, around 1590.
As
for fixed income, all the hospitals, but above all the Incurables
because of the necessarily immediate expenses, found themselves unable
to invest in assets that could guarantee them a fixed income.
Investments that were in practice regularly used by the Scuole Grandi,
even the hospitals on the basis of the laws had fully recognized their
right, however limited to properties outside Venice, therefore difficult
to manage. For the Incurables against a fixed expenditure of 10,000
ducats in 1583 the fixed revenues were only 600 ducats and continued to
be very low given that in 1661 they were only 784 ducats.
That of the Incurables was the first large centralized hospital in
the city of Venice, with the exception of the orphanage of the Pietà
established almost two centuries earlier and the hospitals. Until then,
assistance was entrusted to a multitude of small entities, the result of
private charity or an emanation of large schools or that of arts and
crafts.
The institution was managed for the administrative part
by a college of lay patricians, defined as governors and for the
spiritual part by religious, the doctors, apothecaries and nurses to
whom the practical care of the patients was instead paid. Naturally, if
the state and the laity were interested in public health, the concern of
the religious was that of the salvation of souls. However, to ensure the
defense of secularism and avoid the risk that the clergy would be
tempted to transform the institution into an ecclesiastical benefice, in
1539 the Great Council had clearly placed the Incurables under dogal
patronage.
Among the first governors, by way of example, there
were, in addition to the already mentioned Pietro di Zaccaria Contarini
degli Scrigni (1491-1563 - who became a priest late in life and was
appointed bishop of Paphos in time to participate in the Council of
Trent), Vincenzo Grimani (son of the then doge Antonio Grimani) and
Sebastiano Giustinian (1459-1543 – former ambassador of the Republic to
the English crown).
Spiritual assistance was first provided by
Gaetano Thiene who had already organized or founded other large
hospitals. He was joined by his he group of Divine Love, the original
nucleus of the regular Theatine Clerics. It should be remembered that in
1524 Angela Merici also lent her services to the hospital. The nun was
already known for her organizational and educational skills and the
governors with the governors tried in vain to keep her by offering her
the position of prioress as regards female presences. In 1531 the
governors called Giorolamo Emiliani, another proven organizer of welfare
institutions and already active in Venice also at the Ospedale dei
Derelitti. His Company of the servants of the poor, elevated to the
order of regular Clerics of Somasca in 1540, held the definitive
management. The Somaschi religious were joined from time to time by
groups of volunteers such as Francesco Saverio with four other Jesuit
religious in 1536-1537, this group was joined in the last year by
Ignatius of Loyola.
The hospital created to admit syphilitics
immediately took care of other serious ailments as well. Activity fully
recognized so much so that already in February 1522 (1521 more Venetian)
the health magistrates ordered the immediate admission to the Incurables
of every beggar suffering from syphilis or other infectious diseases.
The magistrates also established that a register was kept with the dates
of acceptance and release, and that the sick could not leave the
hospital until they were discharged.
In addition to the patients
originally in the hospital, there were also several "sinner women
converted to God" and many orphans. The women moved between 1530 and
1535 to the new hospital of the Convertite della Giudecca while the care
of orphans became a further specialization of the institute especially
after the arrival of Giorolamo Emiliani who introduced a further group
of orphans that he already cared for in a house near San Rocco. The
hospitalized immediately after the foundation were 80, but already in
1565 they reached the number of 350/400 and in 1588 there were 200
orphans and over 400 patients in 1588.
The cures for the sick
were those that the medical knowledge of the time allowed. In addition
to washing and keeping the sick clean, the nurses applied "mercurial
ointments" to the sores. After the 1520s, the use of a decoction of
guaiac was added to this treatment. This cure based on "wood water" was
practiced only seasonally both because it had proven to be most
effective at certain times of the year, and because it was very
expensive as a result of the monopoly held by the Fuggers. The usual
bloodletting could not be missing, the practice of which is remembered
by the Incurables in a couple of essays published in 1708 and 1709.
The orphans wore a biavo colored uniform, which probably corresponds
to what we now call light turquoise. At the Hospital, according to the
teachings of Girolamo Emiliani, they had to be educated and prepared to
re-enter society, to exercise a trade and be able to support themselves
and potentially their own family. While the little boys were accompanied
in procession outside the hospital on holidays, the girls were jealously
protected inside the walls. In this regard, the correspondence between
the social policy of the Republic in terms of poverty and Emiliani's
methods is singular, but we do not know whether he followed the current
laws or was indirectly inspired by them through the influential
governors.
To achieve the educational purpose, in addition to
teaching the orphans to read, write and do arithmetic, some craftsmen
were paid to train them in a trade. And speaking of trades, the
experiment of 1533 is interesting in which some orphans were embarked
and trained on military ships. Naturally, Christian doctrine was also
taught, to pray and sing sacred hymns. The dominant moral teaching was
the condemnation of begging, admitted only as an act of Christian
humility in obedience to the rule of a religious order.
Music
education was very important for the girls. Their particularly renowned
executions guaranteed a certain income in the collection and it was
foreseen that half of the proceeds would go to form a fund of future
dowries in case of marriage. On the other hand, qualities integrated by
the gentlewomen governors. in 1581 100 ducats were expected if the girl
had reached the necessary seniority, otherwise only 25 were paid.
The teaching of music, which also had a great tradition in the other
great Venetian hospitals of the Derelitti, the Mendicanti and the Pietà,
is documented at the Incurabili already early in 1568. Who the teachers
were in the first century of activity is unfortunately unknown to us nor
type of music was taught. As for the method, it is very probable that it
involved practice in reading scores and singing or playing instruments.
Instead, we know that between the end of the seventeenth century and
the first half of the eighteenth century, several famous masters
succeeded the Incurables. Some, at least for certain periods, assumed
the role of music or choir masters such as Carlo Pallavicino, Carlo
Francesco Pollarolo, Nicola Porpora – who also collaborated with the
Pietà and the Derelitti – Niccolò Jomelli, Francesco Brusa, Baldassare
Galuppi – who was also chapel of San Marco – and Vincenzo Legrenzio
Ciampi. Others such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Antonio Lotti, Gioacchino
Cocchi, and again Galuppi when he decided to follow only the ducal
chapel, limited themselves to creating compositions expressly for the
hospital. Unlike what is still in use in churches, musical compositions
for hospitals had to follow an operatic approach rather than a
polyphonic one: here only female voices were available for executions
rather than the classic children's and male voices.
The music of
the hospitals was celebrated as an attraction and as early as 1697
Vincenzo Coronelli's Guida de' Forestieri did not fail to point out the
singing ability of Cecilia, Apollonia, Coccina and Oseletti, pute of the
Incurables. Despite the generally recognized ability, it does not appear
that any singers have been able to make the transition to the opera
house. This happened rather for external "daughters of education" sent
to study in hospitals, such as some Salzburg singers between 1760 and
1770.
The history of the hospital in the last years of the Republic is
somewhat obscure. The institution was hit by a financial crisis in 1755
which was followed by the crisis of all the Venetian hospitals after
1775. By decree of the senate in 1782 the institute passed to a new
administration entirely dependent on the state and, in some way,
continued its activity so much that in 1807 it became de facto, but
temporarily, the first civic hospital in the city. In the Napoleonic
provisions, the Decree concerning the Administration of the Hospitals
and other Public Charity Establishments in Venice of 18 June 1807
established the concentration of the administration of all the hospitals
and pious places in Venice in the hands of the new institution called
the Congregation of Charity. Furthermore, a more organic subdivision of
the individual establishments was envisaged within a year, i.e.
separating the sick, orphans and other assisted women and bringing them
together in different and specifically dedicated establishments. With a
decree of 7 December 1807 it was then authorized to study greater
economies and carry out possible suppressions. Thus it was that the
hospital of Saints Peter and Paul of Castello was closed and the
patients transferred to the Ospedale degli Incurabili together with
those of the Derelitti which had been transformed into a school of
surgical practice.
Very soon, in 1819, the seat was exchanged
with that of the Austrian military hospital, then located in San Lazzaro
dei Mendicanti. The church was stripped and the military used it first
as a warehouse and finally demolished it in 1831. In 1872 the use of the
building was converted to that of a military district. The demolition of
the oval spiral staircase that connected the entrance to the choir
rehearsal room probably took place on that occasion.
In February
1938 the complex was used as a Juvenile Re-education Center to which,
after the Second World War, the juvenile court was added, both closed in
1977. In 1978 part of the structure was used as the temporary
headquarters of the Marco Polo High School during the works
restructuring of the historic headquarters of the high school and later
housed the classrooms of the art school.
In 1997 it was decided
to physically separate the two institutions of the Gallerie
dell'Accademia and the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. The latter was
assigned the Ospedale degli Incurabili as its new headquarters, which it
was able to definitively occupy after the restorations (1999-2003) based
on a project by Eugenio Vassallo and Giorgio Bellavitis.
The regular and symmetrical structure of the Incurabili will be a
point of reference for the projects of the most recent Venetian hospital
complexes. However, unlike the other large hospitals, this one of the
Incurables does not show the facade of a church. And the building today
presents itself simply as a large quadrilateral structure developed
around a large courtyard.
Several hypotheses have been proposed
for the design of the whole complex. Probable, but not demonstrable, is
Sansovino's mind in the general conception phase; as for the knight
Antonio Zantani, who was not an architect but experienced in
construction in his capacity as delegate for factories, it is more
logical to consider his position as that of promoter and organizer. On
the other hand, Antonio Da Ponte's intervention more as a prototype than
as a designer is certain, although his variations during construction
cannot be excluded.
Only the austere and symmetrical facade
towards the Giudecca canal presents minimal attention to the
ornamentation and, as usual in Venice, takes up the internal partition.
At the same time it conceals the additions to the lateral bodies with
the large white ashlar band that covers the ground floor and forces its
unitary reading horizontally. In the centre, the high trabeated portal,
with the upper frame supported by volute modillions, served as access to
both the hospital and the church. It is the only element certainly
designed by Da Ponte: originally it was designed and prepared for the
restoration of the Palazzo Ducale after the fire of 1577 but then it was
decided to donate it to the hospital.
Towards the sides, the
large paired windows superimposed on the two floors are mirrored,
revealing the heads of the deep halls of the patients. These four lanes,
two on the ground floor and two on the first floor, developed for about
72 meters in length and 10.50 in width - this of course before the
partitions in the historical and modern restorations - unusual
dimensions in this architectural typology in Venice were found of halls
of this size.
Still further towards the ends of the building, in
the center of the lateral additions, are two smaller arched portals now
walled up which led to the service rooms: the one on the right, with a
woman's face carved into the keystone, led to the laundries; the one on
the left with a smiling Bacchus face led to the pantries.
Inside
there is a large cloister in the late Renaissance style, typical of
Venice in the second half of the sixteenth century. It is a portico with
seven arches on the sides parallel to the facade and eleven on the other
two sides made up of Tuscan columns set on a low brick wall finished off
with a continuous border in white stone slabs. Curiously, the arches are
in stone only in the impost of the arches above the capitals while the
rest of the archway continues the same simple brick moulding.
The
hospital church: the Santissimo Salvatore
Surrounded by the cloister
stood the hospital church, refined and original with its almost oval
plan, demolished in 1831. In his memory, during the 1999-2003
restoration, its perimeter was traced with lists of white stone Istria
standing out on the gray trachyte pavement of the courtyard.
The
building was relatively low, to avoid blocking too much light from the
surrounding blocks. At the time of the demolition, the main ones of the
numerous paintings that enriched it over time and part of the altars
were transferred to other churches.