San Rocco Church Church

San Rocco, Tintoretto's church beside the Scuola Grande

On the Campo San Rocco, very close to the Basilica of the Frari, the Church of San Rocco forms with the neighboring Scuola Grande one of the religious ensembles of San Polo, whose main interest is the cycle by Tintoretto with the tomb of Saint Roch.
The confraternity of Saint Roch, founded in 1478, had a new church designed by its architect Pietro Bon built in 1489 to house the relics of its patron saint, which had arrived in Venice a few years earlier.

The 15th-century building, however, was profoundly transformed. Having become unstable, it was almost entirely demolished and rebuilt in the 18th century by Giovanni Scalfarotto, who preserved the old choir and the nave plan. The current façade in Istrian stone was then erected by Bernardino Maccaruzzi between 1765 and 1769. Its abundant sculpted decoration, dominated by a relief by Giovanni Morlaiter representing Saint Roch healing the plague-stricken, recalls the primary function of the sanctuary.
Saint Roch was indeed invoked against plague and contagious diseases, a particularly valuable protection in a city regularly struck by epidemics. His cult explains both the richness of the church's decoration and the importance acquired by the confraternity bearing his name.

The artistic heart of the church remains the choir, around this monumental reliquary altar. Tintoretto began a cycle there in 1549 dedicated to the last episodes of Saint Roch's life with Saint Roch Healing the Plague-Stricken, considered the first great representation of the plague in Venetian painting. He continued the cycle in 1567 with Saint Roch in Prison Visited by an Angel and Saint Roch Blessing the Animals, then painted The Arrest of Saint Roch in the first half of the 1580s. This last canvas was moved to the nave in 1937, altering the original arrangement of the cycle.

The dome and apse had previously been covered with frescoes by Pordenone around 1528. As much of this decoration had deteriorated, Giuseppe Angeli repainted it between 1764 and 1766, broadly preserving its iconographic program. The nave also contains Christ Healing the Paralytic, another important canvas by Tintoretto painted in 1559.

Sources and further information

Scuola Grande di San Rocco - The church ; Scuola Grande di San Rocco - Tintoretto in the church ; Scuola Grande di San Rocco - Saint Roch and his cult.