The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is an ancient building in Venice, located in the San Polo district, in Campo San Rocco.
The Scuola Grande di San Rocco was born as the seat of a brotherhood
of lay people dedicated to charitable works. Established in 1478 as a
school of devotion under the title of S. Rocco.
The statute of
the rights and duties of the confreres was sanctioned by the mariegola,
approved by the Council of X on 20 November 1478. In the two mariegolas
possessed, the life of the Scuola can be seen marked out and the
charitable purpose of the confraternity is sanctioned. In 1480 the
Scuola di San Rocco was named Scuola Grande. Needing a space to build a
church, an agreement was stipulated with the Conventual Franciscan
Friars (Frari), which allowed the Confraternity of San Rocco to have
available, completely free of charge, land, which was part of the
friars' cemetery, placed on the left side of the apse of the church. In
1489 the Scuola began building its own church dedicated to San Rocco,
which was consecrated in 1508.
The confraternity has become
Scuola Grande thanks to the increased number of confreres, thanks to the
merits acquired in alleviating public calamities and due to the famous
relic, brought here in 1485, of the body of St. Rocco, whose protection
was invoked in epidemics, for having this saint, a native of Montpellier
(1295-1327), dedicated his life to assisting the sick. Inspired indeed
by a religious tradition, the Saint was depicted as a pilgrim in the act
of showing the pestilential boil from which he had been struck during
his pious office in Piacenza and from which he had been miraculously
cured by an angel in a wood where he had retired in the company of his
faithful dog who brought him the necessary food every day. First
residing in the small building of the Scoletta di San Rocco they decided
to build a new headquarters, in 1517 the first stone of the grandiose
building was laid, the construction of which lasted for about fifty
years.
The Scuola stands next to the church of San Rocco, a saint
to whom the city of Venice devoted itself to ask for mercy during the
first of the three great plague epidemics, that of the fourteenth
century.
Also dedicated to the patron saint of plague victims,
the Scuola was erected where the grounds of the church of San Pantalon
and the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari were located. On 11
January 1517 the project was entrusted to Pietro Bon (in the past it had
been attributed to Bartolomeo Bon the Younger), who however had to adapt
to the project already formulated by the governing bodies of the Scuola.
On June 3, 1524, however, he was replaced by Sante Lombardo, in turn
replaced in 1527 by Antonio Abbondi, known as Lo Scarpagnino, who
completed the construction both inside - including the staircase and the
plastic decoration - and outside where it was added the upper floor and
the entire prospectus is framed within a frame of columns placed side by
side with pilasters. The last was Giangiacomo de' Grigi, from 1558 to 9
September 1560.
The project was similar to that of other Venetian
Schools and was characterized by two rooms, one on the first and one on
the second floor. The Sala Terrena was made up of three naves. Here was
located the direct entrance to the field. From this room it was possible
to access the upper one through a "court" staircase, interrupted by a
landing covered by a dome. Destination for processions and meeting place
for the Brothers, the upper hall was characterized by a wooden altar.
From here, then, one had access to the Sala dell'Albergo, where the Bank
and the Zonta met.
In the early 1900s, the wall that surrounded
the area and connected the Scuola to the Church of San Rocco was
demolished, and the statue of San Rocco was moved to form a new calle
that led directly into the brotherhood square.
In 1564 Tintoretto was commissioned to decorate the Scuola. The
marvelous cycle of teleri, created in the three rooms between 1564 and
1588, due to its unity, represents for Venice what the Sistine Chapel is
for Rome.
The main works are:
Sala Terrena: by Tintoretto the
Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, the
Massacre of the Innocents, the Circumcision, the Assumption of Mary.
Near the windows at the back of the room, the two saints: Santa Maria
Egiziaca and Santa Maddalena.
Sala Capitolare: by Tintoretto Moses
makes water flow from the rock; Miracle of the Brazen Serpent; Manna
fall; Baptismo; Probatic Pool, Resurrection and Ascension; Last Supper;
Multiplication of the loaves and fishes. On the ceiling the Old
Testament story unfolds in 21 panels with Adam and Eve; Moses saved from
the waters; The three children in the furnace; The Eternal appears to
Moses; Moses causes water to flow from the rock; The Pillar of Fire;
Samson draws water from a donkey's jaw; Jonah comes out of the belly of
the whale; Samuel and Saul; Vision of Ezekiel; Miracle of the Brazen
Serpent; Jacob's ladder; Vision of Jeremiah; Isaac's sacrifice; Elijah
in the chariot of fire; Elisha multiplies the loaves; Manna fall; Elijah
fed by the angel; Abraham and Melchizedek; Passover of the Jews; Daniel
saved by the angel. On the walls of the presbytery dossals carved in
wood by Giovanni Marchiori which narrate 24 episodes from the life of
San Rocco (1741-43), while in the rest of the room allegorical dossals
by Francesco Pianta (1657-76) unfold.
in the Sala dell'Albergo: by
Tintoretto San Rocco in glory, Allegories of the Scuole Grandi of San
Giovanni Evangelista, San Marco, San Teodoro, Charity and Mercy; Christ
before Pilate, Ecce homo, Ascent to Calvary and Crucifixion.
There
are also the Christ carrying the cross, of dubious attribution between
Titian and Giorgione, the Annunciation by Titian, Abraham and the angels
and Agar and Ishmael by Tiepolo, a Madonna with Child of the century.
XIV of the Byzantine school, recovered through a restoration carried out
in 1998.
In the seventeenth century, large canvases were placed
on the staircase connecting the first to the second floor of the Scuola,
depicting the Virgin appearing to the plague victims by Antonio Zanchi
(1666) and the Madonna saving Venice from the plague by Pietro Negri
(1673), while the dome was frescoed with Charity with the torch of
Religion before the sick poor presented by San Rocco by Giovanni Antonio
Fumiani. Zanchi's work is one of the peaks of Venetian Baroque painting.
Between 1741 and 1743, the carver Giovanni Marchiori created
twenty-four wooden bas-reliefs depicting the life of San Rocco. The
works adorn the entire perimeter of the presbytery of the Sala
Capitolare, in particular they cover the doors of the eighteenth-century
wardrobes, which once contained the School's books and documents.
On the second floor of the building, in the premises built by
Giorgio Fossati in 1773, the Treasury of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco
is housed. The Treasury rooms are set up with large eighteenth-century
wardrobes which house objects intended for religious worship. Intended
for the custody of silverware and sacred relics, the large room was
opened to the public in 1899, taking the name of Sala del Tesoro. The
room will be closed during the First World War to reopen only in 2009.
Among the objects kept, the Altarpiece with the Madonna and Child and a
candlestick made from a branch of coral are of particular value. Thanks
to the study of archival documents, it was possible to verify the
increase in the Treasury, which grew as the Scuola increased in
importance in the Venetian society of the time. In 1797, however, there
was a substantial impoverishment of the assets.