On the Magnificence of Palladian Churches

Thirty years ago I had a life changing experience  (and no it wasn't  that).

I had gone to see Joseph Losey's movie of Don Giovanni (at the Rivoli in Camberwell) and  it was my first experience of seeing  opera and a fantastic one at that. However, there was another character appearing in the movie - and one that threatened to outshine either Ruggiero Ramondi or  Tiri Te Kanawa  -vand his name was Andrea Palladio.

Or rather,  his villas (La Rotunda and others) and theatre (Teatro Olympico) outside of Vicenza (not far from Venice in its Veneto hinterland). They were a magical setting for a completely magical film.

Palladio's Villa Rotonda outside Vicenza

An interior of Teatro Olympico

Venice has many of his churches (il Redentore and St Giorgio Maggiore being two)  and another two in Venice at the very  least  (Santa Maria delle Salute and the interior of I Gesuiti) are inspired by his work.  And if you have ever seen a classically inspired building anywhere outside of Italy or Greece you have not escaped the man's influence.

Palladio was inspired by the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius (as was Leonardo - most notably in his "Vitruvian man") and by the Roman architectural remains he had viewed and researched.

Deeply humanist,  his work was also touched profoundly by the renaissance desire to rediscover and connect with the world of the ancients. Apollonian balance, simplicity and restraint were the order of the day and he provided it. The ancient orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian were re-instated, the decorative flourish of northern Italian Gothic pruned back as one does with  an over exuberant creeper. The native autochthonic feeling of Gothic churches was replaced with reason, light and balance. John Ruskin hated it for that I think - but if you think of Venice and move away from the Byzantine fun-palace that is St Mark's square, it is the two Palladian churches: Il Redentore and St Giorgio Maggiore and Longherra's riposte in the church of the Salute that forms the picture of Venice in our mind's eye.

The church of the holy Redeemer: il Redentore

To get to il Redentore I caught the no. 2 vaporetto from Zattere in Dorsoduro. The interior of the church is very simple and sombre. Apparently this was in paret due to it being in the care of the Franciscan order who accepted its care on the condition that no rich persons were buried in its precinct (which would have broken their rule).  I find that it takes time to appreciate a building and that one of the best ways to appreciate it is to take out your pen and notpad and draw it.  It's not the quality fo your output that counts, but by taking the time to look and draw you let the building speak to you.

Baldachin suspended above the crucifix in il Redentore

Lamp in il Redentore

The ornamental metal work supporting the votive lamps on either side of the high altar also interested me - they're about 2.5m high. To my mind  renaissance churches such as il Redentore and St Giorgio Maggiore seem to appeal to the mind: ordered, simple, well lit; whereas the Gothic churches with their dark spaces, their stained glass windows and riot of decoration seem to me to appeal quite directly to the emotions.

I wonder too if there is also a religious agenda behind the change in architecture. The counter-reformation which followed the council of Trent was a Catholic church "Fightback" campaign that in part (though they would have been loth to say it) addressed the abuses of the Catholic church.

The counter-reformation was in part about the catholic church arguing that it was God's mediator (or vicar) on earth (contra the Lutherans and the other reformers) . Rome ordered a simplification of the liturgical rights and crack down on what music was to be performed in church. The suppression of a number of problematic or minor religious orders and went on the front foot in regards declaiming was was religiously "correct line".
And the new mode it dressed itself in architecturally to suit this change of attitude and the spirit of the times  was  classical raiment.


On the island of Saint George the Great lies another Palladian church (San Giorgio Maggiore)

 The façade of St Giorgio Maggiore

For much of the 20th century the church was unused and in ill repair, the ancillary building were used as a military barracks of some kind. When a prominent industrialist Mr Cini returned from being interned in a Nazi work camp having lost his son he used the fortune he'd made in chemicals and shipping to buy the island and restore the church. When he died he left his fortune and the island to the commune of Venice on condition that the money be used for the conservation of the monuments on the island, the ancillary buildings and for the formation and support of an art foundation with the family name. It's  still going strong and hosted a magnificent exhibition of the works of the architect, artist, engraver and designer: Piranesi.

Forget about the Biennale this was the must see exhibition of the time I was in Venice.

St Giiorgio again takes on the form of a re-imagined classical temple: A severe columned entrance surmounted by a  cornice and a triangular pediment and behind this a dome supported by a square cube.

Here's one of the sculptures adorning the exterior:

It's probably  one of the evangelists, but I'm not sure which.