Churches of Venice

San Giacomo Maggiore Piazza Rossini
History The church is dedicated to Saint James, but is known as Saint Rita locally. Although there is only a chapel here devoted to her her cult is strong. Cursed with a cruel husband, before becoming an Augustinian nun later in life, from her canonisation in May 1900 she became the patroness of abused wives and wronged women, with a second film of her life released in 2004. There had been a Romanesque church here, the current church was built by Augustinian Hermits between in 1267 and 1315. They had originally been a community of hermits founded by the Blessed John the Good of Modena, established near the walls of Bologna by 1247. They had founded a monastery and church dedicated to St. James the Greater and were merged in 1256 by the papal decree with other hermit communities into the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. The church has been much rebuilt, so that only the façade and side wall remain of this original construction. In the late 15th century the interior was remade in Renaissance style by Pietro da Brensa, and the side portico was built. By the 16th century it had become THE church for Bologna's noble families. The monastery was suppressed by Napoleon and in 1802 part of the complex was taken over by the college of music later called the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini, where Rossini was once musical director. The Augustinian friars returned to part of the complex in 1824 but were expelled again when the Kingdom of Italy was established, keeping the church. Façade Topped by a statue of the saint with a rose window and burial niches at ground level. The very damaged triptych of frescoes of the Virgin and Child with Saints James the Great and Augustine over the portico entrance to the left of the façade are by Antonio Leonelli da Crevalcore, his first known work. Interior An aisleless nave, the chapels are crowned with a terracotta frieze of statues of Christ and the Apostles and urns, added in 1727. This is a church of much fresco fascination, both complete and in tantalising patches. The best stuff is in the ambulatory chapels. The less-interesting nave has 17th and 18th century works, mostly, in nine chapels on each side, all frescoed on their side walls. Each group of three chapels has a ledge with statues of two saints above and a window, real or trompe l'oeil, behind (see photo below right). The second chapel on the left side has a fine Cena del Signore by Federico Barocci. The fourth on the right is made much of and is dedicated to Saint Rita. In the fifth chapel on the right is a large altarpiece of The Virgin and Saints (8) of 1565 by Bartolomeo Passarotti, with a strange naked smiling and pointing figure front centre, in a frame by the workshop of Formigine (and a scagliola altar frontal dating from 1674) In the ninth chapel is a dark painting of Saint Roch by Ludovico Carracci. The largest chapel on the right side, making a sort of transept arm at the entrance to the ambulatory, has Mannerist frescoes by Pellegrino Tibaldi of 1555. The altarpiece here is a Baptism of similar date by Prospero Fontana. The facing last chapel before the ambulatory, on the north side, has a very Mannerist (in colour and vigour) Martyrdom of Saint Catherine by Tiburzio Passarotti (1577), and in the chapel to its left is a Virgin in Glory with Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters by Bartolomeo Cesi. On the high altar is a polyptych of the Coronation of the Virgin and Saints by Jacopo di Paolo of c.1420. Above hangs a large painted Crucifix, also by him. The huge altarpiece of The Resurrection on the east wall behind, in the very chunky gilt frame under the scalloped apse, is by Tommaso Laureti (1574). The sequence of highlights in the ambulatory chapels begin, from the right, in the second chapel with its fine polyptych by Paolo Veneziano, dating from c.1350, commissioned by a private patron as the high altarpiece. It has 21 panels painted in tempera, of varying sizes, featuring Saints Martin and George on horseback, top right and top left, and three scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in the predella's centre, below a cross-shaped reliquary space where there may once have been another painting. The damaged detached frescoes in here of the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt by Cristoforo da Bologna also date from the late 14th century. In the third chapel (see photo left) is a Crucifix signed and dated 1370 by Simone dei Crocifissi, commissioned by a private patron for the tramezzo. There's a studio of Guercini Saint Jerome in this chapel too, as well as another polyptych, of The Coronation of the Virgin with Saints, by Jacopo di Paolo, painted around the same time as his high altarpiece. The Bentivoglio Chapel The Cappella Bentivoglio (see photo below right) ends the sequence of chapels in the right wing. It has a coin-operated light, but the gate is kept closed, except on Saturday mornings from 9.30 to 12. 30, thanks to the Touring Club of Italy. It was built in 1451 for condottiere Annibale I Bentivoglio, who had become Lord of Bologna after wresting rule from Milanese condottieri in 1443. His reign was short, lasting until his assassination in 1445. His 1458 memorial is in here. The chapel was enlarged in 1486 by Giovanni II Bentivoglio, who himself ruled from 1463. He made the chapel a dynastic mausoleum and used it for civic rituals, like the conferring of knighthoods and the appointment of university professors. Giovanni ruled until 1506, when the Bentivoglio were ousted by Pope Julius II who wanted to reclaim Bologna for the Papal States and found willing allies in the members of the other noble families of Bologna keen to grab the power and properties that the Bentivoglio had hoarded. The chapel has a domed centrally-planned design, supposedly inspired by Brunelleschi but much more decorated - the architect was Pagno di Lapo Portigiani. It has decorations dating from the 1480s and 90s. There's a c.1494 single panel Sacra Conversazione altarpiece by Francesco Francia, The Virgin and Child with Angels, Saints Proculus, Augustine , John the Evangelist, and Sebastian called the Pala Bentivoglio (see below right). The two figures kneeling either side of the Virgin are said to be two of Giovanni's children. But the chapel's famous frescoes are earlier and by Francia's friend and frequent collaborator Lorenzo Costa. On the left wall he painted The Apocalypse (in the lunette) and The Triumph of Fame and Death (both 1490) in the panel below. The earlier one on the right wall looks a little flat and shows The Virgin Enthroned with Giovanni II Bentivoglio and his wife Ginevra from 1488, also featuring their 11 children. The wife is said to have been cruel and violent and the children were doomed to soon suffer from their family's downfall, and a couple would become cruel and murderous too. The exception is Camilla the daughter in a nun's habit who took the veil at Corpus Domini in Ferrara, where her sister Isotta joined her later. The relief of Annibale on horseback dating from 1458 and attributed to Niccolò dell'Arca, was inserted to the right into a previous landscape fresco. There are three more frescoed lunettes on the walls above by a pupil of Costa. The left one has lost its middle third... The Annunciation in? by? The original, and very worn, majolica floor tiles remain, are credited to the della Robbia workshop (1498) and are to be admired. Against the sanctuary wall, opposite the chapel entrance, is the tomb of Antonio Galeazzo Bentivoglio, Annibale’s father, who had been interred originally in the church of San Cristoforo del Ballatoia, but whose remains where brought here after Annibale's purchase of the chapel opposite. It has a panel showing him sitting at his desk surrounded by pupils below his effigy (see photo right). This is one of the last works of Jacopo della Quercia, and assistants from 1435. The Poggi Chapel nearby has a Baptism of Christ by Prospero Fontana from 1561 and a very decorated vault. Another nearby chapel (the Calcina) has an Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Cosmas and Damian and a Donor (1589) by Lavinia Fontana (see right). The donor being Scipione Calcina, a banker, from a family of doctors, who commissioned the work as part of his strategy to ingratiate himself back into Bolognese society and demonstrate his commitment to his strategic new wife, named Catherine. He needed to marry and ingratiate after having been fined massively and banished from Bologna for the crime of sodomy, and where better to show this than in the church patronised by the greatest number of bologna's noble families. The Calcina chapel had been built and dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian in 1408 by a Calcina ancestor, and the altarpiece features the pair wearing ermine robes, with Calcina kneeling in front appealing to Saint Catherine, his new wife's name saint. Lost art in the Pinacoteca A large fresco panel of Saint James at the Battle of Clavijo (c.1315/1320) by the Pseudo-Jacopino. This mythical battle happened sometime in the mid-9th century. Saint James is said to have appeared, 800 years after his death, and lead the Spanish Christians to defeat the Muslims. A fresco panel of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints James and John the Baptist by Jacopo da Bologna (c.1350/60). Two panel fragments from a polyptych (centred on The Coronation of the Virgin) by Lorenzo Veneziano, showing Saints Anthony Abbot and Bartholomew (1368) from the monastery here. A pair of panels showing Saints Bartholomew and Peter by Jacopo di Paolo. A tondo of Man of Sorrows by Francia, from the Bentivoglio Altarpiece in the Bentivoglio chapel here. Lost art elsewhere The early-14th- century Istrian stone tomb of Bonandrea de' Bonandrei is now in the Medieval Museum. Two panels, depicting Saints Anthony Abbot and Dominic, by Giovanni da Modena from c.1445/50, may be from an altarpiece painted for this church. Four more panels are in Santo Stefano. The church in art Portico of Via S. Donato and Facade of San Giacomo Maggiore by Antonio Basoli (see right). Opening times Monday to Friday - 7.30 - 12.30 and 3.30 - 6.30 Saturday, Sunday and holidays - 8.30 am - 12.30 am and 3.00 - 6.30 pm. On Saturday mornings the Touring Club of Italy opens the Bentivoglio Chapel from 9.30 to 12.30.		An 18th-century print, before the circular window was reinstalled.
Santa Cecilia
Leaving San Giacomo Maggiore and turning right takes you along a Renaissance portico, added in 1478-1481 by Giovanni II Bentivoglio and now blighted with graffiti, to the former church of Santa Cecilia. History The early history of this church is vaguely documented. We know that in 1323 it passed from the order of the Santuccia Terrabotti to the monks of San Giacomo Maggiore, who rebuilt in 1359. And so it remained until suppression in 1805. Used for concerts now, especially from March to June during the San Giacomo Festival. Interior Frescoed for Giovanni II Bentivoglio from 1504 to 1506 by Francesco Francia, Lorenzo Costa and their pupils, including Amico Aspertini, with ten scenes from the life of the virgin martyr Saint Cecilia, all recently restored. Starting to the left of the altar they show... 1. her (forced) marriage to the pagan Valerian (Francia) 2. the conversion of Valerian by Pope Urban I (Costa) 3. the baptism of Valerian by Urban (attrib. to Chiodarolo and Tamaroccio) 4. an angel crowning Cecilia and Valerian (Costa and studio) 5. the martyrdom of Valerian and his brother Tiburtius (Aspertini) 6. their burial (back end of the right wall) (Aspertini) 7. the trial of Cecilia in which she is condemned to death (Bagnacavallo and Biagio Pupini) 8. the (attempted) martyrdom of Cecilia (Chiodarolo and Tamaroccio) 9. Cecilia dispensing charity (she took three days to die) (Costa) 10. the burial of Cecilia (with her head) (Francia). The altarpiece of The Crucifixion with The Virgin, and Saints Francis, Mary Magdalene, Saint Honofrius(?)Jerome , and John the Evangelist is by Francia. The narthex area is also frescoed, and leads into some sweet little cloister areas with more odd fresco patches.		A photo I've 'borrowed' taken before the installation of the cash desk and gift shop.