CARITAS: Tintoretto and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice

By Brian Leslie Bishop and Franco Posocco

I love Venice. Therefore, I love Tintoretto. Therefore, I love the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. I have been visiting all three for many years and was planning to do so again this year, 2020. However, those plans did not work out this year. So I thought that I would do a virtual tour of the Scuola to which Tintoretto dedicated a lifetime's work. The purpose was to record my personal responses to the paintings and to organize these responses into some sort of coherent order. The result printed in this booklet is offered as one person's informal guide to encourage readers to visit this amazing collection of a lifetime's work in one accessible location: the work of one of the world's greatest artists in one of the world's most beautiful and amazing cities, Venice.
As a further incentive, the collection culminates in what many regard as the world's greatest-ever work of art: Tintoretto's Crucifixion. The book's glory is the beautiful high resolution color images donated by the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Nov 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781725287501

Brian Leslie Bishop

Brian Leslie Bishop is a retired British schoolteacher of English, drama, and world literature. His play for young people—Bug-eyed Loonery—was published in 1985. As well as teaching in UK schools, he has taught in Singapore, Peru, and Malta. Since retiring, he has gained a master’s degree in theology (with distinction) from the University of Wales, Lampeter.

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Introduction

Tintoretto’s Venice

The Protestant Reformation ¹ in northern Europe had repercussions in the South and particularly in God’s Chosen City, Venice. Tintoretto was born in Venice in 1519, two years after Luther’s dramatic public protest in Wittenberg. From 1522 to about 1648 a period of Catholic Reform was taking place in response to events in northern Europe. The Council of Trent met over an eighteen-year period ² and the Catholic Church became more dedicated to the work of evangelization. Institutional structures such as the Society of Jesus were established and existing structures such as the Carmelites were strengthened. Doctrine and piety were energized. The religious mysticism associated with this renewal movement was vigorously promoted in Venice. Traditionally, Venice has been regarded as somewhat isolated or even immune from the effects of the Catholic reforming zeal, tolerant of divergent religious views, and stubbornly anti-papal. Certainly, it was a tolerant state dominated by a merchant capitalist elite where foreign merchants operated freely. The concept of God’s Chosen City was based upon the mythology surrounding the transference of Saint Mark’s body to Venice from Alexandria. This event is to be seen depicted in a mosaic above the southern transept of St. Mark’s Basilica. Venice now had apostolic patronage that placed her on a spiritual level only rivaled by Rome. Doge Giustiniano Participzio ordered a chapel built in his garden to receive the Saint and thus St. Marks—the Ducal Chapel—took precedence over San Pietro di Castello which until 1807 was the cities official patriarchal Cathedral. The Cathedral became overshadowed by St. Marks that was associated from the outset with the civil rather than the religious authorities. Whilst the view that Venice was historically independent and anti-papal, may be substantiated if one focuses on the politics of the Republic, within the many lay confraternities a closer interest in central Catholic doctrinal developments might be seen. In the Republic of Venice, spiritual and charitable associations were referred to as scuole that literally translates as schools. In the rest of Italy the name for a comparable institution was a confraternita or a brotherhood. One of the most important tasks of such an association was the spiritual care of the dying and their burial, as well as general care for the