Madonna dell'Orto: Tintoretto's Church
Why is it significant?
Face the façade of Madonna dell'Orto: red brick, white stone, Gothic tracery, and along the top of the side wings a row of niches with the apostles standing in them. Above the door, Saint Christopher carries the Christ child across a river, and that is your first clue to a mix-up of names.
Key Facts
| Place | Madonna dell'Orto: Tintoretto's Church |
|---|---|
| Address | Campo della Madonna dell'Orto, Cannaregio 3520, 30121 Venezia VE, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.44650, 12.33250 |
| Part of Walk | Venice Beyond the Crowds: Cannaregio and the Jewish Ghetto |
| Generated | Generated |
Face the façade of Madonna dell'Orto: red brick, white stone, Gothic tracery, and along the top of the side wings a row of niches with the apostles standing in them. Above the door, Saint Christopher carries the Christ child across a river, and that is your first clue to a mix-up of names.
The church was founded in the fourteenth century and dedicated to Saint Christopher, protector of boatmen and travellers. Then, the story goes, a statue of the Virgin and Child was found in a vegetable garden nearby, an orto, and it began to work miracles. Pilgrims came, the statue was carried inside, and the people simply renamed the church after it: the Madonna of the Garden. Christopher kept his place over the door, but lost the name.
This was the parish church of Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, the little dyer, after his father's trade. He lived around the corner and filled the church with paintings. On either side of the chancel hang two gigantic canvases, the Last Judgement and the Making of the Golden Calf, each around fourteen metres tall, painted with the speed and energy that earned him the nickname il Furioso. Look for his Presentation of the Virgin too, with its staircase climbing straight at you.
Tintoretto died in 1594 and lies here, in a chapel to the right of the high altar, with his family. His daughter Marietta, a painter herself and his assistant, who died a few years before him, is buried with them. And there is a sadder absence: in 1993 a precious Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini was stolen from this church, and it has never been found.
Step back outside and notice how the campo opens onto the water, a small stage for a church that deserves far more visitors than it gets. Now walk a minute south, and you will reach a little square guarded by men in turbans... made of stone.