BASILICA SANTA MARIA GLORIOSA DEI FRARI

The Basilica of the Frari Minori (Franciscans), a prestigious example of Venetian Gothic architecture and an excellent example of a church-museum, was built in 1338 in the late Gothic style. Its 70-meter high bell tower and its interior with three naves lined with 12 columns are the setting for a collection of works of art unique in Venice.

Along the left nave is the Madonna di Ca'Pesaro (1519-1526), a masterpiece by Titian, defined as "a miracle of painting" by the mastery of perspective, the perfection of the drawing and the expressive power of the portraits of the characters. Just before it stands the strange pyramidal tomb of Canova, made on a project of the sculptor by his students at his death. The mourning figures are advancing towards the strange, dark, half-open door, a symbol of death and the afterlife. Opposite, the monumental tomb of Titian, made by two of Canova's pupils, Luigi and Pietro Zandomeneghi. The whiteness of the marble of the two nineteenth-century monuments contrasts with the warm tones of the brick of the building. Before reaching the transept, admire the choir, signed by Pietro Lombardo and Bartolomeo Bon (1468) formed by three rows of benches in carved wood decorated with a wonderful work of marquetry. In the central apse, the tomb of Doge Francesco Foscari (1457), who reigned for more than 34 years, and that of Doge Nicolò Tron, frame the famous painting of theAssumption by Titian (1516), the centerpiece of the basilica, just above the main altar. Titian's first religious work, this dense and eventful composition made a clear break with the sober and pious style of the time to impose a triumph of color and light. In a chapel just to the right of the central apse is preserved a magnificent sculpted altarpiece whose central statue of St. John the Baptist is said to be the work of Donatello (1450).

In the sacristy of the basilica is the wonderful Triptych by Giovanni Bellini (1488) placed just above the altar. A Madonna and Child surrounded by four saints displays an unparalleled softness; note the two cherubs at the foot of the throne that seem to want to brighten the composition by playing music. Also in the sacristy, on the console on the left, the Presentation of the Doge to the Virgin, a work by Paolo Veneziano (1339).

The former Franciscan monastery adjacent to the church, which now houses the archives, has two magnificent cloisters in the Sansovinese style.