Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

East front with the bell tower.

The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is a church located in the Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo district of Venice, Italy. One of the most prominent churches in the city, it has the status of a minor basilica. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.

History

In 1231, under Doge Jacopo Tiepolo, the city donated land at this site to establish a monastery and church belonging to the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor. This edifice proved too small and a three nave church was begun in 1250, and not completed until 1338. Work almost immediately began on its much larger replacement, the current church, which took over a century to build. The new church inverted the original orientation, thus placing the facade facing the plaza and small canal. The work was started under Jacopo Celega, but completed by his son Pier Paolo. The campanile, the second tallest in the city after that of San Marco, was completed in 1396. Under the patronage of Giovanni Corner, the Chapel of San Marco was added in 1420. In 1432-1434 the bishop Vicenza Pietro Miani built the chapel of San Pietro next to the bell-tower. The facade was not completed until 1440, with the cornice is surmounted by three statues (1516) by Lorenzo Bregno The main altar was consecrated in 1469. In 1478, the Pesaro family commissioned a chapel in the apse. On 27 May, 1492, the church was consecrated with the name of Santa Maria Gloriosa.

The imposing edifice is built of brick, and is one of the city's three notable churches built in the Italian Gothic style. In cmmon with many Venetian churches, the exterior is rather plain. The interior contains the only rood screen still in place in Venice.

The Frari is a parish church of the Vicariate of San Polo-Santa Croce-Dorsoduro. Other churches of the parish are San Barnaba, San Ludovico Vescovo, Santa Maria del Soccorso and Santa Margherita. While the Franciscans had been expelled from the church during the 19th century; in 1922, the church was restored to the order.

Titian, the most prominent 16th-century Venetian painter, is interred in the Frari.

Interior plan

  1. - Counter-facade
  2. - Chapel of the Crucifix
  3. - Canova Monument
  4. - Doge Pesaro Monument
  5. - Chapel with Pesaro Madonna by Titian
  6. - Chapel of San Pietro
  7. - Chapel of San Marco
  8. - Chapel of the Milanesi
  9. - Chapel of San Michele
  10. - Chapel of the Franciscan Saints
  11. - Choir and Organ
  12. - Presbitery
  13. - Doge Tron Monument
  14. - 12th-century Crucifix
  15. - Assumption of Virgin, main altarpiece by Titian (and main organ)
  16. - Monumento al Doge Foscari
  17. - Chapel of San Giovanni Battista
  18. - Chapel of Father Kolbe
  19. - Chapel of Bernardo
  20. - Dead Christ
  21. - Altar of the Sacristy with Giovanni Bellini's Frari Triptych
  22. - Sacristy
  23. - Altar of the Relics
  24. - Entry to Sala del Capitolo and Convent
  25. - Wall of right transept
  26. - Jacopo Marcello Monument
  27. - Altar of Santa Caterina
  28. - Altar of San Giuseppe da Copertino
  29. - Altar with Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
  30. - Titian Monument
  31. - Altar of Sant'Antonio da Padova

Works of art

  • Giambattista Pittoni, Hagar in the desert, Oil on Canvas, sacristy
  • Bartolomeo Bon's workshop, figures of the Virgin and St. Francis on the west front
  • Antonio and Paolo Bregno, tomb of Doge Francesco Foscari in the chancel (attributed; may actually be by Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino)
  • Lorenzo Bregno, tomb of Benedetto Pésaro above the sacristy door
  • Girolamo Campagna, statuettes of St. Anthony of Padua and St. Agnes on the water stoups in the nave
  • Marco Cozzi, choir stalls in ritual choir
  • Donatello, figure of St. John the Baptist in the first south choir chapel, Donatello's first documented work in Venice
  • Tullio Lombardo, tomb of Pietro Bernardo on the west wall (attributed; may actually be by Giovanni Buora)
  • Antonio Rizzo, tomb of Doge Niccolò Tron in the chancel
  • Jacopo Sansovino, damaged figure of St. John the Baptist on the font in the Corner Chapel
  • Titian, Pesaro Madonna on the north wall of the nave
  • Paolo Veneziano, Doge Francesco Dandolo and His Wife Presented to the Virgin by Ss. Francis and Elizabeth in the sacristy
  • Alessandro Vittoria
    • figure of The Risen Christ on the west front
    • figure of St. Jerome on the south wall of the nave
  • Alvise Vivarini, St. Ambrose and other Saints in the north transept chapel, his last work
  • Bartolomeo Vivarini
    • St. Mark Enthroned in the Capella Corner in the north transept
    • Madonna and Child with Saints, altarpiece in the third south choir chapel

Funerary monuments

  • Francesco Barbaro (1390–1454) (humanist and senator)
  • Pietro Bernardo (d. 1538) (senator)
  • Antonio Canova (only his heart is buried here; the tomb, realised by his disciples, is based on the drawing of Canova himself for an unrealised tomb for Titian)
  • Federico Corner
  • Doge Francesco Dandolo (in the chapter house)
  • Doge Francesco Foscari (d. 1457)
  • Jacopo Marcello
  • Claudio Monteverdi (one of the greatest composers of the 17th Century)
  • Beato Pacifico (founder of the current church)
  • Alvise Pasqualigo (d. 1528) (Procurator of Venice)
  • Benedetto Pésaro (d. 1503) (general)
  • Doge Giovanni Pesaro
  • Bishop Jacopo Pésaro (d. 1547)
  • Paolo Savelli (condottiere) (the first Venetian monument to include an equestrian statue)
  • Titian (d. 1576) (Renaissance painter)
  • Melchiorre Trevisan (d. 1500) (general)
  • Doge Niccolò Tron

Coordinates: 45°26′12″N 12°19′34″E / 45.43667°N 12.32611°E / 45.43667; 12.32611

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