Frari church and San Rocco
History and art: Titian, Bellini and Tintoretto in their original sites
In this tour, art and history blend seamlessly as your tourist guide takes you inside two extremely important Venetian buildings: the Frari church and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.
The Frari Church was, with its monastery, the most important Franciscan settlement in Venice and your private tourist guide will underline the historical importance that mendicant orders had in medieval Venice. You will be taken to visit the magnificent Gothic architecture and have the opportunity to see its treasury of art which hosts paintings by Paolo Veneziano, Giovanni Bellini and Tiziano; sculptures by Donatello and Sansovino; and funerary monuments to the most important Venitian families of the past.
The Scuola di San Rocco was founded in 1478 and dedicated to San Rocco, protector against plague, with the purpose of giving help to plague victims. The Scuola was a non-professional kind of guild founded with devotional and philanthropic purposes to help the poor and sick people of the city. The Scuole Grandi had beautiful headquarters and their members had them decorated by the most famous painters of the time. The members of the Scuola di San Rocco commissioned a cycle of paintings by Jacopo Tintoretto. Following the tradition of the painting decoration in the Scuole, he produced a large number of highly striking large-scale narrative paintings. You'll be impressed by the dramatic effects in Tintoretto's works that cover all the ceilings and the walls of the fraternity.
