The Church of San Francesco della Vigna – The chapels - ISTITUTO DI STUDI ECUMENICI SAN BERNARDINO

The Church of San Francesco della Vigna - The chapels

The church of San Francesco della Vigna was built on a Latin cross plan with a wide central nave flanked by six (5+1) chapels on either side. The presbytery includes, in addition, two chapels on both sides (a major and a smaller one).

The chapels are filled with works of art. Here we are able to admire paintings by Giovanni Bellini, Antonio Vivarini, Palma Giovane, Paolo Caliari (known as 'Veronese'), Fra Antonio da Negroponte, Benedetto Diana, Giambattista Tiepolo, Giuseppe della Porta (known as Salviati), Francesco Rizzo of Santa Croce, Giovanni or Bernardino of Asola, Francesco Polazzo, Angelo Trevisani, Nicola Grassi, Giambattista Pittoni, Battista Franco, Francesco Fontebasso, Jacopo Marieschi, Francesco Maggiotto, Sante Peranda, Antonio Vassillacchi, Girolamo Pellegrini, Parrasio Michiel, Francesco Zuccari, Battista Franco.

In addition, we find sculptures by artists like Pietro and Tullio Lombardo, Alessandro Vittoria, Andrea Cominelli, Tiziano Apetti, Antonio Gai, Marchiò Molziner, and Clemente Molli.

Several noble Venetian families contributed to the building and embellishment of the chapels. Therefore we find in these a great number of family crests and sepulchral slabs or plaques: Girolamo Bragadin, Cristoforo Suriano, Francesco and Alvise Contarini, Alberto and Andrea Badoer, Zaccaria and Francesco Barbaro, Marc'Antonio and Silvestro Morosini, Lorenzo and Antonio Giustinian, Antonio and Bernardo Dandolo, Nicolò and Alvise Sagredo, and Giovanni Grimani.

Saint Francis chapel (also known as the Contarini chapel) deserves special attention due to its polychrome and valuable rare marbles (it is the third chapel on the right). The sixth chapel (known as Morosini) on the right side of the nave shows Fra Antonio da Negroponte's masterpiece: Madonna and Child Enthroned. 'All that signifies grace, elegance, decorative luxury, in the simple imagination of an artist in about 1450 has been totally lavished here, with surprising variety, with extremely sweet harmony (Lionello Venturi)'. Saint Jerome chapel (known as Giustiniani-Badoer) is to be found on the left side of the presbytery. This chapel exhibits a cycle of sculptures attributed to Lombardos' workshop and it is dedicated to Christ and to the prophecies related to him.

In the corridor leading to the Sacristy, we find the Holy Chapel and the famous painting by Giovanni Bellini: Madonna and Child with Saints (1507).

On the left side of the aisle we come to the Wise Kings chapel (also known as Grimani) with stucco on their faces, by Franco Battista, statues by Tiziano Aspetti, paintings by Federico Zuccarie and frescoes by Franco Battista. The altar in Saint Anthony Abbot chapel with a marble triptych by Alessandro Vittoria is also very nice. Next we can admire the stuccoes, marbles, statues and frescoes (by Giambattista Tiepolo, Andrea Cominelli, Giovanni Gai and Benedetto Corberelli) in the Sagredo-Basso chapel (third on the left). Finally in the fifth chapel, known as the Giustinian chapel, we can admire a painting by Veronese portraying the Holy Family with St Anthony Abbot, St Catherine and the Infant John the Baptist (1551).