The “Basilica dei Frari”
After the Basilica of St. Mark’s, the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is the most remarkable ecclesiastical complex in Venice, as well as being one of the most important Franciscan foundations in Italy.
Originally built between 1236 and 1338 by the Franciscan Conventual Friars, the structure was thoroughly re-modelled in the XIV century and given its present most magnificent form of central nave, two side aisles and seven apsidal chapels after the Franciscan-Gothic style.
Over the centuries the Basilica has become a veritable treasure-chest of exceptional works of art.
Any discussion on the art within the church has, of course, to start with what is perhaps the most famous masterpiece of Titian’s early maturity: “The Assumption” (1516-1518). What not to be forgotten is also Titian’s famous “Virgin Mary from Cà Pesaro” (1526).
In the sacristy the “Triptych with Virgin Mary and Saints” by Giovanni Bellini (1488) of the Pesaro chapel, considered one of the various masterpieces of the Venetian paintings from the ‘4oo’s, is ideally accompanied by the “Triptych of Saint Mark’s (1474) by Bartolomeo Vivarini which now hangs in the elegant Corner chapel.
The chapel of Fiorentini also contains the only Venetian work by Donatello: his magnificent wooden statue of “St. John the Baptist”.
The splendid wooden choir and the numerous sepulchral monuments of personae illustrated in the city’s history, furthermore, makes the Basilica dei Frari an extraordinary collection of Venetian sculpture, with absolute masterpieces such as the Foscari and Tron monuments in the presbytery, and Alessandro Vittoria’s statue of St. Jerome on the Zane altar.