Scuola Grande of San Rocco

Major sights in Venice

A square, three buildings - the church, the guildhall, and the small hall; almost a little city within a city. It is the citadel of the Grand Confraternity of San Rocco.

In 1515 Bartolomeo Bon began the works and built the ground-floor. Sante Lombardo went on with the works and after 1527 Antonio Scarpagnino finished the upper part and harmonized the facade with a double line of columns. After his death in 1549 the works were finished by Giangiacomo dei Grigi.

The interior is made up of two large halls and a smaller one on the first floor called “dell’Albergo”. It represents the typical structure of the Venetian Schools in which the spaces are reserved for confraternity’s meetings and the worship.

The vicissitudes of the confraternity encountered the human and artistic adventures of one of the leading players of the Renaissance, Jacopo Tintoretto.
The walls of these halls and the ceilings of the ones on the upper floor are covered by paintings of Tintoretto (1518-1594). As a real-brother of the School he decorated the “Sala dell’Albergo” between 1564 and 1567, he continued with the “Sala Superiore” between 1575 and 1581 and finished his work with the “Sala Inferiore” between 1583 and 1587.

Some paintings placed on easels are notable, such as those of Tiziano, Tiepolo, Giorgione and Tintoretto as well as the laggings of Marchiori (1743) and the wooden sculptures of F. Pianta il Giovane (17th century). The staircase contains paintings of P.Neri (1673) and A.Zanchi (1666).