Tintoretto's cycle
The Scuole of Venice were lay confraternities that brought together citizens of the same trade or devotion for charity and mutual aid. The richest of them, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, founded in 1478 in honour of St Roch, protector against the plague, built a magnificent seat near the Frari church and in 1564 held a competition to decorate it. Jacopo Tintoretto won it by a trick: instead of presenting a sketch, he installed a finished painting directly on the ceiling, and offered it as a gift.
He then worked here for over twenty years, until 1587, creating more than fifty canvases that make the Scuola a sort of "Sistine Chapel" of Venice. In the Sala Terrena, on the ground floor, scenes from the life of the Virgin; in the vast Sala Superiore, reached by a monumental staircase, stories from the Old Testament on the ceiling and from the New Testament on the walls, with dramatic light effects and bold perspectives; and in the Sala dell'Albergo the immense Crucifixion, over twelve metres long, considered his masterpiece. Mirrors are provided to admire the ceilings without straining the neck. The carved wooden benches and the paintings by Titian and Tiepolo complete the visit.
Tip: concerts of baroque music are sometimes held in the Sala Superiore, an unforgettable setting; the Frari basilica is right next door.
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