Madonna dell’Orto.
Question: why do we find a statue of Saint Christopher with the young Christ on his shoulders above the entrance of the Madonna dell’Orto?
Answer: because the church was initially dedicated to Saint Christopher. Not far from here travellers left for the islands in the lagoon, such as Murano, Burano and Torcello. Both the travellers themselves and the sailors that ferried them across the water were in need of some supernatural assistance. And who would be more capable of rendering the required aid than Saint Christopher, the man who had safely carried Christ across a river.
History
The first church on this spot dates from about 1350. The church and adjacent monastery were used by the order of the Humiliati. The origins of this order are badly documented but it seems to have originated in Lombardy. Members of the order were devoted to poverty, humility and hard work, their coat of arms showing the Lamb of God with the slogan “Humilitas vincit omnia”, “humility conquers all”.
View of the Madonna dell’Orto.
In 1377 the name of the church was changed to Madonna dell’Orto, “Madonna of the Kitchen Garden”. According to tradition a miracle-performing statue of the Virgin Mary had been found in a kitchen garden (orto). The statue was placed on the high altar, and the Virgin took over Saint Christopher’s position. Starting in 1399 the church was thoroughly remodelled and largely acquired its present appearance. Although the Humiliati were initially held in high regard, their power and prestige dwindled in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Already in 1461, the Venetian Council of Ten decided to evict them from the complex of the Madonna dell’Orto because of alleged depraved practices. 110 years later, in 1571, the order itself was dissolved by a bull of Pope Pius V (1566-1572). The Venetians were apparently way ahead of their time!
Saint Christopher – Bartolomeo Bon.
The Humiliati were succeeded by canon of the Augustinian congregation of San Giorgio in Alga. They had a certain reputation as well, as from their ranks came Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447), who was born Gabriele Condulmer. Under the canons the façade of the church was completed in 1473, but they too would not remain here forever. Their order was expelled from the complex by Pope Clemens IX (1667-1669), who granted the Madonna dell’Orto to a group of Cistercians. In 1787 the church became an oratory, which was however mostly used as a warehouse. Things got better in 1868, when the church – which had by now been closed – was reopened as a parish church. The church was restored in 1912 and 1930-1931, and granted to the Order of Saint Joseph in the latter year. This order had been founded in 1873 by Leonardo Murialdo (1828-1900). The church is situated from close to the lagoon and therefore suffered heavily during the 1966 flood. As the necessary restoration were largely funded by the British charity Venice in Peril, the Madonna dell’Orto is also known as the English church, at least according to one of my travel guides.
Things to see
The Madonna dell’Orto has a gorgeous Gothic façade. Visitors should really take their time to study it in detail. Although brick dominates, there are also a lot of decorations to admire. The statues in the galleries and under the baldachins were made in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century by the brothers Jacobello and Pierpaolo dalle Masegne. The beautiful Gothic portal is of a later date. It is a work of the architect and sculptor Bartolomeo Bon (died after 1464). Bon also made the statue of Saint Christopher that was placed on the tip of the arch, while Antonio Rizzo (ca. 1430-1499) was responsible for the statues of the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel. The campanile of the Madonna dell’Orto, with its characteristic onion-shaped spire, dates from the fourteenth century. The tower can be seen very well from the lagoon. People who take the vaporetto for a trip into the lagoon should pay close attention and perhaps say a little prayer to Saint Christopher just to be on the safe side.
Inside the church we are fortunately not reminded of the decay of the nineteenth century or the flood damage of the twentieth. The Madonna dell’Orto has a simple checkerboard floor, grey columns and a nave in soft pink. The miraculous statue of the Virgin is apparently located in the Cappella di San Mauro nowadays, but I must admit I completely forgot about it. The main reason I came to the church were its artistic treasures, especially the paintings of Tintoretto.
Tintoretto was the nickname of Jacopo Robusti (1518-1594). His father was a cloth dyer (tintore), and therefore young Jacopo was quickly called “Little Dyer”. The house where he settled in 1547 can be found on the Fondamenta dei Mori (number 3399), just two minutes south of the Madonna dell’Orto. Tintoretto is often seen as a slightly quixotic man, perhaps partly because during his relatively long life – he lived to the age of 75 – he left Venice just once. His style is in any case unique, and his productivity unmatched. As he regularly attended mass in the Madonna dell’Orto, it should not come as a surprise that the canons of San Giorgio commissioned him to paint many works for this church. After his death in 1594, Tintoretto was also buried in the Madonna dell’Orto, initially in the family tomb of his wife Faustina Episcopi. This tomb was opened in the nineteenth century, and its contents were moved to a new grave to the right of the choir. A contemporary commemorative slab now reminds us of the great painter, the “Venetian Apelles” as he is called.
There are eight works by Tintoretto in the apse. Two enormous panel paintings represent the Worshipping of the Golden Calf (left) and the Last Judgment (right). Both date from ca. 1562-1563. My travel guide claims that the Last Judgment made such an impression on Effie Gray, the wife of English art critic John Ruskin, that she fled the church. Although not incredible per se, I still think the story is an urban myth. In any case I could not find a trace of it in Ruskin’s own work, while he does describe the two paintings as Tintoretto’s “largest and mightiest works, but grievously injured by damp and neglect”. On the back wall are two smaller panel paintings by Tintoretto with scenes from the life of Saint Paul the Apostle, representing the apparition of the Cross (left) and the saint’s beheading (right). These are slightly older works, painted around 1556. The mediocre Annunciation in the middle was not painted by Tintoretto but by Palma il Giovane (ca. 1548-1628). Above these works we see five Virtues in the conch of the apse, four of which were made by Tintoretto. Only the virtue in the middle, Faith, is by a different painter, i.e. Pietro Ricchi (1606-1675). Unlike Tintoretto and Palma, Ricchi was not from Venice but from Lucca.
Of the other works by Tintoretto especially his Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple is very worthwhile. Unfortunately taking good photos is difficult because of the reflecting light on the varnish. In the Contarini chapel on the left side of the church Tintoretto’s Miracle of Saint Agnes from ca. 1577 is a colourful element in an otherwise grey environment. This was the chapel of the Contarini family, one of the oldest families in Venice and responsible for providing the Republic with eight doges. Six busts, three on either side, stare at each other. Four were made by unknown sculptors but one is by Alessandro Vittoria (1525-1608) and one by Danese Cattaneo (ca. 1512-1572). In the Cappella Vendramin on the same side we find a work by Tintoretto’s great rival Titian (ca. 1488-1576). His Tobias and the angel is very nice but it was actually painted for the church of San Marziale.
Lastly, I want to point out two interesting artworks on the right side of the church, a funerary monument and a painting. The funerary monument was built in 1657 on the orders of a certain Girolamo Cavazza. Given the immense size of the monument, one would expect him to have been a Doge ofVenice, but he was actually just a diplomat who had been admitted to the aristocracy and apparently had a lot of money. The monument was designed by the Venetian architect Giuseppe Sardi (1624-1699), while the sculptures were made by Francesco Cavrioli (ca. 1600-1670) and Giusto Le Court (1627-1679). The latter’s real name was Josse de Corte. He came from the Flemish town of Ypres and made a name for himself in Venice.
On the same side we find a colourful panel painting by Cima da Conegliano (ca. 1460-1518). Saint John the Baptist is surrounded by Saints Peter the Apostle, Mark the Evangelist, Jerome and Paul the Apostle. The painting summarises the origins of the Roman Catholic church in one work, featuring Christ’s predecessor, the most important apostles, the first evangelist (also patron saint of Venice) and the man who translated the Bible into Latin. The painting dates from ca. 1495 and was restored in 1999. John Ruskin was highly enthusiastic about the painting. He saw a work “full of simple flowers, and [it] has the wild strawberry of Cima’s native mountains gleaming through the grass”.
Sources: Capitol travel guide Venice & Veneto (2012), p. 140, The Churches of Venice: Cannaregio: Madonna dell’Orto and the information panels in the church.