Santa Maria dei Miracoli
Open: Mon-Sat: 10-17. €3.
Map
Map
|
Looking remarkably like a richly embellished jewellery box, the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli was built at the end of the 15th century to house a devotional image of the Virgin and Child, which, it was believed, worked miracles.
The sculptor Pietro Lombardo and his sons, Antonio and Tullio, laboured away at the church from 1481 until 1489. No expense was spared in the use of materials; both the exterior and the interior are clad with expensive marble revetments. The interior is made up of a single barrel-vaulted nave, which is approached beneath a barco or nuns' choir gallery. The gilded barrel vault of the nave is adorned with fifty wooden panels bearing the heads of prophets and saints, the work of Pier Maria Pennacchi (1528). The nave is separated from the choir and the domed apse by an elegant balustrade. The choir is raised two and half metres above the nave and approached by a long flight of steps. This gives the congregation a clear view of the venerated image on the high altar. The richest decoration is reserved for the chancel, beginning with the carved balustrade at the top of the steps. The balustrade is adorned with figures of St Francis, St Clare and the Annunciation. Although the high altar only dates back to 1887, it is surrounded by beautifully carved parapets, products of the Lombardo workshop. John Ruskin grudgingly praised the carvings as 'the best possible example of a bad style'. An adjacent nunnery was built at the same time as the church to accommodate the 'Poor Clares', who were to administer the shrine. The nunnery was connected to the church by a bridge. This has been destroyed. |
Santa Maria dei Miracoli
Interior of Santa Maria dei Miracoli
|
