San Pantalon

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The facade of San Pantalon

The Chiesa di San Pantaleone Martire , known as San Pantalon in the Venetian dialect, is a church in the Dorsoduro district of Venice . It is located on the Campo of the same name and is dedicated to Saint Pantaleon - there is no relation to the figure of Pantalone from the Venetian Commedia dell'arte . A planned marble cladding of the facade failed (probably) for financial reasons.

history

Bell tower

The cult of Saint Pantaleon from Nicomedia in Bithynia , who is said to have fallen victim to the persecution under Emperor Maximian , appears in the sources for the first time in the 11th century. His veneration, as evidenced by the connection with Saint Theodore in the mosaics of St. Mark's Basilica , where there is also an arm relic of the saint, which had a Greek inscription until the restoration in 1886, came from Byzantium, possibly via Ravenna . The calendar Venetum , the oldest calendar Venice, noted the Holy by July 28, but his name was in the first in the 15th century missals added.

In the sources, the church of San Pantalon appears for the first time in a privilege of Pope Alexander III. from the year 1161. Until the beginning of the 19th century, your parish also included the later parishes of the Frari , Carmini and Tolentini. Today the area is much smaller and is bordered by the Grand Canal in the east, the Rio della Frescada in the north, then in the west by Salizzada Falier and Calle Falier near the Rio del Malcanton, and finally in the south by the Rio di Ca'Foscari and the Rio di San Pantalon. The name of the small Campiello del Traghetto indicates that at least until the 16th century, no bridge spanned the latter Rio, but that gondolas operated there as ferries. Since the church of Santa Margherit, which can be reached from there, was also consecrated to a saint from the east, Antonio Niero speculated in 1976 that mainly Greek traders had settled there. Possibly there was a corresponding trading house there, a so-called fontego or fondaco .

The church, which has existed since at least 1161, was renovated in 1222. The orientation of the church, as the plan by Jacopo de'Barbari shows from 1500, was completely different from today. The facade pointed to the Rio Mosca, that is, eastwards. This was spanned by a small bridge, the bell tower was already on the other side of the Rio. The plan of the church was square. It had three naves , with the higher central nave being closed off by a polygonal apse with windows. A number of altars were added in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the cappella maggiore from 1557, designed by Andrea Palladio , being the architectural highlight. However, this was eliminated at the end of the 17th century.

The church had to be rebuilt probably for static reasons. Under the leadership of the Trevisan architect Francesco Comin , the new building was built between 1668 and 1686. The building, which according to the ideas of the time had to open onto the Campo, i.e. no longer onto the Rio, was rotated by 90 °. The presbytery was now in the north, the facade with its three portals therefore faced south. However, the facade has remained unfinished to this day. Around 1720 the bell tower, the campanile, was also rebuilt. He is attributed to Tommaso Scalafarotto . The main altar from 1671 goes back to Giuseppe Sardi . In 1722 a small rectangular chapel was added to the left of the presbytery, named Santo Chiodo after the relics that the abbess of the Poor Clare monastery on the island of Santa Chiara had given to the church. In 1744 the oratory was built with traces of frescoes by Pietro Longhi .

The brotherhoods contributed a number of altars . The Confraternità Santissimo Sacramento donated an altar in 1513, then in 1538 the Fraterna dei Sacerdorti under the name of Beata Vergine Concetta , in 1541 the Scuola dei Laneri , which it dedicated to St. Bernardino , and finally in 1577 an altar in the Confraternità della Visitazione della Beata Vergine and in 1583 the Annunciata .

Furnishing

The most famous sight is the ceiling painting by Gian Antonio Fumiani , which depicts the martyrdom and apotheosis of the namesake . It is not a fresco, but one of the largest canvas paintings in the world. From 1680 to 1704 Fumiani worked on the work, which consists of around 40 canvas pictures attached to one another. The fact that the artist fell to his death from the scaffolding after completing the work is probably a legend in view of the life data of Fumiani (1643–1710). The ceiling fresco shows striking similarities with the ceiling fresco Apotheosis of St. Ignatius in the church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome , which the painter Andrea Pozzo created almost at the same time (1685 to 1694).

In the side chapels there are some other prominent works: Saint Pantaleon Heals a Boy , a late work by Paolo Veronese , and a Coronation of Mary by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna .

literature

  • Ester Brunet, Silvia Marchiori: La chiesa di San Pantalon a Venezia , Marcianum, 2016.
  • Maria Da Villa Urbani, Stefania Mason: Chiesa di San Pantalon. Arte e devozione , Marsilio, Venice 1994 (47 pages).
  • Marion Kaminski: Venice - art and architecture. Könemann, 2005, pp. 270-272. ISBN 3-8331-1308-1
  • Herbert Rosendorfer: Church leaders Venice. Edition Leipzig, 2008, pp. 103-106. ISBN 978-3-361-00618-8

Web links

Commons : San Pantaleone (Venice)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Maria Da Villa Urbani, Stefania Mason: Chiesa di San Pantalon. Arte e devozione , Marsilio, Venice 1994, pp. 10-12.

Coordinates: 45 ° 26 ′ 8 ″  N , 12 ° 19 ′ 29 ″  E